Greetings To All

Hello to all the drivers of the wheel. Thirty-five years ago I quit driving and took a better pay/insurance job. The idea was to drive for that company, but before I could get a posting for a driver's job, they closed the transportation department. So I stuck with a paper mill for the next thirty-five years and next September I will retire. I bought a 2004 387 Peterbilt for a retirement gift to myself. My how trucks/trucking have changed over the years. My truck will be retiring with me, as I have registered it as an RV. I will be pulling campers and boats instead of commercial trailers. The reason for buying the truck was for therapy. I don't need to preach to this choir about being addicted to the grind. After all, true drivers are born, not bread. Now I can have the pleasure of driving again, even if it's not for a living. So if you are in Wisconsin and see a red 387 pulling a boat, that will be me and hopefully a little heavy on the drives because of a full livewell!!

 

Thank you for the heads up "semi retired". When I run North, it's to Woodruff to my girlfriend's daughters/grandbabies house. Those two little people run around like a couple of monkeys in that truck. Farther to the East, intersection of 51 and 8, see anything familiar, there's one that likes hiding in the pickers near the speed change.
Luckystar, I am having a piece of steel bent to clad to the aluminum cap on the tail of the frame. I will weld a vertical receiver style hitch to that plate. At the bottom of the vertical piece, I will weld a traditional receiver hitch. The reason for the vertical receiver is so I have height adjustment for different height trailers.
My biggest concern is when braking, that even though the trailers have brakes, the force would bend the hitch. Putting a cross member in front of it and bracing it, will make it tough enough to hold up.
I will post pictures when it all gets assembled.
I will tap into the tail/turn lights for the trailer, right at the trucks lights, as the wiring for big trucks are quite different than a boat trailer.
I need to do a bunch of cleaning on the outside of the truck. It'll shine like a pewter dollar in a mudhole when I'm done! By then I should figure out how to post the link pictures.

 

A shift as smooth as butter 18 speed, bolted to a 475 horse C15 Cat. The last truck I drove was an old W900 3406 with a RTO 9513. A whole different animal to shift. Not difficult, just not as smooth. All of the aluminum needs a lot of elbow grease, there is some places on the frame that need to be touched up and the whole cab/ sleeper needs a wax job. I figured out how to attach a photograph. This is before I started to shine it up.

 

I have seen those conversions as well. I will be leaving my rear deck open for now, just install the hitch.
That would be a great conversion to take the whole fam damily on summer vacation! With the fuel capacity he has, you could run all summer and not have to stop for supplies until Christmas!

 

Luckystar, what are your plans going to be?