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Geoff Weeks

Pedigreed Bulldog
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Everything posted by Geoff Weeks

  1. The company I was leased to back in the day had some M-11's that pulled some fairly heavy loads. As far as longevity doing that, I can not speak to. Trucking has been a race to the bottom for a long time now. To succeed and prosper you need to keep a strong two eyes on the bottom line and looking "cool" doesn't even enter into it. I sat with a co worker when his nice "Pete stand up sleeper"was repossessed and drove him into bankrupsy. Take it from me, it is not a pleasant thing to watch. I never gave a damn what I looked like pulling Butte (Homestake) Parley's or any other hard pull, and didn't give a hoot to how fast. Your posts seam to have a lot to do with "how it looks", too many have lost it all putting looks above function. I likely looked like "Fred Sanford" when my 6-71 powered Fleetstar was working a train de-rail and I had a 80' stretch trailer and damaged rail car on. It was summer and hot, and that 6-71 was screaming and dumping heat into the small cab. You know what? I got paid the same as the others with K900 and Large car Petes. I could take that old Fleetstar down the right of way and not worry about messing it up. The roof on the Fleetstar is about at the same height as the top of the steering wheel on my Marmon, I could take that old truck anywhere in Chicago and clear the low bridges. Function over form. If you have a solid "horse" under you, and bunch of solid dependable freight, then you can worry about "bling" and what your ride looks like. Back in the mid 90's I was pulling a boiler from greater Chicago to Ft Saskatchewan, AB. 315hp and a 9 spd grossing 118K. Yeah it was a long slow trip and I got razzed a bit climbing Butte, but the razzing was shut down in a hurry when I told them the pay/mile! That trip paid for a 13spd upgrade, and a few more like it paid for 400+hp. I WANT you to succeed, but to do so, you are going to need a shift in priorities.
  2. One last thing, HP is not king! Everything I did was done with less than 440hp, and moved stuff with a 238 Detroit on the low end. When I called it quits a few years ago, I had a 425 cat, and two Cummins that one left the factory at 315 and was at that time putting out around 400, and another that left the factory at 400 and was putting out around 425. That made me among the lower end of the modern "fleet spec" of 2020, never bothered me a bit!
  3. Made my living with 30-40 year old cabovers, a city tractor (Fleetstar) and a Marmon conventional. Times have changed as 67Rmodel has said. Camelback itself wouldn't concern me in the slightest, the 5 speed would for the reasons mentioned. When I started, trucks pulled hills on the interstate at 25-35 mpg, the fleet trucks closer to 25, the O/O's closer to 35. Those days are gone! Truck suspensions are NEVER going to ride like a car, no matter what someone claims. Ride comfort has a lot more to do with loading of the trailer that how the truck is sprung. Wheelbase also plays a roll, longer wheelbase the better it will ride. I had (still in my barn) a short wheelbase Hendrickson beam tractor (about the equivalent of a camelback), and properly loaded it was fine and didn't even have an airride seat! Put a ton of miles in a 4 spring cabover, and it too road just fine. Time to SLOW DOWN and weigh your choices carefully. As you now know, just keeping your insurance paid for and your paperwork up to date, as a carrier, saps most of your time and money. Jumping around, be it trucks or type of hauling or (for a company driver) employers, looking for the magic combo that put you in the clover, is only going to drain your bank account and break you. As far as 70+ MPH, I almost never went that fast, 65, 68 yeah, but even there speed drinks fuel (your 2nd big expense). People paid me to get their stuff there safely and in reasonable time, the difference between 65 and 75-80 isn't enough time to even talk about, the fuel will more than eat up any "bonus" you get from being there 1st. Cabovers went away in North America when there ceased being a need for short cabs (when overall length laws went away). A whole lot of the used cabovers were exported to other parts of the world where they are still in demand. I was approached a few times at truckstops by people wanting to buy and export. My advice as someone who "drove that road" is decide what type of hauling your LLC is going to concentrate on and look for a truck that meets that requirement well. Next best to to look for a truck that can do many things but is not so specialized. The key is to make a good decision in the 1st place and stick to it until/unless something changes radically in that sector of work. I my trucks were generallests, they weren't spec'd for one job but did most open deck work. That included heavy-haul up to 170k. While I could have been better off with a heavier spec'd truck in the heavy haul market, when there was a downturn, a heavy spec truck couldn't carry enough "general freight" to make money. Lastly, your loyalty should be to your LLC not the brand truck you drive. "back in the day" there were no truely terrible trucks, and the ones that were "not so good" didn't last. Today it can be argued that none are really good, and you make the best of what is available. Also insurance companies and some brokers, may balk at an older truck. I had to fight with one insurance company over having a '73 on the policy. None of my equipment was new enough to have to have E-logs, ABS, or even auto slacks, but I had little problem with DOT insp, other than the time they took on the side of the road. What problems I did have had nothing to do with the age of the equipment, things like a marker light that worked in the morning but quit before I got back home. No big deal. I ran this equipment until retirement after Covid (2020's).
  4. 1st, make sure the tires and rims are on with minimum run-out. Use a trammel bar and scribe to mark each tire at as near the center as possible at the highest point you can across the front or the tire, and take the measurement, or lock the trammel bar and the rotate to the back and check the difference. you can use anything to mark the tire, but the smaller the mark the more accuracy in the measurement. No difference for disk or spokes.
  5. I would keep and eye out at truck junkyards for good used. I can think of better uses for a grand than a bumper. Remember, a bumper can be replaced at any time in the future, so no rush.
  6. I don't see Toot's complaining, she is changing them if bare feet!
  7. Only time my spokes got noticed by the DOT was at the Echo POE in UT when the inspector wanted to show a trainee what spokes looked like. I had "baby moons" and nut covers. Never even wanted to see my paperwork. Explained to the trainee, he might come across these, then sent me on my way! That "shiny truck" myth has never seemed to pan out in my book. If the truck looks cared for, but a working truck, that is all they care about. If you all that time to shine wheels, are you spending time and money where it counts?
  8. No disagreement from me on that! Late 70's to early 90's was the hayday for equipment. Designs of components had progressed to the point the chassie's could go over 1mil before major work and were strong enough for anything you wanted to hook to, while still being simple to repair. Cabs were aluminum, and while plastic was used for dashes were still fair durable. Modern stuff has a slight advantage on fuel consumption, but fail in just about every other respect.
  9. I had to do one that lost #5 crankpin. Took out the rod (hot) and #5 piston. (855 Cummins) Once the damage assessment was done, a used engine was dropped in, ($2500 IIRC) and the truck back out on the road. Original engine had rear head pulled, new piston and rod, then flipped over and a re-ground (.010/.010) installed (about $750 IIRC). The engine was then installed back in the truck and run to 1.3mil on the original build (not counting the new crank) and then out of framed and re-installed in another truck. $2500 was the cheapest and quickest way to get back on the road, that used engine is still in my shop "core" pile and is complete. (also listed for sale on this site) I did call around for an in-chassie crank grind, but in both time and money, a used engine was faster and cheaper. IIRC it would have taken -.030 or .060 undersize on that pin as well, not a good bet. So don't lecture me about time and contracts, I know all about it. Not only did it speed things up, I had a complete set of cores/parts to continue on with.
  10. If you think about the in-chassie crankshaft grinding, it is a band-aid repair, and the real problem will have to addressed at some point. When a rod journal goes, often the main that feeds it also is part of the problem. Doing 6 rods and 7 mains in chassie is not cost effective. I'm not saying it doesn't have a place. An antique truck that isn't going to be working year in year out, can be given a 2nd life for minimal cost. I have knurled many valve guides myself with excellent results, but also know the life-span of the repair is not the same as a new guide. Labor costs "back in the day" were a tiny fraction of labor costs today, that is both good and bad. I don't want to be slaving away for $5.00 or $6.00/hr grinding crankshafts from below on a dirt floor. I don't want to get into an "in frame" to find all different under-sized bearing either.
  11. While true, it is also true bearings lasted around 100-200K vs 1mil today or even more today. So likely needed regrinding more often than today's engines. Be careful about being nostalgic about a past that didn't exist. I'd prefer inframes that last 1mil+ miles over getting the truck "back out of the shop quickly" every 100-200K miles.
  12. Oversize shoes, and drums went away when max drum diameter became law. This was done for good reasons. Hot spots on the cast drum reduces the coefficient of friction. New drums "bite" much better than drums on their 2nd set of shoes. sometimes the old ways go away for good reason.
  13. I did it that way up to about 6 years ago, but around that time I realize I would pay for it later (I am now) I guess a slow learner in that regard. Get it close to position, hang on the rear bearing and adjust stance and finish the job. With tires on the winch truck made short work of it. Single line with the lift point high, allows for lots of adjustment with little force from me.
  14. If you pull the wheels you can get in further and closer to the balance point. It depends on the engine crane how wide the front legs are, how far in you can get. when I had my gin pole truck out and was doing other stuff with it, I have used it also, but never went to get it just to pull a hub.
  15. If I put everything away, I'd never know where to find it!
  16. Jack the wheel up, wrap a 2" strap around the spacer band and hook to your engine hoist, slide them off and back on. No red neck required.
  17. I've seen a school bus chassie turned into large fork truck! With rear and side access, I bet it worked well as a yard goat.
  18. Years ago when I was looking for a domestic source for a British Bus clutch, I remember coming across a Mack 17" clutch of some kind, close but not a match. The Bus clutch was very similar to the one pictured above, but the disk was between 11/16th and 3/4" thick. The cover plate "fingers" had square "adjustment blocks on them giving 4 settings and the throw out had 2 sets of pockets for the levers to ride in, allowing a long service life before the clutch needed to be pulled. Had to put one in down in Tulsa, Ok, the cover wasn't correct ( I wasn't involved in getting it) and had to change the pressure plate and springs to the old cover in the field before installing it.
  19. Not very popular, and they didn't do all that well. They had one fewer headbolts, with predictable results. Worked better in a AG equipment. The Ag engines set the main bearing bore lower in the block (rather than raise the deck height, they lowered the crank) to allow longer throw. The 301 was made in both gas and diesel, but the lower crank meant the bell had to be different then the automotive engine bell. It was also made in 282 cid (shorter throw) engine that only was used in AG.
  20. IHC made their small six in diesel form and put it in a few pick-ups (D301) and a lot of Ag equipment. Palmer used it in marine. GM had the Toro-Flow (Toilet bowl) V engines made in both gas and diesel. Many larger Cat and Cummins were made in spark ign versions for NG/LP. The 855 was produced in a spark ign (Rio Grande) version. M.A.N made a spark ign version of their diesels. Worked on some of the big Cat (stationary generators and M.A.N's (city buses). Far more common than many realize. Of course Mack did similarly.
  21. Timken, Mack and White all made double reduction, front hung diff's. They all look somewhat similar. IHC used the Timken U models but listed them under their "own numbers". Timken also made "top loader" versions of the same axles.
  22. I know nothing about White Motor Corp axles, and can find little info on them. I know they made their own, as did IHC and Mack. IHC axles were made under contract by Spicer to IHC design. I don't know if White did the same with Timken or not. I see many similarities, with the Timken design but also some differences.
  23. Sure looks like I have "egg on my face", I see White in the casting.
  24. Also resembles a Mack CRD 117, and that would not be the 1st time I have been fooled, but it doesn't look like a retro-fit, esp with that air brake bracket
  25. They were made in 1 and 2 caliper brakes on a single disk. They were good, but very soon after spring brakes were mandated, and the Tru-stop was history..
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