rsb502

With a 5tn crane id pull the body and use the time the cylinders were out to give the body a good once over for cracks and such, maybe even paint!

HA!, I'm glad I'm not drinking anymore I was a moron when I was drinking. I would have drank that beer from its little spandex holder, actually I probably still would.

Multi stage cyliners are a pain, I take em to a hydraulic shop it's worth the money. Oh and if it starts leaking again you can take it back, if you do it its your baby, and all your wasted money and time.

Same cab height, same front mount, different rear mount and straps, the right side step tank in the US is the same as the right side step tank everywhere else to my knowledge.

Yeah, I agree! Wait, what?

Sounds like a pretty routine day for an owner operator to me. All but the helpful trooper, happy thankful receivers and the quick repair at the tire shop. Actually come to think of it that sounds more like 2 average days for an owner operator in a parallel dimension!

That misalignment is a pretty good sign the spiders are worn out, Id swap it to budd style wheels are mentioned above, any truck and trailer junk yard should have the hubs you need. I helped a guy swap a trailer over several years ago when I worked at Howard Baer and he just bought an old storage trailer with budd wheels and we pulled the slider out from under it and swapped the hubs then scrapped everything else, it paid for the swap and from then ontire and brake jobs are so much easier, you can get aluminum wheels and drop abour 400# off your trailer weight too.

A quick hook up at your local dealer and they can reprogram your idle settings to whatever you want, most are set to defeat shut down with the cruise switches but you can also make it shut down from there as martell's truck apparently does.

Sounds to me like the hubs are worn out, saw a similar issue a few years ago on a dump truck. After we did some measuring and compared a new spider to the old they were toast. You could tighten em all you wanted but the hub was so worn out the clamp load was uneven so they wouldn't stay put.

Floats for sure with what you are describing, you'll lose your front axle weight capacity, I'm thinking around 16,000 for an 11R. Then the tires will wear two to three times as fast since they are maxed out or over weight, then the off road issue of digging in and its just not worth it. Not to mention doubling your tire cutting,puncturing worries since you now have nearly twice the psi on your steer tires.

Just think of all the surplus Mack RM's soon to be available, wonder what it would cost to import one?

I don't know who they're gonna get to go out there after the first, that pretty much kills it for most owner ops. The rates to and from CA will definitely go up when they can't get anybody to go.

Gator Bite all the way, since I moved into my new to me house I have become familiar with plumbing, I keep a stick of copper and several gator bite push lock fittings in the house now.

I haven't ever run many of the smaller dozers mainly D4, D5, D6, and Deere/Case equivalent. I think my favorite so far would be a Deere 700j very well balanced machine with enough blade speed and finesse for finish work, but plenty of power for moving lots of material.

For all those that think steam is just for the real railroads look up "live steam" on YouTube, there are a few live steam railroads close to me it is crazy the engineering that goes into some of them.

J, I had Mack B's all over that layout, a couple disappeared and the club was changing their ways so I loaded up three boxes of trucks, trailers and rail cars and headed out. I only took the flat cars I could use in a newer era and it took three boxes. I left several coal hoppers and 40-50' flat and box cars there and had them change the ownership in the roster to a young kid that had been helping out. I really enjoyed the time I spent there building that layout and spent ridiculous amounts of my money on track and cork roadbed. As it happens most places when things become a "club" operation and there is an inner "click" in charge others are outcast or leave in anger like me.

Far as Model Railroading goes, I used to be pretty into it but about a year after I started with CSX the thrill was gone, I helped build a very large Model Railroad in Nolensville TN, attatched link, and there are some videos of my model railroad stuff on my youtube channel. I built a working coal flood loader using a Walthers flood loader kit and a radio control servo driver and two servos, the chute actually goes up and down and opens and closes to load the train, never finished it though. http://laslrailroad.net/ http://www.youtube.com/user/502nuts/videos

I'm not gonna say that I'm not motivated by a love of embarrassing Paccar products on hills, cause I do love it so.

Of course I call their excavators Yellotachi's, it fits and makes people wonder what the hell I'm talking about so I like it.

I get my kits for Deere equipment from Nortrax in LaVergne TN and they are consistently 20+% cheaper than ordering them thru James River Equipment which is the CSX preferred dealer.

Just, damn, lol

Ha I saw those they are kinda cruddy but Id try em, they just arent at the wide point, round here they want flags on the edge of the blade (widest point) and an oversize sign on the rear. Its actually gotten kinda ridiculous so say friends that are still hauling heavy and oversize, makes me wonder why I would want a lowboy trailer for the Superliner but I do.

Paul all the drivers are flanged, I have a ton of HO scale trains but I've almost lost interest since I work for the railroad.

Yep awesome locos, the drivers on the big boys are 68", dont remember the loco weight but loco and tender was 1,250,000, not light by any means, the key to the big boy was the then amazing 135,000lb tractive effort to get the train rolling. The 4-3-3-4 you speak of was the Challenger type 4-6-6-4, they were built for fast freight and occasional passenger service and did a heck of a job, they were light enough to be used all over the UP system where the Big Boys were not. The challengers fell just short of the 100,000lb tractive effort mark but had the speed to make them useful in fast freight service where the Big Boys were more suited to climbing mountains with lots of tonnage. If you look at the locos of today its amazing how far they have come, 1 ES44AH makes 4400 hp from a V12 versus the older AC4400 and its V16 and over 186,000lb of tractive effort, they have high adhesion software and steerable trucks along with the ability of the locomotive to sense a wheel slip and ease power to one axle independantly which is why GE took the lead in the high tractive effort locomotive race from EMD. I cvould talk trains and trucks all night but I have to go work on a draw bridge in the morning so Ill type at ya later BMT.

Well its a great time for railroad history, UP is the oinly railroad to never retire steam, keeping 844 on the roster since its purchase, and being the only US railroad to take such an interest in its rich history. Norfolk Southern has taken a much greater interest in its heritage of late with the release of the 20 Heritage locomotives painted in the exact heritage road paint schemes, a few were actually painted twice to get them perfect. I wish CSX would take an interest in its history, I and many other employees have asked but we get the run around and the bottom line from the chief operating officer is "it doesnt make our investors any money". Now with the return of 4014 to UP they can get her back in steam for generations to see, it will be a several year project but it will get done with the UP (Steve Lee) team involved, add to that the 611 restoration looming on the horizon ( I sent in my donation did you) for use on NS lines in their 21 century steam program and it is easy to see railfans have a lot to be happy about. I remember riding an excursion on NS rails behind the 611 when I was a kid and just as soon as it is back in steam Ill do it again, oh and I may actually make the trip out west to see the 4014 on its inaugural run, word has it UP will be using all three Steam locos 844,3985,4014 for an upcoming anniversary celebration, that would be a sight to see all three at one place running on the Main line. If you look on YouTube there is a video of 3985 pulling a 143 car intermodal train all by its lonesome, yes UP will make them work for their keep if its on the way. I think there will be many more videos of Steam pulling big freight once the 4014 gets rebuilt to its former glory. Paul as far as a 5.5 mile freight, they might get it rolling on flat ground but any hill would kill it, if you watch CSX trains if they are running light we may have three locos but only one will be online unless its in the mountains, they run most Coal trains here with three locos, and the light move back has only the lead loco running, loaded all three are needed. With 110 coal cars and three locos your around 6500' of train I think, not even a mile and a half, our longest intermodals come in around 9,000-10,000' and require three 4400hp AC locos to maintain track speed and intermodal is a light duty for railroads comparatively they dont weigh squat. 1 intermodal well car and two loaded containers weighs around 140,000- 160,000#, one loaded rapid discharge coal car weighs 286,000#, its crazy the tonnage ionvolved if you add it up, just figure three GE ES44AH locos at 532,000 ea, then 150 coal cars at 286,000 ea. it gets ridicarus.