Where is everyone #5

Way too crowded for my taste. I can't figure out the herd mentality most people have...

 

That's the basis behind my trashing on "Deals Gap" the other day. I love riding my motorcycle (even if it's just a poser Suzuki), but I can't do it in groups nor do I have any desire to be around a lot of people. There's a mentality behind it all that I find to be asinine, and to some degree dangerous. It's also why you'd never catch me anywhere near the Sturgis rally.......

.... I'd be too inclined to show up on a Triumph Rocket III Roadster so I could clown on a bunch of Pirates.

 

Just got in from the Funeral Home earlier. First time I’ve seen people out the door and all the way through the parking lot!!! As we entered the building they had a picture of him on his tractor, along with his birth and death dates. We will miss him..... our tractor show probably won’t be the same for a while.

 

@OLDSKOOLERnWV

One of my favorite exhibits at the County Fair where I grew up was the rather large display of old tractors and hit and miss engines. If there's any sound that brings back all kinds of youthful memories, it's those.

In fact, for a long time the image for the fair was an old steam tractor that is/was a fixture of the fairgrounds. (Amador County, California). I'd really like to get an antique engine to play around with. I love the #### things.

R.I.P to one of the old guard.

 

Ah, there we go. A pciture...

 

JD & Beastr did a pretty good job explaining it lol. This engine runs on a “trip igniter” which is activated by the exhaust valve push rod. All it takes is a small 6 volt battery hooked to a old 12 bolt coil like from a 72 Chevy or Ford. What would be the distributor side of the coil is wired to the trip igniter. Very simple design, by guys without a computer lol.

My big engine is a 2 cycle, it has no electrical parts on it at all to make it fire. Just need fuel and a match to start it.....

 

Made Minot for the night. Had time to make Stanley, but with spring restrictions starting in Manitoba this week (AFAIK), no need to get my hopes up with the possibility of making it there on a regular basis. Getting to Stanley isn't going to change my home time tomorrow, just change my start time and on duty hours.

I've done Minot to Williston to Rocanville home before, so it's no biggie.

Looking forward to getting my application filled out over the next couple days. Had to wait almost 2 hours to get loaded in Faulkner today (crazy lineup for no reason) and got a detailed list of my experience put together. Type of work, highway or regional, Super-B, etc. Might be able to drop it off as early as Friday if I can grab an abstract on the way over there. Getting excited by the possibilities.

Not that it's probably really my place to share this, but it makes me feel more vindicated in my decision, but we had one of the logistics guys give notice this last week, and one driver I never thought would quit its moving to another company (owned by someone in his family).

A group of two friends I talk with on a daily basis, we've put together a list of another half dozen potential drivers we might lose over the coming months, and hemorrhaging that many seasoned drivers in that short of a time is going to sting, but our pay doesn't reflect our work, and we are drastically behind equivalent companies in flat deck. If they don't start doing damage control now, they are going to lose over half the drivers they have with 2+ years experience.

 

@OLDSKOOLERnWV ,my condolences to you on the loss of your friend.

 

Same here.

 

Come to WV for vacation and you can tak this Waterloo Boy back with you lol.

I enjoy these things too...,, I get intrigued by the inginuity of the men who designed and built them. My big Bessemer engine is 20hp with a 9 1/2” bore and 15” stroke. A 2 cycle engine with 1 valve, and ports in the cylinder on intake and exhaust combined. Has no form of electrical spark to combust the air / fuel mixture. Those guys were very intelligent as far as I’m concerned.