what was it like

About what I remember as well. For a long time , when most states went to 80,000, there was a strip of midwestern states that refused to raise the limit.. They made it impossible to run coast to coast legally at 80,000.feds made them change, I think.
Thermo Kings became common in the late 60's, early 70's. Earliest one I remember seeing was in about 1965(?). They worked well, most of the problems with todays units stem from the high tech electronic gizmos.I think I preferred the older units to these new sophisticated models. They worked well back then. Before that, we hauled produce using 'putt-putts', or bunker blowers.. They were a gasoline,single cylinder lawn mower type motors, maybe 7 hp, mounted on the nose of a van trailer.Used a pull rope to start them. This engine turned a squirrel cage fan inside the trailer that circulated the air. The front 2 feet of the trailer had a partition, usually plywood, which we loaded with ice from a front vent door in the trailer.The ice, which was directly beneath the fan, made cool air, which the fan blew around in the trailer. It was difficult to start that little engine, had to climb up front of trailer, wrap rope around the starting pulley, and pull until it started. Tough job. We would regulate the temperature by opening and closing the trailer vents, to let warmer or cooler air in to mix with the cool air from the ice. Also used a machine to blow crushed ice on top of some types of produce. Quite an art to hauling produce back then, you NEVER left a loaded trailer without keeping an eye on it.
And he was right . When the new 48 or 53 footers first came out, common to see one broke in 2, along side the road.But then, many companies stretched an older 45 to a 48. Some jobs may not have been correctly.

It was completely different back then, but yet it has not changed a bit.

 

I was towing in the mid to late 80's and can remember the cops making 53 footers turn around in Connecticut and go back to NY on i95.

 

I've used the board between seats many times in a day cab. You'd be surprised how good you can sleep when you're tired of waiting for hours. Rolled up a couple towels for a pillow. Just as you're zoning out .... Bam bam bam. .... Huh what ... Oh

 

Back then , in certain places, they used a 'JUSTICE of the PEACE' system. If an officer stopped you, you paid a cash fine then and there. Sometimes you were carted off to the local courthouse, to appear before the Judge.Pay in cash before you leave. I remember a Judge in Georgia told me one time, " YOU ARE NOT UNDER ARREST, BUT YOU CANNOT LEAVE THE BUILDING UNTIL YOU PAY THE FINE IN CASH ".Had to have the money wired to me. Believe my problem was an expired fuel sticker. That was all a racket.
MOST DOT were cool, unless you made them mad. They had a job to do, we had a job to do, let's try to get along was the game plan.
Was weighed at a scale in Tennessee one night, about 1974. Scalemaster weighed me, saw I was a produce truck. Called me in, asked what I had on. Potatoes, I said.He asked were they fresh, I said sure were. He told me that he THOUGHT I was overweight, but if I left 2 bags of the spuds leaning against the telephone pole that was by my truck, I would probably be OK. I caught on, but knew I was not even close to the max weight.He got his 'taters, and I went back to trucking.

 

Those guys in the scale house in Lucedale MS loved fresh orange juice....I was always about 2-3 cases over weight...

 

My brother got into a tiff with the scalehouse boys coming out of Yakima, WA. One day he decided to take some back roads in December to avoid the scale. He didn't know the roads were closed for the winter. A big snowstorm had hit a few days before and he ended up on unplowed backroads on a roller coaster, had to get speed up to make the top of the next hill. Hill after hill. Then he topped out on one hill and ran smack straight into what he thought was a dead end pile of dirt, thought he was a goner... but it turned out to be a snowdrift and he went right through it.

He made sure to leave a few bags of onions for the scale house boys after that.

 

Around 1991 or so I got a $100 ticket at the POE in Pocatelo ID for not having a $10 permit to pull a 53' through the state. I'm still ****** about that every time I go through ID.

 

yeah. sitting in a truck stop phone room waiting for the DAT board to Ping the next load. such a cool nostalgic memory. (/sarc)

 

The New drivers use am. I use side band. & Ham. Ham needs a license. Cops don't have that. My joy in life now is remembering where We spent our days. I travel the same asphalt, it's not the same. Way it is.

 

3:30am sat memorial day wknd 1977--mm21 I85 Va--78 in a 55 Trooper had me follow to scale--scaleman was a Magistrate--Told me 20+over had to see Judge--no reciprocity w/fla at the time--told him id pay cash--asked me how much I had--Trooper followed me back to truck (like i was fixin to fixin to run!)Got fuel stash--Bout $375 sir--he opens a tattered binder acts like hes readin--and announces "looks like ur bout 25 short--sat in Lawrenceville Va jail till Monday at bout 6:30 pm when my brother got there with Xtra 25--he went on to market--i got bout Nicole on the dollar for my now warm dry sweet corn at Campbells Soup in Camden
Ahhh the good ol days.......
Yup keep telling myself that!