Sit low with a long shifter?

I pushed a TR7 through an intersection in the 80's because he did that and I never saw him until he popped out from in front of my truck....I couldn't have seen him if my seat was all the way up so I suppose it's his problem if he gets pushed!

 

I compare it to some of these jokers in the 4dr. impalas jacked up on 26in rims with the driver seat laid back so far they are looking out the back door window. Oh, I almost forgot the Mr. Goodbar paint scheme and the train horns. Yeah, your guy was just styling and profiling. Did he have a leather vest, ### less chaps over dungerees, a chain drive wallet and fingerless gloves? It's the uniform you know.

 

I sit with my seat low. I like it that way, its comfortable for me and thats whats important. I dont think it makes me cooler but then again i drive a pete so some might think thats why i do it. Like said each is own and i like it.

 

I know this buddy of mine has a I believe it's a 63 pete butterfly hood and he's about 6'8" and he drives with the air seat down and the "SHIFTER" is about a foot long of the floor, Hot Rod style, I guess.

 

Anybody with half a brain would not low ride in traffic for just that reason...but some do..

As for the original post some people are into the look some aren't...

 

Yes. I know of a fellow at a Flyin' J killed when he walked out in front of a long nose Pete to drive up to the fuel pump. He had been sitting waiting and said he only moved when the he could see the truck ahead of him pull away. He never knew that he had run over a driver walking in front of him until others yelled at him to stop. He got stopped when the body was tangled in the wheels of a double drop lowbed that he was pulling.

That's why I was asking how far ahead of the bumper before you see any ground. If you have a stainless bug deflector (which he did) it makes it that much worse.

 

Prairie Boy - To answer your question with the longer noise Freightliner the only time you can MAYBE miss someone infront of the truck is when they walk right against my hood because the hood is so high most people disappear when they are directly WALKING in front of the truck.... Now when it comes to someone being infront of me with a car then it would need to be something very small.. My line of sight (front edge of hood which is at the same distance as my bumper) is good I see cars infront of me... Like when I am in traffic and I close the gap so cars stop getting on front of me all the time I can perfectly see the car ahead of me... lifting the seat up a few inches won't make a HUGE difference... Besides the easiest way to not have a car come so close to you that you can't see it is to be observant .. I am always watching my mirrors and infront of me so I wouldn't have this issue regardless of my line of sight.. I know where the front of my truck is and I can just distance good.. Even when u-turing or coming close to a building I know my truck and I know if I am to close to an object or not... So as far as I am concerned if you are good at knowing your surroundings and your vehicle your driving you shouldn't have a problem...

When I off-load my material I have to always move the truck ahead each time the material is being offload and it can push out anymore I need to move forward and then start pum[ing the load of again.. I am very observant when it comes to the front of the truck when I am off-loading because the morons at the place I offload will constantly walk right infront of the truck to the point where you wouldn't see the top of their heads.. Because I watch what I am doing I always see them walking...

Groundpounder - I don't see how you can say anyone with a half brain wouldn't ride low in traffic.. You can't speak for everyone... Just because you can't do it doesn't mean the guy beside you can't do it and it be safe... Lets remember all trucks, people and seats are different... My new seat in the truck sits a little higher then the factory seat... You don't know each individual persons line of sight.. Again I don't do this to look "cool" I do this because it's comfortable shifting and driving the truck like this..... If I didn't think it was safe I wouldn't be doing it plain and simple.. Now if a guy is doing this to be "cool" and at the same time it's line of sight view is unsafe then that person is a moron.... You can't label everyone the same and like I said everyone sitting low is sitting at different heights because of the height the seat sits at, or the height of the driver or even the height of the dash.... So many variables make a low rider driver have different line of sights.. The important thing is if that driver is doing it and is being safe when doing it.. The only person who know this is the guy driving the truck.. You can't tell a guy he can't see safely... How do you know are you sitting in that truck he is driving and are you his height???

 

Ok Prairie Boy - I'll do that this week for ya.. I will measure a distance of my line of sight and measure it to see what the distance is.... I'll come and let you all know what the closest distance is I can see from my particular truck... and then I'll take another measurement with the air in the seat at the location that would be comfortable for me to drive..

But like I said.. If your watch your surrounding you shouldn't even have a broken with sneaking cars.... I watch EVERYTHING... Being a city driver makes you realize how much more you need to watch what is happening around you.. OTR guys might daze out of the "traffic watching" and just be "sight seing" as they drive through new areas.. Not to say they are not still be safe it's just they might not be keeping as close of an eye on traffic compared to a driver driving daily in a busy city..

 

There's a guy in a 379 who's been on the same run I'm on, and he has the long shifter... not sure exactly how low he's sitting, but I think it's the trucking equivalent of ape-hangers on a motorcycle.

 

Well, since you chose to start...

First of all I owned long hood 379 Petes a couple of them for more years then you have been on the road...At six foot eight tall I could be sitting on a phone book and still see over the hood its you vertically challenged micro mini men that would have problem so don't tell what I can and can't do, capeesh ??

I could care less what you do in your truck with your seat until it effects me then its a problem...