RowdyRebel

Doesn't look TOO bad... http://www.nj.gov/mvc/Commercial/transfer.htm ...but you still might want to go to the DMV and actually talk to somebody about what all you'll have to do.

If you go out of state to get your CDL, you will have to transfer your DL to that other state (Texas cannot administer the road test for a New Jersey license). To do that, you'll have to have an address within that state. Some CDL schools will allow you to use their address for your license. Then, once you have your Texas CDL, you'll have to transfer it back to New Jersey. I'm not sure what all is involved in that...but Illinois requires that you retake ALL of the tests...written AND driving....before you can transfer a CDL to Illinois. If New Jersey has a similar requirement, you'd still be needing a truck to test in to keep your CDL when you return home...so check into that BEFORE you decide to leave the state. One more thing to consider, every application you fill out is going to ask what states you have held licenses in over the past 10 years...so don't forget that license number because you'll have to report that Texas license that you held for 2 or 3 weeks on every job application. That isn't really a problem, though, because it is pretty common (or at least it USED to be) to go out of state for CDL training....as long as you surrendered your NJ license when you got the TX license, and then surrendered the TX license when you got back to NJ so that you only ever had 1 valid drivers license at any moment in time, you're fine. Personally, if transferred my license to Texas for any reason, I don't think I'd ever come back here...

How Swearing at Work Could Ruin Your @#*! Career http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p6pXLbQvow

Only if the heat agrees with him. Obama (like any liberal) is tolerant only with those who express opinions with which he agrees. If you hold an alternate opinion, there is no tolerance.

...I just saw where NYC Mayor Bloomsberg made a comment I AGREE WITH!!! http://radio.foxnews...hick-fil-a.html I never realized there was a Chick-Fil-A location in the area...looks like there's 2 of 'em in Cape, though. Gonna try & find one of 'em today....ever since the Cape Show-Me's closed, I've been needing to find a new place in town to eat. Besides, if the Chicrapgo mayor thinks "Chick fil A values are not Chicago values", then Chick-Fil-A's values must be pretty darn good.....'cuz Chicrapgo's values SUCK! http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Locations/Locator

That & when he first saw me, he growled like a bull dozer. He had been staying with the fiance & rode up from Texas with her....I leaned in the passenger side window to say hello & he was protecting her. Needless to say, he didn't like me at first. Now he's very protective of me. She's still about the only person he won't growl or bark at when she comes over. ANYBODY else, he alerts me if they even look in the general direction of the house from across the highway.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question69.htm http://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/ArticleID/96/Stealth-Technology.aspx ....just sayin'

Where are they made? If it does not say "Made in USA" on the sidewall of the tire, it isn't an option for me & it won't be put on my truck.

If the wrecker company I had been working for wasn't bought out, I would have used their trucks to get my CDL...I had my permit and was being trained into the medium/heavy duty wrecker. Shit happens, though, and I ended up going to a 2-week school....tested the first day they let us (I was the ONLY one that passed that first day) and got the hell out of there. 3 weeks out with a trainer (they usually did at LEAST 4-5 weeks) after the trainer's truck lost it's ECM....he said I was good enough to not need that last week or two, and I've been out here on my own ever since. Really started learning HOW a truck works while hauling logs...part of my job was doing the routine maintenance (oil changes & grease) and would be the truck boss's extra set of hands for any other minor repairs (he was an ex-Mack mechanic). Major stuff still went to Mack...but we did quite a bit in-house. Realized wrenching on big trucks isn't all that much different than wrenching on cars & pickups (which I've been doing since before I could drive)...you just need bigger wrenches....and ever since then, I've ALWAYS carried tools. Of course now that I own the truck that I drive, my on-board tool kit takes up a bit more space than it ever did as a company driver (24" x 24" x 36" side box stuffed full as opposed to a simple 18 to 20" tool box). Tearing into the engine, transmission, or center sections of the drives is about all I won't do these days. If I was completely out of debt and had plenty of money in the bank to cover the bills for a while, I might tear into those as well....but when you need the truck to be running, you don't have time to "figure it out" as you go & some things are just best left to those who know WTF they are doing. ...and yeah, I remember no AC in the summer time like it was today. Come to think of it, it WAS today...and yesterday....and the day before that....and the 4+ years before that. I sure hope I never have to fire myself, because most drivers you see these days are pansy-asses and view AC as a "necessity" rather than the luxury item it really is. Mankind survived for thousands of years before the invention of AC....we can do without it today, too.

Better yet, let him (or any other politician/bureaucrat/government a-hole) spend a day with me! Epecially here in the summer when it is 100+ degrees outside, and I get sent over to unload under the kiln. I guarantee any one of those pansy ass know-it-alls would end up in the emergency room suffering heat stroke....'cept I wouldn't take 'em there because if I take the time out of my busy day to drop them off, I wouldn't make it home inside of the strict 14 hour window they say I cannot exceed. When we get home, they can get out of the truck. ...and no, I will NOT fix the AC before the ride-along. That would cost money, which unlike the feds I can't print it and I certainly cannot vote myself an increase in my credit limit. If I want something, I need to work to earn the money to pay for it...and when money is tight, my "wants" get prioritized behind my "needs". AC is a luxury, and getting that fixed will have to wait until I have enough "extra" money to pay for the entire AC system to be replaced. In other words, I'm not holding my breath. So yeah, I would LOVE to have some big-wig go for a ride-along with me. I'd even leave Dozer home for the day so they wouldn't have to fight him for the unpadded plywood jump seat. My "usual" riding companion doesn't complain, so I don't want to hear them crying about it either.

I've looked into centrimatics....not compatible with my brake drums. When I eventually have to replace the steer axle brakes, I'll be trying the centrimatics, too. Still going to static balance the tires, though...leave the centrimatics to active balance the hub & compensate for any mud/dirt/road crap that might accumulate. Best tire wear I've ever got was when I used those ceramic beads inside the tires....but that made breaking them down a real PITA because those beads would stick to whatever you were using to lube the bead and you'd have to make sure you got them ALL cleaned off or else they'd prevent a good seal between the tire & rim. ...speaking of rims, the new ones for the F250 never arrived. Apparently they were shipped to the wrong place, so it'll be another week before the pickup gets new shoes.

Hit a little rain today...not entirely impressed with the ST230's. Those Michelins would stick like glue...these BFG's were a little tight in the corners....just lacking grip. But, for the price I really shouldn't complain. I couldn't imagine rotating them every other week....do you just swap left<-->right? Or do you break them down on the rims & flip them so that the direction of rotation remains the same? Last couple times I've bought steers, I've had 'em static balanced...so to break 'em down and flip them on the rims would mean having to get them balanced again.... Oh well...good thing it hasn't been raining too often around here. If I can get more than 9 months/86K miles out of them, though, I can adjust my driving to compensate for the decreased traction. Time will tell, I guess. Still probably going to try the DR444's...price is decent enough and I was already figuring on less traction with the closed shoulder....just hoping it'll help fuel a bit, too. If I were still on dumps full time, I probably wouldn't consider the change....but 99% of my driving these days is on hardened surfaces pulling the tank. I am a little disappointed, though. The BFG All Terrain T/A KO tires I run on the F250 flat out grab the road & don't let go...that thing rails around the corners, wet road or dry. Tire shop had the new set for the F250 sitting in their shop...just waiting on the new 16x8" rims to show up. Old tires were 33x12.50R16.5...and you just can't find tires to fit 16.5" rims anywhere. So, I'm going to a LT285/75R16 tire & gaining 800 or so pounds per tire load capacity. It'll also give me a wider variety of tire to choose from next time around. I just wish that quality carried over to their commercial truck tires. Load Range G (LRG) is only good to 6610 pounds max on a single. Load Range H (LRH) is good to 7160 pounds. Since I'm usually heavy on my drives (35.5K), keeping a LRH tire on the steer would let me slide my 5th wheel forward to move more weight from the drives up to the steers to keep me legal if there is a portable I can't get around. When I bought the truck, it had Conti HSR's on the steer....great tire....but despite there being 2 Continental tire manufacturing plants within an hour or so from here at the time (I think one of them might have shut down since then), NONE of the tire shops around here carry them....so I went with the Michelins.

Been running Michelin XZE2's on the steer...11R24.5 LRH. Unfortunately, they haven't been lasting very long. Current set had 86K on them in 9 months. Drivers side tire still had 10/32" all of the way around...still looks great. For some reason, though, this truck chews up passenger side tires. Probably 90% of it still had the same 10/32" tread left...but on the outside shoulder, there were places it was down to 3/32" and in 1 or 2 places, it was flat-spotted pretty bad diagonally across the tread. I've had the truck aligned a couple times, and it never leads to the tires lasting any longer....had this last set spin balanced & got an extra month or two out of them. I can't afford to keep buying Michelins...especially when they just don't seem to last. So, I walked into the tire shop and told them I wanted an 11R24.5 tire LRH, made in the USA. They had the Michelins I've been running, or I could have got some chinacrap tires. I spotted a BFG ST244 LRG and priced it for S&G. Even the LRG tire would be sufficient on weight rating...so I COULD have got by with it. Anyway, they quoted me a price & I asked 'em about the same tire in a LRH. They said they didn't have any, didn't know when they could get 'em. So I decided to call the local tire shop I usually like to deal with. They had that same ST244 LRG for $7 less...not worth running the out-of-route miles to go down there. I asked them about the LRH...they didn't have any of the ST244, but they DID have the ST230 in 11R24.5 LRH. When they gave me the price, it was only $1 more than their price for the ST244 LRG. I told 'em I'll be there in an hour and a half. Rolled in 10 minutes before they closed their doors...talk about cutting it CLOSE!!! Anyway, 2 new steer tires on my truck for $853.10...mounted, spin balanced, and installed. Of course I had $153 & change in credit from a cap that started coming apart on me, but still about half of what it would have cost for a pair of those friggin' Michelins! Next time I buy drives, I think I'm going to switch to the BFG DR444 LRH. Still going to be about $200/tire cheaper than the Michelin XDE M/S LRH tires I've been running. When I first went with the XDE M/S, I was on dumps 99% of the time and needed all of the traction I could get. On tanks, I'm on pavement more than I'm not...so the DR444's with their closed shoulder ought to be sufficient & last a little longer. Right now I'm kicking myself for running the damn Michelins as long as I did....

Awww...c'mon, now! EVERYBODY knows truck driving ain't all that hard! 2 weeks at CDL school, 3 weeks out with a trainer, and 90 days later you know everything there is to know about truck driving and you're ready to pass that knowledge on to other newbies.

Scaling 50K is easy. I can usually get 25.75 tons in the wagon if I show up with 1/2 tank of fuel or less. Company trucks are easily getting 27-28 tons with the same trailers I'm pulling.

That looks like a fatal mechanical breakdown and that motor is now junk. It will have to be removed from your truck post haste and replaced with one that has not experienced that problem. I know of an E7-460 you could have for cheap if you allow me to dispose of that V8 for you...... ....figgered it was worth a try. Can ya blame me for tryin?

A lot of that has to do with their perception of what the customer wants...and the customers usually get their ideas from "educated" folk who have never had any real-world experience dealing with the stuff they are supposedly an "expert" on. A few examples: I've been at a few carriers who lived by that whole "gear fast, run slow" bullcrap. Their trucks wouldn't pull a hill to save your life....and I used to get the same fuel mileage out of them as I did with a log truck that was set up to pull. Then there are those that are on that "light weight to maximize payload" plan as well as the "bolt-on crap to help bolster fuel mileage by improving the aerodynamic properties of trucks governed too slow for it to matter" kick. They spec the trucks with lightweight components that break...so any extra revenues gained by increasing payload quickly goes right back out through downtime & paying for repairs. They spec the trucks low-profile, side skirts, and air dams to reduce airflow under the truck....only to bottom out and tear stuff up at the job sites. Don't even get me started on the super singles....have a problem with one of those and you're stuck right where it happened, whether it is in a convenient place to get it fixed or not. I've even heard talk from higher ups about specing a single drive axle with a dead axle....can't wait to see how much they tear up trying to get trucks unstuck. Hell, they've even tried specing hoist cylinders that require less hydraulic fluid.....only to see them bend under the weight and not go back down. Imagine that...spec a light weight truck & trailer so that you can haul more, and then a weaker cylinder hoist that can't handle the extra weight in the bed. Who'da thunk they'd have problems? Certainly not the "educated" person who recommended that change.

My ears was burnin....

...you mean 2011, don't you? If they're cutting it for Christmas 2012, it'll be a tinder box by the time it gets lit up.

Where to begin with this pile of .... the president said. “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there.It takes more than just being "smart"....you've got to know how to apply those smarts in a practical way to produce something that is useful to somebody else so that you can get paid. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.It takes more than just "working hard". Working hard for somebody else is easy and virtually risk free. You also won't ever get rich busting your ass for somebody else. You've got to be willing to accept risk....put some of your own skin in the game. “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.Whether you call it a "teacher" or a "mentor", yeah....everybody has received guidance at certain points in their life. Usually from an old fart who has "been there, done that" and can pass along knowledge they have acquired over their own years of hard work. That mentor isn't out there holding your hand doing it for you...they have no skin in the game. You will succeed or fail based upon your own efforts, not those of your mentors. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Yes. There were numerous people who helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have.....among them: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, John Hancock, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, Matthew Thornton....as well as George Washington, George Read, Gunning Bedford Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom, James McHenry, Dan of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Blair, James Madison Jr., William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight Sr., Hugh Williamson, John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, William Livingston, David Brearley, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, and Gouverneur Morris. Add to that short list the name of every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine who has ever spilled blood in the defense of this great nation. Noticeably absent from this list? Anyone with the last name "Obama". Somebody invested in roads and bridges.I do. Between the Federal Excise Tax on tire purchases, truck purchases, etc....coupled with the motor fuel tax that is collected....the heavy vehicle use tax....IRP, UCR, or whatever other "registration" system they want to use....not to mention the apportioned plates. I pay well over $14,000 PER YEAR for the priviledge of driving on those roads and bridges....just like every other truck on the road does and has for quite some time. Cars & trucks weren't built because we had roads & bridges.... If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” he said.....so you're saying that if I hadn't made the effort to start my business, that it would have magically appeared? Would somebody else have started it for me? If they did, did they REALLY start it on their own or did another person actually do it for them? “The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”No, the internet was NOT created "so that all the companies could make money". The internet wasn't even commercialized until the mid '90s. If it were intended from the outset to be a commercial tool to be used to make money, it would have been commercialized from the start of the development process 30-40 years earlier.

Who the hell puts a $400 gold chain on a friggin 3 year old kid in a stroller?

Funny you say that today....the sermon at church this morning was about John the Baptists head being served up on a platter at some party...is this gonna be a BMT reproduction of that biblical event?

Boy Scouts was a fun time in my life as well...even worked as a camp councelor for 3 summers (got me out of the house all summer & earned a couple bucks) while in high school. I didn't know it back when I was in scouts, but there are a TON of merit badges a boy interested in mechanical things (cars & trucks) can work towards.... Automotive Maintenance Traffic Safety Truck Transportation Farm Mechanics Metalwork Welding Composite Materials Electronics Radio I didn't have the internet to look stuff up back when I was in Boy Scouts...so I never knew most of these existed. Sucks to be me, I guess....

I like motorboating....