The Truck Project Thread

I

bought a set of the uniroyal's they have been every bit as good as the bfg's. Just an fyi

 

thanks for that info,i figured they would be. i was not scared off of them because of quality concerns. the BFG's specs has them a little taller (about .5 inch) than the uniroyals and deeper tread-which is likely why they re a bit taller. with my 3.36 rears and 9 speed direct i'll take any extra "gearing" i can find,and the deeper tread will get a little more longevity.

 

There was no 3406 that would stand anywhere near that Signature 600 I had honestly. It was just an exceptional one in every area and it wasn't even 100% healthy, as I dumped 2.5 gallons of 15/40 into it every week and it fell out the bottom through the breather tubes until I put a collector tank down there to catch it all. You'd never know anything was wrong with it the way it pulled...it ran like a locomotive. I've ran 425 ATA's and all them...they do a good job for sure...but nothing like that Signature 600 did.

When you gross 98K lbs. with a triaxle lowbed headed west to Minneapolis in a constant headwind and only have to drop back and forth from OD to direct now and again, you know you're doing something. That's how that thing ran all the way across from Vermont to Minnesota. AND still averaged 5.2 mpg to boot. It's a love/hate relationship I guess.

 

I guess you had a good Cummins and I had a good cat. But my cat did every bit as good as my Cummins. It did it with 3.90 rears vs. 4.30 in this one. I do load this one to 130k and I only loaded the other one 115k. But at 100k or less that cat would be right up there with this one. If it was just rolling hills I could put it in 12th and tach up about 1800 and just get to it. The Isx is ok, not complaining. But a cat tuned right is a beast!

 

About dang time



My first time doing kingpins on a big truck.

 

Looks good!

 

Looking good man! It's all about attacking things, LOL.
I wish I had that pretty looking power steering box on mine, hahaha. I see it's even mounted forward on yours, as is mine is back by the cab.
I got a box and hanger/bracket last week. Now all I need is a drag link and a few misc. little parts to convert to PS. I've been running this truck all over creation the past month with none. Not that it's all that bad as far as steering hard, it's just that it's a different set of rules as far as handling goes compared to power steering. You're constantly fighting it, paying attention to every single little change in road surfaces, cracks and seams...it just wants to try and pull you off the asphalt all the time. That old school adage of "wanting to "FEEL" the road", the old timers said speaking against power steering, they can go pound sand, LOL. I'll take power steering any day of the week, and if the road doesn't "FEEL" good, I'll just park it anyway now.
I'm anxious to get this PS box on now more than ever.
Keep up the good work NM...looking great. It's all worth it believe me, in the end.

Couple of shots from the past weeks. Timberjack 240 skidder I moved a week ago.

The loaders; First one's a Deere 624K from a town way out in western New York state, (Town of Lyndon, NY) of which I carried two of them this week over to the customer in New Hampshire. I have to remove the buckets cuz it's too wide to haul without permitting, and it's a hassle with permits so I pull the pins and throw the buckets on sideways. This machine is about 3 years old, was well maintained and greased and I slid all 3 pins out by hand...not so much on the second loader in next pics.

The second loader came from a town out by Rochester, NY and it was a 2016 Deere 624K...auctioned off by some county municipality. They weren't all that familiar with a grease gun there, because as the pics show, I got the bottom right pin and the link pin out fairly trouble free with my hammer...but the bottom left one didn't cooperate.

I had my 10 ton porta-power on it, heated it cherry red with TWO torches at the same time, beat it unmercifully with the sledgehammer, used an air hammer as well....ended up aborting and loading it on offset to the ditch side a little so it looked "pretty" on the drivers side, and went trucking. It's a cardinal sin how a new machine like this never got any maintenance.