While on a fact finding mission for a couple of buddies

[70bigblockdodge]

I thought you had two already.

I do but much like these cars once you get a couple there are always a couple more I would like to have. Always on the lookout for A model KW or a needle nose pete. I saw a nice 81 Frieghtliner yesterday painted hot rod satin black with some old school pin stripping sitting on about 300inches still runs coast to coast normally pulls oversize

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

I alwayz thought it'd be cool to do a glider in reverse with an ole' Pete or KW. Closest I ever came waz ah '38 Aherns Fox with ah syreen in dah nose. Can't you just see that little cutie all duded up with ah 4 1/4 Cat and ah double condominium hung behind the cab screamin' across I-80 some where out in the Nebraska Patch, or tryin' to make it from Orange to El Paso in 15 hourz?

 

[commando1]

My dream is to "retro-mod" a Bighorn with air ride suspension, air ride cab, top of the line Bostrom, something in the 450 -500 hp range, etc, etc...
I need to say no more cuz you guys already know what i'm talking about.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I have looked for one of those for a while a most had ntc Cummins engines in them which makes a good canidate for a n-14 electronic engine kinda like what I did to my 85 Pete. Jer that sounds good except no condo I live in a house the part behind the cab I like to call a napper not sleeper if I want to sleep I go home, sorry to say I gave up all that o.t.r glory many years back, and not looking to do that again if I can help it I'm good with 250 mile radius.

 

[Fratzog]

They insist a a 40K resto but have to sell a Peterbilt first. My guess is that it sets there until its too late and are then shocked it's not worth anything when they finally decide to bail. I hope not but...

At least it sits under cover so the shell should last another 20 years...

 

[Rattle Trap]

There's an old swing fender 900 in a friends woods... Haven't been back there in a few years but it was fixable. Guy doesn't know mechanical work. He just drags stuff out back and buys something else cheap when they quit running. There's also a early 50s Dodge cabover at the field edge and a shamefully rotted 56 GMC cabover in the middle of the woods along with some Ford Big Jobs and others. Sme with tractors. McCormick, IH' s, Cases, Minne Mo's, Chalmers dotting the landscape....

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

Yup, I agree. Fact iz I don't even wanna smell diesel anymore. Hung up my spurz 10 yearz ago and don't miss it at all. With all the electronicz and satallitez involved now it can't be fun. Some where along the way when bingo cardz and two log bookz got replaced by ah 'puter and stop signs started popping up with ALTO printed on 'um on my side of the border I said thatz enough. You know how many statez offer the CDL test in ah foreign language today? You don't wanna know, Jer

 

[cm23uoc]

Are there any independent truck drivers with their own 18 wheeler around, or is it as I guess pretty much impossible to make a living that way with all the cheap labor available ?

 

[Rattle Trap]

Don't know any independent's, but a few owner/ops doing well working thru term contracts. With all the gadgets etc, they say it's as tough as it ever was wo tech making the ride better. The more things change, the more they stay the same.. as one likes to say.

 

[commando1]

Are there any independent truck drivers with their own 18 wheeler around, or is it as I guess pretty much impossible to make a living that way with all the cheap labor available ?

Very sore topic with me. I get so furious just thinking about how bad it is with the scum of the earth now behind the wheel, I can't even talk about it. Road scum. All of them.

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[Fratzog]

Road scum. All of them.

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Surely you jest. Don't know about where you are but here in the great white north most are still good drivers. I'd include my brother in the good driver group. He's down in Florida once a week picking up fruit and vegtables.

 

[Rattle Trap]

I think it may have been more of a statement about maintaining freedom and independence. Of course, it usually aggrevatws me to find many of those same people support deregulations that allow the largest to swallow independants and consolodate corporate power bases too. If it wasn't a political statement, or I took it wrong, feel free to correct me.

 

[polara71]

Surely you jest. Don't know about where you are but here in the great white north most are still good drivers. I'd include my brother in the good driver group. He's down in Florida once a week picking up fruit and vegtables.

Fred, here if you look in the cabs, so many immigrants, foreigners, towels behind the wheels of the rigs. It is definitely not the guy you think is there. Gone are the days of the Grizzly old guy behind the wheel.

 

[Fratzog]

Fred, here if you look in the cabs, so many immigrants, foreigners, towels behind the wheels of the rigs. It is definitely not the guy you think is there. Gone are the days of the Grizzly old guy behind the wheel.

Yeah my brother is definitely one of those old grizzly guys ...

 

[commando1]

Surely you jest. Don't know about where you are but here in the great white north most are still good drivers. I'd include my brother in the good driver group. He's down in Florida once a week picking up fruit and vegtables.

Fred, here if you look in the cabs, so many immigrants, foreigners, towels behind the wheels of the rigs. It is definitely not the guy you think is there. Gone are the days of the Grizzly old guy behind the wheel.

It has gone from a profesion where drivers were proud to be in the industry to the barely employable misfit lured into a seat by greedy companies promissing the world to these guys too stupid to believe otherwise.
$0.40/mile or $10.00/hr. Those were the wages 25 years ago.

 

[oldtinkerer]

wow so we also have some old die hard truckers on here ` that sure makes me feel better .i put over 3 million safe miles on a variety of old smokers thru out the 48 and some of canada over 40 years and am still not done

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I agree N.J. is a scary state for truckdrivers lot of off the boat in the cab go that way (insert your own mental drawing of a dispatcher pointing). I haul mostly steel coils and it amazes me how many foreign "kids" they stick in these trucks that show up at these mills and have almost know idea what to do with it. The company I am with now wouldn't even lease my truck on because I had know coil experience. Of course maybe their standards went down and I am there now LOL. I guess that's another reason to stay close to home, not as far to drive when I,ve had enough. In the mean time I'm neck deep in it and not giving up yet there is something about trucks and diesel fumes that I can't resist.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Here is a couple of shots of a 64 kw that is in the area now that's my kind of napper

 

[commando1]

I haul mostly steel coils and ...

Been a company driver all my life (except when the company forced us into being O/O's for a few years in the 70's).
For years, the rule of thumb for being an O/O was, if you're not making per mile the cost of 1 gal. of fuel, park it.
Made sense back then but I KNOW loads aren't paying even a third of the cost of a gallon of fuel now. How do you do it??

 

[Fratzog]

I agree N.J. is a scary state for truckdrivers lot of off the boat in the cab go that way (insert your own mental drawing of a dispatcher pointing). I haul mostly steel coils and it amazes me how many foreign "kids" they stick in these trucks that show up at these mills and have almost know idea what to do with it. The company I am with now wouldn't even lease my truck on because I had know coil experience. Of course maybe their standards went down and I am there now LOL. I guess that's another reason to stay close to home, not as far to drive when I,ve had enough. In the mean time I'm neck deep in it and not giving up yet there is something about trucks and diesel fumes that I can't resist.

Do you haul up to Canada?