Text 1224, 310 rader
Skriven 2012-07-25 01:29:58 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
   Kommentar till text 1219 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Darwion award candidate
===============================
Hi Roy,

On Tue 2012-Jul-24 10:22, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Richard Webb:

 RW>> YEah I know, and this one just has the hydraulics.  Has the
 RW>> air horn though, but the tank for the air horn seems to
 RW>> slowly leak air.

 Roy>> Might be a cracked hose too.
<snippety doo dah>
RW> So there's a leak in the system, somewhere.

YEah, just gotta find it.  I'll get some more hose soemwhere and try that
first, I really like the air horn better than
the wimpy <meep meep> electric horn on it, sorry but if my
driver needs to use a horn for what a horn's meant for I
damned sure want you to hear it and do a wtf, and pay
attention.

 RW>> I think it was aftermarketed to just use hydraulics for the brakes,
 RW>> and I'm not sure that was such a great idea.

 Roy>> Hydraulic assisted braking is an OEM heavy duty truck feature.
 Roy>> Especially if it's a diesel powered truck. Although I've seen big
 Roy>> block gasoline powered Chevys in 3500HDs using OEM hydraulic
 Roy>> assisted braking.

 RW> Right, this is gasoline, the usual 350 cubic inch v8.  I've
 RW> replaced the hydraulic booster pump twice now.  <arrrrgh>

RW> That bad eh...

YEah I don't think the system was well maintained, and the
first booster pump went out when the xyl was bringing it
from Houston back here, I'd just had a truck specialist
place go over a lot of things, they couldn't find me another saddle tank, so
I'm down to just the fuel tank on
passenger's side, driver's side tank was toast.  Former
owner had a crew bring it back from last job, and when a
hydraulic line from booster pump crumped they replaced it
with garden variety hose, <bad move!!!>  I think there's too much truck for the
size booster pump to be honest with you.
Technically anybody but it's owner has to have a cdl for
this bad boy.

 RW>   I don't know what I'm going to do when it needs more work, my
 RW> favorite big truck mechanic around here retired, lost his lease and
 RW> threw in the towel,

Roy> That happens to a lot of em...

yEah, and the good ones hang on as long as they can jsut
cause business is good, but when he lost his lease thanks to landowner's kids
thinking they were gonna make big money
selling it for housing development he just said to hell with it.  That was just
about the time the housing market went
crash, and I note that the buildings on the land were still
exactly as they were when he moved out of the place a few
months ago.

 RW> he's an old guy anyway.

Roy> Hey, we all resemble that remark...

YEah I'm sorta resembling that remark myself these days, but this guy's pushing
80 or already passed it by.

 RW> I've been to two other guys out here
 RW> in the county who would apparently do big trucks, but one I don't
 RW> trust, and the other ... well I'm not really sure about him either.

Roy> That doesn't sound good.

Nah, and you're right about the one, he's got all the
farmers' work it seems, cause he's fairly good, and I don't
know about the other guy, I wasn't happy with the way he
treated me on the big truck, or on something on my old GMC
van, he tried blowing smoke up my tailpipe and got caught.
They tell me he's one of the best in the area if you need an automatic tranny
rebuilt though.

<snip>
Roy> That's a thankless job. Farmers usually don't pay the bill except on
Roy> Gov't subsidization day (spring) and after harvest day (fall).

YEah that's part of it, but at least he  knows he'll have
money coming in, and I think he's got a couple of other
contracts for vehicle maintenance that keep him solvent
until paydays for farmers.

 RW> and his dad lives down the street and across it from me, and we got
 RW> off on the wrong foot shortly after i moved in because his dog used
 RW> to be just let loose to ramble the neighborhood, and used to harrass
 RW> my dog, who's properly restrained when she's out.

Roy> A Rotty. Right?

YEp, a rottie on a chain, in her own yard.

 RW>  HIs wife ran to rescue their dog once and made a comment which
 RW> didn't get a sympathetic response from me, after all, my dog never
 RW> runs wild in the neighborhood, theirs does. <small town life>.

Roy> Then he shouldn't have a problem, unless he had a hefty vet bill at
Roy> the time.

NO vet bill, this thing was smart enough to harrass then
back off where my Schotze couldn't get to it.  IF my rottie
would've got loose though it would have been little dog
munchies.


Roy> [railroad bulls]

 Roy>>> Charges of trespassing comes to mind. That's about all they could
 Roy>>> do.

 RW>> YEah that's about all they could do.  THe boes used to say
 RW>> though that the bulls sort of enjoyed whipping up on 'em a
 RW>> bit if they could catch 'em.  We may have been able to
 RW>> outrun those guys, but part of being small twon kids was
 RW>> that everybody knew everybody, and no doubt one of those
 RW>> guys would know at least one kid in the group, and parents
 RW>> would be notified, and the usual lectures ensue.

 Roy>> OTH, had one of those kids been beaten up by a bull, the shoe would
 Roy>> be on the other foot. I'd have feigned mild injuries whether that
 Roy>> bull caught me or not. 'He twisted my arm and kicked me in the
 Roy>> butt, dad!' Being a RR buff, my dad knew those guys too.

 RW> YEp, and in West Burlington they didn't really have to lay a hand on
 RW> us, just pick out the kid they knew, tell parents, let parents handle
 RW> it.

Roy> Which can be used against him, if the kids are smart enough.

Can be, but they were very careful.Again, small town folks,
they knew that a word to parents was usually sufficient.

<snip>
Roy> [Chicago]

 Roy>> Riding the train into Chicago and back was quite an experience, one
 Roy>> that I'll never forget. I've forgotten most of the western shows,
 Roy>> but the trains still impress me.

 RW> ME too.  I'd rather take the train long distance than the
 RW> Grey dog, but often the Grey dog goes closer to where i want to go,
 RW> and is cheaper.

Roy> I did a pre-move scouting trip to Texas in 03 by Grey dog and swore
Roy> off of the dog after the trip home. I prefered the previous trip by
Roy> AMTRAK vs the dog.

YEah I know, it's much more friendly to the body.

 RW> STill, did some train traveling with my grandmother as a kid, and
 RW> always liked it much better. Get up and move around more, go to the
 RW> dining car to eat, etc.  Iirc they even had a bar car where Grandma
 RW> could ahve a libation when I went to Chicago with her a couple of
 RW> times.

Roy> Nancy and I did that from San Diego to Portland, OR and across
Roy> Idaho, Montana, N Dakota and Minnesota to Madison, WS...met a lot of
Roy> interesting people in the piano-bar car, dad picked us up
Roy> there...after the Grey dog dropped us off in Chicago and we stayed
Roy> in a hotel overlooking Lake Shore Dr and the lake for a few days,
Roy> the trip back to SD was just as interesting.

YEp, much better, and, back in the day if you wanted to
spend a few more bucks you could even get a bunk.

 RW>   That was a real special occasion of a summer when the folks would
 RW> let us go with Grandma to Chicago.

Roy> Being her first grandson, G-Witt made those trips special...

Ditto with my grandmother.  Always something interesting.
Musem of natural history, all that sort of cool stuff.


 Roy>> That had to be around the lower East Side, maybe close to Calumet
 Roy>> City.

 RW> That sound very familiar, so I'm betting you're right on
 RW> that one.

Roy> I'm familiar with the area, and know where the refineries are/were.

YEp, figured as much.

 RW>> Part of the deal for his farmland was S.O. stock, and she still had
 RW>> quite a bit of it when she died.

 Roy>> Would have been nice to be mentioned in that will.

 RW> OH yeah it sure would have been, but they had an only child, a
 RW> daughter, and she did fairly well by it.  Mom aunt wasn't actually
 RW> profligate with her resources, but when you traveled with her or did
 RW> anything she wanted to make sure the world knew that she and hers
 RW> could afford the very best. When she was pretty far gone I took my
 RW> new bride to visit her when we honeymooned and combined it with a
 RW> convention in Chicago, auntie come out of her purse with a $100 bill
 RW> and told us where she wanted us to go for supper down near the Palmer
 RW> HOuse where we were staying.  HEr place was one of the first i ever
 RW> saw with central air conditioning in fact.

Roy> I got the 'we can afford it' impression from relatives living in
Roy> Chicago too. My grandfather's two brothers lived there and we'd pay
Roy> them a visit when something from Chicago was needed. Like our first
Roy> TV in 1947/48. They already had one and my brother and I watched TV
Roy> all weekend while dad and his uncle Walt went shopping for ours.

Can relate.  Mom's side of the family was definitely waht
you'd call well to do.  Dad's brother who lived over toward
the Indiana side, Chicago heights I think they called it,
wasn't so well off, even though he ahd a good job.  Makin'
all them babies tends to do that.


 Roy>> I think I'm the only one in town who does custom machining that has
 Roy>> an 18" by 24" granite plate for checking the parts I make. It would
 Roy>> be nice to have a set of 'jo blocks' to go with it. Not that
 Roy>> anything I do these days has to be that accurate.

 RW> true, but it would be nice to know you could do that sort of
 RW> precision work if you wanted to I'll bet.

Roy> I can do it without the blocks, it's just harder to do is all.

This is probably true, the blocks sure save you time.

 RW> I'm still beating the bushes around here for somebody does some
 RW> machine shop work.

Roy> I was asked to quote on a motorcycle job from one of my highschool
Roy> machine shop buddies, just last week. Some guy in Fredericksburg, TX
Roy> was advertising on a BMW motorcycle blog that he needed handlebar
Roy> risers. My friend gave him my phone number, but I never heard from
Roy> him.

I'll catch this guy, he was out of town for a couple months
up north, and I missed last radio club meeting, but sooner
or later I'll corner him.  OFten you gotta catch him early
though as he helps out with the ve exams before the meeting
then splits right after the business meeting and before the
program, so you gotta move fast if you want to catch him,
but usually I get Kathy and her wheelchair inside to sign
the book and find us a place to sit, then I slip outside for a smoke, so often
I'll catch him then if he's around at all.

 RW> I'm trying to find soembody who'll do a device which will go into my
 RW> trailer hitch receiver on the van, I put one of those sections of
 RW> portable military masting in it, tighten the setscrew and then add a
 RW> fwe more mast sections. A friend of mine has such a system, but the
 RW> guy who rigged it up for him's no longer around here, and I haven't
 RW> found anybody else around here does custom work like that.

Roy> Interesting. I made a verticle-mill-pusher that fits into the
Roy> receiver hitch on my truck, on my mill. That's how I got that 2500lb
Roy> monster moved to the back of my garage. It also came in handy when I
Roy> needed to move the mill to the side after getting it to the back of
Roy> the garage...one 12 ton hydraulic jack and some inginuity got that
Roy> job done, using the same pusher tool.

INgenuity is a wonderful thing.  Once I catch this guy at
club meeting I'll have him look at the receiver hitch, and I always carry my
duffel bag of military masting, so he can
get measurements on the spot <grin>.

 RW> I"ve got another local I intend to talk to though next time I see him
 RW> at a radio club meeting.  IF he's still got access to the shop, and
 RW> appropriate metal stock he'll probably fabricate it up for me for a
 RW> reasonable price.

Roy> That shouldn't be a very hard job to do. While shopping for receiver
Roy> hitch parts, I came across a universal hitch that could be used for
Roy> that purpose.

Where'd you find that?  Harbor freight?

 RW> I was quite sure of that one.  I thought I was taking a
 RW> shortcut down a hillside in the woods one afternoon, ended
 RW> up going down what was vertical bouncing off the rock after
 RW> I belly flopped when I tried to run off the cliff,
 RW> unbeknownst to old blind man.

Roy> Ouch!

That's kinda waht I thought, but i figured if I hadn't been
slightly inebriated it probably would've hurt worse.

 RW> NOw if i don't carry the white cane in the woods I've got a good
 RW> sized trekking pole that I can use to feel around in front of me
 RW> <grin>.

Roy> Blind men aren't supposed to be trekking through the woods on their
Roy> own...get a seeing-eye dog for that... 8^)

OH yeah?   PRay tell why not <grin>.  USed to do it all the
time.  SOme of my favorite fishing spots couldn't be reached any other way
<grin>.




Regards,
           Richard
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 * Origin:  (1:116/901)