Driving a Stretched Peterbilt

Thanks for the interest, but this isn't about me. Last truck I drove on the road was around 2005, then did part-time stuff for friends, worked on a big dairy farm for a friend or seasonal gigs, and surrendered my CDL in 2018, 40 years to the day when I got my chauffeurs license in 1978.
Let's be clear, triple6, I don't hate this kid, it's actually kind of refreshing seeing interest like this. What I'm saying, is this kid kind missed a whole facet of trucking, we learned the hard way. Very few drivers I knew of started out life in a long nose Pete. It was Macks and IHs, and FLs with worn hoods, or the dreaded cabovers with doors that popped open. It was Trucking 101!. Strictly business, for the most part. Don't get me wrong, compared to what my mentors drove, oh yeah, a Crackerbox Jimmy, or IH Transtar WITH POWER STEERING, was a mighty big improvement. I planned poorly for my retirement, quite frankly, I never thought I'd make it this far. I live in a govt. assist complex for seniors, make $1485/month on SS, have an old Jeep I love, so I live okay, just nothing extra. I pay a ridiculous $337/month for my own apt. I'm basically trapped tho, as there is no place to tinker, and my previous hobbies are too expensive anyway. I can't work, or I lose my assistance. Retirement, I found, is what you make it, health pending. Some like to drive a truck until they keel over, and that's fine, for them. Some like to travel, but I've driven enough. Since I did make it to my 70s, I need to rethink how I might spend it. Becoming sick or dying is on every seniors mind I meet. The salvation there is, we all take our turns. Like Jim Morrison said, "nobody gets out alive". Peace all, and as frustrating as the modern society is to me, I still want to hang with the people I spent most of my life with. Can't kick a guy for that.
Oh, by the way, my last truck, a '85 Pete 359 daycab, I was going to make a motorhome out of it, but decided, I spent enough time in those tin cans, I didn't want to retire in one.

 

Makes me miss my iH 9700 with a 140 wheelbase

I made a lot of deliveries to feed stores and veterinary clinics ,
The short wheelbase made it soo easy .


the last couple of years they made em 9800 with the flat floor and two story condo roof .

 

Just outta curiosity, did you watch the video of the work he put into the truck? Thing was a heap when he bought it. I believe he started in a mega carrier POS as well.

 

Working for cash won’t knock out your other income .

My father retired with a govt pension and SS , got a part time job to get out of the house and talk to people ,
Then SS started reducing his SS dollar for. Dollar because he had a job, so he quit that and started working for cash .

And actually stumbled onto a pretty good gig .

he was at the local building permit office getting a permit for some home improvements and overheard some contractors complaining about having to sit there all day to get some paperwork . So he would do all the sitting at the per
It office and get their paperwork for them , and he had the contractors pay him in cash .

 

He's 21? I'm surprised he didn't "stance" it and put on a f@rt-can muffler. Maybe a couple of stickers with Kanji characters that he doesn't have a clue what they say, plus one of those Pep-Boys screw-on spoilers and a bunch of random NACA-ducts?

 

What's wrong with customizing ur stuff? Lots of the old timers hate on the young generation. We trying to make it with what we got, just like anyone else. The world would be pretty boring if we were all the same..
There's a young kid on YouTube that built a model a with a s2000 vtech engine in it . Big ol f1 spoiler on the back . Thought it was the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. I'm sure the old farts would probably despise it

 

Not me. I almost caught wood. Badassery!

 

Dragster spoilers on sleeper tops all ready been done but a Fart can muffler on a large car stack? That be a site to see.

 

I was way ahead of you, just try and find someone to pay cash. A local contractor was tearing up our residential street, I was watching as he went from dump trucks, to excavator, to skid steer, I said, "Geez, you a one man show" ? He said he had an ad all summer, and NOBODY applied. He offered me $20/hr. to start THAT DAY! I said, well, if you pay me cash, I will. He said, no can do, and I said, have fun then. I asked a local service garage, small jobs, cash,,nope, it's a familiar ring these days. So I go to thrift stores and buy house brand ice cream, I do okay,,,for now.

 

No, I didn't watch the video, I guess you are missing my point. At 21, I don't care if he was born in a sleeper, there's no way at that age he could possibly know what trucking is about. It took us YEARS to develop those skills. Sorry, but I can just see this kid with his fancy Peterbilt in the middle of a 40 car pileup. Too harsh? Prove me wrong. Who do you think initiates these pileups. It's not old timers, it's younger inexperienced drivers, cars and trucks.
And drove for a mega at 19? I don't think so. AND, at 21 he had the resources to accomplish this task? Nah,