MATS 2012

First time ever at MATS. Was there Thursday and Friday and left Friday afternoon. Parked in the north end of the Papa John's lot. Had originally parked in the second row or so after you first enter but decided to move for fear of being blocked in when I planned to leave Friday for my reload.

Saw the west wing Thursday and then saw the south wing on Friday morning. Great time. Bought a few small things. Got some paperwork on some things I'm interested in. Saw quite a few demonstrations of items I'd consider buying.

All in all, definitely worth it and will probably be back next year. Maybe try for the whole weekend.

 

Last fall we did the Dallas show kind of last minute, but it worked. We flew in since I can usually get good ticket prices from ATL. I got a Hotwire dot com car rental for about $100 for three days, about the same or a little cheaper than RT cab fare to the airport. We stayed at the Market Center Doubletree, which is not part of the convention hotel program, but close enough for a free shuttle ride to/from the event. It was a good value, and with the rental car we were free to get out and find better places to eat, as well as come and go when we wanted to.

G/MAN's advice is dead on. The shows usually group like vendors in the same neighborhood. So look in advance and target the areas you want to look on the first day so you can cover that without a rush. IMO the equipment is better to view at a dealership. Less hustle and you get their full attention as a serious buyer. The show displays are cool to look at and prepare questions better asked at the negotiating table with your dealer. For example, one of the things that interests me are the newer disc brake setups. Not in the budget to buy that stuff right now, but it was cool to look them over up close.

Another thing I found valuable is to visit the booths of vendors I'm already buying from. They can't run away LOL. Often you can at least get their better show giveaways by identifying yourself as a customer, and a lot better attention if you're unhappy with their product or service. I spent some quality time with an ITS account manager that will yield some positive follow-up. A visit to the Yokohama tire booth pretty much made me feel better about buying a row of Firestone trailer tires last week LOL. In Dallas last time, I showed the Progressive people my declaration page and there was no delay in filling up my bag with free gloves, tape measures, and other marketing crap.

I probably won't go to the Dallas show this year unless there is something specific I just have to go see, or I just happen to be there anyway and don't have to fund extra travel. At this point, it's not a good value. At least one big show a year is a must though. There's plenty of things to find that will improve your operation or at least satisfy curiosity on something you may have read or heard about.

 

Yeah, I timed that just right. It was his turn and fortunately we weren't at McDonalds at the Pendergrass J this time

The help was nothing. Call anytime your thru ATL with a little time to kill and we'll go find something better than the truck stop buffet.

 

A few pics I took at the show....

Found another truck with solar panels that are on the side skirts???



Looks like they needed to plug in to power since the mounting on the sides can not pick up that much solar energy and these panels each are bigger than both of mine together....


A better way to mount those solar panels...


Bruce Malison with Pittsburgh Power and Craig LeClaire with MicroBlue putting their heads together in search of that 10+ mpg fully loaded truck...



How does that little battery powered drill turn over that big motor?

More pictures from the FOKR Section...






Even heard a rumor that Kevin Rutherford was there too.

 

that's funny right there..

 

A: Easy. Use a cut crank and overbore sleeves with standard bearings and pistons. I recently judged a couple of engine building contests and the 350 Chevys used were built that way to improve the odds of not breaking stuff during competition. Rotation torque with a complete, adjusted valve train was 20 ft-lb on average. Without the head you could probably turn that engine over with a screwdriver if you had a good grip and clean hands.

Thanks for sharing the pics. The solar cells are interesting. What's the output on those?

 

I was visiting with a group of Expiditers Wednesday night in the Papa Johns parking lot and one of them had the telescoping ladder in their truck.

I did a quick internet search and found this 12' one that was a great deal. UPS delivered yesterday to my house.




Here is the link to Amazon where I bought mine: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00186T2EU/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B005VNOTGC&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=14M9GNMFNBRXBKV8QQ9M[/ame]

They said they paid around $200 for their 10' one and this one is less than $100 and is 12' long.

 

The ones on the side are probably the 240 watt each type and mine are two 100 watt panels each.

I am looking for a 12 volt AC system and not an inverted one to hopefully go with lithium ion batteries someday.

 

Do not confuse this with silly facts. The brain washed KR crew believes what KR is paid to tell them to believe.