General BS

It's around 1:45 a.m. and I'm up doing house stuff. Steady graveyard shift ain't a bad deal for an old single guy and it pays decent too.

The dealer is still crazy busy. The trucks with emission related issues are endless, PACCAR's MX engines are fooking junk and we're scrambling to build all the gliders we can before the ever fucking epa shuts that business down. Last year we built 48 gliders and sold almost that many more to guys who built their own.

The scrap yard slowed way down but it's picking up some now. I figure a lot of that was due to the weather. I've got several salvage projects waiting but the idea of working at pulling dinosaur diesels that are going into storage when it's -10 without the wind chill just didn't sit well with me. Management doesn't care as long as I show up when I'm needed to do engine or gear work.

Been working on the house. Right now I'm waiting for the clear to dry on some trim work. Once that is done I can put the desk back in the computer room and get the kitchen table out of the living room. Yay   

I'm surprised they haven't made more of a stink about the gliders than they have. Someday, somewhere, somehow this crap's gotta stop! We're already in a hole, and digging further every minute........
Glad to hear you're cranking along.... about the same here...waiting for the mud to dry and snow/ice to leave, then we can get busier! haha

Those nasty gliders were supposed to come to a halt at the end of last year but then suddenly they were granted a reprieve. The rules changed to allow them as long as you bought the engine seperately from the glider. Of course you're paying twice the taxes but then again you can't have everything. The old formula for gliders worked out that building one cost you about 60% of what it cost to buy a new truck. Today it costs as much or in some cases more than the cost of a new truck but the trade off is you get a truck that is far more reliable, costs less to maintain, gets better fuel mileage and can run away and hide from the new stuff.

Yah, it's the ONLY way I'd ever even consider a new truck! A friend of mine has been driving his '75 KW A since he got out of high school in '80 (his Dad bought the truck new and he bought it from his Dad), and I ran into him the other day... he was laughing, saying he'd almost made enough with it to go buy a new one....then he looks at me and said..."what the hell would I ever want to do that for?"... He figures it'll go another 20 years with some rebuilds and they can then bury him in it. hahaa

Over the last few years we've seen a lot of old trucks dragged out of the weeds and resurrected. Fifteen years ago a lot of them would have been scrapped without a second thought and I'm sure there are a lot of folks kicking themselves over the quick money they made when scrap was way up. We won't see that happen again. Today's trucks are lucky if they make it thru the base warranty without major electronics issues.

As my buddy Dave says " I don't tow old trucks, I tow new trucks "

Anyone at the dealer where I work will cheerfully agree with that statement since his wreckers are in the lot at least twice a day. He just added another heavy to keep up with the work load.

whoa there!! it's a cat got drugged in by a cat    AC rides--but only by moonlight   

Yeah JD I'm still around.    If ya can picture a slightly overweight, gray haired bat with glasses well that be me.   

Them older trucks were built to last.

Didnt ride as nice but who cares how nice it rides when its setting in the shop?

we are all older, fatter and wiser---bon ton roule'   

just older and fatter here. Wiser missed the bus.