BillyT

As I have mentioned in my previous rants not one power tool in Home Depot or Lowe's is made in America including iconic brands like Milwaukee everything in "China Freight" is foreign made! Why do you think their main location is in Camarillo Ca? Cheap labor, and cheap shipping from China! I agree with FXFYM on many points, but the whole situation is too complicated for even formally educated folks to totally comprehend! I have found several products that are American made,but you have to look for them garden hoses for whatever reason are mostly US made! Harper hand trucks are made here! Why they don't put big made in USA logos on their stuff puzzles me! Also,Milwaukee,hides the made in China markings on their tools,obviously trying to milk their previous image! They sure haven't lowered their prices! They say "engineered in America, made in China?" Are they ashamed?They should be! I also noticed they have come out with some cheaply made grinders and drills!,unlike their notoriously heavy older tools!

KSB, how predictable that the media would demonize well maintained road trains with qualified drivers, when I'd bet the majority of them can't drive a standard shift! I'll bet they love the autonomous trucks! Let them ask an autonomous truck to help them with a flat tire or breakdown in some remote location!

That's a pretty amusing " trailer" I find the whole Clinton "dynasty" and President Trump equally deplorable in different ways, we'll just have to see what happens! I kinda liked Laura and George Ws way of dealing with the last election! I am somewhat offended by the use of a bearded Dragon (without his consent to boot!) In the same trailer as Hillary! As they are one of the most pleasant creatures on earth!

My mom admired Dr Spocks "methods" my dad didn't! I only got spanked twice, and I richly deserved it! I never had to spank one of our kids, the high school dropout is a bank vice president, and the one with a degree from Wake Forest,is a yacht builder and cabinet maker, football paid for that degree, thank goodness😁 If I was paying he'd have gone to community college! I just missed that whole "hippie" thing was 35 before I smoked my first "joint" decided to stick to Iron City! I agree with gray hair,you can't stereotype anybody !

OD where'd you load in the "burg"? The onions made me think to ask you flatbedders to relate the worst or "slipperyest" loads you've ever hauled! I've got three! I loaded plastic pipe in coils next to the old TA in Knoxville Tn going to upstate New York, tied it down with crossed 2" straps about every hundred mile, I had to retie the whole load!,was rolled vertically on the wagon! The first time I hauled bundles of plastic pvc pipe nobody told me you have to tie down each bundle separately! They were double stacked so naturally about an hour down the road they were about a foot off to one side! So I talked a dude in a dry van to back up against them and push them back into place! Then I threaded the straps between the lower and upper bundles to tie down the lower bundles! My partner and I picked up a load of used foodservice equipment in the central valley going to somewhere in Indiana,was all raggedy stainless steel,of course it had to be tarped! We spent about a half hour taping cardboard around the sharp edges! When we got to the receiver our three month old tarps were in shreds!😁 Got one more, but this one's scary! When I was hauling steel, I picked up a 35000' single coil in Homestead Pa going to Indianapolis. The rule of thumb, is one chain for every 10000' My chains were welded to the trailer so I could only reach the coil with three! So I reluctantly tarped it and went to leave and saw a loose chain under the seat that I had forgotten! What to do? Well I untarped and put the 4th chain over the top! This was before nylon straps! 1974, so the next morning I'm going thru Columbus Oh on I 70 in rush hour, and some stroke pulls out in front of me and I had to " lock it up!" I felt something move and looked in the mirror and that tarp looked awfully tight! So I pulled in a rest area and one of the cross chains had broken and the coil slid almost two feet forward and was sitting crooked! I believe that 4th chain saved my life!

Don't even know where to start! Will say that our members have ( as usual) nailed the real situation of freight in general truck, rail, and water! In the last year Tampa bay overhauled its infrastructure to accommodate the largest containers and cruise ship traffic! And guess where the enormous multimillion dollar cranes were built?! China of course! It's a win win for them! They build the cranes that accommodate their larger container ships that bring us the products that their exploited workers build for subsistanence wages! That we used to build here! Admittedly, there are products that don't require skilled labor to produce,toys assorted widgets ,but cranes!? I personally don't think exploited workers put the pride in workmanship that properly compensated workers do! FXFYMN mentioned automation, where are the robots and assorted machinery that make that possible built? It's ironic that I can recall bitching about products made in Japan! Ingersoll rand,air tools went offshore in the 70s! Power tools previously made in Japan,Germany, and Sweden are all now made in China! So they're stealing jobs all over the world! Sorry, I've gone of on one of my anachronistic rants! I'm gonna google Bucyrus Erie and see if they are still building cranes in Galion Oh, where I used to deliver!

A fellow I know bought a Hino hotshot tractor, his dad worked for GM s Packard Electric div. In Warren Ohio,and dad forced the son to replace the Hino badges with GMC ones so he could park it in their driveway! I'm not surprised that Isuzu avoided the deadly 26000 gvw rating by 50 lbs LoL

Marcel,I almost forgot about the "critical" measurement between the mudflap and the ground! Potentially fatal if too low or too high!😁 You may have read about Florida being short of troopers (over 200) Due to the lowest starting pay in the nation 33000.oo so DOT officers may be in short supply! Are your plants inspected by any agency? Don't know if you are old enough to remember "Waldo Willy" or the "Silver Bullet" were two local cops on 301 north of Ocala, the originals retired years ago but their replacements kept the nicknames! The "Silver Bullet" according to triple A wrote more tickets than any cop in Florida,or possibly in America! And his little town only had 90 ft of frontage on 301! "Waldo Willy" was actually replaced by a lady officer in the 90s! I called her "Waldo Willamena"

UD,what a crock of s...t! UPS is what they say they are "the tightest ship in the shipping industry!" Anything the " fed" touches they screw up! It reminds me of the years of nonsense preceding the initiation of the cdl! Only ten times worse! I've heard UPS is tough to work for, but if they ran America we'd save billions!

I predict the new regs will assure that 2000 and earlier model trucks will be kept in serviceable condition until the frames literally disintegrate from metal fatigue lol! Perhaps a new era for " glider kits"😁 Keith, they did it for Penn Central r.r for years!

KSB,have you ever read Dennisons Ice Road? I found it maybe 30 yrs ago when our library was selling old volumes! Fascinating! Tells the story of the first person to build a regular series of roads and a trucking company to service the mines and small villages above the Arctic Circle Dennison was an engineer and retired mountie. Had photos of the old KWs and Macks of the 40s and 50s he used! There are literally dozens of trucks and heavy equipment that went thru the ice and were lost and drivers too tragically! I lost the book in a flood,sadly,but it is still available. The Scania article reminded me of it! My daughter's best friend is Finnish, and her grandparents live in the UP of Michigan where many Finns live they grow all their own food very hardy people!

How about "no tire kickers" Tires are so old if you kicked them they'd blow out!

I've always said it must be very lucrative to be a tire man in Michigan!.....or a road builder!😁

Identical to my 1939 wrecker, mine had 17" Daytons but I think 20s were an option. Hercules flathead, four speed Clark. That should have the engine turned dash with the green striped gauges resembled an Auburn dash! My dad bought it with a burnt out cab (thanks to the west wind gasoline heater) Was a pittsburgh press truck and the driver put a bundle of newspapers next to the heater! It originally had a thin chrome bumper and those hooded arrow turn signals, but on top of the fenders. Model 201 I think. Beautiful restoration,Brocky!

OD, it's a shame you have to pay for all that fat!, but glad it was tasty! I've been thru all that "has to be tarped b.s." You pick it up in the mud outside, and the receiver puts it in the mud outside! Since they're not the ones tarping it why not! We used to pick up galvanized coils at US Steel Irvin works in W.Mifflin Pa hadda' be tarped but often as not it got stored outside! You've probably been there! Remember when they used to call owner operators "brokers"? Appropriate right?😁

I predict the new regs will assure that 2000 and earlier model trucks will be kept in serviceable condition until the frames literally disintegrate from metal fatigue lol! Perhaps a new era for " glider kits"😁 Keith, they did it for Penn Central r.r for years!

Looks like an old Ford banjo axle,run off a pto? Like when the old time farmers would Jack up one wheel on their little tractor and run a sawmill,pump even a welder! Those old dudes could do anything! When my dad sold the salvage yard he was semi retired,so he and the local blacksmith built him a wrecker! Used a four speed truck tranny to control the winch! No clutch,just the tranny hooked to a pto,with a sprocket to the winch! It was a synchro tranny so you gently slipped it into gear and the winch would run!

Would someone enlighten me on the computer logs?Do the 99 and older trucks lack the electronics to support the computer logs? I'm seeing all these used truck ads on Craigslist that promote the fact that the truck doesn't require E logs! Similar to the "non CDL trucks under 26000 gvw " which enable corporate America to hire unqualified unsafe drivers for low wages! "What pre trip inspection" ?There is a cliche for every situation in life, the one that applies to older trucks suddenly becoming more valuable than newer ones is "it's an ill wind that blows nobody good!"

Many thoughts!, Teamster Grrrl, don't The UPS otr drivers get an hourly rate based on the miles/time of the run which is surgically planned from several test runs? I ask this because many years ago I was running with a couple of UPS doubles drivers and they said the best thing that ever happened to them was the lowering of the speed limit to 55 because their runs are based on the average time it would take to do the run legally! Paradoxically, the non union and mileage based drivers tend to hate the lower speed limit( California anyone?)

Yep, guys, WD40 is a good starting fluid! The propellant " lights" the engine and the lubricant prevents it from washing lubricant off the cylinder walls! However most of the newer starting ether claims to have lubricant! KSB, the best small engine I've owned was a two cylinder Wisconsin made by Teledyne! Was on a Hobart welder, but the Kohler has a good reputation! I've never had any small engine "puke" on me it's almost always the fuel system or electrical problems that puts them in the scrap heap!

Sorry about your loss 41, I guess the livestock will go to the renderers! One of the.last dairy farms in Hillsborough county Florida ( five generation operation) just moved to Ga! They were offered too much money to turn down! Now the pastures will be another housing development!

Remember the overhead sleeper freightliners? Allied van lines ran a few! All kind of innovation to beat those length laws! Couldn't legally sleep in one when running,but I'll bet a few did!, wouldn't get me in one while moving! 41, I had a load of insulation one time going to Caribou, Bradco I think, about 3am going up 95, I miss the turn on US 1, next thing I know the sign for 95 is a different color and it says entering Atlantic time zone,wtf, and it hits me, I'm in Canada! First time! So explain to the customs lady, she says " happens all the time!" So she lets me do a u turn and I come up on the American side he says "why wouldn't they let you into Canada?"so I have to explain again lol" years later it always seemed I was treated better going into Canada than coming back to the U.S.!