Awesome slideshow of custom trucks--IOWA

http://rides.webshots.com/slideshow/562933448ALfFPS

Question: What is better, Cab over design or engine in front?

Everyone has listed their likes and dislikes about both... I for the most part, I agree. Cab overs are harder to get in and out of and unless it's a newer style COE (cab over engine) with a flat floor, they are a pain in the butt to live in. You have to get use to laying down to put your pants on. They are more maneuverable in tight places, but the ride in most cases is much worse than a conventional. Some COE's (International and Freightliner) have a set-back front axle design that make them ride pretty decent, but for the long haul most drivers like to have that 3500 pound engine out in front of them to slow down anything that they might hit. There is an old saying.... "If you drive a cab over, you are the first one to the scene of the accident." ...

THE MILLION MILE CLUB

Now that you know some CB lingo, I can describe some events more realistically and less academically; this is, after all, just work. Coming across I90 this week from Chicago to Syracuse, NY I ran into typical horrible weather. I90 from IL to Albany,NY is a hazard in the winter because of very high winds and lake-effect snow. The greasy (look at your CB lingo guide) road combined with high wind makes it especially hazardous if you are light or deadheading (which I was). An empty box is like a 13.6' high and 53' long sail. When on icy or snowy roads it can easily blow into a car or jackknife. In IN I heard on the radio that there were 2 "big trucks across the road" (jackknifed) and that I90 was temporarily shut down. Just as I heard that and decided it was time to stop There was huge wind gust that blew my box into the lane next to me--if there had been a 4-wheeler there they would have been slammed with a 13,000 lbs. trailer. The rule of thumb is that if you look in your mirror and the trailer is dog tracking it is time to pull off the road until conditions improve. Of course on the radio all I heard now was arguments and debates about not being a cowboy or not being a pussy and stopping. Usually the "Don't be a cowboy" camp wins--as it should! I put in my 2 cents by asking if any load was worth endangering yourself or others. Of course all the old timers chimed in that they agreed. If you think about it, an old timer with several million safe miles is an amazing and commendable feat. It takes about 8 years to drive a million miles. This is called the million mile club. To do that without an accident or incident, to me, is truly amazing. The way I see it it would be impossible to do this and be a cowboy at the same time. I met one old timer who had 7 million safe miles. I listened to every word he said like they were gold. Many new drivers think that these experienced old timers are nerds, and that listening to their stories (or lack of them because of few incidents) is a waste of time. Many Newbies think they know it all already. This trade is the only trade I know of that is never the same from one day to the next. In order to boast a million safe miles you have to have had zero incidents--even one not your fault. If you had 980,000 miles and a 4-wheeler rear ended you, the safety clock would go back to zero.

The vocabulary of the Citizens' Band is an old and established one. It is more than just substituted words and phrases that mean something other than what thet denote, but is an entire rubric of linguistic behavior; that is, the the the way users communicate on the CB is unique to that mode of communication. Like, for instance, you will hear a kind of laid-back tone that is reserved for the radio. ironically, this laid-backness is also tempered with a hostility that almost alwaays leads to arguments and ultra critical and brutish put-downs with common sayings like, "shut up stupid," or "can't we all just get along?" Common terminology:

• State nicknames - Truckers refer to states by their nicknames: PA-The Keystone; OH-The Buckeye; NJ-The Garden (thats a laugh) etc.
• Driver - the way everyone on the CB is referred to
• Travel agent - dispatcher
• Base - a base-station; a person transmitting from a home, not a trucker (hated by drivers)
• Breaker 1-9 - question
• Breaker for some local - asking for directions
• Breaker 1-9 for a radio check - how does radio sound?
• Whats the 20? where is it/are you?
• Come on - proceed with question
• Got it on? - are you listening
• Bear - police
• Bear in the air - police helicopter or plane doing aerial traffic check
• Honey bear - female officer
• Bear with a customer - officer with someone pulled over
• Full grown - state trooper
• County mounty - local officer
• Evil Kneivel - motorcycle cop
• Capture - someone pulled over
• D.O.T/Deisel bear - Dept. of Transpotation official (this is the scariest person for a driver).
• Logging - when deisel bears are checking log books
• She's fat - when the rig is overweight
• She's long/stretched out - when the rig is overlength (the rear trailer wheels are extended all the way to the rear.
• Dog tracking/dog legging - when trailer is not tracking straight behind tractor
• Wagon - trailer
• Got on/pulling - what's in the trailer/how much weight, "what do you got on?"
• Tandems - 8 trailer wheels--these adjust by sliding forward and back. This is how weight is distributed.
• Drives - 8 tractor drive wheels
• Steers - 2 front wheels for steering
• Aligator or gator - the strips of tread on roadways--these are unglued retreads. Trailer tires are not replaced, new tread is glued on the old tires. This can be done on all tires except steers. They often come off.
• Disco lights or red & blues - police car lights on
• Cash box - toll booth
• Yard stick or yard line - mile marker
• Hammer lane - fast lane
• Granny lane - slow lane
• Hammer down - go as fast as possible
• The middle - the median
• Rollin - driving
• Cowboy/supertrucker - an agressive trucker who stops for nothing I.E. weather
• 4-wheeler - car
• Big truck - 18-wheeler
• Bobtail - operating with just tractor and no trailer
• Dead head - operating with an empty trailer
• Day cab - truck with no sleeper
• Skateboard - flatbed
• Dropdeck - flatbed for hauling construction equipment-drive on to it
• Bucket - dumptruck
• Reefer - refrigerated trailer
• Dry box/van - regular trailer
• Lumper - someone at a warehouse hired by the driver to unload freight (often mandatory)
• Triax - a triple axeled dumptruck (no trailer).
• No fly zone - a reduced speed area--usually through a city
• CBA - CB Asshole--someone wasting time on the CB--usually a base station
• Wiggle wagon - double or triple trailers (because of how they don't stay in lane)
• Pete/KW/Shaker/National - Peterbuilt/Kenworth/Freightliner/International
• Murdercycle - motorcycle
• Backup - traffic jam
• Wreck - accident
• Meatwagon - ambulance
• Hook/under the hook/roll off- tow truck
• Brake check - slowdown
• Back it down - slow down
• Greasy - slippery
• Auto (pilot) - cruise control
• chicken coop - weigh station/scales
• Welcome mat - weigh station (because they are at the state lines)
• Locked up - scales closed
• Shooting you in the face/in the ass/ looking at you - radar at cars or behind them.
• Lot Lizard - prostitute
• Trough - buffet
• Go-go Juice - diesel fuel or coffee (I love that one)
• Donut Shop - police station
• Good Buddy - homosexual truck driver
• Pickle Park - rest stop
• Team - team drivers
• take it up to ... - go to a different channel to talk to that person
• Stepped on - what you said was cut out by a stronger radio
• The house - home
• Nap - sleep, the 10-hour break
• Bunk - sleeper birth
• Get your wig cut - haircut
• Ole lady/better half - wife or girlfriend
• Ladydriver - female trucker
• Back at ya - same to you
• JC - Jesus Christ
• Cold one - beer
• Ease on down - go down the road
• loose a coffee - urinate

Can you translate the following sentences?: "

southbound, you got a full grown with disco lights and and customer at the 26
yard line." "Northbound Evil Kneivel in the hammer lane rolling." "Honey
bear with a captured 4-wheeler in the middle at the 46 yardsticker." "You got a
brake check Northbound at the 56 due to a wreck at the 51. Two 4-wheelers and a
big truck. Meat wagons at the scene, the big truck is under the hook." "The
Southbound coop is locked up, but there are 2 bears in the middle shooting you
in the face at the 21 yardstick. You also have 2 looking at you on the
Northbound 44." "Breaker 1-9 for some local...go ahead local...whats the 20 of
the Proctor & Gamble plant in DeKalb?....? "Anyone lookin for a good
buddy?.. Take it up to 23...whats the 20 on the good buddy?.. I'm in the ConWay
wiggle wagon at the pickle park at the 45 yardstick...Sorry driver what was
that? You got stepped on." "The Buckeye's got the welcome mat rolled out checking your ground pressure. 2 Deisel bears at the chicken house logging and working hard." "The coop is closed in the garden but a bear-in-the-air shooting between the 29 and 50 yardline, roger?"

CB CULTURE AND LINGO

Hey all, how's it been going? The last few weeks have been AR and MS and AL. It occured to me that I use the CB each and every day and it serves as an invaluable tool for directions. I personally don't need it so much for police locations because my company truck is governed at 63 MPH. Since I almost never go to the same shippers or consignees more than once, it is immensely important to get the local info on how to get to these places without getting lost. I do not have a GPS because I navigate the old fashioned way with a map and addresses--GPS is not always reliable for commercial routes. I always get in the radio and ask how to get to, say, for example, the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Plattsburgh, NY (my last shipper this week). Even though I have directions written down, the local drivers will all immediately get on the radio and tell the fastest, safest way. In this entry I will explain some of the lingo drivers use on the radio--some of it going back more than 50 years. Also let it be knownthat some drivers "live" on the radio. Units are hugely modified to transmit and receive in up to a 20 mile radius, have many special effects, and can cost upwards of $1000. CB shops, located all over the country at every truck stop modify, sell, upgrade and deal in custom radios, antennaes, boosters, power units, clarifiers etc. My radio is the most basic available--a Cobra 29 with 2 aftermarket antennaes--totally stock, not even "peaked and tuned." It has about a 6 mile radius and works fine for me. I usually keep it on and listen to the convos and get involved only when I need some 'local" (directions).

Classic Marmon Cabover

The trucking industry has its fair share of religion throughout. The "Truckers' Ministries" are stationed in most big truckstops. This Christian organization has multi-denominational services and the "chapel" is always in a trailer as shown. I just love "cabovers," a now rare type of truck that used to dominate the market. Cabovers are a cube tractor with the engine between the seats. When I was young (up to about 1990) most companies made cabovers. Due to the poor aerodynamics they discontinued this style in favor of trucks with a fron engine and long "nose." For some reason I still don't understand, European trucks are to this day almost exclusively cabovers. In Europe, companies like Volvo, Mercedes Benz, MAN, Scania (Saab) still make cabovers and export "noses" to North America. The truck shown is a Marmon--a company that is now defunct.

Some descriptions of routes and grades in the East

Since I drive in the East, I have been on every grade and interste East of Laredo, TX. I stay East of the exact center of USA. I don't say East of the Mississippi Rver because I am often West of itbut not much. The following are just some examples so you get an idea of the most hazardous passes in the East:

Illinois
Interstate 24 in Illinois is a remote, four-lane freeway that travels through hilly rural southern Illinois and the Shawnee National Forest. I-24 is 38.73 miles (62.33 km) in length in Illinois. There are only five mainline exits; of those five, four have services. Interstate 24 crosses into Kentucky via the Interstate 24 Bridge from Metropolis, Illinois to Paducah, Kentucky.

Kentucky
Interstate 24 runs from Paducah to the Tennessee border just northwest of Clarksville. Along its route are Kentucky Dam which forms Kentucky Lake and Barkley Dam which forms Lake Barkley, Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area ("LBL"; under the management of the US Forest Service ), and Fort Campbell. Future extensions of Interstate 66 and Interstate 69 are proposed to overlap Interstate 24 in the Eddyville to Calvert City corridor.

Tennessee
The Olgiati Bridge on I-124 (US 27), spanning the Tennessee River in Chattanooga.
In the state of Tennessee, Interstate 24 runs from Clarksville to Chattanooga by way of Nashville. Just west of Chattanooga, I-24 drops into Georgia for 4 miles (6 km). One of the most notoriously hazardous stretches of Interstate highway in the United States is approximately 40 miles (64 km) west of Chattanooga on I-24 in Monteagle, where the highway goes over the Cumberland Plateau. Compared to grades elsewhere, Monteagle's 4 to 6% grade does not come close to the steepest highway roads (the Siskiyou Pass of Interstate 5 in Oregon has some the steepest grades in the nation), but the slope is protracted over a distance of several miles. Interstate 124 is an occasional (currently unsigned) designation of a portion of the US 27 freeway which runs as a spur into downtown Chattanooga and beyond.[3] Also in Chattanooga is the "Ridge Cut", a 1/4 mile section of Missionary Ridge, between the 4th Avenue exit and the Germantown/Belvoir exit. Accidents and severe congestion are common here.

Georgia
In the state of Georgia, Interstate 24 runs for 4 miles (6 km), running along the southern flank of Raccoon Mountain and intersecting with Interstate 59 before turning back north to the Tennessee River and around the northern flank of Lookout Mountain. The exits and mileposts remain numbered according to Tennessee's mileposts. This segment is also officially State Route 409.