OK you truckers...

[70bigblockdodge]

I find this a little depressing.

At least I made the investment in my old iron. That helps a little.

 

[commando1]

It is VERY depressing. Dailmer set out 15 years ago with an all out attack for market share. They cheapened the crap out of a great nameplate to become the lowest priced Class 8 truck around. Then they swarmed the country with salespeople calling on the fleet managers offering them guaranteed buybacks which, when combined with depreciation tax writeoffs, allowed the fleets to literally get them for free.
Well, as the picture proves, they got their market share and the truck is a piece of ****.

Make America Great Again.

 

[300rag]

I find this a little depressing.
View attachment 115844
At least I made the investment in my old iron. That helps a little.

So she's running like new again?

 

[300rag]

I only see one Volvo.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

It is VERY depressing. Dailmer set out 15 years ago with an all out attack for market share. They cheapened the crap out of a great nameplate to become the lowest priced Class 8 truck around. Then they swarmed the country with salespeople calling on the fleet managers offering them guaranteed buybacks which, when combined with depreciation tax writeoffs, allowed the fleets to literally get them for free.
Well, as the picture proves, they got their market share and the truck is a piece of ****.

Make America Great Again.

The worst part.is they have taken the others down to their level and the still one.

So she's running like new again?

Yep running good but still did not keep me from snapping a leaf in left front and dropped it off at the spring shop then next morning shop calls that it wont start so I go down check, check, check I ended up putting a starter in it in their lot to get it in the building to change the spring. It never ends

 

[67newport]

sometimes at work we will have an owner/operator come in as a filing driver who has a 1980 359 peterbuilt. the square hood truck looks a lot better then the mercedes powered freightliner that sits next to it or the international prostars or freightliners that sit across the driveway. i do give him credit for keeping that 37 year old truck on the road everyday

 

[roadcuda]

Oops.....

View attachment 114485

From the looks of the clamp on that forklift I'd say that was at paper mill? I saw the same thing at a paper mill in CT. They loaded rolls that averaged 8000 lbs. But what made this incident unusual was that the trailer was new and had been in service for less then a month!! And when I was a supervisor on a dock I had to be careful of a trailers age for a certain mill because they wouldn't load a trailer more then 10 yrs old.

 

[commando1]

When I want to take a trip down Memory Lane as I park my now dormant fat *** out in the patio here in God's Waiting Room, I visit the truck manufacturer's sites. But I leave disgusted. Yesterday, I visited Mack and it's not even a shadow of the Mack I knew.
Trucks have morphed from rugged work horses operated by real men behind the reigns to ten wheeled computers with an inadequately trained chimpanzee turning a steering wheel. The "driver" can't even use an accelerator pedal any more. It's actually an ON/OFF switch where "On" tells the comouter to do its thing regardless of what the driver wants.
I watch with intense interest now, when trucks start to move when the light turns green. While the monkey sits there after flipping the On switch. The 405 hp engine meters out 27.6 hp. through pre calculated automatic gear shifts trying to achieve the 10 mpg Holy Grail quieter than a Lexus.
Today's novice driver has absolutely zero feel of the road. Totally isolated in an Alacantra clad cocoon, it's more like being in a video game. One day in a classroom, 4 days on the pad, and one week with a trainer, *POOF* you're endangering everybody out there as a portable roadblock in the middle lane.
I can't stand looking at trucks out there anymore. Sickens me.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

can't stand looking at trucks out there anymore. Sickens me

Sorry to make your stomach turn over Stan. If you think the trucks are bad you should see the drivers.

It does amaze me that they preach safety, safety, safety and yet the path to the seat of one of these is really quite easy and fast. Granted I did not go to school to learn how to get a CDL but you would think the length of school the training period when you sign on would have changed a little in the last 25 years. No they insist on putting more regs and constraints on the existing drivers. They really need to go deeper than just the driver with a licence. With computers and electronicly interlinked company terminals driver ID numbers, truck number they know when they are pushing a driver too hard and most with decent work ethic don't say no. When that guy crashes all they will do is a DOT audit. There could be programs put into these dispatch software that would identify this, I believe some companies do have this.

 

[commando1]

Sorry to make your stomach turn over Stan. If you think the trucks are bad you should see the drivers.

I was referring to both.
Dave, please keep that ol Pete (and yourself) running.

 

[67newport]

what do you think of women drivers?

Iwona Blecharczyk



and make sure you do your exercises while on the road.

 

[commando1]

what do you think of women drivers?

I don't look at the gender. I don't look at the color. They are a good driver or a crappy driver.
Except age. All young drivers are crap. They never suffered.

 

[300rag]

Backing up. Not a lot of love for the day cab in the comments.

 

[300rag]

And then there is the opposite

 

[CanCritter]

 

[commando1]

My worst nightmare.
Pulling right infront of me and suddenly stopping.

 

[cantflip]

My worst nightmare.
Pulling right infront of me and suddenly stopping.

Knew a grocery hauler who said he put the front tire into the trunk of the Towncar that did that to him on I4. Apparently the driver had "made a wrong turn and wanted to turn around". My friend was fortunate that one didn't get any worse. Minimal legal action.

 

[commando1]

If I hadn't retired when I did, I'd be serving life for murder right now.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Knew a grocery hauler who said he put the front tire into the trunk of the Towncar that did that to him on I4. Apparently the driver had "made a wrong turn and wanted to turn around". My friend was fortunate that one didn't get any worse. Minimal legal action.

GPS has made this stopping and turning worse also the immediate need to fix a wrong turn. I guess it has helped it still the people that can't adapt.

I don't really care about gender either. There is a girls that runs local out of U.S. steel in Dravosburg PA and she is all of 5' tall maybe 100# and makes most of us old farts look like we are in slow motion.

 

[commando1]

she is all of 5' tall maybe 100# and makes most of us old farts look like we are in slow motion.

Can she throw a dozen straps over the load or really ratchet down on the binders?