General Ike

Point taken. Edited.

Keep drinking the koolaid. Somehow people find a way to turn something positive into a negative. Fact of the matter is two days ago, a major US automaker had plans to spend 1.6b in Mexico and do nothing in the states. Now, they're not spending the money in Mexico and they are going to spend 700mm in Michigan and add/save 700 jobs. This is a good thing. Regardless if production of certain vehicles happens elsewhere. This is a good thing and anyone who chooses to try and paint it in any other light is simply being negative. (Edited at another members suggestion)

Looks like Ford is going to cancel its $1.6billion plan in Mexico and invest $700million in an existing Michigan plant and create several hundred jobs instead. CEO sites Trump's pro business policies as a major factor in the decision. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/03/ford-to-scrap-mexico-plant-invest-in-michigan-due-to-trump-policies.html

Great car Paul. Love the story of how in less than 5 years, AMC won a SCCA T/A championship having NO racing development of any kind prior to that. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske did the impossible. As for the slushbox in Paul's car, I just never understood not rowing your own gears in a pony car. In my Cliff Clavin moment of the day.... For those who don't know who Mark Donohue was, the wikipedia article below (I'm not usually a wiki fan, but this article is historically accurate) describes him. As an amateur racer like Paul, (although I'm a road course guy) I can say in my opinion, that Mark Donohue was the greatest race car driver to ever live. He could drive, develop and setup ANY type of car from a NASCAR Matador to a Formula 1 car to a 24hours of LeMans challenging prototype like a Porsche 917/30. He won several T/A championships, Penske's first Indy 500, CanAm championship, the first IROC championship NASCAR races etc. An Ivy league grad made him an unlikely candidate to possess this type of talent. He was killed in Austria after coming out of retirement and testing a Formula 1 car for Roger Penske when a tire failed on the fastest corner of the track. Possibly only AJ Foyt had as much success in as diverse types of cars as Mark did. His son David has won the 24 hours of Daytona and the 24 hours of LeMans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Donohue

I'm considering buying my brothers very nice original 1976 Ford F-250. It has a four-speed behind a 390 and first gear is useless because it's a creeper gear. I know that I could put a five speed from more modern truck into it, but I really would prefer to back it with an aux box or an overdrive and have the second stick in the cab. It's 100% the cool factor of having twin sticks. I've always enjoyed the fire trucks I've driven that were twin stick. Any thoughts on what to do? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Joes Mack - You're doing good work my friend. I've posted here before that my wife's parents and several generations back are Harlan natives. Cawood, Loyall, Evarts and Lynch. Uncle still works for the City of Harlan and Cousin is a coach for the Harlan HS Football team. We absolutely look forward to each and every trip we make to Harlan County. We don't live there though and its easy to enjoy your time when you get to leave. I can unequivocally say that ANY volunteer fire department in that County that can keep its doors open, get rigs to the job and retain a force of firefighters to protect the community is doing the IMPOSSIBLE. Even if you had all the funding in the world and volunteers chomping at the bit to get onto a rig, just the roads, mountains lack of available water sources etc. make your job a huge challenge. So I say to you sir, congrats!!!!! Two reliable Mack pumpers and two tankers in each of your stations is monumental.... Quick question... Last time I was there, it looked like there was no activity at the Cawood fire house and the one in Cranks Creek looked inactive as well. I know its clear across the county from you, but do you know what is going on over there? Who would provide fire protection if those stations are inactive? City of Harlan? Someone from the Lee County, VA side? For anyone who has actually read this far in my post, a little bit of Harlan trivia that is still relevant today... Hagan's switchback on the CSX line, connects Harlan County to Lee County, VA by going under the mountain. The switchback in on the VA side in the area of Rose Hill (just east of the Cumberland Gap) AND it is the only commercial freight switchback still in service in the United States.

Paul were they arrested or just transported off your property?

What size truck do you need? Are you moving 16v149's or 8v92's? A good F350 dually with a 7.3 will do just about anything you want. If you're talking 72ft Hatteras and 130 Westport parts I'd find an old R model with a decent roll back and winch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The OIG does not just investigate their own agency, they also investigate the circumstances under which funding or grand moneys originating under their agency are inappropriately appropriated or used. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amen to that brother. Pink Floyd asked in their song Wish You Were Here..."did you exchange a walk-on part in the war, for the lead role in a cage?"

Honestly, the east and west coast liberals along with Illinois liberals and union diehards in between are so un-American I cannot stand it. I grew up in Chappaqua NY and was friends with the former owner of the Clinton home there. For the life of me, I cannot understand why so many people from that environment and similar areas across the country want to allow money to be pissed away on useless initiatives that help no one. How they can go to church in Sunday yet advocate for abortion as a free-for-all version of birth control for irresponsible people. How they can vote for a group of people who systematically want to dismantle the religious rights of Christians and Jews while simultaneously promoting the ability for Muslims and and other faiths (of which I have not problem with) to practice freely and openly in public. How someone is able to wear traditional religious garb from certain faiths while a shirt with an American flag or a simple "Merry Christmas" gesture between classmates draws the risk of suspension. It's beyond me why people from the wealthiest regions of our nation would now vote for someone who wouldn't allow and encourage them to distribute their money to the causes and needs that they believed in as opposed to entitlement programs forced upon them through taxation. Aggh, and the unions that will march like lemmings to the cliff to follow the liberals just because they'll fight for bloated defined benefits systems and promote less work and ownership of their work product that those who's jobs depend on the quality of their work. I was working on the side in college to make ends meet after my dad died and the union crew of the roofing job I was supporting told my buddy that they don't work fast because they wanted the next job to be lined up before they finished this one. REALLY. By the way don't by a Detroit car made on a Friday. It is crap. There should be simple labor laws to protect employees from abuse. Defined benefit pensions are dying and the taxpayer is supporting thousands of them that are under funded for businesses that are dead and have no way of making up the shortfall unless it comes out of my pocket. Merit, hard work and saving for your own future is the only way we should expect to get by in the future.

Sorry for the loss I hope your insurance does right by you. Soak those tools in some navy gel and you never know.... I brought back a set of vice grips that were left clamped outside rusting for months with that stuff.

The rig on the cover of the B model photo archive is most likely a B125 or B85 since the factory said only two B95FSW's were made. The other option is that I'm sure there were multiple B model tandems that were chassied by Mack but had the bodies built out by third parties.

They are B95FSW's #1144 (Millwood) and 1161 (Gallery Chemical Company, Pittsburgh) See attached note from the Museum.

No its a Mack Fire Apparatus Sedan Cab. They weren't rare back in the day, but I wouldn't call them mass produced either.

The B model is the first rig I ever went to a fire in back in my home town. Lusted over it for years but was too deep into the resto of my college B85 from Gettysburg to be able to make a play for it. Its been recently restored and its absolutely the most beautiful piece of fire apparatus ever built. One of two factory tandem axle B95's ever built. The other one went to a fire company near Pittsburgh.

Drove a Seagrave 100ft rearmount with air assist steering that literally made you feel like you were rolling the dice on every job we responded to with "expediency". A regular alarm bells or other non event alarm you'd be fine, but if you were wheeling it to a job with active updates coming from the dispatcher it seemed like those extra ten MPH made it unpredictable. One day going through the square when you went to turn the wheel it was silky smooth... the next it felt like you were hand docking a barge with two ropes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It was yesterday..... Madaket Road. So badass that a nice B is still doing hard work.

Any form of air getting through to the pump will prevent it from holding a prime. Contrary to popular belief, you're not actually sucking the water up the hard tube. You are lowering the atmospheric pressure in the pump housing (assuming its got no leaks) and the higher force of atmospheric pressure acting upon a static water supply is pushing the water up the hard tube. This being said, a culprit to a pump not holding a prime are bad valves, drains and bleeders any where on the rig but specifically on the intake side of the pump. Tank to pump valves, because they are constantly wet on the tank side are notorious for corroding and developing leaks over the years. Therefore if your TTP valve is original or older, and you're not keeping the booster tank full, you'll draw air into the pump that way. Also, even if you do have water in the tank, for extended drafting operations, a leaky TTP valve will siphon off the water in the tank and you'll lose prime randomly, hours later. To solve this, after you've established a draft, crack the pump to tank valve just enough for the tank to stay full and drizzle out of the overflow.

Your rig is a gasser right? The pic with the black knob leads me to believe that you have a two stage pump which isn't uncommon for old has fired rigs as a single stage pump pushing more than 1000gpm (or even that much) with a gas motor was tough. I'd say the knob was there to adjust pump pressure while switching the pump between stages which is what the transfer valve fitting to the left would have done. I'm above my pay grade however as I only have limited experience with two stage pumps and they were all on diesels that made them obsolete and we left the transfer valve in "volume" all the time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is that one of Medic 28's old rigs that Hampton is running as a QRS or Duty Ride?

The hoses you are describing... do they run to the back side of the gauges on the pump panel? Or do they run to a series of valves usually located under the pump panel step. Option 1 they are the lines that give you your readings (or lack there of) on your gauges. Option 2 they are bleeders for the various plumbing that comes and goes from the pump.

Turn of River Fire Department. Stamford, CT.

Is this on 30 between Gettysburg and Chambersburg?

Looks like they've gotten creative over the years... The C95 tanker looks like an inhouse conversion from a pumper and on their website, their confined space rescue looks like an old rearmount aerial that they took the stick off of and built compartmentalization onto. Very cool. The city of Norwalk in CT does great stuff in house with their apparatus shop.