New Job Finally! Time to yank a tank...

Burky's Hammer Tips 101:

Look around, find a hammer with a 32 ounce head, of the hardest durometer rubber you can find. I much prefer a good fibreglass handle to any wooden one I have ever found. Once you buy the hammer, remove the head of the hammer and the rubber of the grip. Take a good quality rubber cement or RTV sealer and coat the handle with thin coating, then reinstall the rubber grip. Apply a goodly amount to the inside of the rubber head, and reinstall on the handle, and allow to dry for 24 hours. This will prevent the hammer from losing the grip, or the head from slinging off, which will happen if you neglect to "hotrod" your own hammers.

Once you have your favorite hammer, develop a habit of where you put it. I only put mine on the steps of the truck, on the front fender of the trailer, or on the rear fender of the trailer. I never set it anywhere else, and I manage to get over 2 years out of a hammer without losing them. Carry a spare at all times, since you wil lose one ever now and then. I carry a couple of spares with me, and end up giving away 3-4 a year to drivers tat are trying to get by without one.

My hammers cost me 4-5 dollars each, and come from "Grand Rapids Industrial Products" which is an importer that probably brings them in from Taiwan. Some Chinese kid makes my hammers for 12 cents an hour, and I love the little guy for doing so. I'd gladly tip him a quarter if I could find him.

Romeo and Juliet my fanny, there are fewer greater true love affairs than a bulk driver and his favorite hammer......

 

burky, they is hammers strung all over east ky. i think i lost one every week for a month or two when i started. then i got my routine down and only loose one every couple months.

 

I lost my first one 5 years ago in Canada, and I still mourn for it, hope it finally managed to find a good home.

I think it was last year, I was down in Kokomo Indiana unloading a load of soda ash at a plant that makes stained glass for windows. There was a guy next to me that had come in from North Carolina with a load of silica sand. He had a nice shiny nearly new trailer, and while we were standing there talking, I looked over on the opposite side and there was a chunk of old water pipe laying on one of his dolly legs. I asked him what it was, and he told me he had lost his hammer, so he was using that as a hammer in the meantime. I couldn;t stand the thought of someone banging on a nice trailer with a chunk of pipe, so I walked over to the truck, got out a spare and gave it to him. Which is why I buy 3-4 hammers at a time and end up giving some of them away.

 

Somebody needed to give this guy something all right. Perhaps a lesson on the TLC of equipment???

Glad you were able to give him a hammer. It's good to know there are still a few good folks out there.