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Not at the price they charge for a load of gravel around here!

There's GOLD in them rocks!

I agree with your feelings toward politicians, but being in business for myself (with no gov. help or bailouts), I'll have to say with what your wanting to do, I think you'll make more money driving a dump truck. Thats a good honest living for sure!

Yeah, maybe, but I've driven dump trucks. While I'm not really opposed to doing it, I do want to end up (at least eventually) doing something more interesting.

We welcome new "comers"! I will agree though, I do know a lot of good ol boys. As long as you play by the rules its fair game. The rest is up to you! You never know, Obama might help you pay for some it or at least guarantee it with a good ol SBA Loan . You just never know...

If I gotta ask a sleazy politician for help, I'll just go drive a dump truck for a living.

I hope you have been watching "America's Next Great Restaurant" on Sunday nights. Like most of these "reality" shows there is a lot of made up drama, but there is also a lot of valid information for anyone who is thinking about opening a restaurant.

There is a road side barbecue vendor around here that uses the same plan you are thinking about for the truck and trailer. The reefer unit is on the truck and the cook shack is in the trailer. I never asked him, but I assume it's set up that way so he can fetch supplies with the truck. It seems to work for him. (Even though the truck is a Freightliner.)

When I was working in Kodiak, AK there was a Mexican food truck that made the same route every day and even had a listing in the local yellow pages. She had a pretty big following and seemed to stay pretty busy, so it may be worth while to just get on a regular route and forget the fair/event circuit.

I'm probably with ya on that last. While the event circuit might be pretty lucrative, I can only imagine it'd be a regulatory nightmare, not to mention the Ol Boys network that's probably making things hard on newcomers.

Thanks for the advice. I've talked to a few vendors in various types of food, without giving up too much detail,

and though Bama seems to be unusually strict in their food vending codes, there's nowhere near market saturation there.

One fellow told me if I was selling really good pizza on the NASCAR circuit with a clean restored vintage truck, I'd

make a killing. Hmm, maybe so, but so long as it's at least profitable I'm ok with it.

As for space, I've been bouncing several configurations in my head, and one involves going back to a combination vehicle,

leaving the trailer/restaurant in the vendor spot, while maybe keeping a reefer box on the tractor for the perishable

inventory.

...and BTW... since I never know when my leg is being pulled...

http://www.english-for-students.com/Preposition-CUM.html

Birmingham.

...and I shoulda figured a bunch of ol' truck drivers would have a bit of fun with the language. D'oh!

If it's as new as a '70s R model, I can see doing a straight resto. Something earlier may have to be a resto-mod as described above with newer running gear. The big question for me is going to be how I want to set it up.

Either a straight truck with a fairly long wheelbase, enclosed area right behind the cab for the kitchen, and I thought about having a few feet out back porch-style for a brick oven for wood fired pizza. That'd really get the novelty fans salivating, and it's darned good pizza, too. (Mom's pizza dough recipe uses beer, by the way)

The other idea would keep the truck usable for local travel, and could still be used as a tractor: Building the wagon on a trailer. Same setup, more or less.

Yeah, some places have gotten mighty restrictive. Up in NY, the den of thieves have limited the number of vending permits that there's a multi-year waiting list. Folks are selling their permits on the black market for heaps of cash. Almost worth getting on the list as an investment, eh?

I don't think the Birmingham area will be as bad, but I am gonna do my homework before moving in. I'm hoping, with the large number of satellite communities, that I can figure out which ones basically don't have any rules other than the State food safety stuff, so I don't have to drive around with a bingo card full o' permits... like driving OTR a few years ago.

My family is about to move to Alabama, in about a month, due to my wife's promotion and subsequent pay raise.

While I'm happy about it, and the fact that I have friends in Bama, it does put me in a position of trying to

find *myself* something productive to do there.

I really don't want to go back to OTR driving, as I love being near my family, but the only things I really know are

trucking, to a lesser extent flying, and having grown up in a pizza restaurant.

I've toyed with the idea of returning to the latter (we made some DARNED good pizza), but sometimes you really don't have any idea what a location will be like until you've made the leap. This scares the dickens outta me.

So, my wife and I have talked on occasion about operating a vending cart on the weekends for extra cash. I figured maybe I could run with it full time so I could make money and stay home. Then... I wondered about a mobile pizza joint. There are pizza carts being advertised for sale, and I've known a couple folks who make really good money with their various vending outfits (carnival and events, usually).

Why not a classic Mack tractor, pulling a drop-deck trailer-cum-pizzaria? I think it'd be a hit at the fair, a natural for truck shows, and I'm thinking of a few places I could position it between events for day-to-day sales. I wouldn't *start* with the big truck. Probably just start out with a converted stepvan, but I'd love to use the profits to work on the big truck, get it all spiffy and ready for show.

I just came up with this idea a few minutes ago, so please be gentle. I am familiar with the restaurant industry and the health department. I'm also familiar with the trucking industry (obviously). I'm looking more for ideas than kill-shots here.

Heck, Mom still has all her recipes for the sauce and dough.

Y'know, it's interesting that in some of those clips, several people were caught by surprise, ending up in the pedestrian crossing, etc.

I have to wonder if some of these accidents were at least in part a result of yellow lights being shortened when the traffic cams were

installed.

though... it was painfully obvious that some of these guys were just morons.

Very nice. I'll bet you turned every eye in the parking lot.

Aha. Got it. Really horrible choice of clothing, I might add.

Owch. I thought my current Pete 379 rig was heavy at 31,600.

Wow. I'd thought about that concept before, when looking at regen braking for electric cars, but never really thought about using it like a Jake. I didn't see any pricing on my google search, but if/when I buy a truck I plan on keeping for a while, this may end up on the short list.

My current gig is about to run out of steam, with no highway projects in the foreseeable future for us, so it looks like I'll be hangin' up my Pete keys. I spoke today with the owner of another company, and he'll take me as soon as I work off my notice with the current co.

Looks like I'll be driving one of two trucks: a Vision or a CH, depending on whether I want to drive local end-dump or regional bottom drop. The CH is like the one I used to drive (my avatar), but with a giganto-sleeper.

I snuck a peek at the CH, and while it needs a bit of cleaning, it's in much better shape than my current ride. The Vision wasn't on the yard today, so I haven't seen it yet.

I don't know any specs at the moment.

Welcome to the site! yeah, there's definately something to be said for MACK in the cars movie. My son is 8 years old,he loves this movie as well,first time we saw it together,he said watch this,that part when MACK is falling asleep,nodding off when the jake comes on...when they pass the truckstop and all the trucks are sleeping,snoring just cracks me up everytime i see it! i can't remember when i laughed so hard!.....mark

We had a period when, due to mishandling, the CARS DVD was unplayable. That was maybe a taste of what would happen if she lost Lambie Toes (her stuffed lamb). So, we got a new disc Right-Quick... and stressed to her that she shouldn't ever touch this one.

Zoe likes the tractor scene, too, but her absolute favorite line is where Mater explains his name

to McQueen. "Kinda like tuh-mater, but without the tuh."

I've just been offered a job hauling a pneumatic trailer like the one in my avatar, but this time it'll be in a 379 Pete. Ah, well...

I don't ever have to request the movie. We see it usually at least once a day, per Zoe's request.

Lucky for me it ain't something like YoGabbaGabba or Wonder Pets... I'd soon go nutz!

Kinda has me wondering about finding a decent old Superliner to restore... or resto-mod in the

character's likeness. I wonder whether Disney would throw a fit... I know Zoe would love it.

It'd be nice if I could fix it up well enough to work it (so I'd paint it red and generally make it look

somewhat like the character), but with my wife being the chief breadwinner and all, I can afford to remain

a company driver and keep a classic truck for a hobby.

Besides, I've kinda talked her into retiring in a truck, pulling a large 5th wheel travel trailer.

Muahahahahahahaaha!

When I was hauling pneumatic tankers, some of us would be sent to MO to swap some older trucks for new ones. I do remember a bunch of the 2000 models having a problem with shutting down. I think it was at 6:00 pm every day. We found this out in northern AL, bobtailing home with the new tractors. Finally got word from Mack that it was a software issue and that we just needed to let the trucks sit for 30 minutes and they'd be fine.

We stopped for dinner, and when we were ready to go, so were the trucks. Mack had a software fix sent down so we could get 'em into service.

That lightning bolt (electronic malfunction) light might be a tough one to find. I had a new 2000 CH with the 460 in it and I used to get them all the time. But mine would actually shut off for a split second while driving down the highway (just the same as if you turned the key off and back on). Engine and all electronics would shut down. Brought it to dealer many times, no codes. They went through all the wiring, even changed all the little pins in the ecm plug. Even had the service manager come on a trip with me to catch it in the act. Had his computer plugged in and the darn truck ran perfect that day.

Last year I came across the new owner of this truck and asked him how it's been. Said he loves the truck, but asked me "has it ever shut off on you before? It does it all the time."

I pulled 5 axle walking floors with that truck, grossing over 140,000 pounds all the time. As far as the truck it was perfect. Ride, handling, off road traction was great. Fuel mileage beat all the Detroits in the fleet I ran for and didn't matter if you did 55 or 85 m.p.h. But it was one of the lucky dogs that came with casting sand in the block. It went through five compressors, five air dryers, camshaft, dropped valves, injectors and the starter caught fire. And it was like a light switch. One hill it wouldn't pull, then the next 12%'er you thought the clutch was slipping because the rpm's would start climbing, then suddenly it would be pulling like a train.

That was the the truck that scared me into buying an International.

Most of the miles I drove through the nineties were in CH model Mack tractors, hauling pneumatic bulk tankers.

I've been out of trucking for a few years now, trying to get in due to the depressed aviation field, and am

actually even considering fixing up an old Mack for lighter commercial use.

It isn't just brand loyalty... my daughter loves the movie Cars, and has taken to calling herself McQueen, her ma is

now Mater, and I have been re-named Mack. No, my little Zoe is not a girlie-girl.