RowdyRebel

That law, even if passed, will be tossed out by the first court that gets the opportunity to review it. FEDERAL LAW prohibits local governments from banning motorcycles from any road built or maintained with federal dollars. The American Motorcyclist Association lobbied hard for that protection in response to local governments passing motorcycle bans. Motorcycles pay fuel taxes...and if those federal fuel tax dollars have in any way been used to fund the construction, maintenance, or repair of a road, then motorcycles have every right to use it.

Rules are made to be broken...

What happens March 14?

I'd been tempted to take the day off, but the $#!t-for-brains dispatchers had me running around hauling break-even freight yesterday. Last time I do that run...but anyway, after not making any money yesterday, I needed to do SOMETHING today to keep my week within the scope of acceptability. Anyway, got back late enough last night that I told 'em to just give me 2 loads today rather than the usual 3 or 4 that I could get done with an earlier start. Left out a little before 11...should be home by 5. She's got the day off and is making me dinner, and has hinted at something else being planned...not sure what yet (guess I'll find out soon enough). Waking up next to her was a nice way to get the day started, though...

Key phrase I picked up on was "on-highway". Dumping the air to that dead axle means more weight & increased traction available to the single drive axle when you're on solid ground. If you are at a job site and you dump the air, the drive axle sinks further into the soil without gaining any traction...so now you're even more stuck than you had been before the dead axle suspension air was dumped. If the company drivers would've called for a wrecker every time they got stuck, those 6x2 trucks would've proven unprofitable and expunged from the fleet within a few weeks. As it was, they had to deal with them for a couple years before the company saw the foolishness in that idea. In a vocational truck that leaves the pavement from time to time, one wrecker bill for a pull-out is going to wipe out several months worth of fuel savings. Even if you DON'T call a wrecker, when you're also spec'ing light weight drive line components, every time you try to move the truck and it doesn't move you increase the likelihood of twisting a drive shaft, snapping an axle, etc. I just don't see any payback to running a 6x2 setup in a vocational truck once all of the other variables are factored in. In a highway truck? Perhaps...but I drive a Mack and try to avoid highways whenever possible.

Only if it were the OSHA/MSHA inspector's ride...or anyone else trying to pick my pocket.

Salt is what you mix up to spray in the bed to KEEP the load from freezing to the trailer...how friggin' cold was it that the SALT load froze?

Use a little Redneck ingenuity & get the $#!t to come out. Got all but a little to break loose...then let it down to pry the last clump or two off the floor and away from the wall in the nose so it'd come out when I raised it up again. Wasn't as bad as it COULD have been...but still, more work than it SHOULD have been.

"It's decorative rock...it won't freeze up" they told me. Loaded in AL on Saturday...backhaul for a little extra $$$, but it wasn't supposed to deliver 'til today. I expressed my concern over it sitting in the box for 2 nights and it freezing up prior to getting to where it was going just outside St.L. I should've known better. How can you tell a dispatcher is lying to you? Their lips are moving.

CMT has a Dukes of Hazzard marathon 'til 10 central...the kiddies will be fine watching that and you won't be driving yourself batty in the meantime.

The CAT trucks I've seen on the road are among the butt-ugliest trucks ever produced. Driving one of them would ALMOST be as embarrassing as being behind the wheel of a v*lv*.

Yup. If I had to spend money on a new truck, nothing less than the MP8-505M would do. If it were offered to the general public with more power across a wider range of RPM's, I'd recommend that. Everybody always asks "How can I get MORE power?"...nobody EVER comes in here claiming their truck has too much power expressing the need to cut it back. Spec the big HP and wide power band.

...and if not cancelled, renamed with a new crew after the original cast all gets arrested or found dead. 'Bout the only "reality" show I like is Duck Dynasty...

I have only watched a couple episodes of Justified. She's the one that is "into" it. I think it's pretty good, but haven't really been hooked by it yet. Never saw deadwood...probably on a channel I don't get.

Gun fight scene in "Open Range" just ended...gotta find what to watch next. If all else fails, I've got seasons 1-5 of the Dukes of Hazard as well as all of the Smokey & the Bandit movies on DVD...and she's got The 1st season of Justified. I REALLY ought to go try to figure out what's going on with my VSS...speedometer doesn't start working until I get up to somewhere between 55 and 70 mph (it varies...more often than not, 60-65 gets it done). Then, it keeps working like nothing is wrong until I slow down to 15 or so mph...then it quits working again 'til I get back up to highway speed again. I had a wire rubbing on the transmission a while back and was shorting it out...back then it would be working 'til I hit a bump, then it would quit...then a gust of wind would blow the wire back off the transmission again and it'd work. Zip tied it up, but didn't "repair" the worn-through insulation. I'd guess that section of wire corroded & needs to be cut out & spliced back together. I hate electric problems.

TV programmers have hit rock bottom. Don't believe me? Turn on the Hallmark Channel any time today before 11pm central and see it for yourself. Yeah, that's right..."kitten bowl".

It's a matter of the wheel with the LEAST traction on each axle spinning with the power divider vs both sides of both axles turning with the power divider + inter wheel locks.

The Raydan version advertises the ability to run with the airbags deflated without damaging the driveline...AR2 doesn't say whether driveline angles and such would be OK to drive on blown bags or not. Also, AR2 looks like it is only rated to 46K...Raydan can be spec'd to 84K. The AR2 also appears to be an "upgrade" for their walking beam suspensions...a dealer-installed upgrade rather than a factory spec'd suspension like the Raydan. Minor differences...or perhaps not so minor. Just based on the manufacturer's brochures, though, I'd go with the Raydan over the AR2 if an air-walking-beam was going on my truck... 135665920251f7f856af87a.pdf 45745-225f.pdf

AR2 is Hendrickson's version of the Air-Link. Pretty sure Raydan is an OEM supplier for Mack...

One more option you might consider is the Air-Link by Raydan Mfg. Walking beam suspension, but with airbags instead of a steel spring pack. They CLAIM that you can run with the bags dumped without damaging anything and doing so is similar to the rubber block suspension on mixers etc. For me, that would be the way to go because we use air gauges to judge how much we've got loaded to try to keep it legal. If I were doing more site work and air ride simply wasn't an option, I'd keep 'er all Mack...engine, trans, rears, and the camelback suspension.

Water pump is about 2 years old...still spins freely, not bound up at all. Not sure what happened exactly...air line to the fan clutch was broke where it passes through the radiator shroud.

I had it dismantled by the time she got there. Wasn't the water pump that broke...just the housing the coolant flows through that the water pump bolts onto.

As soon as I find somebody willing to buy this house for enough to pay off the mortgage and fund the move.

Got lucky. Decided to take a different way home tonight since I'd make it to where she works about the time she'd get off work, and figured we could meet up & stop at Menards on the way home. I was about 25 miles short of where she works when I noticed a cloud of smoke behind me like I was running on a gravel road. Smelled a little hint of antifreeze, too. When the temperature needle started climbing up from it's usual 175, I hit the exit ramp and pulled into an old closed up choke & puke to see what was going on. Shut'er down as soon as I popped the hood & saw what had happened. Got pretty lucky...my USUAL route would've had me on a 2-lane road without a shoulder...meaning no SAFE place to stop. That would've meant an after-hours tow home ($$$$) instead of her driving 20 minutes north to pick me up before turning around to go home. Truck SHOULD be OK in the gravel lot overnight (I checked with the adjacent gas station and let them know what was going on with it) and tomorrow is her day off so I've got a ride into town to get the part, gaskets, antifreeze, and water...and won't have to worry about having to take a ride up that way in the F250 in the next day or two to retrieve the beater truck that I would have otherwise used to get back up to the Mack. Having her around is a heck of a lot better than that long-distance crap we were doing for so many years... Anyway, long story short, I'm home...truck SHOULD be OK where it is, and it'll only cost me the parts & supplies to get it up & running again.

...anything worth doing was worth doing right. I think I got this breaking down thing figured out. Can you say "Catastrophic Failure"?