Joseph Cummings

I bought a big Vac truck off of Occidental chemical one time that was like 15 years old with 5000 miles on it. Never even titled, but a ton of hours on it running the pump. I don't think that is all that unusual in this application

Yeah, these were all 13 double overs with two speed rears. Easier on the driveline, and easier on the frame and engine/transmission mounts. None of that driver's side steering tire coming off the ground on a hard pull.

eah I saw that late last night and thought Oh God. Lots more info needed. Not to mention, that 18 speed Eaton better be cheap or free

Looks good to me. That is about where I like to buy them, usually a little more than 10 years old. They get cheap, all the problems are known, enough of them in the salvage yards, plenty of aftermarket parts too. Not to mention there is no need to insure them other than liability. Sure a few thousand if they are a total loss sucks to lose, but it's not going to ruin you financially. A new F250 cost almost as much as I paid for my garage and property in 2015. That's crazy. The auto makers have gone nuts. I don't even want a touch screen and an infotainment system. Hell my buddy has a model A Ford that he uses a lot for running around town. It's a little tight for us because we are both big guys, but other than that I could use it for a daily driver. Convert it to 12 V neg ground so I could have a radio and modern lights and I'm fine

Even if it was real, I wouldn't be able to afford it. The last time I could afford a new pickup, it was about $7,500

That is your typical owner operator steel hauler pulling coils out of The USS Fairless Works in the 1970's. They would all be leased to Tryon, Cannon, Pyle Transport etc. There were guys running with the tag from their pickup truck, regrooved recaps, home heating oil for fuel, hissing air leaks, trucks that had to be parked on a hill so they could start them from a roll, coolers full of beer in the cab,. I remember an older guy from my neighborhood driving for my buddy's father got to the gate at the mill, and opened the passenger door and it fell off and smashed his toe. And my buddy's dad blamed him for "Opening the door wrong". They got in a fight and didn't talk for years lol

Hazleton Pa, in a 9,000 plus square foot garage on 3 acres. It was one of the maintenance shops for a local mining operator.

If you look at the picture of the LF dump, you can see John's single axle Brockway wrecker. I believe it is a 1946. John towed with that truck all the way up until the late 1990's pretty regularly. The last time I saw him use it, I helped him hook up a ford L9000 beside Eugene's shop on East Tioga, and I had to help him get up in the cab of the Brockway. And off he went to Allentown to drop it off. No Idea how he got it dropped there maybe somebody helped him. Last I talked to Stevie (his grandson) he still had that and the Green KW T600 John bought new

How about John Griffin from this place on Masher street. He had all the Brockways. I used to keep in tough with his grandson Stevie, but I think It's been like 10 years since I've talked to him

No Eugene ended up with it, But after he died in March of 2015 everything turned into a cluster F, then his wife died and I lost track of everything. Did you know Eugene

It's like heaven, if heaven had anthracite mines and breakers

The LT might bring some money. The little L cab needs a bit of work. The 281 single axle wrecker is interesting, but no under reach and the wrecker is kind of light and no serious winching capacity, so that is just a toy too. It's not like you could put it to work. Other than the LT I don't see anything bringing five figures

When you open them up that big there are a lot of structural considerations. Probably be fine if you are building a trailer queen show truck, But if you put it to work you better have added some structural reinforcements or else that cab is going to crack starting with the upper rear corners of the door frame and getting worse. Have you ever seen an R Model that has been run with the bar between the steering axle's spring hangers that everyone thinks is just to hold up battery cables and the fuel crossover, missing or loose? It'll break the cab up just like that. And believe me, that is a hard fix

It's a small cam Cummins, and most likely a RTO95****** trans that is only rated for a 900 foot pound engine. Maybe it's got a 2 countershaft Spicer 4 way in it if you are lucky like a 1241 and you can run a 9 speed in front of it

I don't know if you guys remember Tom Zacney. The LF below was his before he died. He had a really big collection of Macks, all kinds of stuff When Tom died he had a lot of cool trucks, Heavy spec L cab stuff and all kinds of things. All kinds of conditions, lots of them ran and drove. All the collectors that wanted them so bad wanted to pay less than scrap value. So much of it ended up going over the scale at Allegheny Iron. From my experience most collectors talk a great story, but never come with the cash. They want you to hold on to stuff while they think about it, and talk BS

I've mounted tubeless tires with the ether and run them until I wore them out, then sent them to be capped, and ran them God knows how long, and never had a problem. Sure I'd rather have a tank blaster, but sometimes you got to work with what you got. I usually hear BS about doing it from the same kind of guy that will tell you that recaps on the steering axle are illegal

I've done the starting fluid thing many times. I never saw it damage the tire. I've even used a piece of mudflap or a McCall's magazine for a boot in a tube type a few times. I'm not sitting on the road dead waiting to be preyed upon by some vulture or some idiot that turns everything into a project. I wouldn't let a Loves, a Flying J, a Pilot or any other chain store mechanic touch anything. Those places only hire idiots

I'd go 5 or 6 thousand

I started with guys with guys who were bootleg coal haulers during the depression. They carried a vulcanizing clamp thing that burned gasoline to patch their own tubes. They broke the tires down themselves by running another truck over it to break the bead. If they tore a large hole in a tire they would put a magazine inside the tire to cover the hole and use another tube. I don't think I'd want your average driver today to even change his own tire

Now they have this thing called "HR". It's a "Make Work" program for women with worthless college degrees. It's their job to make sure all that stuff like diplomas and forms for stuff like selecting your gender and pronouns, and a million other checks and background searches are done. They make sure that whoever you are looking to hire is eliminated before the first interview. That way the guy who is in charge of actually getting anything things done never gets to meet a skilled applicant. This assures you will only be getting welders who can't strike an arc, machinists who look at a drill press like it's something from Mars, and mechanics who can't jump start a truck even though they are wearing a full arc flash suit.

These crazy Czechs and their Tatras