More power to you mother deuce, but you couldn't pay me $5,000 to take a cabover. I hate climbing in and out of the cab, and there's no room in it when I get there. Place I used to work had a old KW with the air assist power steering, and a steering wheel like a bicycle tire. I just couldn't find a way to get in the cab, behind the wheel, and keep my shins off the dash, and be able to shift. The dimensions of the cab and my dimensions had a incompatibility problem.
I like a hood out front, and it sure rides a lot nicer being between the axles, instead of sitting on top of one. But there's a truck out there for everyone, and the old cabovers are really popular with the guys tricking out trucks and taking them to shows, etc. I think its because they are "different" than the pete 359/379 and kw w900 that guys typically restore/ dress up. Its only money, and you can't take it with you.
Hauling water for the forest circus can be some good money...
As far as being a cabover, that's one of the better ones even though I preferred the big Peterbilt with 3 wiper blades if I HAD to drive one.
A long time ago in a far off Emerald City (Washington tourism reference to Seattle) on an inland sea a thin blonde version of me used to work for an oil company.
The scrooges at the oil company had a formula for truck tare weight versus loads hauled over the service life of the unit (10 laps around the sun) they said "alas even though
Kenworth is built less than 5 minutes from the terminal and they build a fine looking conventional, we shall go on a mission to find a horse that has the weight of dried thistle down. There shall be few amenities as they
add weight and the cab should be vertical so our loyal minions will get exercise scaling the side of the building like cab up to 20 times a night there by keeping their weight down
so we can haul more product".
And so it was in the Emerald City for many years. As the minions toiled, scaling the sides of their Freightliners many times during a shift. It was noted that a few of the senior
drivers were injuring the backs of their hands and their knuckles where their hands had started dragging on the ground behind them as they walked. The scrooges were concerned with
this turn of events as they had not calculated potential time off or new uniforms and protective leather hand wear to combat the outbreak of simian arm syndrome. While the cure
was obvious to all and even implemented by the beautiful Peterbilt 359 sporting minions at the home of the orange 76 antenna balls that all the cool kids had. Our kingdom clung to
their formula and even though the truck had the aerodynamic qualities of a block of granite it was to be deemed the way of the kingdom.
If you find your self in the PNW where simian arm syndrome was rampant in the 60's, 70's and 80's where many minions toiled for the oil companies, the line haul outfits among them, PIE, Consolidated, Garrett, Willy Shaw and others like them. Be careful when approaching a older cabover hand from behind, his/her hands could be trailing him by several feet!
Crane Operator, I totally agree with you! One of my first official acts on leaving the realm was to lease a 300 inch, 4 axle, 3408 powered, KW W900 VIT cab with a double box sleeper and go to work in the great white north. After a month or so I noticed that my arms had regained their normal length and I no longer grimaced while I was driving. I had a sense of pride in that horse I could not get out of the "I will be the first one to accident" rides.
Considering how many there were around and given how few you see now, their absence is remarkable and notable. I haven't sat in one since 1983 and perhaps the nostalgia coupled with R.Z,s observation about owning a tender as the magnitude of the fire fighting support business is growing is driving my romance with that tender. However good sense will prevail before I click the bid now button and dust off my Gov Deals account.
I have liked my trucks a little closer to the ground for the ensuing 3 or so decades and will probably just continue with that. I really prefer them after all these years of pulling levers with somebody else driving it after I get it load and honk him or her out to the dump! Besides that I am a little heavier now and I would hate to find myself laying on the ground looking up at the truck, with a handrail in one hand and step laying by my boots! A final note from a former Freightliner herder... I always had the oddest sensation in those trucks, that the designer was channeling a Douglas DC2,DC3/C47 designer the way the windows were arranged versus the seating position