RowdyRebel

Back in my college days, I could go out to the bar, drink 2+ pitchers of beer, and still not feel the effects....walk, talk, etc. just fine. Hell, I got pulled over for speeding (71 in a 55) going home from a club one night (talking on the phone, of course...trying to get a girl to wait up to let me in). Got to do all of the field sobriety tests...walk heel to toe, stand on one foot & count, even the "follow my finger with your eye" thing. When they give you the field sobriety tests, the cop first reads off the card what he wants you to do. Then he demonstrates the exercise. Then he asks you to do it. When I got done, the cop shrugged at his partner and handed me back my drivers license and insurance card. He told me to "slow it down a little...the deer are out tonight" and as I was walking back to the truck, I heard him tell his partner "That damn kid did those better than I did!" I would have been fitted with chrome bracelets had he made me blow...I had polished off probably a 12-pack at the club. That was a wake-up call for me, though...these days, I only drink when I'm working out in the garage or watching Nascar. I'll occasionally enjoy 1 or 2 when I'm out at Show-Me's, but I just sip on 'em...usually takes me at least an hour to polish each of 'em off and then I sit there drinking 7-up for another hour or so. Just ain't worth the risk...can't afford a DUI. ...and FWIW, I've NEVER been hungover. Even on my 20th when I polished off a 5th of Jack, chased it with half a dozen jello shots w/ everclear, and woke up 24 hours later on my dorm room floor with a duct tape "chalk outline" around me...never had a hangover.

There's a difference between "cheap" and "inexpensive".

Took 'em 3 tries to fix it, and I'm still not sure it's fixed. Third time they replaced the hard drive and I lost everything I had on it. By the time I got it back, the service plan had expired...and since it didn't have anything on it besides what was on it when I originally bought it, I have yet to even turn the stupid thing on again to see if it works this time. It's been collecting dust now for a year, and if I DO decide to turn it on and it doesn't work, I'm blowing holes in it with my shotgun. Hell, I may do that just for gits & shiggles. I replaced it with the desktop I'm typing on right now before I took it to them the 3rd time...so I really don't have any use for that laptop even if it IS fixed.

Wouldn't "cheap" injectors be prone to early failure? I've never understood why people are so willing to spend a dollar to save a dime. Between the parts & labor, I'd rather just buy quality and do the job right the first time, rather than buying "cheap" and having to do the job again in a few months. ...but that's just me.

According to the web site when I was shopping around online, the Best Buy stores in my area all had it listed as "in stock". Garmin's website also listed a bunch of on-line retailers from Wal-Mart to Staples and even Dicks Sporting Goods. I know Wal-Mart doesn't stock it, so I was going to go to those other stores to see if I could maybe special order it in-store to pick up in-store (I don't buy online)...but never got the chance with work and the holidays and all. I've had enough of Best Buy (they trashed a laptop they were SUPPOSED to be fixing) and I refuse to even set foot inside another one if I can avoid it...not even for price comparison. Personally, I don't care if they are cheaper or not...I won't give 'em my business. Family bought it at Best Buy, though. It's pretty slick. Yesterday, I found that if I'm on the map screen and I tap the speed readout, a screen pops up that shows a ton of info about the trip....overall time...travel time...stopped time...average speed while moving...average overall speed....maximum speed....trip miles...and another speed readout. Today, I discovered that if I am on menu screen and I tap the top left corner where it shows the satellite signal strength, it shows the coordinates of my location, speed of travel, elevation, and I'm guessing the different satellites and signal strength off of each satellite...as well as the accuracy of the readout (i.e. 15 foot accuracy).

Yup. In car mode, it works like any other. Switch it to truck mode, and you build a truck profile...with the length, width, height, gross weight, and axle weight of the truck...as well as if you are carrying hazmat or not, and if you are the hazard classification....and it (hopefully) keeps you legal. There's still a disclaimer screen saying it ain't responsible for uck fups...but in my pickup I thought I'd test it out and as soon as I switched to truck mode, it let me know there was an 8-ton weight limit 2.5 miles ahead...which would have been downtown Westmont. So I turned down a side street, and another warning popped up saying I wasn't on a preferred truck route, that I needed to get back to the main road. You can set it up so that it doesn't tell you to pull a u-turn when you miss your turn...it routes you around the block instead. It's got a little icon off to the side that shows the speed limit of the road you are on in either mode, but I noticed it wasn't telling me 55 mph on the big road in truck mode....not that it will matter come Friday. It also has 3 routing options...quickest, shortest, and "off road". Off road will draw a straight from where you are to where you are going...as the crow flies. It's also got all sorts of truck-related POI's in a specific menu option...easy to find. I'm glad I jokingly suggested it when my mom asked what I wanted for Christmas...never in a million years thought they'd drop that kind of cash on little old me, but certainly happy they did. Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure out more neat little things to use it for as I get more opportunities to play with it...

I got a Garmin nuvi 465T The whole family pitched in for it, so it was the ONLY thing I got. Fine by me, though...this thing is friggin SWEET! https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=275&pID=31541

Americans can do the same. NOBODY is denied medical care, whether they have insurance or not. The ONLY difference is that if you HAVE insurance, the insurance company gets the bill. If you DON'T have insurance, the bill gets sent to you. The problem with this health care bill is that it does NOTHING to fix the few problems that exist, and does quite a bit to exacerbate the existing problems as well as creating new ones. For example, this health care reform is SUPPOSED to LOWER premium prices... What do you suppose your auto insurance premium would look like if it were required by law to provide coverage for fuel, oil changes, tires, brakes, and maybe even an occasional wash? Chances are, it would be through the roof...yet that is what they want to force health policies to do by mandating coverage for "preventive" care or "maintenance" care. What do you suppose your chances would be in buying a homeowners policy to cover fire damage while the fire department is on scene at your home extinguishing a raging inferno? What buying an auto policy today to cover the damage to your car after you wrapped it around a tree driving home drunk from the company Christmas party last night? You'd be locked up in EITHER case for insurance fraud...and yet the current "reforms" are FORCING insurance companies to cover these "pre-existing" conditions. In both of those changes, insurance companies are being forced to change from a business model where they manage risk, to a business model where they manage payments. It USED to be that you would buy insurance to protect your assets in the event of a catastrophic loss...it was NEVER meant to pay for the day-to-day ordinary and expected costs. Another MAJOR problem with the "reform" is that it strips away my inalienable Rights to Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. I no longer am able to CHOOSE where to spend my money...I am FORCED to spend a certain sizable chunk of my earnings to buy health insurance. That leaves me with less to use in the pursuit of my own individual happiness. Even if you HAVE health insurance (which I do), if it is not deemed to be ENOUGH coverage (based upon a percentage of your earnings), you will STILL be penalized on your income taxes the same as an uninsured person. Nevermind the fact that I, as a FREE MAN, made the informed decision when I bought my policy as to what it covers and the extent of those coverages. I made the CHOICE that the policy that I bought was BEST FOR ME in my own individual situation. The Government does NOT have the Constitutional power to take that choice from me. We are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable Rights....LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. The QUALITY of that life is NOT guaranteed...only that you get the chance to live out the full length of your natural life (unless you commit a crime so heinous that, upon receiving your due process rights, you are convicted in a court of law by a jury of your peers and are sentenced to death). Liberty to do as you please should ONLY be limited when it begins to infringe upon the rights of others...for example, my freedom to wildly swing my fists ends at the tip of your nose. The PURSUIT of Happiness is an absolute Right...but ONLY the pursuit. You have NO "right" to BE happy. For that, you have to get off your butt and seek your own happiness. If having health insurance will make you happy, you have to either budget enough to BUY your own policy, or acquire the job skills necessary to get a job with insurance as a benefit of employment. If having a big house and fancy car will make you happier than having health insurance, then it is your RIGHT as a FREE PERSON to spend your own money in whatever manner you see fit to secure that happiness for yourself. They could have very EASILY fixed the known problems with the system WITHOUT SPENDING A DIME OF TAXPAYER MONEY! Simply do away with the "in state" requirement, which would allow ANY American to purchase a policy from ANY insurance company from ANY state. Tort reform, essentially limiting punitive damages to a percentage of the actual damage amount would reduce doctors' cost of doing business, and prices would come down. Giving the same tax breaks to individuals as are given to businesses...i.e. using non-taxed dollars to pay premiums...would make insurance more affordable, too. Either that or do away with the tax breaks for employers, taxing the insurance premiums as income to the employees since it IS a part of the pay package. I would prefer the tax cuts, but either way levels the playing field for self-employed individuals. But you won't see the democrats proposing anything that would actually WORK...

...and what would THAT cost you when the wifey found it, ass-u-me'ing it was another one of YOURS

I'd start setting money aside...and hope to have enough saved up for the rebuild before it becomes necessary. The truly scary thing about this business is that it could become necessary to do that major work tomorrow...or it could run great for another 10 years before it needs that sort of attention...you just never know. What you DO know, on the other hand, is the maintenance history and the record of reliability of your current truck...whereas the one you are looking at is an unknown. Yes, your current truck was an unknown at one point in time as well...but how lucky are you? How much have you sunk into your current rig to get it to where it is now...and how much will you have to sink into the new truck to get it to where you need it to be? Sure, the specs are right...but what about the smaller details? Those smaller details add up quick. Personally, I want no part in the EGR, DPF, SCR, or any other EPA mandated crap they are putting on trucks these days. I just want a solid, reliable truck that goes where I need it to when I need it to go there. That pretty much rules out anything too much newer than the truck I've already got for me. To each their own, though...some people like "change". If you can get enough selling your truck to not only pay off the remaining balance, but also put a large enough down payment on the new truck to keep the same or lower payments on the new truck, I can see where that deal could be tempting. I suppose there could be some tax benefits, too...get to start over on the depreciation, so you can take a larger deduction for a couple years where on your current ride the depreciation deduction is starting to fall off. Lots to consider...but ultimately, it's your decision to make.

$37,500 sounds kind of high in today's truck market. Hell, I only paid $38,000 for my '01 with 260K on the odometer back in May of '08....BEFORE the truck market tanked. It's a buyers market right now...LOTS of trucks, and FEW buyers. The price ought to be lower. Hell, when I tried refinancing my truck loan a few months ago, the bank tried telling me it was only worth $24,000....and I still didn't have 400K on the odometer at the time. Sure, the money you put into the truck won't make it worth more...but you know the truck. You know how it runs. You know if it's been good to you. What's that worth? So you spend a bunch of money on a new-to-you truck. You don't know the history. You don't know how it runs. You don't know if it'll be reliable or if it'll be in the shop every other week for repairs. Is your current truck paid off? If it is, why would you want another payment? If not, would this new truck come with a higher or lower truck payment each month? Lots to consider. In case you can't tell, I'm not one to change vehicles just for the sake of changing vehicles. I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"...ESPECIALLY when my livelihood depends on it.

You will want to pull the drive shaft so the transmission isn't turning. The problem with rigging the brakes is the way they work...and any rig-job has to be DOT legal. In other words, you'll need a low-air warning light and buzzer to alert you to problems with the air supply keeping the truck's spring brakes released. You've already alluded to the other problem...regulating the air to apply the brakes in a controlled manner instead of locking them up. The biggest problem you are likely to encounter, though, is with the hitch on the truck. Although there won't be any tongue weight on the hitch, it STILL has to be rated for a gross trailer weight equal or greater than the weight of the truck you are going to be towing. Most frame mounted hitches are in the 10K to 12K neighborhood...not enough to safely pull a semi tractor. This is where the gooseneck hitch comes in handy, because they will generally be rated to 25K to 30K. The draw bar must also be rated heavy enough to handle the weight of the towed vehicle. Tow lights & safety chains will be needed, too. One more thing to consider, if the gear oil in the differentials is 50+ years old because the truck's been sitting, you may want to change it before you hit the road. Same with the hub oil/grease in the steer axle. You don't want to get it on the road and have something lock up on you due to improper lubrication. If the king pins are worn or the alignment is off...that could also cause problems. When you flat tow, the vehicle being towed is essentially coasting behind you...so it still needs to be in road-worthy condition. Tires, brakes, suspension, steering components, wheel bearings, etc... There's probably other things I'm forgetting, too.... Oh yeah...the towed vehicle still needs to be registered. Had an IL State Trooper tell me that when I was asking him about flat towing my Ranger home behind the Mack before I went out to Colorado to buy the Mack...he said it doesn't matter WHAT I tow behind me, as long as it is registered. Cop said that contrary to popular belief, there IS NO "grace period" between buying a vehicle and registering that vehicle when it is acceptable to drive without registration. It has to be registered BEFORE it gets driven or towed on the road. So, if you are going to go buy the old truck and intend to flat tow it home, you will have to register the truck before you hit the road.

LOL...I've got a pretty wicked looking horn that we found in my grandpa's garage...the electrical badge says it's for a 120 volt system. I really need to splice it onto an extension cord so I can plug it in and see if it works and how loud it is. If it DOES work and it IS pretty loud, I'm thinking I'll mount it under the front porch with a relay wired into a door bell switch...

Most of 'em are freightshakers...."barely broke in" is an understatement.....they were BROKE long before anyone ever got IN 'em.

...or sell any and every part I could find a buyer for in order to finance the rental of a car to get me & my stuff home. ...stereo, seats, tires, batteries, lights, fenders, tanks, etc. EVERYTHING MUST GO! Enterprise...they'll pick you up The only other option would be to fuel the truck on my own dime to get me home...and then hold the truck as collateral until I was reimbursed every penny I was owed (including the fuel money to get home).

Floor level of the house is about 4' up off the ground level. No basement...just a crawl space. And ya get used to the trains...I don't even notice 'em anymore unless I'm outside working in the yard. It'll be nice once the shop is built...it'll be a LITTLE farther from the tracks...and inside...so the train horns won't be QUITE as loud.

It's not ALWAYS a lake....sometimes it's a dirt track

Drive-through is a no-go. The lot is 140' (N/S) x 50' (E/W), with a boat shop on the lot to the East, and a church on the lots to the South...and so unless I'm going to drive through the church building, a door on the south end of the building would be useless for anything more than ventilation. I've been thinking and will probably go with 35' or 40' wide and 100' long. I don't want the shop right up against my house, and have to look into how close to the property line I can build. I know the boat shop to the East is nearly on the property line, and it'd be nice to be able to at least walk between the buildings. I was thinking 14' to 16' high x 20' wide door on the north end of the building to pull the truck in and back out through...and probably keep it to the West side of the North wall of the building. On the West wall on the South end, I'll have another 20' wide door, but likely only will be 11' tall. That's the door that the pick-ups & such will use, and 11' will give me 1' more than I'd need if I drop the trailer in the shop and want to bobtail out the other door. In the Southeast corner, I was going to have somewhere between a 10' x 10' and 15' x 15' room...insulated & heated. In it would be a wash tub, toilet, shower, water heater, etc. so that I can clean up BEFORE heading to the house. Above that, a 2nd story room of the same dimensions would house my "office"...computer, desk file cabinets, etc...so that I could keep my "business" stuff out there instead of having it cluttering up the house. The other benefit to having the office on the second floor is the likelihood of floods around here. I'm also planning to lay down at least 1' of rock and then 8" or so of reinforced concrete to greatly reduce the chances of the shop flooding...I'd like it to be a good 1-1/2' to 2' higher than it is now....we DO get rain from time to time...this pic was the second time (in the 5 years I've been here) that I've had water ALMOST reach my garage.... My front yard: I'll be laying rock along that property line to reach the 20' x 11' door on the west side of the shop. I'll probably go with a steel building...and I'm hoping I can afford one that ain't butt ugly. I'd like something that looks more like a barn...but I'll take what I can get when the time comes.

I'm thinking 100' long by around 30 or 40' wide...maybe a 10-15' x 10-15' area in one corner for a washroom (wash tub, crapper, shower, water heater, etc...) and an "upstairs" room the same size where I can put my "office"...file cabinets, desk, computer, etc. to keep my business stuff from cluttering up the house. As soon as grandma is done needing her house, I'm snagging the in-wall 'lectric heaters...those are going in those two rooms to maintain comfortable temps. I've already got a pretty good size wood stove to go in the main shop to heat it if I'm going to be working in there. I'm thinking I'll put a 20' wide x 15' tall door on the north end of the building to pull the truck in and out...and on the west side at the south end, I'll have a second door 20' or so wide and maybe 11' high for my pickups and personal vehicles to go in and out. In the summer, with the two doors open, I ought to have a decent enough breeze blowing through. I've got the general idea for what I want in my head...just got to tear the house down and stake it out so I can see how the lay-out looks in full scale...then put my thoughts on paper and get some bids on the project. The truck will probably be paid off before shop construction begins, though...only 2 1/2 years left to pay on it.

Not much difference on that one....90% approval vs. 80% approval....buncha horny bastards who can't keep it in their pants. That's OK...I'm one that "approves" every time I see the fiance...and they don't make 'em too much further to the right than yours truly.

Nah....doubled the size of my property, though. My house sits on "Lots 3 & 4, except the southern 32 feet". I just bought lot 2, plus the southern 32 feet of lots 3 & 4. The house that currently sits on lot 2 will be torn down (making my house the ONLY residence on this corner of town) to make room for a shop so I can work on my truck in a warm, dry environment with plenty of light no matter what time of day or what the weather OUTSIDE is doing.

yup...

The field is the neighbor to the north. My boss just bought the house to the east.

Yup. Day after the storm last year I ran a load to Calvert City...looked like a friggin war zone. Power lines down, trees laying across the road, power out, phones out...even cell phone service was non-existent unless you had Verizon (they have generators at most of their cell towers). To top that all off, I blew out a tire on the rear axle (outside tire) of the trailer maybe 4 miles from where I was going. Try finding a tire shop when there is no electricity, no phones, and everyone is off work taking care of their homes and families. I was about 2 minutes away from pulling the outside tire off the front axle to mount on the rear outside rim so I could dump off and get out of there when the company called me back to say they found a guy in Paducah that was on his way with a tire. I already had the blown tire off the rim...

'splains it pretty derned good