RowdyRebel

Driver who towed me both times was pretty cool, too...for a kid. 26 years old, but his attitude and work ethic I would've guessed early 30's at least. As of now, I gotta say they did alright by me. Of course if it turns out that the turbo WAS the only problem, that feeling might change...but I guess it's still better than paying for a turbo to be replaced and it turn out to NOT be the problem. They aren't really an 'internal engine' facility...more or less just basic and minor stuff...and this way it can be checked out to make sure it is fixed right when I get it back. The parrot on their truck gave me a chuckle...

Don't be bad-mouthing the mini-trucks! I guarantee my little '86 Ranger (4-banger/5-speed) has probably hauled more weight in the bed and towed bigger trailers than 75% of the folks running around in their mall-crawler jacked up 3/4 and 1-ton diesel pickups with the stacks in the bed and the nuts hanging from the seldom (if ever) used trailer hitch. Body on frame construction with and actual bed. Hell, BOTH my Rangers (have an '86 and a '92) have bigger beds (7') than most of the new "full size" trucks sold these days that sacrifice bed space for interior cab space without stretching the wheel base out. Hell, the mega-cab dodge only has what, a 4' bed? That isn't a full-size truck. That's an upsized Explorer Sport Track. At least Ford got that much right...kept the Explorer badge on that useless little quad-cab "truck" instead of calling it a Ranger. A full-size pickup should have an 8' bed. If not, it isn't "full size". If you need a bigger cab, the wheelbase and overall length needs to be bigger to keep the 8' bed...otherwise, you don't have a "full size" pickup. Short beds on pickup trucks just look silly and are useless. Of course my buddy with the body shop LOVES the short-bed 3/4 and 1-ton truck trend...people that TRY to use them like a real truck and pull a gooseneck or 5th wheel tend to blow out the rear window if they have even a momentary brain fart maneuvering around corners and such when the trailer gets into the back of the cab. Oops. Hope that wasn't one of those fancy power sliding windows, 'cuz they are extra pricey.

Warranty on the turbo was 12 months. I'm at 12 months, 2 1/2 weeks since getting the truck back with the new motor. JUUUUUUST out of warranty, despite only running 76K miles. Good news & bad, though. Good news is I'm home. Bad news, it was on a hook. They fired it up in their shop this morning and the way it smoked, they said "it ain't the turbo" and suggested it go to Mack. Frankfort, IN was 60 miles. I had them look up Joliet, IL Mack because I've got family up there I could stay with to help cut costs on motels and meals, and it was only 20 miles farther...so I said that's likely where we'll go, but just for S&G, let's get a quote back to Cape Girardeau. 325 miles. They quoted $1400 to go to Cape, which included the mile or so tow to their shop last night and whatever time they had looking at it this morning...and Joliet was only $650 less. "TAKE ME HOME!" The way I figure, paying full retail price for parts PLUS sales tax at a dealer I've never been to and likely won't ever go to again would've cost me more than the discounted prices and no sales tax on my account at the local Mack. Not to mention, hourly shop labor rates are probably lower back home vs Chicagoland area. Then, add in the fact that my runs all originate out of this area so when my truck is fixed I can just get back to work instead of having to go back toward where I broke to find a trailer and MAYBE get a back haul and probably waste a day getting back home. So, it was a no-brainer. I'm home. Tomorrow morning, I'll head back into town to discuss what happened, what they think, what we need to do about it, and a time frame we're looking at to get back on the road. Then, spend some quality time with the wife for a few days 'til I get the truck back.

Only thing I can think of is these journalists are nothing more than a bunch of millennial snowflakes that wouldn't know what to do if faced with actual WORK that required an actual TRUCK. Ever see that show "The Great Indoors"? Cracks me up watching it... On the news this Christmas season was a local story about some 20-something college know-it-alls bought a big screen TV at the store...then couldn't fit it into their econo-crapbox car. So, they had to call mommy 60 miles away to come rescue them with her pickup truck. Always amuses me watching people at the furniture store strapping a kitchen table & chairs to their roof, too. It's a shame we've regulated darwinism and the whole "survival of the fittest" thing into irrelevance by protecting the stupid.

While waiting for the wrecker, I pulled the intake and pressure side hoses off...no oil, and a little end play...which matches what happened when I blew the turbo with the old motor still in it several years ago. THAT time, though, the thing went suddenly with a "pop" and then sounded like a siren when it tried to spool up without making boost. Pulled it all apart, found a little end play (but no oil) anywhere...intake, pressure, or exhaust...so decided to "limp" home. Made it about 45 miles until directed to a gravel lot by a state trooper who raised me on the CB and I told "it JUST happened, and I'm trying to get it off the road". Good thing he stopped me there, though, because the air cooler was FULL of oil, and it was getting to the intake. Wouldn't have been long before it would've run away on the oil. That and when I changed the oil while installing the new turbo, there wasn't MUCH left...so I learned not to do that. That time, though, I was 2 hours from home. This time, it's probably 4 1/2 to 5 hours. When it popped and I lost boost, I shut 'er down. This one didn't go as suddenly, though. The exhaust sounded like it was breathing through a fan...sort of choppy, rather than smooth, for about 50 miles. I had checked the oil when I dropped my load and picked up an empty trailer to see if I was "making" oil...and the oil level was where it was this morning during my pretrip...so I figured it wasn't a stuck injector dumping fuel into the cylinder. Gradual worsening "puff" of black smoke when I'd shift, and then the 4-5 miles right before it popped, it was starting to smoke a little just driving. Being empty and too late for a backhaul, and not wanting to spend the night to grab a load that went out farther before getting a load back home, I was bouncing home...hoping to make it. Was going to pull into Mack in the morning to have it looked at before I pulled another load. Truck had other plans, though... Hopefully the fact that I shut 'er down quick saves a little on the repairs. I know what I did last time (removed everything between the air cleaner and intake manifold, washed them out w/ dawn, rinsed, dried, new turbo, new air cleaner, oil change w/ new filters)...and that turbo I put on lasted until the motor blew up a couple years later. I guess we'll see...they ought to be picking me up here at the motel in a little bit to head in to the shop and have a look.

Grandpa used to just soak phone books in a bucket of used oil. When he was heading into the shop, he'd grab one and light it in the wood stove. Would burn long enough and hot enough to heat the shop while he worked. Seems cheaper & easier than any fancy plans to "convert" the wood stove. Only problem with that these days is getting your hands on some old phone books...used to be a lot thicker and much more widely available.

The Honda Ridgeline? North American TRUCK of the Year? Apparently, the 60 US and Canadian journalists who decided that don't know what a truck is or what trucks are supposed to be able to do... https://www.trucks.com/2017/01/09/honda-ridgeline-wins-north-american-truck-of-the-year/

I really don't care to hear Obama and the Democrats crying about the Russians.

Worst part was, they've got 2 or 3 Mack wreckers at this shop...and what do they send to tow me in? A damn petercar! Talk about rubbing salt in the wound...

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. I think it's the turbo...2 1/2 weeks outside of the 12 month warranty. Holed up in a motel for the night...shop will dig into it tomorrow. Too damn cold to do it on the side of the road & too far from home & any other resources I might have available to lean on to help get it done right myself, so it was towed to a shop. Hell, ain't put but 76,xxx miles on the SOB since I got the new ReMack motor installed...new turbo with the new motor. Not exactly happy right now, but whatcha gonna do?

Get your head out of your ass. Those are the UN's numbers, not mine, which I was quite clear about. Here's the graph straight off the UN's website, showing exactly what I described:

Your assertion was that commodities are less in demand because the world's population has leveled off. The facts dispute this claim. If the world's population is growing, demand for commodities will grow with it. If the world's population (at the LOW END of the predictions...at the -0.5 end of the birthrate margin of error) will level off mid-century, then commodity prices won't be affected until then. If the prediction is accurate (or if they missed by the +0.5 margin of error) then the world's population will continue to grow well into the next century. Facts, even those from a left-wing organization such as the UN, simply do not back up the assertions you've made.

Bullshit. US Census Bureau AND the UN still show a rising world population that is far from "leveling off". Once again, the facts simply don't back up your claims.

Lawsuits brought by tree-huggers, not to mention the regulatory hurdles put in place at the request of lobbyists for the tree-huggers, have played a much larger role than the decline in the housing market. Can you say "Spotted Owl"? Or any other number of alleged "threatened" species? That was part of the complaint the Bundy's had...a silly turtle that had lived side by side with their cattle for generations was now being used as the reason they couldn't graze their cattle on the land. It's all BS, and it all hurts us economically. When we can't use our own renewable resources, we get what we need elsewhere...like China...where their standards aren't quite as high. Or do you forget about the whole defective wallboard situation that was causing problems for folks? We're better off producing our own building supplies...and we'd have the capability of doing so without the interference from the know-nothings. When I was in college (Forestry major), the Shawnee Nat'l Forest was redoing their management plan. Public comment forums were interesting...especially when some tree-hugger would get up and say how prescribed burning shouldn't be allowed because fires aren't caused naturally. There are many types of people, to varying degree of intelligence. Seems the less intelligent they are, the more the politicians and bureaucrats listen to them.

What "bait" is that? The fact that your side fails to abide by the Constitution, imagining new powers into it every day while at the same time turning a blind eye to the actual text of the document? Or perhaps your undying support for anyone looking to increase governmental control over the daily goings on of as many individual citizens as possible? Maybe it is just your disdain for anyone with the testicular fortitude to say "ENOUGH!" and insist upon their representatives abiding by the Constitution? Whether it is Obamacare (which has NEVER had a majority of support in ANY poll), abortion, illegal immigration, or any number of issues, the Democrats are not only on the wrong side of the Constitution and our founding principals, but also on the wrong side of the American people! This is WHY Democrats have lost 1000 or so seats in governorships, state legislatures, county boards all of the way down the ballot to dog catcher. Gone are the days of JFK telling folks to "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but what you can do for your Country!" Now, the Democrats are all about greed. They seek power, and will promise anyone everything under the sun in order to get it..."free" health care..."free" phones..."free" whatever else somebody might desire (but be too lazy to actually want to WORK for). Or have you forgotten the people in the news talking about "Once Obama is elected, I won't have to worry about making my mortgage payments, or putting gas in my car..." They voted for him expecting all of that stuff to be paid for...and he tried. More debt added under Obama than by every single one of his predecessors COMBINED. JFK would be booted out of today's Democratic party faster than the blink of an eye...and that's a shame. When one side of the aisle is hell-bent on "fundamentally changing" everything about this Country than has allowed it the success and prosperity we have enjoyed...and the other side sits on their hands and ALLOWS it to happen for fear of being called "racist" because the POTUS happened to be 1/2 black, well we end up in a situation where the world is on fire. Friendly regimes have been overthrown and extremists have taken their place. Allies have been betrayed and our enemies have stopped taking us seriously. I really do hope the GOP follows through with their threat to withhold ALL funding to the UN until that recently passed anti-Isreal resolution is repealed. Obama was a fool for allowing the US to abstain from that vote allowing it to pass...but then what else would you expect from a community organizer who voted "present" more often than not in the state house? Obama was a joke, but nobody is laughing. Now, he's going to do the unprecedented...sticking around to make his successor's job as difficult as possible. Real classy people them Obamas. Whatever. January 20 can't get here soon enough.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," ...and yet you have a problem with governments attempting to do the very thing they were instituted among men in order to secure? LIFE. Without it there can be no liberty, nor can there be a pursuit of happiness. It is the most basic fundamental right we have...the right to LIVE. Yet, when someone in their pursuit of happiness creates a life, you would like the government to not only protect their ability to terminate that life, but also to make it as easy as possible (even subsidizing the procedure) to end that life? Government's role should be in PROTECTING life, not taking it, and in cases where disagreements occur about when life "begins", the government should ALWAYS err on the side of LIFE, because that is one of the most basic reasons for it to exist...to secure the unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. To do anything other than that is to go against the very basic fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded. This goes for the Alaskans, too. Life. Try living through the winter without heat in central Alaska. Fuel oil is prohibitively expensive. Natural gas is not an option, nor is propane or any other source of fuel that needs to be piped or trucked in on a regular basis. Wood is abundant, cheap, and efficient, therefore it is widely used. Until they have an economically viable alternative, you cannot tell them they cannot heat THEIR home from the comfort of YOUR heated home. Even if an economically viable fuel alternative DID exist, their "pollution" does not in any way affect you, so you don't get any say in the matter. Live and let live.

They lack jurisdiction because the impact of the emissions in question are limited to a single state. Only when state lines are breached can the feds claim jurisdiction. A power plant on Chicago's east side that spews pollutants into Indiana can be regulated by the feds. An interior town in Alaska, where residents burn wood to keep warm, where the smoke settles to the ground and doesn't even leave the town, well that isn't within the scope of the federal government's authority. Just because the state and local governments don't care to tell the locals they have to do without heat doesn't make it the federal government's job. One more thing to consider. In our Republic, the individual is sovereign. The only power government has is that which is granted to it by the people..."by consent of the governed". Democrats tend to forget that basic founding principle, whether they want to tell folks in Alaska that they cannot burn wood to keep warm in the winter or forcing Obamacare or any number of other bad and extremely unpopular policies on the citizens. This is WHY the federal government is supposed to be limited with all powers NOT delegated to the federal government by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved for the states and the people. It is a state and local matter, and as such is beyond the legal authority of the federal government.

No need to be "careful". The Constitution authorizes the federal government to post roads. Those are now US highways and the interstate system. The federal government also has the power under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce. So when one state places size & weight limits below that which the feds have stated should be allowed on federal highways, which hinders interstate commerce by restricting the free flow of goods through the state to and from the surrounding states, then the federal government is within their power to withhold funding until the state complies with the size & weight recommendations on the federally funded roads. Nice try, though...but not even CLOSE to the same thing.

You seem to forget that the ONLY powers the federal government has are the ones delegated to the federal government by the Constitution. As such, the regulatory power of the federal government is limited, and does NOT include intrastate affairs...only with foreign governments, among the several states, and with Indian Tribes. As this "pollution" only affects Alaskan citizens, it is beyond the power of the federal government to address. Instead, IF it is a problem, the state and local governments are the ones who should act. The feds simply have no jurisdiction in the matter.

GM? Not running right? Nah...couldn't be true! [/sarcasm] Hope you don't have to throw as much money at yours as I've put into my Suburban...and it STILL ain't right!

Well, finally had a chance to tear into it a little today. Put the driveshaft back in, then started pulling spark plugs. 1, 3, 5,...running a little lean, clean 'em and put them back. Went to pull #7 and the plug wire was shorting into the header that had burned through the insulation. #8 cylinder wire had the same issue, but a little worse. Fired it up to move it out of the way, and it died again after moving 20-30 feet. Check spark, and nothing. Module is likely toast, and I'm wondering if the pair of ignition wires shorting might have contributed to the module's early demise. Anyway, used the F250 to pull it up into the yard out of the way (working on pulling the transmission out of a friend's Mustang for a rebuild this weekend) and there it'll sit until I get a new module and some new ignition wires. The Holley 502-9 TBI replacement is on order (Holley-days 20% off ends @ midnight), so I'll get that swapped on when it shows up...new injectors, new throttle position sensor, and a 2" bore good for 670 cfm instead of the 450 cfm of the OEM unit. Hopefully that wakes the SOB up and makes it run a little better. May still need to have the chip programming altered...but we'll wait & see on that. I'd really like to run it down to the guy's shop just north of Memphis and have it tuned and set up right, rather than keep guessing and getting it "close". But anyway, Happy New Year, and stay safe tonight.

There is nothing in the FMCSA regs prohibiting carrying a firearm. You are legal to carry anywhere in a commercial truck as you would be in a car. CCW laws do not differentiate between commercial vehicles and private vehicles. If YOU are legal to carry, you're legal to carry. State laws vary, though, so like I said...just don't get caught with it where you aren't legal to have it. And customers? What they don't know won't hurt 'em. Keep it out-of-sight/out-of-mind and use your head.

Who says you cannot carry a pistol? Many states allow vehicle carry, even without a permit...and if you DO have a permit, reciprocity with other states is just as valid in a CMV as in your personal car. Do a little research, and don't get caught with it where you aren't supposed to have it.

The article you posted spoke to the possibility of Trump acting like the "populist" presidents before him, bringing up how populist presidents before him have overstepped their Constitutional powers and encroached upon the powers delegated to the Congress while fearing the possibility Trump might do the same. Two of the WORST offenders (prior to Obama, of course) were the pair of Roosevelts. The Constitution is a contract, delegating certain specific powers to each specific branch of government. ALL powers NOT enumerated under the Constitution are reserved for the States and to the People. The Constitution does not have to actively say "you can't do that" to the government in order to prohibit the exercising of a power, because unless the Constitution says "you are responsible for that", the government DOES NOT have the authority to act.

...and here I thought you held the Roosevelts in high regard?