What's with all the lights?

When I am driving at night, I enjoy watching the Xmas tree lights go by on the trucks....

.....so keep up the good work guys with the lights....helps keep me awake at night too.....

....I wish I had more lights on my truck!!!

 

Or maybe they just like lights. Or maybe they just like to tinker with wiring. Or maybe they like the way the truck THEY PAID FOR looks with all the lights. Or maybe they are proud of their ride. Or maybe, they just want to differentiate themselves from the big training companies.

Live, breathe, eat, and sleep trucking? So what's wrong with that if it's what they love to do. I've said before that I'd much rather share the road with a guy who loves what he does than a disgruntled steering wheel holder just doing a job and working the daily grind.

What's wrong with a guy who lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps his job? Why is trucking the only industry who gets a bad rap on that? Before I went blind and lost my medical certification to fly airplanes commercially, most of the guys who flew "lived it" and I still do, only now I can just fly as a private pilot. Pilots who "live it" are admired by their fellow pilots. I've seen guys sleep under the shade of a wing on an airport ramp waiting on their next freight flying assignment. They are said to have dedication to their job. They love doing it and they are proud of it.

Since I was old enough to remember, there's only two things in the world I ever wanted to do. FLy airplanes and drive trucks. I am one lucky guy, because I've made my living doing both, at times I was doing it simultaneously, driving trucks all day and flying freight all night. It was a really cool time in my life, although I doubt I could handle it now.

Do I live, eat, breathe, sleep trucking? I dunno, I'm on a trucking forum off duty. I washed my tractor today and waxed it in my yard. I love doing that. If you're going to own a truck and make the commitment to care for that truck and do the things required of you even when you're not driving it, I guess you kind of do need to "live it" somewhat. I don't see a problem with it.

I guess if everybody drove a vanilla company truck, checked their qual-com every hour for instructions, and totally forgot trucking on their off time, it'd be a pretty boring living...as far as I'm concerned. It's the guys who live and breathe it, both flying and trucking, who taught me how to do it. My paternal Grandpa lived it in trucking his whole life and my maternal Grandpa lived it flying bombers until becoming a test pilot after his military career. I continue to learn from both of them and others. Those guys are the ones that pass their knowledge and leave a legacy to those that come behind them. We should be thanking them, not making fun of them.

 

I am Supertrucker hear me roar
With hundreds of lights you can't ignore
I always have the loudest CB
I never have to stop to take a pee
You never hear me piss and moan
Get out of my way, you company clone
I never drove for the big blue screw
I'm always one better than you
Go ahead and throw your little hissy
Truckin ain't for sissies

 

Your right on, but there are those of us who as company drivers, are allowed to personalize our trucks a little so they don't look all the same. I hated the chrome hub/lug covers that came on mine, I replaced them with one's of a different style because I like how they look. Sure I'd like to add a couple of more lights, but I respect my bosses opinion to not allow it because he doesn't want the wiring screwed with.

I may not be able to go "full chicken truck" with mine, but I am at least able to personalize it enough to for me to enjoy, considering I spend 14 hrs a day in it. This was when it was only a couple of days old, I've since replaced all the interior/exterior bulbs with LED's except for the side turn signals.

 

I put those extra lights on because I can.

 

a lot of times too the companies want all thier trucks to look the same as if one driver starts adding things like chromed lug nuts, a hood bulldog, chrome here chrome there, then the competition never stops, and THEN some drivers want to remove that stuff and put it onto thier "new truck" the company gives them, but then all those holes from wiring or those "curb sticks" show.......

a "uniformed look" to the company vehicles is best, it puts an end to any "dress up competition" before it ever starts.

besides, o/o's make SO MUCH money, they NEED to spend it before the Guberment takes it away........

 

Different strokes for different folks. If you don't like it don't do it. I can think of 1000 other things drivers do to trucks that are a lot worse than throwing on some chicken lights. Myself I can't stand those tacky giant vinyl decals everyone seems to be putting on their trucks in the name of patriotism.

 

I've seen some over lit trucks that I thought looked great, and some that I thought looked terrible. To each their own.

I do have a problem with those over bright signal/marker lights I keep seeing either on the mirrors or the ends of the bumper.

 

I realize that you said this with a note of sarcasm...But, I do indeed need need a tax writeoff whenever I can get one and adding parts to my truck is one way to turn a tax writeoff into something that looks nice on my truck too.

Contrary to what some of you seem to think...There are some of us O/O's that are doing very well financially because we don't haul cheap freight and we don't buy junk trucks that'll fall apart when they're 5 years old and we don't abuse our equipment.

 

I hope yout not talking about American Flags and stuff of that nature??????????????????????

If so your free to leave anytime...


American Trucker