RowdyRebel

I wouldn't have it any other way. It is embarrassing enough just being on a hook....don't think I could handle the shame of being dragged in by anything other than another Mack. That "simple" wrecker (without all of the side boxes, bells, & whistles) hooked to the rear of my stretched-out daycab really makes for an interesting pic, though......veeeeeeeery long looking combination.

If you REALLY want a chrome bumper, take a week or two vacation and send that bumper in to be chrome plated while you're not using the truck. You aren't likely to find a stronger bumper being mass produced....and bumpers SHOULD be strong. I've never understood why they put those flimsy bumpers on trucks....where if you even LOOK at 'em funny and they'll bend. I've smacked 2 deer....55mph or better each time....and my bumper is still pretty straight. It is nowhere near 1/4" thick, either....might be half that. I've been drooling over the bumpers you see on those oilfield trucks for a long time....solid, strong bumpers with the skid plate and grille guard attached for trucks where the grille doesn't tip forward with the hood....just some tough looking bumpers. Since I don't have an AC condenser, I've even been contemplating using the mounting holes in the charge air cooler (that would normally hold the AC condenser) to fabricate a bracket to hold the grille on my CH....then trim the hood opening a little to allow the grille to pass through it rather than being bolted to it....that way I could mount up one of those bumpers. Then I started seeing some of those bumpers where the grille guard portion was hinged to fold down out of the way so that you could open the hood if the grille was attached to it. Either way would work for me. Especially on a "work" truck, ground clearance and a tough bumper are important. The higher off the ground that bumper is, the less likely it is to get snagged on objects at the job site and bent....and the tougher it is, the less likely it is to bend if it DOES get into something. Heck, I'd even move the plate from under the bumper to have it mounted on the bumper....ground clearance and all. Keep it tall & strong....but that's just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

Yeah, it was pretty lucky. Something let loose in the front drive axle about 3 miles south of the get-off to the company yard. Managed to limp it in @ 5 mph with the power divider locked in to get it off the side of the big road and drop the trailer...then got to wait there at the yard for Mack to open (not paying for after-hours service when it'd only be a couple hours until they'd be in) and gave 'em a call to come get me. Had the truck prepped & ready to go by the time they got there....front axle chained up, steering wheel tied, exhaust stacks taped....their wrecker driver LOVES towing me because all of the dirty work is done by the time he gets there, so all he's got to do is pick me up, secure the truck to his, and roll. Anyway, that all happened yesterday. I'm fixin' to head in there in a little bit to see what exactly happened. If the carrier is shot, I'm debating if I should upgrade....been thinking about a gearing change or some other possibilities such as full lockers instead of just having the power divider locking in when I flip that switch. With the Mack rears, I seldom have a need to flip that switch to lock in....but when I need extra traction, full lockers would definitely help. When you're pulling a trailer, applying brake pressure to help get all of the wheels moving means you're pulling against the trailer brakes....just be better to have the full lockers. Cost is going to be a huge factor in the decision, though, because money is kinda tight. Seems like just when I get my head above water again, I get kicked in the teeth. Oh well....shit happens. At least the truck picked a good few days to be out of commission.

Trucks sure as hell looked better back then....so did the cars. They had style....and class....now they all look alike and are equally butt ugly.

My truck decided it didn't want to be out playing this week during the 72 hr BS....so y'all have fun & be safe.....and do your best not to feed them bears!

Been hearing about insurance companies that are going to drop coverage if your policy does not meet the government's idea of what a person should have. Guess what...I have what I want, and if they don't wish to continue selling it to me, that's fine. I'm not going to buy more coverage than I think I need, even if the government disagrees. Fuck obamacare. It isn't the government's place to tell ANY free citizen how to live their life. What ever happened to governments recieving their power by consent of the governed? NO poll has EVER shown a majority of people approving of this debacle. It was one sided from the get go, and required underhanded schemes, backroom deals, and severe bending of the rules in order to get it passed. Governments are instituted among men to secure certain unalienable rights....life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The government does not have the power to force me to buy health insurance if I don't want it...and if my only options are to pay WAY too much in order to buy more coverage than I need or simply go without? I choose to go without. Whatever happened to the promise that "If you like your insurance, you can keep it." I like my insurance. If the insurance company cancels it, the government can go see them about paying the penalty for my lack of insurance....because I sure as hell won't be paying it.

Judging by the trees, this is gonna be another good apple year! Had more rot last year than I could eat...mom says the one tree's apples sound like the kind she prefers for apple pies, so I may box some of 'em up and ship 'em to her this year....better than letting 'em rot. Just wish my peach & plum trees were as productive as the apple trees....free healthy snacks growing right there in the yard.

I had a cracked housing a few years ago....welded it up myself and it's doing just fine. Wasn't really all that tough to do (and would be easier now...bought a bigger welder since then)....just time consuming tearing it all apart and putting it back together again.

Always bugs me around election season when you go to some candidates forum or town hall meeting and some idiot will ask the politician what THEY will do to stop the outsourcing of jobs. IT isn't the politicians job to create jobs or to protect jobs from being shipped overseas. All the politician can do is create a business-friendly environment....a PROFITABLE environment....without stacks of regulations and their associated (and expensive) red tape....so that businesses are inclined to do business here. However, it all really boils down to your basic "supply & demand". As long as the public wants cheap, albeit disposable, products, companies will continue to produce those cheap & disposable products in places where they can do so profitably....cheap labor, little-to-no regulatory burdens, etc. ONLY when there is a demand in the marketplace for American made products will they be inclined to manufacture products in the USA. Yes, it costs more to do so, because the politicians have allowed the regulatory agencies to operate without any REAL congressional oversight. This means that the final product will be more expensive....and if people just aren't willing to pay those extra costs, there is no demand. No demand = nothing manufactured. So when somebody asks "what will you do to protect US manufacturing jobs", my question right back to them is "when was the last time you chose to buy an American made product?" Any time I have the option, I buy American. For example, every tire on my truck has "Made in USA" on the sidewall. Could I have bought less expensive tires? Sure. Those tires wouldn't have supported American workers, though. It all starts with the consumer....there has to be a demand for American made products before manufacturers are going to be willing to wade through the regulatory BS to actually make stuff here in the US.

Close... The bug screen behind the grille was loose and had rubbed a hole in the condenser before I ever bought the truck. After 3 years of not getting around to fixing it, it was going to need a condenser, compressor, dryer, lines....pretty much everything north of the firewall, as well as probably some of the valves and lines behind it. It was going to cost WAY more than I was willing to spend fixing the AC. When I got the new charge air cooler, I left the condenser out....no point in placing a broken part back into the truck. Once that was out, I decided I may as well pull the rest of the parts & pieces that were needing to be changed....and then the brackets and such looked out of place without the components bolted to them, so I removed them as well. After listening to the big boss at the company I'm leased to going on and on at the safety meeting about what all they are doing to cut tare weights and the importance of maximizing your loads each and every trip and what it adds up to, I decided to weigh the parts & pieces I had removed. The next safety meeting when the big boss was carrying on in the same manner, I mentioned how much weight I saved by eliminating the AC. He laughed and said if he tried that, he wouldn't be able to find anybody to drive his trucks. Guess there are a lot of panty wastes in this industry. Long story short, I removed it because it was broke, and I'm too much of a penny-pinching tight wad to fix it.

I saved half that when I removed everything A/C related from under the hood...

Even the unions are turning against Obama.... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/25/unions-reliable-democratic-supporters-split-from-president-on-obamacare/ ...and if you don't trust Fox News for reporting the news accurately, Huffington Post is saying the same thing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/unions-obamacare-may-jeopardize-health-benefits_n_3330074.html Nice to see that even those with their heads buried deepest are starting to see the light.

There's a fairly new restaurant down in Cape...Bagger Dave's...took the fiance to eat there when she was in town. I had a burger...she ordered a BLT. We were BOTH pretty impressed with that BLT. Most places give you a lot of lettuce, a slice of tomato, and maybe 3 or 4 thin little slices of bacon. This thing was LO-HO-HO-HOADED! I ordered a double burger, and the bacon on her BLT was almost as thick....bacon burger formed from thick, tasty strips of perfectly cooked bacon, topped with a slice or two of lettuce and a slice of tomato. Next time I go there, I'm getting one for myself. At least I know she loves me....she shared her bacon with me, and it just don't get much better than that! Then again, with as much bacon as her BLT had, she still had her fill of meat candy.

Not the WHOLE country....heck, probalby not even ALL of Calif***ya. That happened in San Francisco, so it really doesn't surprise me.

...speaking of bacon, Calif***ya liberals strike again! Bacon restaurant shut down for smelling like bacon

Resident Advisor (or something like that). Basically they get their room & board free and get paid a little bit to babysit a bunch of college kids and be the "responsible" one on the floor....oversee things to make sure rules are being followed, etc.

Fox News anchor just said authorities are saying there are 24 kids...3rd graders...still missing, and that it is doubtful they are alive. ....TV is in the other room, though, so I'm just listening to it as I browse.

No sooner than I hit the "post" button, Fox News guy said they were all pulled from the rubble....great news for sure.

I pray to God that's right...I haven't heard anything on Fox, just that it is still "very much a search and rescue mission".

Only warm beer I drank was the stuff I didn't feel like waiting while it cooled off in the fridge. I wasn't afraid of the RA's....always had a well stocked fridge even though it was an "alcohol free" dorm, and even invited them over for a beer from time to time. Only 1 ever took me up on the offer....end of the year....had some people over....it was legendary. That RA had been a student of mine at the motorcycle rider course, so we were cool. The RA from my floor didn't believe me that I was going to have an end-of-the-year party in my room....until she saw the full recycle bin in the hall containing all of our empties. I told her she could have had one if she'd dropped by....hell, she was cute. We used to have quite a bit of fun (at her expense) on that floor....and it didn't seem to matter what sort of shenanigans we pulled, if I was involved we never got written up for any of it.

Yeah, I pulled the entire intake system from the air cleaner through to the manifold off and got a ride home to flush it all out. Used a gallon of purple power, 1/2 a bottle of dish soap, and who knows how many gallons of water from the garden hose flushing that thing out until I wasn't getting anymore indication of oil. And yes, I sent the water the opposite direction that the air would flow to push stuff back out the way it went in.

If the rules had been in place prior to my purchasing the house, I'd be OK with them...if I didn't agree with the rules that were in place, I would have the choice not to buy the house. These, however, were not in place when I bought the property...they were passed 6 years AFTER I was settled in. For the first 6 years I owned the house, I could do certain things and it was perfectly legal to do so. Then, 3 years ago, my previously held right to do those same exact things on or with my own property was stripped from me...without notice, and without the ability to voice my disgust with the proposed rules or the pathetic busy-bodies who made the proposals. I already hold the deed to 1/2 the property, and the bank is hanging onto the deed for the rest of it until I pay off the mortgage....so the choice to simply live elsewhere isn't as easy to follow through with. At the very least, I'll do some digging. Find out who the county commissioners were at the time the ordinances passed, who voted in favor of them, and then sue them personally for my loss of property rights. I'm thinking the purchase price of my land plus my legal fees sounds like a good place to start since the property just isn't worth what it was to me when I bought it. If I had wanted to live in the city with all of these city-type ordinances, I would have bought a house in the city. The deputy made a comment that a farmer (implied that he had a field behind the house...not sure which one it is, though) was a commissioner at the time and was instrumental in getting the ordinance passed. If that proves to be true, he'll find out pretty quick what a nuisance really is.

Holy crap. Heard on the radio there were 75+ kids taking shelter in the hall of what used to be a school in Oklahoma. Turned on the TV when I got home and the pictures coming in from that area are beyond comprehension...don't take but the blink of an eye for your whole world to be flipped upside down. Prayers going out to the families of those kids....they're gonna need 'em.

I always thought the breakfast of champions was cold pizza & beer....at least that's what it used to be back in my college days.

Too late in the day for me to worry about making anything for dinnertonight...so I'll probably just grab a bowl of cereal in the morning if there's time...otherwise, I'll eat when I get home...unless I have other things to get done....and if that's the case, I might get around to eating something on Tuesday.