Terry T

Without a doubt, hands down, absolutely, etc, etc... Dan is the information authority on the movie "Convoy". For many years he lived, slept & breathed that movie. Traveling to the filming destinations, meeting with people involved & even becoming good friends with Erine Borgnine. Often priorities have to change (I know all too well) and that is what happened with Dan, I do believe, as he sold his trucks and eventually took down his website. I'm sure he still has all of his collected information stashed away someplace.

Dammit Mike.... Words escape me at this point. I will say keep your chin up and hang in there. It wasn't that long ago I sold off all my toys (one of which went to Iowa) to stay afloat. Things are moving in the right direction for me now & at a pace faster than I expected. Keep the faith my friend.

My grandpa was a side-band guy. Big base unit & a big radio in his car. Would call home when he got off work at International Harvester to let grandma know to start dinner. KPK-1923. I was in my teens and don't remember the whole story but the feds showed up at my grandparents one day with a warrant and confiscated all of his radios. He had retired many years before as the chief of the township volunteer fire dept but had always kept a couple scanners in the house & 1 in his car. They said the reason for the warrant was because of the scanner in his car but all of his radios were jacked up. He use to talk to guys all over the US. My dad was KAVI-2955. I had a lot of CB's through the years & still have many up in the attic and one in my truck & another in my motorhome. The Sears Roadtalker's were popular for a while especially with side band guys who jacked them up a lot. I traded one of mine for a different model Roadtalker to one of my drivers who sent it to a buddy that wired up two rotating switches that allowed him to have channels in between each side band channel.

They are still print pic's (I haven't scanned them yet) but I have pics from several different years of about 1/2 dozen Mack CH613's that have been pulling the NASCAR haulers for the past decade and a 1/2. That's why I found it odd that Freightliner has been the official truck recently.

Yep. There was a personal relationship between the Housby & France families at one point too I believe. Housby also was a sponsor on some of the NASCAR themed shows on TNN (Now Spike) back in the 1990's.

Housby. Thank You Mike!

I find this interesting because NASCAR has used Mack's for years to pull their haulers. The dealership is slipping my mind right now that has been a NASCAR partner for decades. http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2016/02/16/nascar-fan-truckers-voices-heard-in-mack-deal/?utm_network=facebook&utm_post=5150390&utm_source=FB%20-%20Nascar%20on%20NBC&utm_tags=srm%5Bnascar%2Carticle%5D

This is the thread that I mentioned above. Now over 190 pages long. http://hankstruckforum.com/htforum/index.php?topic=30474.0

Welcome to BMT Dave! All: Dave is a daily contributor over at Hanks. I made a comment or post a few years ago on a long running thread that Dave contributes to each day just so I can follow his pictures. All of the fire buffs on here will enjoy his pictures & knowledge of same.

Sliding tandem trailers are really nice but they have to be spec'd with a big enough winch. In this case we had to improvise with my 20 ton winch to load...

It doesn't have to be a large tire to kill or seriously injure. Long story but some needed background to under stand. Several years ago we were rushing against the weather to get practice in for a nice paying Late Model race at Anderson, IN. One of the teams had a failry new tire guy in the tire impound struggling to get a tire to bead up. Our Hoosier Bias ply tires are recommended to be inflated to only 40 psi. Our teams tire guy walked by this individual as he was bouncing the tire/rim on the ground, most of his body on top of the tire/rim, trying to get the bead to "pop". Stan said "still struggling I see" and the reply was "I have 80 pounds in this and it still won't pop". Stan told him he needs to empty the tire & start over again and continued to walk away. I was at our hauler working on our car about 200 feet from the tire impound area when the explosion happened. I seen the rim going straight into the air about 80' to 90' & the dust cloud was huge. Then silence everywhere, then people began yelling for help. The individual had been standing over the tire when it exploded. The rim blew out of the tire striking him nearly severing his left arm, cutting & crushing his left knee and several other injuries, the rim continued on and struck a tire cart ( a cart that is long & narrow and can hold 4 mounted tires below & 4 more above) destroying that then it contiuned straight up (which is when I seen it). The man was flown from Anderson to Methodist Hospital (where those injured at Indianapolis Motor Speedway are typically taken) in Indy where his arm was re-attached & a prosthetic knee cap was inserted. He recovered but not fully. This is the type of wheel/tire combo that we use, sorry but the best pic I have.

Nothing from 30 years ago but this was 37 years ago... I was doing a project for a middle school math class.

I agree, doesn't look like an Able.

During the early '90's both Ford (LT,LTLA, Aeromax) & Mack (CH6XX) used Able sleepers. From your description it soulds like an Able 42". I think the basic design was the same for both but the roof cap was different & probably the interior but I thought Ford used the "keyhole" style opening like Mack did on the CH which of course is different than the Superliner.

Mack R Model with a Holmes 750 & a IHC with a 20 ton Century winching an excavator out of a pond.

Tim Whitcomb owns(owned) this. He owns Bud Evers Body Shop and Don Pruden Garage which are adjacent to each other on the east side of Ft Wayne. That is Tim & Diane's home that it sat at along old 24 and it was typically hooked to a 3 car gooseneck trailer.

Would look very nice on your Freedom....

Those 40' Fruehauf's bring back memories. I remember being a kid & riding with dad to Ft. Madison, IA to pick up new trailers & bring them home in our single axle R Models. Units 204 & 210 were the two trucks we used. Gary Parrish crashed unit 202 (also an R) coming home with a new trailer during one fo the trips. Trailer was towed back to factory & repaired then came home on another trip.

Mike, you don't have to drag it all the way home right now. I know a place in N.E. Indiana that you can let stuff set until Wendy drops her guard.....

I knew Supermutt before she was a star! I should have gotten her autograph when she stayed the night in my driveway a few years ago!

The flip side of this is that there are a lot of very good, low mileage parts available for many peoples projects. As Larry said, with the CARB restrictions those trucks are pretty much worthless as trucks but they are a gold mine as parts.

Too bad I didn't have a place to store all those 42" bunks I watched go to scrap in the early 2000's.

I kinda like being single...

I don't really have a good pic of it yet but after a nearly 30 year break from owning a bike I bought this 1995 Sporty. The 3rd pic is my entire current fleet.

http://hankstruckforum.com/htforum/index.php?topic=63446.0 From 2012 & 2013. In there somewhere it's mentioned that at that point UPS had purchased 112.