JumperAndSon

As an authority on Iron City Beer, I can assure you that my sensitive palate prefers I.C. Light over regular red-eye. Growing up in Braddock Hills, my parents neighbor was Mike Karota, the brewmaster of Pittsburgh Brewing Co. So, after 21 of course, I was awash in Iron City Products as Mike was sure that my friends and I were the future of beer drinking (he was right!). My 21st birthday party had 4 half barrels that I picked up from the brewery that afternoon. My wedding had 17 cases of beer that I also picked up from the brewery. Any new recipes were brought home in unlabeled bottles for our approval(disposal?). One of Bens project trucks is a 68 Diamond Reo cab over that was an Iron City Beer delivery truck. I brought a fresh 30 pack of I.C. light to Macungie for everyone's enjoyment, but had no takers! Next time y'all are near Pgh, I'll buy yinz one! Tim

I guess that we missed Martinsburg! Hopefully some other guys from my area will be heading out on Thursday morning as well. I expect the rain to be over with and the temps to be comfortable or else we will be quire disgruntled! If you haven't seen it yet, here is our rig!

Tom, how the heck did we not see you last year? You must have been in some super secret disguise! Ben and I will be there yet again this year and we are hoping to see everyone there! We're probably heading out Thursday morning.

Maybe I could bring the other #11 over for a similar treatment ! Tim

I'm fairly certain that the GMC is Detroit powered as the wimmins are usually in that condition of undress around such displays of power. And I think that the "plow light" is really one third of a roto-ray. Just my observations, Tim

Brought back some unsavory memories for sure. Prayers to the families.

More great progress!!

And General Ike, yes, it currently has a top speed of 64mph but that is with a 4.33:1 rear end ratio. We are going to switch it to a 4.10:1 which should get us right around 70mph which would be perfect. Ben

Made some big progress!! Tank is removed! We are hoping to have the pump and body off by the end of the day on Sunday Ben

We considered that but there are several problems. We could take the sides off because they are bolted to the top of the boxes but if we did that, it would be too high to tow our camping trailer. Plus it would be too long in the back so it would tear up the front of the trailer. Plus, regardless of that, we are trying to make the truck as small and light as possible so it is as maneuverable and efficient as possible. We will be using some of the boxes in our new truck bed for it though. We want as much storage as possible. Ben

Progress is kinda slow but quite steady. Everything around the tank has been removed and is ready to come out. We are working on getting the pump exposed and ready to come out. If we are lucky, the pump, tank and body will be ready for removal tomorrow! Ben

And Reuhlz, just make a western hauler out of that B model you have! Ben

Oh heck no. That would be a huuuuuge waste of space, weight and fuel economy. We just have to get a new driveshaft made and Point Spring and Driveshaft Company is literally 4 minutes from our shop and they are really great with stuff like that. Plus, we should be able to sell the pump setup for enough $$$ to cover the cost of the driveshaft. I will be posting more pictures later this evening! Ben

In case Randy's explanation wasn't in plain enough English for us non-firemen. The cab is split into two parts. The front part is like a normal daycab cabover. Driver on the left, engine in the middle, passenger on the right. Has a hydraulic tilt setup for the front part to access the engine. Then in the back, it has four seats facing backward and four seats facing forward. Because of the raised roof, any normal sized man can easily stand up in the rear passenger compartment. It is a reeeeeeally nice layout and will work great for us. Ben

Btw, here are a few pictures of the vehicle it is replacing. 2001 GMC/Bluebird 66 passenger, shortened 17 feet and made into a western hauler. 8.1L Chevy gas engine, Allison auto. It was absolutely perfect for the past two years, we took it on a lot of vacations and it was awesome. Just kinda lacking power. But the nicest, most comfortable, coolest ride ever. But unfortunately, we were bobtailing on the way back from the PA State Farm Show three weeks ago on the PA Turnpike when we came into a complete whiteout around Mile 110. We slowed down to about 35MPH and followed at a safe distance behind a semi truck. Well at 106.7 The truck in front of us stopped because of an accident blocking the road. We also stopped safely behind it. But there was nobody within eyesight behind us. Visibility was about 75 feet. So we just sat there and waited. About a minute later, another semi truck came along, and of course could not stop in time, and slammed right into the back of us, crushing us intothe semi trailer in front of us. Luckily nobody was severely injured and we are all fine now. But quite unfortunately the beautiful bus is ruined forever. But we are making progress on converting the fire truck and it will be just as awesome as the bus was

Hey y'all!!! Ben Jumper here, it feels like forevvvvvvvvvverr since I have been here! We have been very busy but not with anything particularly cool so I haven't bothered to share. Facebook is such an amazing website and I often find myself satisfied with it's contents alone. But we recently added another large two stroke powered vehicle to the collection, we are beginning a major transformation on it and I was told the I had to let you guys know what's up! So here it is. A 1989 Simon-Duplex. 10 person crew cab, 40,000 GVW, 350 HP 6V92TA, Allison Automatic. Came from the Bryn Athyn VFD, thanks to our hero Randy (1958 FWD) hooking us up! We are taking the fire pumper setup off of it and putting a western hauler bed on it to pull our camping trailer. This will be our new family vacation vehicle to replace the last hauler we had that unfortunately was destroyed in a tragic pile-up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. More details and pictures to come!! Ben P.S. I really hope you can see the pictures because I am not positive that they will actually upload correctly.

I'm sure that is just a shadow.......

Hey guys! All is well in the Jumper camp tonight. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers, we truly appreciate it. State Trooper told us that during the whiteout, a super trucker hauling 2 coils of steel ran into an accident at about 60. The car carrier and the car that was stopped then began to burn. As the car driver was crossing the pike, the FedEx guy hit the car hauler and another semi hit the FedEx truck to keep from hitting the guy. We were following another semi at about 30 mph and he slid hard toward the median. I figured that there was something on the road so I did the same and we both stopped near the median, I was about 35 or 40 feet from the trailer. I told everyone to hold on because we were in a really bad spot. A caravan came to stop off to outr right and an oversize load right at 80k came in and pitched it into the guardrail, you couldn't have fit a matchpack between him and the caravan. I saw a green shaker getting way too big way too fast out of the snow and told them to brace. The next thing I know, I was on the floor over the armrest of my Bostrum and then under the dash. The semi started to jackknife and hit us with the front drive axle on out right tailight. I think that he was doing at least 35 when he hit us. We both carried forward and I hit the box trailer squarish and rolled the protection bar under. I'm pretty sure that my front bumper hit the trailer wheels because the engine and trans of the bus were dumped to the rear and down. The cowl and both windshields were smashed by my hood. I smelled gas and shut the key off and waited to see if we were going to get hit again. There were a couple of wrecks behind us and gave us a "safe" pocket in the wreckage. I got the wife and kids out and we grabbed a few things and stood out of the snow in a horse trailer that had wrecked on the other side of the truck that hit us. The fire got to be huge, with a constant pop of truck tires and the new vans tires burning on the car carrier. The fire burned for about a half hour before they could get a fire truck to it. The wind was blowing the fire towards us but they got it out before it spread ton he next row of trucks. It was so hot that it melted some of the coil trucks trailer. The ambulance was coincidentally behind us by about 10 rows of junk. Those guys were great, checked everyone involved out, helped my wife and kids greatly. I wasn't wearing my seat belt due to a broken #9 rib on my right side but everyone else was. All but Ben have seatbelt bruises but way better than the alternative. My oldest daughter had a concussion about a year ago and her seat took the brunt of the hit as the bus folded, but aside from a small bump on her head, she is fine. Wife has some pulled muscles and bruises but is ok. The 2 other girls are a little beat up but ok as well. They got an ambulance ride to Somerset hospital, while Ben and I stayed at the accident scene until stuff was sorted out. We were in the accident around 3, the State Trooper rode us to meet the rest at the hospital around 8:30. We stayed with a box truck driver to keep warm while we waited, he was a hoot! His truck was untouched. The miracle was that there were no major injuries at all in a situation where there should have been many fatalities. It was a perfect storm of luck in a bad situation. If either of the semis would've hit the caravan it would've been curtains for them, I'm glad it was us instead of them, the bus was built well. The horse in the trailer was unharmed, the dually pulling it mashed a new Ford into the oversize load and the pregnant woman and fetus were both unharmed. The guy crossing the road was unscathed as well as the semi drivers whose trucks burned. Behind us, a semi hit the back of another's trailer and knocked the cab almost off but he was unharmed. Everyone was ok, that's all that we could ask for. Now the fun with insurance begins. Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers, it really means a lot. I'll get Ben to post pics later.

Randy, that is really awesome that you can take your son to such a historic place and rough it. It'll be something that both of you can remember forever. Tim

I just know that Randy would love to wake to a straight piped 53 series on the governor every Sunday morning! Tim

I saw a couple of hood stacks at Macungie , I don't think that they would move fast enough to melt the windshield though. How do you melt glass with a diesel? Too hot EGT? Ford diesels are kinda poopy, so I guess that the Benz is an upgrade. Tim

We are officially leaving for Macungie! See y'all there!

We are actually planning on attending the Thursday-Evening-Shenanigans! It would be such a bummer to not see Randy though! And maybe if you guys wanted, we could meet at the show grounds and a bunch of you could ride to the restaurant in our bus since it seats 11 and there is only two of us. It depends on how the time goes. Ben

Just looked at the weather channel and doesn't look bad for the show, hope it holds true! See ya there!

Hey Guys! Sorry for being kinda absent here lately, we have been really busy in real life so our online life has suffered. But Jumper And Son will definitely be in attendance at Macungie this year! We will bringing the bus again and actually be bringing the camping trailer this year. However I lost the phone number to call to make reservations in the camping area. Doug, do you have that information?? I wanna make sure we have a spot when we get there. Thanks! We can't wait to catch up with everybody there! Ben