Calling Dr. Bombay!

Or maybe that's Freud I'm needing.

I had a pretty vivid dream that even now, sixteen hours later, I remember. For whatever reason, I had to drive Dad's old hot rod, the 1949 F6 Ford. It only had a partial load of wheat, but I still had to take it to town. There was some completely logical reason - I was going to bring it back out the next day - but that part escapes me.

So, I'm cruising along and the old warrior was just chuckling along. In fact, I wasn't even on the gas, and it was running right at 55mph. Since the normal speed limit was a far safer 45mph on gravel, particularly considering the aged, weatherchecked tires, well, this was beginning to concern me. Also, the road was becoming more and more neglected. Not only were the road ditches covered in weeds and overhanging trees, the road itself was gradually becoming covered in vegetation that needed mowing.

And here I am just cruising through all this crap effortlessly.

I started down a slight grade when I noticed little rivulets of water running down the road, cutting tiny paths in the dirt between the grass and weeds.

So traction was gonna be an issue. Didn't seem to bother the ol' girl, she just kept chuckling on.

I could see my corner was coming up, but I could in no way shut this thing down in time. I went through the interection and with some effort brought the faithful steed to a stop. I was gonna have to back up.

Suddenly, a girl appeared at my window to help me - I didn't need her help, I had a perfectly funtional mirror, but I accepted her commands.

Then the alarm went off.

When I got to work, my truck's batteries were really down, and I had to spend about a half hour jumping the thing to get 'er to go.

The trailer I hooked to has issues - it's feeding application air back out a bleeder valve in the dash. Can't hear any air leaks outside, and it's the trailer, but it's weird. Some sort of valve somewhere is screwed. I also started dragging a chain that had partially fallen out of a box behind my crane.

Ea.ch of these instances required that I stop and mess around for ten or fifteen.

Then, as I was passing a chicken hauler, I heard a disturbance on the radio. Since we were running away from channel 19, I switched to hear what he had to say. He thought I had a flat tire on that trailer.

I was about ten miles from a tire repair shop, so I kept on. I had one that was down to fifty or sixty pounds. We pump 'em to a hundred. So, I aired it up.

Then road construction help me up for at least an hour total today. I pulled into Bismarck ND with about a half hour to spare before I'd completely have to be off the road, and my logbook is screaming foul.

My tire was still up, and we'll see if the Mighty Binder starts in the morning.

Wish I was able to finish that dream, dammit.

Well, Crud!

My old DROID2 has been giving me a few fits lately, so I knew it's days were about done. A lot of times, the touchscreen would refuse to work unless I shut down the display, then opened it up and unlocked it. So it was getting flaky.

It was acting like a new battery was in order - not a big deal to buy on eBay, but a pain. Hey, guess what?!? I had one in an old laptop case - I always order a spare battery when I get a new phone, but it was in the house. One more thing....

I really think I just got it wet - I had it sitting on the kitchen counter while rinsing dishes, and noticed some droplets on the screen. I guess the dern thing sucks up moisture like a drypak, because it started opening apps, buzzing all the time (every time you open something, the vibrator lets you know you opened it), and I couldn't get the return button to close anything. So I pulled the battery, and when it rebooted, the phone managed to call a number I should have probably deleted - the Mennonite who organized the cleanup of the old burned out farm. I was disturbing his Sunday, dang it. I tried pulling the battery several times for hard reboots, but the final straw was just watching it open apps with nothing touching the screen.

I'd sure been looking and had decided on a Samsung Galaxy S4 but I kinda wanted to keep my outdated all you can eat data plan. Which meant I'd be buying the thing at full list price. Which I don't have today. I was able to put off buying it - it will show up on my next bill. Whee. But - I seem to be unable to live without a smartphone while trucking - Google Maps and the internet for finding motels and such is very very valuable to me. If I couldn't have this one, I'd be getting some sort of smartphone. My credit with Verizon is good, though.

So, I had to go to a 2gb data plan, but looking at my past usage, not gonna be a problem. Not gonna have to buy the all share plan, because PDA.net works on this phone like it did on my old one - so using it as a hotspot won't cost extra every month. The old memory card dropped right in, so all my pictures and ringtones were right there. All my chargers and USB cables work on this phone, too. Major plus.

And I can tell you this thing is bloody fast compared to the ol' Droid. It has 4G service, plus a ton more computing power, so it really is responsive. I found myself getting irritated with the Droid for about the past year because it was getting sluggish.

I also popped for an Otterbox - cell phones in my possession tend to lead hard lives, and something to help with the shock of being dropped sure has helped me in the past. So, really, I just had to cough up for the phone and the Otterbox, and no memory cards or charging equipment. Had I decided to go to the dark side and get an iPhone, all that would be required.

So, it's new toy time for a while, trying to figure out all the goodies this thing has!

This Puppy Haz Axles

This is a "B"Train grain hauling setup. Most of the grain haulers "up north" just have a shorter front trailer with a ring and pintle hitch for the rear trailer on a dolly (fifth wheel on an axle with a tongue hitch), but this one has a whole series of axles that act as one unit at the rear of the front trailer. This one did have a hitch of sorts separating the front and rear gangs, but it was a solid shaft that only allowed transverse swiveling - movement in only  the vertical plane. There were five or six axles there, so I'm sure that's an advantage on rough terrain - if it were solid, the torque on the trailer would probably be excessive and it might crack. This way, stress is relieved.

I hate how my phone camera makes things seem further away - I had to put the thing down to keep control while pulling beside him. Literally, this was a last second shot, and I wasn't going much faster than he was.

And I was so wrapped up in trying to get this shot that I missed the northbound tank haulers coming at me! They weren't ours - who knows who they belong to. But, they're all part of a steady stream of tanks going up US 83 every day headed to the Bakken, which is where I went. The Montana version thereof, that is.

Mirrors. Use Them.

As I was driving through Oberlin, KS today, I saw a flatbed pickup pulling a gooseneck trailer pull out from one of the little truck stop/convenience stores there. So, I figured I'd be catching him, and sure enough, I did.

As I got closer I could see it was a single wheel double axle trailer - it wasn't tandem wheeled. From the looks of it, it probably should have, since it had been rode hard and put away wet about six hundred too many times. At any rate, as I got even closer, it seemed that the left rear wheel was leaning inward at the top. Then smoke started rolling out in little streams. I could see the driver's face in the mirror, so all it would take would be for him to actually look and he could have seen it as well.

Nope, wasn't happening. The wheel started to develop a sharper list, then suddenly the grease cap blew off in a shower of flame, sparks and chunks. I note at this time that the sound, could I have heard it, would have seemed like an M-80 being set off in a dryer full of gravel running full steam.

Which Mr. Oblivious failed to see. So, I slightly pulled out into the other lane and started honking, waving at him and pointing at the trailer. I guess he couldn't hear me honk with my AIR HORNS. And of course, he completely ignored the large truck with the large load hanging off his bumper.

The wheel was listing over even more - hell, he could have seen the bottom sticking out HAD HE JUST LOOKED, but, alas, it was not to be.

I determined that the worst place for me was right where I was, considering I was probably about to have a loose wheel in my face. I was just hopin' and prayin' that it didn't come off into oncoming traffic - no telling where it would go or how much damage it would cause. So, I backed off quite a bit.

When the cap blew, it was because the outer bearing blew. I saw fire and sparks bellow from the hub one more time. That was the inner bearing flying completely apart. Several hundred yards later, the remnant of the hub let go from the now ruined axle stub, and the wheel was ejected.

I've seen these before, and usually the wheel doesn't just roll like you think it might. No, it's like when you bounce a tire out of the back of your pickup - it's gonna be a wild ride. It finally settled down right on the zipper as I went by - I was afraid I'd run over the damn thing, but I didn't.

Meanwhile, Our Genius kept on driving. The brake assembly wasn't dragging the ground - the rest of the suspension kept it up. Anyways, he finally did notice something was wrong and pulled over. The shoulder was muddy, and I couldn't go around him to the left because of oncoming traffic. I about had to stop.

I just drove on by. Stupid sonofabitch wasn't gonna get any help from me if he didn't have any more sense than that.

Recurring Nightmare

I can guarantee you I've had nightmares about this. Two fiberglass tanks were loaded way too high and hit the overpass - you can see tank number one on the left. I'm not sure how these were loaded, but I'd assume they were loaded vertically just like they'd sit on the ground. Normally, we send out all of our tanks loaded on their sides. Ten foot tall tanks - maybe load them like this - that usually puts us at under 13' tall. Fifteen foot tall tanks, which these appear to be, loaded vertically would be seventeen to eighteen feet tall.

Supposedly there was a pole car in front - and their stick didn't hit. That means the pole car operator screwed the pooch - you are supposed to set the stick slightly higher than the load, so if it hits, you may or may not fit the load under, but you'd damn well better stop and check carefully.

Most overpasses seem to handle sixteen feet of clearance okay, and lots aren't posted if they are over sixteen feet. These things were just too damn tall to be on the interstate system, period.

This happened just west of Sterling, ND on I94 east of Bismarck, and I got it from a page on Facebook I follow: Bakken Oilfield Fail of the Day. They have a lot of photographic proof of recto-cranial inversions.

Ahhhh, Sweet Memories

Saw this on Facebook tonight, and it really brought back memories. I used to drive a single bunk version of this very truck with much the same paint scheme. And yes, I had it shined up like this one as well.

Sorry about the quality of the image - it's off an elderly Tripod website I set up years ago. Now when I sign in, I cannot access the original images. I can only copy the thumbnails. But go there if you wanna see some of the trucks I used to drive as well as my ol' Vette and other personal vehicles. I did get a Hooter's waitress to pose in the Batmobile (that is what little kids called my car back in the day), and those pics are there as well.

At any rate, this particular Ford CLT-9000 had Detroit two stroke power in the form of a Silver 8V-92 rated at 475hp. The regular ol' green ones were rated at 435 tops, but this series was supposed to be new and improved, and had a high mileage warranty on it. Which we used, since some o-rings failed and started dumping the contents of the radiator into the crankcase. Detroit stood behind it and rebuilt it into a smoking shadow of it's former self. Never ran right again.

But when it ran, boy did it run good. I could really piss off the Caterpillar boys. The famed 3406B had come out, and people were cranking on the fuel pump hard for that "little extra help" in the HP dept. This sucker could out drag them. It had a ten speed direct (no overdrive) and 370s, so it didn't run much faster than seventy five or so. This was back in the 55mph days, so that kind of speeding was kinda risky anyways.

I'm sure I've told this story before, but what the hey. Back in the good ol' days, National Carriers really was "The Elite Fleet" like you see on their trailers to this day. Back then, the tractors that leased on with the company had to be nearly show quality and fairly new. And they all drove fast as well, fuel mileage be damned. One guy had several yellow Petes with V8 Cats and sidepipes. They'd go blowing by me in one of the far lesser trucks I started in and just rumble on by, sucking out my windows whilst I putted along. That generally happened in an older Ford cabover with a 350 Formula Cummins turned up to 400 and worn down to the point where stock 350 Cummins would outrun the thing. It also had a nine speed - the Chicken Hauler Fleet Truck Tranny.

But not the Blue Beast. I and a compadre were idling through Kingman, KS, eastbound on US54 one fine day and we could hear some Critter (old slang for National Carriers) drivers talking. We were in the left lane at the last stoplight in town, and they pulled up next to me in the right lane. Peterbilt 359. Cat with straights. Big walk in sleeper.

Yeah, we'll blow off these grain haulers here in town, then when we get outta town on the four lane, we'll do some serious motoring to get to the Air Cap (Wichita).

Uh huh. I let out on the clutch and went to hammering, and slamming my way through the gears. Left him in the freaking dirt. Truly it was sad. What was even worse was my compadre, who was piloting an older and pretty rough looking IHC 4300 conventional pulling doubles cranked him as well.

We cruised on out of town where the four lanes ended, then after a couple miles, it opened back up to a four lane all the way into Wichita. After about five minutes, one of the lead Critter's partners asked:

Why aren't we blowing off these grain haulers? I thought we were gonna stroll into Wichita?

He started grumbling about not running what other people wanted him to run, and not being forced into something he didn't wanna do, or some such drivel. He was pissed that his doors were sucked out, and didn't have the sense of humor to deal with it.

At any rate, that damn truck required more screwing around than I wanted to put into it. All the air lines were Ford specific, and not what you'd find in any other American made Class 8 vehicle. This truck was old enough that there were a ton of air leaks, and every air line required special adapters. The HVAC system was cobbed from their automotive division, where all the switches activated vacuum motors. Vacuum motors to switch from heater to vent to defroster. Vacuum motors to vary the water valves for more or less heat. And so on.

Vacuum goodies that were designed to be in carbureted gasoline powered vehicles. Diesels are fuel injected and generally turboed, so vacuum is a pretty scarce commodity in one. So, Ford's solution was a vacuum generator, which was a venturi port that ran compressed air through it all the time. Which, since air dryers were also a scarce commodity back then, meant the thing was using air all the time, and since Detroit compressors put out oily air, meant the thing would plug up all the freaking time. The various vacuum motors were spring loaded, by the way, to a default setting of full heat and defrost. So, running down the road on a hot, sunny summer afternoon in excess of a hundred degrees, enjoying the A/C would actually find yourself scrambling to shut everything down since your defroster was cranking out some mighty hot air,since the venturi was plugged up.

Then, just because it was a cabover, it sucked. Remember, this was back when all trucks had leaf spring suspensions, not air ride. Cabs were firmly mounted to the frame. You were riding ON the front axle. Being high had one being pitched from front to rear, and side to side. There was a saying: You'll always be the first one to an accident in a cabover.

And another Ford peculiarity - if you look at the top pic, you can see the depressed handhold. That was actually kinda cool, but look for the bottom step. It's a thin strip held out by two curved pieces of steel. I'd usually bail out of the thing by swinging around, grabbing the grab bar with one hand and jump out into space, skipping the two inset steps, grabbing the bar with my other hand, and land on the bottom step with my right foot.

However.

Sometimes I'd miss that step and my foot would go inside into that big gap, and I'd bust my ass hard. That setup trapped my leg up to about my calf and I was just along for the ride.

And, the damn thing was too tall for a lot of elevator loadout doors back then as well. Most were originally designed to clear Grandpa's '39 Chevy, not semis. Finally the grain elevators started to knock out their doors to accommodate the stand up sleepers that started showing up on their doorstep to load, but I always had to barely scrape by. I replaced several horns, horn covers, and bent the turnouts on the stacks several times. There was no "air dump valve" available to lower the truck.

I had a real love/hate relationship with that truck. When the motor was fresh from the factory - boy did it ever run. But, typical two stroke Detroit, it went to hell tout suite. And Ford just needed to get out of the Class 8 truck business, which they eventually did. But it sure did look nice with it's blue and silver multi colored stripes, with a fresh coat of wax and the wheels and tanks all polished up. It was sharp, man.

If I had to drive that today, after running air ride cab conventionals with air ride suspensions for all these years, I'd tell you to go straight to hell.

Droughts Have Consequences

Just found out about this today - it's already happened.

Cargill Inc. said Thursday that it will indefinitely idle a Texas beef processing plant that employs about 2,000 people, primarily because of a dwindling cattle supply that is largely a result of drought.

The shutdown in Plainview, Texas, appears to be the first among major U.S. beef processing plants, as the industry's profits have been squeezed due to overcapacity.
"The idea of closing one or more of our major beef processing plants is not a big surprise," said Derrell Peel, a livestock specialist at Oklahoma State University's agricultural extension service. "It's been a matter of who blinks first."

Minnetonka-based Cargill is one of the biggest U.S. beef processors, and Plainview is home to one of the agribusiness giant's five sprawling plants that take in live cattle and ship out boxed beef.

The same economic dynamics that led to Cargill's Plainview closing have sent retail U.S. beef prices soaring the past two years, and no relief is in sight. Peel said retail prices could rise as much as 10 percent this year.

That would be after increases of 6.4 percent in 2011 and 10.2 percent in 2012, according to federal data.

Cattle ranchers can't even begin to rebuild their herds -- a multiyear process -- until the drought subsides. "Right now, [relief] of the drought conditions doesn't look very favorable this year," Peel said.

The Plainview shutdown begins Feb. 1, though Cargill says it will take measures to preserve the plant's "infrastructure" for potential reopening if the U.S. cattle herd rebounds. The plant in north Texas processes 4,500 head of cattle per day.

"While idling a major beef plant is unfortunate because of the resulting layoff of good people ... we were compelled to make a decision that would reduce the strain created on our beef business by the reduced cattle supply," Cargill Beef President John Keating said in a prepared statement.

The U.S. cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1952. "Increased feed costs due to the prolonged drought, combined with herd liquidations by cattle ranchers, are severely and adversely contributing to the challenging business conditions we face as an industry," Keating said.

By idling its Plainview plant, Cargill says it can operate three of its other big beef facilities on a five-day-a-week basis more consistently. Cargill plants in Friona, Texas; Dodge City, Kansas; and Fort Morgan, Colo., will receive cattle that normally would be slaughtered in Plainview.

Cargill doesn't break out results for its myriad meat businesses, though it has noted that its U.S. beef profit margins have been under pressure. Many U.S. beef processors are suffering losses or getting poor returns on the investments, Peel said.

The U.S. cattle herd has been in a long-term decline for years, particularly since about 2007, Peel said. Since then, grain prices have shot up due to structural changes in grain markets, thus precipitously boosting the price of cattle feed.

The 2012 drought, the nation's worst in decades, sent corn to over $8 a bushel. The heart of cattle country experienced its second straight year of very arid conditions, toasting pasture land.

More from the Star Tribune

I've hauled tanks for rendered fat and other liquids down there several times over the years. So, until the beef industry picks up again, Cargill Plainview is right out for us. We do business with the other plants as well, but still. The other plants can take up the slack, and I'm glad Dodge City's plant is one where they plan on expanding production, but transportation costs on that pound of hamburger just went up.

What a mess.

My Good Deed

For yesterday, anyhow. Today I watched it snow from the comfort of home.

I was on my way back to the yard in Garden City on K156, and the fact that I just didn't have the intestinal fortitude to carry on had me stopping at the lone rest area west of the big city at the junction of K23 and K156. I do not like stopping there. It is a "natural compost" facility. Which means in the winter on a cold day, a nice breeze blows up yer kiester and freezes the dangly bits. During the summer, flies attack those same bits. Needless to say, it was only the greatest urgency that had me stopping there.

When I stepped out, considerably relieved, a car came driving up next to me while I was preparing to mount my ride. A guy in the passenger seat hollered at me - it was windy. This sort of kinda made me nervous, since this is out in the middle of nowhere. There is traffic, but it's sporadic, and if something hinky happened, it might be possible for no one to see anything unusual for a long period of time.

But my Spidey Sense was on overdrive for no reason - it was a guy riding with his significant other and apparently their two kids in back. He asked me if going west was the right way to get to Wichita.

The sun was setting, and I said: "No, you are headed west into the setting sun. Wichita is east of here, a long ways."

It turned out they were from Perryton, TX and had no maps, nor did they have a phone with any sort of map on it, either. The young man informed me that "She just made me give up an iPhone 4!" Apparently, their budget couldn't handle it. He didn't seem to me to be up to handling much - she was driving, and making all the decisions. I know I was passing judgement, but oh well. So, they had no idea what I was talking about as far as highways and towns went, so off to the truck I went to get my Trucker's Atlas.

She did have some written instructions from her best girlfriend on how to get to Wichita, which involved getting to TX 23 and going north into Kansas until she got to Greensburg, where she was to turn right. One problem with that - K23 never goes through Greensburg.

The way they shoulda gone

Meade is where they needed to turn right. Greensburg is about two miles east of the US 183/ US 54(also US 400) junction. Some distance to the east. No wonder the kids were lost.

Where they actually went

Hey, the BFF said 23 - she stuck with it.

The young woman's father had broken his leg and was in one of the hospitals in Wichita - probably one of the many complexes Wesley runs. The name sounded right to the both of them. I drew them a map on a notebook they had and tried to keep it simple.

I dunno. I cannot imagine heading out into unfamiliar territory without a freaking map. I don't care if I've got cell and data service out the wahoo, I want my map. I find myself shaking my head that they headed out with two little ones so irresponsibly. Wow. Like I said, the guy didn't impress me much.

I gave them some rudimentary info on where the hospital was, but honestly, I figure they were gonna have to be talked in when they got there over their phones. I'm not sure my map made much of an impression - I don't think their map reading skills were quite up to par. Maybe if you can't read a map, you really don't need to have one with you.

But, wow. I wished them luck, they drove back to the east, and I pointed the Binder westward, and said some prayers for 'em.

So Close

And yet so far......

I try to get a whole gallon number when I fill 'er up, and with the high speed pumps most truck stops have, that is a pretty good trick to hit .000. One one thousands of a gallon, though. Dern.

Who, me anal retentive? Whaddya mean?

Just to make it easier to calculate my account balances, I pump my own gas to the nearest dime.

Are you picky - do you "round it off," or do you just run until it clicks off and call it good?

Idea totally ripped off from a Facebook post by Little Trucker.

While We're Talkin' Nightmares

link

Yeah. Max legal height for a truck is 13'6" - which means bridges that expect semis to fit underneath them must be at least slightly higher. Lots of bridges and overpasses, however, were designed many many moons ago when trucks were far smaller - like this one - and are still in service.

Supposedly, if the clearance is under sixteen feet, it's supposed to be posted. Not always the case. I know you are shocked.

But what really starts my motor (and my compadres) is the fact that we are routinely considerably higher than 13'6". When we're using our triple axles to haul 12' diameter tanks, we are right at 14'2" or slightly higher. When we use our single drop flatbeds, we're right at 15'2" or so. If we obtain permits that route us a certain way, supposedly they have ran us over a route where we have no interference.

Good luck with that thought.

I guarantee you when I'm in unfamiliar territory, I've got a weather eye out for low underpasses. There is nothing quite like rounding a blind curve and coming up upon an underpass where the load ain't gonna fit. I even look 'em over when I'm empty, just to remember some of the short ones in case I've ever gotta go there again. And if I see a low one, it makes me nervous even though I know I"ll clear without a tank on.

I've got leather seats in the Mighty Binder, and luckily they don't take to showing rings like cloth ones would from sucking up the seats, so to speak.

Tailing

I talk once in awhile about tailing (also called tailboarding) tanks. That is where two separate lifting machines hook up to the ends of the tanks, lift it from the trailer, gradually stand it without touching the ground, and when the device hooked to the bottom releases, the main device (crane) can swing it over to it's new home and set it.

This is a crane and a skytrack working together. It's a ton of pictures, so they'll be under the fold.

Gah!

Mr. Confirmed Internet Addict headed out the door at o dark thirty this morning without his laptop charge cord, it would seem. At least I hope it's at home, if it is not, guess I'll be buying a new one. So, I'm on a three day trip, so y'all probably won't see much outta me unless I do it on my phone. Which I don't care for - smartphones are marvelous things, but In My Humble Opinion, they are just not ready for prime time juuuuuuust yet.

Cya around campus, fellow internet denizens!

Easy Day

According to regs, we have to all be certified by an accredited outfit in order to operate our articulating boom cranes - or what we call 'em - knuckle boom cranes. This is the obstacle course I will have to negotiate tomorrow. We will be timed as well. Notice the tennis balls? Knock one off - deduction. Knock a pylon out of place - deduction. Knock one clear over, another deduction. See the chain dragging along underneath the test cylinder? That must be in contact with the ground at all times until the far end of the course.

You can see the circle to the right - the cylinder is parked there at the start of the test. We must navigate though the zig zag area - keep in mind that the boom describes an arc moving naturally, so at certain points we must extend the boom while turning the turntable, or retract it at the same time. Screw up and get to swinging? You start knocking balls off. When we get the cylinder to the far end, the chain must cross the red line on the ground, then we lift up, clearing all the obstacles and the hurdle (red and white striped pole), then drop the chain into the circle, and then the cylinder, all within the circle's bounds. We have four minutes.

Then we reverse the course - pick it up, clear the hurdle, drop the chain on the far end of the line, and run through the obstacle course, and park it in the circle to the right. In four minutes. We then have ninety seconds to pick up the weight and drop it into the circle away from the zig zag further back and slightly to the right - once again, without knocking over any balls or pylons, and staying within the circle.

My first and only practice run had me knocking over two balls through the first leg, plus knocking over the hurdle, then knocking over another couple balls on the way back and going over about four or five seconds. I have a problem with depth perception sometimes, plus I got the shakes - I'd had some pretty low blood sugar. I think I had a passing score anyways, but I'd sure as hell like to do better!

I feel for some of the guys there - some are completely inexperienced and have never touched the controls of a crane before. When we first stepped out on the course, a bunch of our go getter types ran through the course in a big hurry without any deductions, but after they were gone, the instructors remeasured everything and moved the pylons in by over a foot, so it's a hell of a lot tighter than what they had to do! Guess it'll be a shocker tomorrow!

Oh, and maybe you can tell we make steel tanks by looking off in the distance a tad.

Curiosity

My admirers.

Yesterday, I dropped a tank off at a dairy. You can see it to the left. While I was busy putting the tank there, I had a fascinated audience. I stepped up to 'em a couple times, and the heifer to the right was the least scared of me - she thought my gloved hand was worth tasting. They were all so near tame is wasn't funny.

I have no idea what they were doing there - I don't think it was a sick pen, because they all seemed pretty healthy. One was coughing a little, but in a dusty environment, that is normal. I heard it all the time out on the farm. They all had horn nubbins, so maybe they were scheduled for some "trimming."

How could I resist trying to pet 'em? Just look at how cute that baldy is with her head poking through the gap in the gate!!!

Flushing The Camera (Phone)

Yeah, it's been a day or several since I last posted. Been busy and tahrd.

This is a Farmer's Oil truck I had not seen before. They are an old school organization that believes that show trucks should represent them. The company trucks are all dolled out, and there are several owner operators with custom rigs - one is the son, who has his own show truck on the road and on the blog Bucket List. They primarily haul liquids and bulk products, so you'll see them with anhydrous ammonia and pneumatic trailers - all of which are just as shiny and slick as their tractors. That tractor is a Pete flat top (with a window in the back), stretched wheelbase, and black with everything else (and there is a ton of "everything else") shined to the max. Old school.

I say old school because most trucking outfits are definitely not that way anymore. Back in the day, National Carriers had a rather rigid set of requirements for the equipment that leased to them, mostly relating to appearance, cleanliness and level of polish. Coors used to use a company out of Akron, CO that ran nothing but fast, good looking Peterbilts and KWs. Certain cow hauling outfits - the same way. Nowadays, you run what ya brung, and they aren't too picky. Time sensitive shippers want reliable equipment, but don't necessarily care what that equipment looks like. Others don't care at all, as long as it's shipped cheaply.

I have no idea what it was, but it was damn heavy. I've seen heavier - with several pusher tractors behind the load, but this was pretty impressive and I was able to get a few shots of it.

Garden City (KS) has become a hub of the wind generator shipping industry. One company has set up a railhead to drop all the parts off in this yard on US50 on the east side of the city. There are all kinds of heavy haulers and escorts staying in Garden in motels. If you read this and travel through here, you might keep that in mind - don't expect to just walk into a motel and get a room.

That shot was to the west, now we're looking down the street that bisects their "yard." You can see the cranes used for unloading the rail cars and loading the trailers to the left and some more further to the south.

The actual spur - two parallel tracks - with loaded and unloaded tower section cars. It's kinda funny, really, seeing all the wind power stuff moving on the roads - there is still stuff coming from the Gulf and also from the Great Lakes. These loads are all meeting each other on the road - Brand X headed south meets Y going north and has to wait for these guys headed east at the light.

I've always been fascinated by the Michigan trains - this one is just a single trailer. This rig is just using a three axle tractor just like I drive, but most are four. I have no idea how they manage to turn these things. The many axled tractors with dump beds pulling a many axled pup trailer are pretty impressive. Think about it - they can dump the back trailer no problem, but they have to unhook to dump the front part, unless they can spread it out and keep the trailer from getting hung up. Most of those guys are doing short hauls and have to do that lots of times each day. Freight had better be good, is all I gotta say about that.

I stopped in so see an old pal at Ingalls Feed Yard in Ingalls KS the other day. This would be the nerve center of the grain division - handling the incoming grain for the feed mill, plus weighing all the other trucks hauling feed ingredients or "used feed" going outbound for fertilizer, plus grain moving in and out of the onsite grain elevator.

The job requires a guard dog as well, as you can see.

This would be the crotchety old proprietor of the joint, probing a load of corn for a sample to determine if it's suitable for the feed mill to process.

Every grain elevator worth it's salt has one of these dishes - hooked to the DTN network for live streaming market information.

A look at the scales in use - the codger's holdout is the one with the view.

IFY is one of the pioneers in steam flaking grain for cattle feed. You'll notice there is a backup generator, plus a generator to back up the backup. Keeping this thing running is critical.

Some of the several loadout chutes for cattle - different areas of the feedlot have them to keep from having to move cattle very far. There is a whole series of sorting and holding pens behind those chutes. Cattle wagons back up to them, lining up their doors so cattle can run up or down those ramps in or out of the trailer.

A crane that unloaded me at a dairy near Brush, CO. The tank is to be used for flush water, and it really is an unusual design since it has no top. They told me that the flush water is recycled quite a bit, so it's corrosive and eats tank tops out in a few years. So, no top means no damage to the top. This thing was made of some fairly thick steel compared to our average garden variety steel tank.

The dairy barn for this tank. There were more on the site. Those unusually shaped chunks of metal are galvanized clips designed to hold the tank down by the flange at the bottom and a bolt going into the concrete the tank mounts to. You can see our little cubbyholes for this trailer - since we don't carry headache racks, there has to be someplace to put dunnage. This trailer is one of our oldest and has been through a partial rebuilt - the entire nose has been replaced. Back in the day, it had a crane mounted, and the truck hooked up with hydraulic quick links. All that stuff has been cut away and a more conventional deck has been installed.

This is a biggun. It was parked at the motel in Sterling, CO I stopped at Thursday night. I saw it there when I came into town, and it was there in the morning when I left. It looks like they parked it there the way they did to help prevent theft. It would take a while to move the boom back over the dolly, hook it all up, and pick up all the pads and such.

This kinda gives y'all a scale of how big it really is. I'd bet Jess or KurtP know for sure - but I'm guessing this is in the 130 to 150 ton range.

These things are limited to how much they can lift by their counterweights. Right now it has the main one and that's it. But you can see the hydraulics - they can pick up more.

See the two pins in that open area just above the second axle from the front? That is where extra weights are stacked so the attachment can pick them up. Just so happens that's where it all lines up - use the crane to pick up a weight, drop in on the pins, rotate the crane so the counterweight attachment  can hook up.

The dolly - this supports the boom while in transit and can also hold extra weights. Some cranes use a flatbed truck to haul the extra weights and other goodies needed.

Most cranes use a bunch of those plywood pads, but these guys have gone above and beyond with these large metal ones as well. Those pegs are set up so a setup of four cables on the hook can handle 'em with ease. Also, looking at the main foot, you'll see a slider with two pins. When the job is done, they pull the pins and kick the foot to the inside - otherwise the foot would hang outside the already wide crane. This tucks 'em underneath, and there is a place for the pins to hold it in the transport position.

Wish I'd thought of turning this pic before uploading it - but if you click for bigger, you'll see that this is a 525/80R25 sized tire. Not something you're gonna find at The Tire Rack.

I've always liked this idea but have never been around much equipment to see if it really works. The idea is that after a wheel is mounted, you place the pointers so you can easily tell if a nut works loose. All it takes is a quick glance rather than having to actually check with a torque wrench.

And this is the business end. Of course the big block will lift more - the single line is used mostly for fetching a manlift and such to hook and unhook from heights well beyond ladder range. They can use it to "tail" or "tailboard" our tanks as well. Here is a series of pics showing two cranes, one "tailing."

They put the tank on the ground in order to install a ladder while it was much closer to the ground. Unhook crane number two, crane one swings it over in place and sets it, and number two lifts a guy to unhook the rigging. Easy peasy.

So, that's pretty much it for today. Hope ya enjoy!

Still Alive

Just busy and tahrd.

Kinda lazy, too, but keep that under your hat. Hate to ruin my stellar rep.

One More From the Road

Well, actually, several from the road. Clearing out the ol' memory card a bit - various things that caught my eye in my never ending journey to nowhere in particular, but always with somewhere in mind.

This is one of our tanks held with two cranes - one "tailing," and one doing the placement. They pulled it off the truck, one hooked to each end, the truck pulled out, and then they began the process of taking a horizontal tank vertical without ever touching the ground. If memory serves, the biggun is a one hundred fifty ton crane. Those tanks of ours only weigh seven or eight thousand pounds, but it takes a hell of a stick to put those tanks where they needed to be. You can see one of our white tanks on the left almost in line with the red SUV. Those green tanks are steel and were not made by my company.

This'll give ya a closer perspective how high they had to lift to clear those structures. That tank is 12'x35.' This was in Wisconsin just north of Rockford IL.

HOT lookin' Pete at Brooklyn, IA.

Just not your every day bug in Western Kansas Paradise, so this puppy caught my attention immediately if not before. South of Iowa City, IA.

Juuuuust a tad over half the fleet at rest for the weekend, all scrubbed and serviced, ready for another week. The Mighty Binder is the one to the left - there is one other Navistar product, the rest are PACCAR products.

Today near Watford City, ND. My compadre unloaded and set that tank. It's a little different - it has a cone bottom with a sump hole. The crews have to set up those rings perfectly, then fill with pea gravel, dig a hole in the center, and angle the sides into the bottom before we can put the tank in it's "slot." The crane on my truck cannot lift one of these puppies unless it's mighty close if at all. This is a Cormach Model 36000 with four extensions, and it will lift the full weight at full length. These tanks are 12'x20' steel - rated at 400bbl crude oil holding capacity.

My compadre in the blue hard had - the crane operator/truck driver. He works a hell of a lot harder than I do and practically lives in North Dakota - coming home for the weekends only.

I don't care who you are, this is just plain kewl. A sculpture made from bits of cast off machinery of a cowboy riding a triceratops. This clever idea is on the main street in Lemmon, SD. Apparently, the Grand River Museum has some triceratops bones, so the idea of a dinosaur, a cowboy, and old farm machinery fits right in with the culture and history of Lemmon. When the sculptor says his chaps and saddles wear like iron, he ain't kidding. Yee Haw!!!

Lemmon is where a couple of us landed tonite. It will take a big day of driving to get home tomorrow, and Tubby Trucker is already bushed. G'nite, all - sweet dreams and don't let the bedbugs bite!