^^^ THIS That t-shirt they sell in the truckstops, "Loud Pipes Save Lives" ... ... isn't true. Engine Brakes Save Lives That's true... Loud Pipes Stroke Egos That's true... Loud Pipes Permanently Damage Hearing That's also true...
I drove a loud truck back in the day. Pete 379 ex hood, 3406E Cat at 550HP, 6" straight stacks. It was cool - for about a week. Then the noise got old fast. Didn't make the truck go faster and if they made any difference in HP or MPG it was so little I couldn't tell. Moved to a company that put me in an International Prostar with an ISX. Now I'm all about performance and comfort over cool. Cool was great when I was younger but now I don't care. The condo took getting used to (felt like I was gonna tip over - the ride and being higher than my Petes, they felt more "solid" and rode lower) but I like it. Maybe it's just a "getting grayer" thing. Got a lot more salt than pepper these days lol.
Ahh, 8" straights with a big mean kitty under the hood. That's a symphony when it's working hard up a mountain on a cold clear night. Then down the other side. Sweet!
I dunno.. it seems the loud monotonous groan would get old after awhile kinda like the drone on the flowmasters my mustang had. Cool at first.. then annoying. I was just curious.. I figured if it were true.. why wouldn't every young buck have a roaring loud truck, ya know?
Because most of the "young bucks" never were around trucks until they went to school and dropping batteries in the exhaust isn't exactly something they would want you to know.
My loud trucks were from the time when all trucks were loud. The truck in my avitar was a NH-250 Cummins, as was the first truck I drove. Both would make my head roar for two days after I got home, and both had stock exhaust. The next loud truck was a Pete with a Cummins NH-270, all stock. The really loud truck was a Brockway cabover with a 318 Detroit with gutted mufflers. It was that way when I bought it. It sounded really good. It had a sound I had never heard before or since, but it was so loud and had such a drone I couldn't lower both windows and drive. With all three of those of those trucks, when I came home off of a trip my ears and head would roar for several days afterward. I loved the sound of the Detroit, wished the Cummins were quiter, but in the end I ended up with tennitis. My ears are whistling at a high pitch as I write this. My wife gets annoyed when I can't understand everything she says or I turn up the tv too loud. I have to keep the tv on at night to dround out the noise in my head so I can sleep. I also have to ask people to repeat themselves, and many times cup my ear to hear, and even then sometimes I can's understand what they are saying. Think twice about those loud trucks and cars, concerts, motorcycles, ect. I have been exposed to all of them, and for the past 25-30 years I have had to live with this. You may be young and invincible now, but if you don't die, you will be older, and I can guarantee you will have things wrong with you that you thought would never happen, Tinnitus being one of them.
very true stranger, a lot of the young guys dont think or dont care, I know I did my share of concerts too and after a concert I could not hear anything, I still remember my first concert going and seeing Korn and Rob Zombie as a teenager and then went to my grandmothers who had to tell me to shut up when she answered the door because I was yelling not being able to hear. I am sure if I went to them on a regular basis my hearing would be messed up.