67RModel

Send @chillywilly a PM. Sounds like he would be very interested.

Yea the entire Homestead Works is all commercial retail and restaurants in a fancy development called "The Waterfront". They left the 12 smokestacks intact as kind of an art exhibit or tribute to the former mill and history of the area, which is kind of neat. Picture below. The Homestead Grays (aka Highlevel) Bridge can be seen in the background of the photo as a horizontal white line. You can see the road the photo was taken from goes up a ramp to intersect with the bridge. The Homestead works was famous for the Homestead Strike in 1892. I think it is probably one of the most famous labor strikes in US History. Several people were killed when management sent in strike breakers and a battle broke out. At the time it was owned by Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel, which eventually became US Steel. The Rivers of Steel Carie Furnace museum is on the opposite side of the river from the Homestead Works was and like in the case of J&L's Hot Metal Bridge, the molten iron was transported across the river via their own rail bridge to be made into steel. Did you ever load at US Steel Edgar Thompson, Irvin Works, or Duquesne Works? Like the Homestead Works, the Duquesne Works is long gone but ET and Irvin Works are still going good. You probably never loaded at ET as they make huge steel slabs or ingots from raw materials. I think they get transported by rail to Irvin to be reheated and rolled into coils or whatever else. My father-in-law worked his entire career at Edgar Thompson Works as a boilermaker and fabricator. From what he says he hated it. The heat was unbearable as he got older and the working conditions were terrible.

If I'm not mistaken the president of FASH was a local guy here in Pittsburgh by the name of Bill Hill. He got involved in government via then PA Governor Milton Schapp, who supposedly had a soft spot for truckers and the trucking industry. His obituary claims he was the one who got the 80,000 pound weight limit passed though congress. William J Hill Sr | Obituary | Devlin Funeral Home

OK you seem to be the guy to ask since you got/get to put your hands on all the new trucks as they are coming off the assembly line. I have wondered about this question for a long time now: Can you still get a Mack built today with spoke hubs? Have you seen one recently ordered and built with them? Thanks.

I guess while we're at it National Pike Steam, Gas, & Horse Association in Brownsville, PA is another one to see. Mostly antique vintage earthmoving equipment.

If you have interest in the Tod Engine then you also need to check out the Coolspring Power Museum. Their site and museum grounds are insane. They have a couple shows per year where most of them run. Their hallmark is a 600hp at 100rpm Snow engine that formerly ran a NG compressor station. The site is not far from Pittsburgh in rural Coolspring, PA. Coolspring Power Museum

Nice. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend you visit the Rivers of Steel, Carrie Furnace museum in Pittsburgh. I would highly recommend the Industrial Tour. It is a preserved blast furnace from the US Steel Homestead Works. Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark — Rivers of Steel

J&L's Aliquippa Works before and after. The before was about 1970 and an aerial photograph. The after is present day from Google Street view so the perspectives are slightly different but the high tension, high voltage, 4 legged power pole at the bottom center of the before photo, standing just behind the general office building is the same one pictured in the current photo in the middle of the frame. All the houses pictured at the top of the before photo are the village of West Aliquippa, and are out of frame in the current view just behind the trees seen in the distance behind the white factory building. That factory is a US Gypsum plant that makes drywall board. I think at its peak around 8,000 people worked there. Aliquippa, about 20 miles downriver of Pittsburgh, used to be a thriving, nice place to live. Now it is a literal slum. Honestly the entire town needs demolished. Very sad.

If I'm not mistaken YS&T was purchased by J&L. But that was after Black Monday and at that point J&L was already owned by LTV and a shell of its former self. J&L isn't as well known as say US Steel, but it was an absolute monster in the day and certainly was the most able bodied competition to US Steel in Pittsburgh. Below is a before and after of their blast furnaces of the Pittsburgh Works along 2nd Avenue with the downtown skyscrapers in the background. The before picture was taken probably in the 1950s because the US Steel Tower is not visible in the downtown skyline. It was completed in 1970. The after picture s from a slightly different angle but as it is today. Nothing but office buildings, "mixed use space" and parking garages. The Hot Metal Bridge can be seen in the after picture. Back in the day 1,000 tons a day of molten iron went across that bridge in ladle cars to the South Side Works on the opposite river bank to be converted into steel in open hearth furnaces. During WWII something like 20% of America's steel making capacity rolled across that bridge in the form of molten iron. Now it is only used for bicycles and pedestrian traffic as part of the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail. The third picture shows what the Hot Metal Bridge looks like now with the city downtown off in the distance. In some ways its very sad what happened here to all the mills but on the other hand Pittsburgh reinvented itself and actually a very beautiful and prosperous city now. It is a distinct exception to the typical rust belt city. It is very clean and the air isn't toxic anymore. Back in the day of the before photo no matter what time of day it was it appeared as if it was dusk outside due to pollution. If you wore white clothing outdoors for any length of time it would turn gray. I don't know. I guess there is good and bad to both scenarios.

I am of the opinion that it was set into place on July 22, 1944 when the Bretton Woods Agreement was executed and put into place. This was the catalyzing event that essentially created globalization as we know it. The US Dollar was set up as the world reserve currency and in return for that the US agreed to patrol and police the World's oceans with its Navy to ensure the safety and free flow of goods. This is one of the main reasons why we still have carrier groups and submarines still constantly deployed and patrolling many of the hostile waterways around the globe. The US Secretary of state at the time, Cordel Hull believed the main cause of both World Wars was economic discrimination and trade warfare. He is quote at that time was: "Unhampered trade dovetailed with peace; high tariffs, trade barriers, and unfair economic competition, with war … if we could get a freer flow of trade…freer in the sense of fewer discriminations and obstructions…so that one country would not be deadly jealous of another and the living standards of all countries might rise, thereby eliminating the economic dissatisfaction that breeds war, we might have a reasonable chance of lasting peace." Once globalization took hold and each country could specialize in whatever it was they excelled in and the writing was on the wall for the American worker and factories. No longer were American companies competing with domestic entities. They were competing with anyone in the world willing to work for less. International trade was streamlined by foreign countries currencies having defined convertibility to the US Dollar via the IMF and the terms of the Bretton Woods Agreement. Since the US was the only industrialized country still left standing and completely unscathed by the war the "golden years" of the 50s and early 60s happened as they did. This was probably the most abnormal economic situation in human history. To this day many people still lament these times and use it as a basis for "normal" or how things should have remained. Its hard to loose when your the only game in town. By the late 1960s and 1970s Europe was back on line and developing nations had pools of essentially free labor. By the 1990s American manufacturing was a shell of it former self and the US economy had all but transitioned to a service-based economy. all NAFTA did was put the final nail in that coffin. Although I don't disagree it wasn't a criminal piece of legislation, the seeds for American industrial capacity decline were planted 50 years before.

Yes tube type is not synonymous with bias ply. Tube type tires can be bias or radial. My guess is all tubeless tires at this point are radials. 24" tube type are still readily available but not common. As are 22" tube type but even less common. I just posed some links the other day to several 22" tube type tires that are available. MRF Chinese brand. Bridgestone still makes a 12.00-24 tube type radial. Its the model L317. its a beefy drive lug. Close to $1000 each.

Mrf Superlug - Heavy Duty 11.00-22 25181180, $356.24 | SpeedyTire 1100-22 MISC. HWY RIB USED - Truck Tires - St. Louis Wholesale Tire 11.00R22 16PR H Sumitomo ST508 | OTRUSA.COM

Please cite the program's official name, budget, and possibly a link if it is not the one I previously mentioned sponsored by the American Lamb Board. I think anyone with a moderate level of common sense and zero education in agronomy, botany, and/or marine biology if asked would tell you it is a bad idea to let domesticated livestock have continuous, free range access to unnamed tributaries and larger waterways. I don't think the federal government needs to be handing millions of dollars out to people to tell us what we already know. Moreover, I don't think the federal government should be funding private enterprises' expenses. If this is some type of hardship program as a response to a new regulation to quickly bring everyone in compliance then just pass the regulation and give each affected party no less than 7 years to figure out how to bring themselves into compliance. That way everyone would be operating under the same set of circumstances. The government paying to build all or even a part of your fence, but none of somebody else's fence is the government picking winners and losers and market manipulation at its finest. However, to me it sounds like some politician, lobbyist, or bureaucrat's "pork project" disguised as "research". Without knowing exactly what program we are talking about its hard to say so I will defer any further discussion on it. I can't remember if it was this thread or another but I noted that the US agriculture industry is the most regulated and manipulated industry in the land. The USDA has more regulations on the books than any other federal entity. The list is endless. The USDA subsidizes insolvent operations. The USDA subsidizes industrial scale farms owned by millionaires and literal billionaires to not farm their land. Hmmm. IMO The USDA has an image of what the American farm should look like and the small 150 acre or less "family farm" doesn't resemble that image. My guess is most New Deal agriculture programs and legislation had negative, unintended consequences. However, definitely since Earl Butz's leadership tenure the USDA has continuously advanced legislation, programs, and manipulative forces to make small farms uncompetitive. It has created a situation where the entire "private" industry is essentially a government run entity with major control by about 5 or 6 mega corporations. The "prop" handed out to these insolvent operations is treating the symptom. If the USDA truly cared about small operations and a robust agricultural supply chain they would treat the illness. I wonder why the federal government hasn't set up a US Department of Plumbing. If it did it could start printing and borrowing tons of money to pay plumbers to stay home and not do plumbing work. Additionally, they could create a litany of laws and regulations that allow no more than 10 mega corporations to control the whole industry such that the only way a self employed, sole proprietor can remain solvent is by receiving federal welfare. I am of the opinion that if the USDA and the government as a whole removed itself from farmer's private business and private industry along with all the laws and regulations it has created since at least 1971, there would be no need for any of the subsidies it hands out. Moreover, small operators wouldn't need subsidies to be competitive, the large industrialized, factory farms wouldn't have taken hold, or both. I, like you, grow much of my own food. I purchased a small farm of about 30 acres so my family and I could be more independent and not have to rely so heavily the conventional food supply chain. Never the less I'm not worried. Last I checked under the current arrangement of farming, American farmers can produce enough food for 140% of the American population.

24.5" is for tubeless tires. Those are a dime a dozen at any wrecker or truck salvage place. Check scrap yards too. A lot of trucks and trailers get scrapped with the wheels and tires still on them.

Would you recommend reading Catch-22? I have never read it but always wanted to. Never found the time yet....

Why would the federal government meddle in sheep fencing, presumably on private land, in Boyertown, PA? Was this part of the $5,000,000 earmarked for the American Lamb Board for "Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing"? Are you suggesting that without federal farm subsidies we will not be able to get food?

Just a quick thought....What is on the back of the truck? Any type of specialized body? depending on build date, a 2004 Granite is nearly 26 years old at this point. If its just a chassis then good/decent, inspected, and running examples are a dime a dozen at this point. Is this job even worth the money and effort? Obviously you already own a "new" engine so my question my be moot if you can't return it for a refund. Not being disrespectful but just looking at the big picture.

Sounds like he is asking about new rims not tires. Where would you even find new 24", dayton, tube type rims? Overseas perhaps. Going off Vlad's pics from his motorcycle trip through Iran they seem to still be quite common on new trucks. I doubt there is anything like that still produced in this country. Maybe though. As to what size to get I would say whatever you have now. I believe they came in 8 and 8.5" widths depending on hub length and spacer bands used. 3 Piece Tubetype Wheels & Rims - GMI Wheels They have demountables in 8" and 10" width and discs in 8", 8.5" and 10" widths. My guess is you have 8 or 8.5" inch wide rims. My B81 had 8.5" wide rims....

They announced back in November they would be launching a new "flagship" highway semi truck in 2025. Probably just a Volvo VNL with a different grill and a bulldog on the hood.

Pretty hard to beat an EFM 520. I never got into stokers but am familiar. It’s not uncommon to hear of ones running essentially nonstop for decades without fault. I’m pretty sure they still make them pretty much unchanged from the original design.

Are you still in business? How do you heat that sucker? I couldn't imagine heating 10,000 sft just to tinker with old trucks.

Thats what I mean. Its like all these contracts or debits are so ridiculous it seems fake. The only way it makes sense is if the politicians that signed off on this garbage are somehow connected to the foreign entities receiving the money. Laundering the taxpayers' money to line their own pockets. It would be nice if they published who or what company is the actual receiver of these monies.

I know there is concerns with the "legality" or involvement of Musk in the administration. I've heard him called a "co president" as well as the same unelected bureaucrat he seeks to eliminate. I personally have zero issue with the man. I just wish he would not use his privately owned X platform as the basis for DOGE's website. I don't know how X makes money. I'm guessing from advertising throughout peoples' feeds. Obviously Musk doesn't need the money and I don't believe he is doing this for profit but using X as a quasi government website is a blatant conflict of interest and low lying fruit for the opposition. Hopefully there is something in the works that doesn't involve X. That however is a catch 22. Creating a new government website to post government waste and inefficiencies on is indeed wasteful and inefficient 😁