fxfymn

That truck went to auction lat year in NC. The high bid was put in by Keith Jones (Keystone Tractor Museum) but rejected by the family of the owner who has died. I thought it was a very fair bid, but apparently the old "I'm not giving it away" syndrome kicked in. I have no idea where it is now.

Like any diesel performance depends on having enough fuel and air. My first shot would be to replace the fuel filter. Next, especially if it is an older DMax, would be to check fuel pressure and consider adding a lift pump. I assume it is not showing any codes? Here is a great forum to search out answers to DMax issues: http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/index.php

There are about 150 million women in this country and only 1 truck like that. Do the math.

That's funny because my name for the weather persons is "weather-hypers" 20 degrees not cold enough to get viewers? Than make up a phony wind chill chart to say it is 5 degrees because it sounds worse. The prediction is 2 inches, but the weather-hypers always add "but it could be much more, better buy bread and toilet paper and keep listening to us non-stop for the next week". My bride and I both grew up in the Boston area. I was livid when I heard that the governor had banned travel by car in advance of a storm in Massachusetts. What the hell? Have the morons taken over so completely that no one can drive in the snow any more? What happened to that independent Yankee "I can deal with anything Mother Nature sends us" spirit? In VA they close schools and most government offices when the word "snow" crosses the lips of any TV forecaster in the state. I doesn't matter if they were talking about last years storm or one that may come. SNOW! Oh my God, close everything now and park the plows on the side of the road for the next two days. If I still plowed for the state I'd put a sleeper on the dump truck because they spend so much time parked on the side of the road waiting for it to snow that you could catch up on your sleep for a month.

That is from my home town newspaper and I guess times have changed since a snow storm was just another day for us when I was a lad. I don't remember anyone getting wound up like they do around here. It snowed, we cleaned it up, it snowed again, and so on. That is what happens in New England in the winter. And OBTW he forgot the toilet paper in the drawing.

You won't need one; your soon to be ex-wife will take care of that. Just give her everything you own and will ever own.

Boy we really strayed off on this thread! My favorite pan handler story; I was in Miami doing a promotional exam for the Miami FD. A bunch of us go out to breakfast and watch a street person go to the newspaper box, put in a quarter and take all the papers out of the box which he hawks on the street corner to commuters. Did it every morning for the week we were there. I used to ride out of Bn. 18 in the S, Bronx, 925 E. Tremont St., during the 70's and 80's every year when we went to NJ to the OMC mechanic's school. The member's cars were kept in a locked lot at the rear of the station where we would put our 197? Ford Torino station wagon my part time boss gave us to use that had seen better days. Got up one morning to see a note on the chalk board that the cars had been hit overnight (again according to the note). Went to check on our car and it was the only unmolested one on the lot. I guess it was too raggedy even for the S. Bronx thieves.

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/5929904402.html

Condolences to the family.

Didn't the military run a bunch of those? You might find one at a government auction.

Looks great. Isn't it fun to take them out for occasions like that? I have a friend who takes his 29 ALF out to Starbucks every week end with his wife. It breaks, he fixes it, but as he says I didn't put all that work into it so it could sit in the garage.

Sorry for your loss.

Merry Christmas to all.

Beautiful. That picture says a lot about the (lack of?) weight concerns back in the day. I bet the plow frame alone tips close to 1K pounds.

That is always the issue. A fire is a slight probability, spending money is an absolute certainty. But in your case it makes absolute economic sense to at least explore the options especially since you are re-doing the water system. Most of the cost of a water system is to provide fire protection and if you can mitigate that by automating protection it should lower your costs. In our case we lowered fire flow requirements by upwards of 80% if sprinklers were installed. Given the long response time, and my guess is inadequate staffing, of the responding department, I would at the very least encourage the individuals to install some type of monitored detection system. If the structures are old they are probably balloon framed and any fire that gets a hold of the structure will almost always result in a total loss. My sales pitch is that a burglar may steal some things, but a fire takes everything.

Does your state offer grants to help with the day to day costs of running a FD? In VA we have a program that returns a small tax on home owner's fire insurance policies to the locality based on population, not need. If I had a jurisdiction with only 20 structures I'd figure a way to put fire sprinklers in all of them and not worry about providing a FD that was capable of responding to a structural fire call. A small brush truck would probably be sufficient. Sprinklers would be more efficient, lower insurance costs for all, and provide complete life safety for all building occupants.

I think most of us are lucky enough to stumble into a career we like. Picking what you want to do at age 18 rarely works out. That is why engineers end up driving trucks and welders end up in engineering school.

20 on Friday; 67 yesterday; 29 this morning.

OW! I hope you are feeling better.

A good friend's wife and daughters surprised him with a 1929 ALF fire truck for Christmas that had been saved from a scrap yard. To say it was rusty is being kind, but he went from VA to NJ with a way too small trailer to get it and drag it home. He spent the next six years restoring the truck and it is beautiful.

Not to be elitist, but it takes a certain amount of intelligence to do the skilled jobs we are talking about. Unfortunately a person with the smarts to do this work is also smart enough to do a cleaner job such as computer systems or electronic repair. I firmly believe that is why it is so hard to find young people who want to do these kind of jobs. Their work ethic is the same as our generation, and every generation before, but they have moved up to a less physically demanding job that has a better future. My youngest is in computer security. No college degree, makes north of 100K, and is constantly being recruited to join other companies. He is the 21st century version of what my Dad was; a skilled mechanic who can diagnose a problem and then go fix it. Dad did it on machines that made clocks, son does it on machines that communicate to the world. Dad got greasy and worked on a factory floor, son works in an air conditioned office. Why would he go to work on a factory floor to make the same money? There are skilled young people out there doing these types of jobs, but only because it is a true "calling" for most of them. Every generation faces a changing work place. I'm sure there were a lot of older gents sitting around a wood stove at the local country store in the early 1900's bemoaning the fact that their kids were leaving the farm to go to work in a factory. The kids thoughts were why should I get up twice a night to milk cows when I can work 8 hours , get a steady check, and enjoy life. No different today. I do hate the fact that "education inflation" has crept into the work place. A job that used to require a GED now requires a 4 year degree, even though the job has not changed at all. The kid gets stuck paying for an education that never returns a better salary than what a high school diploma returned in my generation.

I like trucks because the of the folks who are around the hobby. Unlike many antique car folks they don't care if it is a 100 point restoration that includes using the "proper" hose clamps and the right number of stitches per inch in the upholstery. All they care is that you are saving a piece of history for the next generation to enjoy. If you can afford to have it done, go for it. If it weren't for people like Matt Pfahl getting paid to do restorations I might not be able to locate parts for my DIY projects from him. I'm glad someone is supporting his shop and the pay checks that go with it. I'll never resent a check book restoration and I'm glad the projects they are paying for are being saved. Plus it gives me something to strive for when I do one. If you watch the TV auctions there are many car projects that sell for far less than the cost of the restoration. If you go into the antique vehicle restoration hobby to make money you are probably going to lose big time. The only folks who consistently make a profit are the shops like Matts that do it for a living. And they are not buying and selling on a vehicle, but are paid for the actual labor involved. My rule of thumb is a total restoration will generally sell for about 30% of the restoration cost unless the vehicle is very rare. That is why it always smart to buy the very best vehicle you can find instead of buying a cheaper alternative that needs a lot of work.

That is very cool. Nice save. In addition to all of the great help and information you will get from this site you need to send the chassis number to the Mack Museum along with a suitable donation. They will send you any and all information they have about your truck including who the first purchaser was as well as an owner's manual and other technical information about the truck. http://www.macktruckshistoricalmuseum.org/

There will come a time where it will be cheaper and faster to just replace panels, or entire assemblies, than it will be to repair them. Particularly in a fleet environment where the assemblies can be pre-painted to match the standard colors. Another option will be to have the local shop replace an entire assembly and then send the damaged assembly to a centralized repair facility where it will be more economical to have specialized tools such as presses to do the repairs.

A piece of poster board works great for masking the wheels as well.