Kind of a busy site, I saw the blue line mechanic, the sunbelt mechanic, and last of all- the cat mechanic, all there again yesterday- all working on manlifts.
I need some chrome simulators for my ford, everyone else has got them (I think they dress is up a little). That and we're putting some round mirrors on the mirror arms, the little skinny factory convex mirrors are to small to see anything with.
Just a little update on the ford 450 (because its in two of the pictures, I'm thinking about it). We use it as the support truck for the 70 ton crane, its got a little mechanics crane, tommy lift tailgate, sideboxes, and we put a big jobox in the back. Rigging is in the jobox, and one of the toolboxes. Other big toolbox has tools (surprise), and oil, sledgehammer, prybar, air hose. Small box on the back has some rigging for the crane and the controller.
Its working great, there's enough room in the back for 4x8 skip box or plywood, pallet forks, block or ball, manbasket, etc. Nice to just fold down the tall sideboard and load with the forklift at the shop. Onboard fuel tank and pump for the thirsty detroit. Jobox holds most of our "standard" rigging, if I need big (+1") chokers or something, we just load them in the back.
Best thing is the tommy lift tailgate, its so nice for loading tires, we leave it down 1/2 way for a step up to the rigging box, have rolled items on the pallet jack onto it, then pallet jack and all to the jobsite to work in a building (skates, hoists, etc.). I've never had a tommy gate before, and I really didn't think that much about it when we bought the truck, but its one of the best things on the truck.
The mechanics crane, we actually hardly ever use. We load items with the forklift at the shop, unload with the big crane on jobsite. If I had to get rid of something, the crane would come off first, but I'm equipped different than most business's with lifting equipment. I did use it, to go purchase a used motor, and its nice if you go buy something used somewhere, that the seller can't load for you, the crane can just load it on the pickup.
I'm not that impressed with the 7.3, it just runs so different, compared to my 5.9 cummins in my dodge. The cummins is manual 6 speed, the 7.3 is a auto, and I think the torque converter/ auto is robbing power. It seems like you have it all the time between 2,000 and 2500rpm just to get anywhere. I don't run my dodge near that high for rpms, and it makes power much lower than the 7.3 it seems. The rest of the truck (ford) is built way better in my mind than the dodge is, its just the 7.3 just seems doggy. We did swap the tires from 225 to 245/ 19.5 to gain some road speed, it was wound pretty tight at 55 before swapping to the taller tires.
