Stop ur whining and drive

I can imagine how hard it was back then with no power steering.Vinal torn seats that only had one position to change the seat forward or back,none of this electric stuff we have.Then drving one of those trks I imagine was literally as comfortable as an old farm tractor.Then some of those trks had 2 shifters.I know those drivers worked hard only to pay the bills and support their families.Drivers now days do whine a lot.Their ac goes out and the world is coming to an end.Some throw a major fit.I have never been real fussy on the equipment as long as its DOT ready im satisfied.I have drove many times when the ac went out and had to make due till I got back to their shop.The air line behind the seat busted before and drove with it broke for a month.I patched it up with duct tape.Other then the pay drivers do take a lot of things for granted.I think the newer drivers do more then the veterans and im not blaming them because that's the trks they get issued when they start driving.

 

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the cabover and climbing over the doghouse.... lying on your back to put pants on. No room whatsoever! These latest drivers sure missed out

 

hell, i still haul dayton wheels.....not fun to swap

 

lota really good posts here !!! and thanks to all !

 

I started driving trucks back in the late 60's when I got out of school,bought my first truck and trailer in 1974.Doesn't seem that long ago,but we got it done with old trucks.Back then it was still tube tires on just about everything,and if you had a flat,you had better stop pretty quick,or you'd be fighting a tire fire,from a balled up tube.What was amazing is how you could "feel" a flat while you were driving,just a very small vibration,even way back on the trailer.When I was younger I carried a tube repair kit,spare tube,bottle jack,4 way wrench,and a tire hammer and tire bars.When you had a flat,just pull off the hiway preferably on an on ramp,pulled it off,and fix it.Used to put the tire under the landing leg and crank it down while inflating in case the ring came off.Later on I use to just carry spares,and when you had a flat with budds,you hoped it was on the outside,so you only had to crank 10 nuts off instead of twenty for an inside wheel removal.All this just to save a few bucks.Still at it and still mount my own tires,but I do it at home with power tools and son's help.One of the greatest improvements and timesavers to trucking was radial and tubeless tires,jmho.

 

thanks doug i feel young again lol..

 

And the rookie Prime driver is calling him on it!:smt043:smt082




I drove a 63 B-Model Mack for awhile. The wheel was huge and I remember learning real quick that you didn't make a turn with a cigarette in your mitt. The wheel was so close to the windshield that it you would snap it off and scatter embers. I spent a lot of time in cabovers and, to be quite honest, loved them. Still own one, in fact.

 

1. Carrying a long iron bar or a big screwdriver to pop the brownie linkage loose when you hung it up.

2. Having the truck boss tell you, just before your first trip in a strange truck to "shift it square". See Number 1 above.

3. Propping the radiator shutters open with a wooden block.

4. Changing tires by hand on the side of the road.

5. Canvas tarps.

6. Tie down cables that were kinked and snarled and had jaggers that stabbed you every tine you forgot to wear your gloves.

7. Metal floorboards that got so hot in the summer that they'd melt the grease out of your boots.

8. Finally getting a truck with a music radio...AM only...then realizing that the truck was so noisy that you couldn't hear the radio anyway.

9. Climbing the Siskyous south bound out of Ashland at fifteen miles an hour and being glad you weren't loaded heavy.

10 Stopping at your favorite greasy spoon and finding out that they'd raised the price of coffee from a dime to fifteen cents.

Yeah, I'm old.


Anybody got any additions?

 

A lot of greasy spoons....more fun though. Great conversations at the counter.

Drivers today can not imagine pulling a 45 ft. with a 190 Cabover International with a 450. That is cu. ins, not hp and as in a gas motor. You would beg for 46 mph please...Got blown away with the super truckers in their 318 Detroits and 335 Cummins. No ac, ps and only a ledge in the back window for the sleeper. Company did buy motels though, so it did not get used much.

I ran the WV turnpike when it was not much more than a cow trail. Witnessed it being built over several years.

Believe it or not, the new trucks I got back in the day, where trouble for the first 50,000 miles. Remember, this is when there where big unions, and workers did not have much competition outside the US. They did not worry about jobs, their childrens future, and nor did they care.

When I finally got to the airride suspensions, cabs, and seats, 475 Cats and 500 ISXs, I think that I appreciated all that as much as any 10 drivers today put together....