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Memories for us old truckers

RZucker

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
4,077
Location
Wherever I end up
Occupation
Mechanic/welder
Salt cancer is taking my Super Ford, wheels and all. Are becoming porous where seep air pressure thru the rims, actually can see them bubble up in a water tank.

Luckily here we have enough of a dry spell each year that all I have is a bit of surface rust here and there. The frame is good , got a few rock chips in the paint on the bottom side that need to be taken care of, but life in the Desert is good for older trucks.
 

RZucker

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
4,077
Location
Wherever I end up
Occupation
Mechanic/welder
Got the new exhaust on SuperFord yesterday, cat back dual tailpipe system. Sounds pretty good, I could have saved a hundo by going single, but I like the dual look from the days when we had real dual exhaust.
About all I have to do next is cosmetic stuff, it really needs new headlight and tailight housings, got a broken AC vent in the dash and I really need some bullet/dog proof seat covers.
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,275
Location
sw missouri
I do some work back and forth with this guy, he's got a nice old kW. He does some odd size hauling for me with his boat trailers, and I help him out with lifting boats/ taking the canopies off for hauling.

He let me borrow his parking lot the other day, to drop my lowboy for using the galion, and I snapped a couple pics. He's got a newer KW too with a huge sleeper on it, that he does his long hauls with, but I like this one better. Except the spiky lug caps, I think they are dumb looking and I make fun of him about them. :)

But I really like the road runner/ thunderbird paint/ stripe thing.

20190826_085729.jpg 20190826_085743.jpg
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I agree, the spiky nut covers would have to go, and that huge visor. Otherwise, sweet truck!

It always amazes me how much boat hauling and stuff goes on thousands of miles from the (real) water.:p
Had to zoom in on the front wheels, yes I would not want to walk past that truck in a crowded parking area at night without having a pair of logging chaps on!
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,275
Location
sw missouri
Wrecker service with a custom old peterbilt wrecker. Tandem steer, heavy wheel lift, one deck/drag winch, and two boom winches. Boom telescopes and is a rotater, has 4 outrigger jacks, two with outrigger beams, two jacks stay fixed under the frame.

The whole thing looks home built to me, from 30 years ago, before they were building all the new $600,000 rotaters they sell now. But it looks like it was built by someone who had done some work, and they put a lot of thought into it. I saw it six months ago or so, and I don't think it has moved since then. Boom looks like its two pieces of old drill casing, big and heavy looking.

20190906_184845.jpg 20190906_184856.jpg 20190906_184755.jpg 20190906_184746.jpg
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Does appear home built of old oil field equipment
These and the noted later rotators are so overweight they require emergency equipment status to license
Last rotator I looked at was at I44 service in St Clair
They build their own as well and the unit I looked at base weighed 84,000 twin steer 18s 54,000 rubber ride rear side and rear outriggers no plates just EM Status to use in wreck recovery like cranes
 
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Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,556
Location
WWW.
I would not bet money but I think that used to belong to continental towing out of cali. last one they built I think

Agree, that unit is very reminiscent of a Continental Towing unit. Continental built mainly round booms and as with everything they built, it was well constructed.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,556
Location
WWW.
I have always thought and found the idea of owning and operating a $750,000 fancy a$$ rotator for recovery work totally asinine. Last year there were two rigs like the ones in the
photos below for sale both went for less than $100,000, Both were 100 ton railroad cranes with not much in the way of hours. One of these on a recovery job would make
a rotator look extremely sad. And I know of a guy named Crane Operator to operate it.

600-crane03.jpg 600-crane06.jpg
 
Last edited:

mowingman

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
1,228
Location
SE Ohio
Occupation
Retired
My friend, who is the retired VP of machinery at Hulcher, told me those big truck cranes were ideal for working out on bridges and trestles. That was an area where they could not use the sidebooms.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,556
Location
WWW.
My friend, who is the retired VP of machinery at Hulcher, told me those big truck cranes were ideal for working out on bridges and trestles. That was an area where they could not use the sidebooms.

I have looked at several Hulcher rail cranes, probably some of the best engineered recovery rigs ever built.
 
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