RowdyRebel

Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9/hour. The governor here (democrat) spoke about wanting to raise the state minimum wage to $10/hour. I'm just curious what the correlation is between the minimum wage, the youth unemployment rate, and the Chicago murder rate. I don't know any 15-16 year old kids worth $9-10/hour. Hell, I don't know very many 18 year old kids worth that much. And the politicians wonder WHY young people can't find jobs...

Well, I suppose I should start worrying. Growing up, I always said I'd be amazed if I lived to see 35....I was a bit of a wild child....but now that's less than a year away. We'll see if I was full of crap or not this year. Anyway, the day got off to a wonderful start...wore out that snooze button because I just didn't feel like getting out of bed. I've been turning the furnace off during the day to try to make what little propane I have in the tank out back last the rest of the winter....down to 7% as of last weekend...started the winter at 30%. I've used 50% or more every winter I've been in this house...so I've been debating about buying a 50 gallon portable tank to fill "just in case" I run out a few weeks before the weather breaks. Anyway, yesterday was so nice outside that the house was comfortable enough that I forgot to turn the furnace back on before I went to bed...so it was 55 degrees in the house this morning and I just wasn't feeling like crawling out from under the blankets. The fiance called at 5:00 just as I was hitting the snooze button for the 8th time or so....shocked the hell out of me because she is NEVER up that early. Mom called around 7 as I was getting ready to leave. Grandma called around noon. Just got off the phone with my baby brother about 30 minutes ago. That leaves 2 brothers unaccounted for. Oh well. I've had dinner cooking in the crock pot all day....Wal-Mart has those Tyson slow-cooker meals with a beef or pork roast, veggies, and a spice packet...put it all in the crock pot with a cup of water, put it on low as you walk out the door, and it's ready 10-12 hours later when you get home. Tonight was the beef roast. I cheated a little, though, and picked up an ice cream cone and a cupcake at my 2nd fuel stop today...I hadn't eaten in about 4 days and I just needed a little something to get me home. No candles, though....my birthday wish wasn't going to come true no matter if I blew 'em all out or not. For the most part, it was just another day....me & Dozer riding around in the truck all day trying to make a buck or two...

My brother took me to a Tilted Kilt up in Peoria when I swung through town on my way home....nice place. 'Round here we've got Show-Me's...although the one in Cape closed and I refuse to spend any money in Carbondale. Next closest one is in Paducah or Evansville....and that's just a little too far to drive for a burger.

People sure are strange... ...they want the front of the bus, the back of the church, and the middle of the road.

Knowing me, if I opened the bottom of the bag instead of the top, I'd forget I opened it ass-backwards & dump 'em all over the floor when I reached for another chip. I'm sure Dozer would enjoy that....but then I'd have a jar of dip & no chips.

It's against my religion to shovel snow. If I can't get in or out of the house due to snow, all that means is that it's time to get a bigger truck.

When the bag of chips and jar of dip are both freshly opened, you have large chips and plentiful dip. As you eat more chips, the pieces in the bag get smaller and smaller as the dip get farther and farther from the top of the jar. By mid-bag & mid jar, it starts getting more and more difficult to get the dip onto the chips. ...so how do you reach the bottom of the dip jar with the small pieces of chips that always settle to the bottom of the bag (and therefore are eaten last)? Sure, I could SPOON the dip out onto a plate or into a bowl....but then I'd have dishes to wash. I'm looking for a simple solution to a complex problem, here....and I figgered who better to ask than y'all here at BMT? Some mighty resourceful minds reside in these here forums...

In theory, you would be correct. However, I've received directions from customers acclimated to making the drive in to work in their car....and have NO IDEA what a truck might need to watch out for. Personally, I'll punch in the address into my GPS and take a look at the surrounding area. I might consult a paper map (if I have one detailed enough to show me the area) to get a ggeneral feel for what I might be in for. I've called customers, too, and compared their routing to what I saw for myself. Even after all of that, though, you STILL ned to watch your clearances and road edges. As for the damaged coil, the towing company is responsible...just like they would be if they failed to remove your driveshaft during a tow and burned up your transmission. The tow operator's negligence is not excused by the actions of the dumbass truck driver which led to the need for the tow.

I don't see any holes in that shirt.....couple'a mountains, but no holes.

Some states require the tow vehicle to be registered heavy enough to cover the entire combination. Other states, you register the truck for it's GVWR, and the trailer for its GVWR. For example, I know Illinois adds the truck's tag and the trailer's tag, and your GCWR needs to be no more than the combined plates....so my F250 can have 8,000 tags on it, and If I wanted to pull a trailer tagged at 20,000, I can run down the road at 28,000 gross weight (provided I'm not exceeding the manufacturer's axle limits on the truck or trailer). Across the river in Missouri, however, the truck needs to be tagged heavy enough to cover the combination. Whatever the truck + trailer + load weighs, you'd better have the truck registered heavy enough to cover it. In other words, check into what your state requires and do whatever the law says you need to do.

I'd be tempted to ask that ADA what sort of plea deal he'd be willing to strike with me if something should happen to the lowlife POS thief at the next family get-together....say you were all playing a game of softball and he just happened to walk behind you while you were taking some warm-up swings in the on-deck circle and "accidently" got a knot or twelve on his head.... Would "justice" work both ways? Or would he hold your feet to the fire after letting the thief off the hook? Or go over the ADA's head and ask the DA if a full page ad in all of the area papers explaining how he's weak on crime might affect his decision whether or not to prosecute....because that ad would be chump change compared to what you lost as a result of the crime perpetrated against you, and he is going to be up for re-election eventually.

Remember this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlXK8o70Se0

Military might do him some good....but on the other hand, old habits die hard. I've got an uncle who was given the "military or jail" option and chose to do his time in the Navy. He's still to this day dishonest and unworthy of trust.

I've always been a fan of the hand-crafted personalizations an individual might make for themselves to make the truck work better for them, too....stuff that was never mass produced and might even be a little rough around the edges....as long as it does what it was intended to do.

Whuddaya need brakes fer? Alls they do is slow ya down!

Frequent naps will prevent old age... ......especially if taken while driving.

Like anything else in this industry, application should determine the specs. If you do most of your running on the road, air ride is better....unless your loads are unstable, in which case you might prefer springs. When you get off the beaten path, though, springs are going to get you in & out with less difficulty. If I were to spec a new truck (or if I could ever get the money together to make serious changes to the one I've got), I'd go with a hybrid....Raydan Mfg. has their Airlink....Hendrickson has their AR2....basically it's a walking beam suspension with air bags instead of the steel spring. Won't be as good as a Camelback off road, won't be as smooth as the air ride I've got now....but should work better for what I do than either of the "extremes".

AC? I removed the AC from my "modern" truck....no way in hell I'd add it to a classic. My power steering gearbox has had the seals replaced several times and it STILL leaks. If I could find a manual steering gearbox that would bolt on easy enough for a reasonable price, I'd ditch that too.

...with a name like that, I'd have to have a printing press in my garage.

My parents would've been the LAST people I'd try calling from lock-up.....MUCH safer to just sit behind bars.

Growing up, I was always more skeerd of what my parents would do if I got caught causing trouble than what the law could ever do to me. ....so I just never got caught.

I've never really been one to worry about what a truck LOOKS like, as long as it does the job its there to do. If it is a "classic" truck that only goes to truck shows, cruise nights, and parades, then it should remain period-correct. However, if you're working the truck, any improvements that can be made to the functionality of the truck are fine in my book.....more power under the hood, stronger transmission capable of handling the bigger powerplant, and stouter axles, suspension, and brake upgrades....after all, a working truck ain't gonna stay a working truck very long if it can't keep doing the job. Personally, I'd love to stuff an E9 into an old B-model....of course there would probably have to be some sheet metal modifications to make it fit under the hood. Add air ride to the cab, bolt a T31821 behind the E9, and an Airlink suspension from Raydan... ...OK, back to reality.

That changes things quite a bit with him being a rookie and all...I was figgering he had a few years under his belt. Everybody makes a mistake or two when they are first starting out....haven't been out long enough to learn from other people's mistakes yet, so they gotta make their own. One of the risks, I guess, of hiring & training somebody brand new to the job. The plus side, though, you can train him to do the job the way you want the job done and he don't know no better. When I was teaching the Motorcycle Safety Foundation classes back in college, it was always easier to take somebody who had NEVER ridden a motorcycle and get them up to speed than it was to have an "experienced" rider who's had time to develop bad habits that I'd have to break before I could teach him the proper way of doing things.

...rather than discuss what all you are s'posed to do (or not do) if you knock over a power line, wouldn't it be easier to just not knock it down in the first place? ...and if I had a driver dumb/inattentive enough to get tangled up in some power lines, if the 'lectricity didn't kill him, I WOULD! No telling how much damage was done to the truck...bearings pitted, steel belts in the tires burned, etc...power company's bill might just be the beginning of the financial repercussions.