mr. cob

Howdy Phil, No offense my friend but I'll pass on the drink your talking about, that's nearly as bad as washin your feet with your socks on or drinking a light beer. Now if you want to crack a bottle of Jack Daniels, throw the cap away and howl at the moon I am your man. Well at least I used ta be before I went n got old. Dave

Howdy Phil, Did I read this correctly, YOU gave up dr.pepper, please don't tell me you have substituted royal crown. Dave

Howdy rdickinson, Thanks for your post, I am now waiting on the vinyl folks to get back to me with their suggestions. Dave

Howdy Joe, Thanks for the tip. Dave

Howdy jk24, Yup, that would work. At least on the Pete, I would not have to worry about a plastic hood and cab catching fire and melting but I would have to make sure no gas got on the fenders which are made of fiberglass. Dave

Howdy Steve, I have been using the wrong word, "hucks" is the proper term to be used when talking about how the Hood is put together on my Pete. The lady I am working with at the vinyl shop talked about a special tool and the use of a heat gun to form the decal over the hucks, so if I go through with this I'll find someone who is qualified to do the installation properly. The material used in making the decal I am interested in is advertised as being good for 7 years, I am 71 years old, chances are pretty good that the decal will last as long as I will be driving the truck so the 7 year thing really dosen't worry me, if I were 20 years younger I would more inclined to have it painted on. Dave

Howdy porky69, All of the school buses in our area are equipped with those types of chains, I looked into them years ago when I had the Freightliner, way to much money for me for the amount of time I may need them. Dave

Howdy BlueFlame, Thanks for your reply and for the link to your blog covering the replacement of your hood flame. Working on my ole Pete, should be simpler when it comes to applying the decal as I don't have any compound curves to make it difficult, just flat surfaces except for the gentle curve that transitions from the side to the top of the Hood. The hardest part of installing a decal on my truck will be getting it to fit down tight on all the rivets it may cross over. If the vinyl shop comes up with something I like I think I'll find a local body shop or vinyl shop to do the install, if it were just the flat surfaces after watching the videos that show and describe the "wet" method I think I could handle that, its getting it down and over the rivets that give me pause. Dave

Howdy runaway parents, Three years ago while going down Bozeman Pass, on the way to the national rally, I was following a truck towing a flatbed loaded with steel. The speed limit on this part of the Pass is 25mph in GOOD weather, the truck I was following was gaining speed going up the hill I didn't see his brake lights when he crested the hill. I creeped over the hill in time to see this truck go off the road going around the second switch-back, no brake lights but I could see the drive wheels on the truck slow down. The road was covered in compact snow and ice, the only thing that I think could have caused this was the Jake was engaged and caused the truck drives to slow down and the trailer pushed the rear of the truck sideways causing the wreck. When I drove my Pete home from Minnesota in late December I was running bob tail, even with the Jake turned OFF just letting up on the throttle caused the truck to go into a slide on the icy road. I have no idea how the two pedal automated transmissions work but on a three pedal letting off the throttle when the transmission is in gear is the same as when doing so on a regular stick transmission unless the auto-shift is in-between gears such as when its down shifting to come to a stop letting off of the throttle will give some amount of braking even with the Jake off. Dave

Howdy Exile, I sent the photos this morning, I told Melissa, not to rush but to take her time as I am interested in what she comes up with and don't just want the first thing that comes to mind. She seems to really be into doing this, talked about how the 379 Pete, is her favorite truck and that she has worked with a lot of drivers to come up with custom designs just for them. So as this project progresses I'll be sure to up-date this thread to keep everyone in the loop. Dave

Howdy cw57, When I had my deck built we used 3 inches as the bare minimum on top of and in-between the tires and mud flaps when the suspension was aired up, this allows for some movement of the axles to insure clearance if a person should encounter a bump large enough to make the suspension work. Your chains even when installed tightly will protrude around an half inch/ three quarters of an inch above the tire tread and will still be thrown out away from the tire by centrifugal force once your moving. A good practice is once you have installed your chains, drive slowly for at least a half a mile then pull over and re-tighten the chains as they will be a bit loser after you have moved the truck and they have settled in place. I would suggest 2 inches at an absolute BARE MINIMUM and then drive SLOW to prevent damage should a chain make contact with any part of the truck. Even with plenty of clearance its a good idea to not drive more then 30mph when chained up, if one of those large chains breaks they can do a tremendous amount of damage before they fall onto the road, the faster your moving the more damage they will do. Drag chains are installed on the trailer not for traction to help move it but they provide traction to keep it from sliding sideways down the crown of a road or to provide traction for braking if you need to slow down. Hope this has been of help to you. Dave

Howdy DM, Most states that require chains for the truck will also require "DRAG CHAINS" on the trailer. Being able to stop the truck dosn't do you much good if the darn trailer comes around behind you. Dave

Howdy Steve, A WET day here in Granite Falls, 60 degrees and heavy mist in the air, typical Nor-Wet day, been kinda chilly for the last week with light rain, heck I can remember back in 1985 the first year I lived in Washington, we turned the heat on the 4th of July. Dave

Howdy Steve, I agree, 100%. The problem we who travel in the mountain west have is elevation and weather, I have had to chain up to get over a pass in the end of May. I was having a great time in eastern Washington with friends with our dirt bikes over the Memorial Day weekend a few years back, blue skies and sunshine. Heading back home on I-90 west bound and had to chain up to get over Snoqualmi (sp) Pass then rain on the west side of the Pass at the chain off parking area. Sometimes you just get caught up and have to deal with it. One thing I would STRONGLY suggest if you have chains, practice putting them on BEFORE you need to do it for real. Nothing worse then trying to install a set of chains in awful conditions only to find out they DON'T fit or you simply can't figure out how to do it. You can watch youtube videos all day long but until you hang iron for real you won't know how to geterdone. Dave

Howdy SD, I had a set of tire socks, snow socks, back when I had my Freightliner, the way the deck was built I couldn't begin to install a set of chains. The bad thing about the socks is that they are made from a Cordoba like fabric, very tough stuff but it won't last more then a few yards if your running on intermittent snow-ice, clear pavement. Running the socks on pavement will eat them up in no time, if you spin the tires they will shred in heart beat if you hit pavement. Chains are a real pain the arse but if you want traction and SAFETY they really are the only way to go in my opinion. Dave

Howdy cw57, As Gary, has already mentioned, depending on where and at what time of year year you travel, CHAINS will be required to be in your possession even if you don't need them. A product called "Snow Socks" are approved in "some" states, depending on how your truck is setup, you may or may not have enough clearance for chains, many of the newer trucks that I have seen with custom decks do NOT have the clearance for chains, when I built the deck on my truck I made darn sure that there was enough clearance to run chains as I have had to chain up three times in the last year. No matter how aggressive the tire they will NOT grip on compact snow or ice, you will have next to nothing when it comes to STOPPING power in such conditions if your depending on tires alone. Even thou I am setup to drive on ice and snow I DON'T do it unless I have to just to get over the pass or to get someplace safe to wait out the road conditions, I recommend being able to drive in bad conditions but NOT doing so unless for whatever reason you have no choice but to do it. Dave

Howdy Phil, That’s a big 10-4, and I will not insult you by calling you a “good buddy” sadly like many things those words don’t mean what they used to anymore. Dave

Howdy Joe, I agree with paint but I have covered that in my reply to Jack, ghost flames are being considered nothing has been done yet. It’s not raining here today maybe I can get those photos taken and sent off. Thanks for your suggestion. Dave

Howdy spindrift, 550 horses corralled in a big yeller kitty C-15 Caterpillar, she doesn’t shoot flames from the stacks but this ole girl can darn sure pickem them up and puttem down. Racing to the top of the hill is going to get me in trouble one of these days. Dave

Howdy Quickthrotl, An artist, “I” am NOT. I have a good idea of what I want but getting it from my head on to paper ain’t happening. If you want to make some suggestions please send me a PM, I will then PM the photos I will be taking of the truck to you so you have something to work with. Thanks Dave

Howdy Jack, Yes custom paint would be the best way to go but two things keep me from doing that, One cost way more money then I can afford for none essential bling, Two when it comes time to sell the truck a potential buyer may not like the flames and getting them removed can be costly. On my Freightliner, I had “Semi-Sane” custom painted on the truck and when I was in the process of selling the truck a couple of people were turned off by the cost of removing the paint so I don’t want to make that mistake again. Thanks for your suggestion. Dave

Howdy spindrift, No I haven’t, I will google that and see what they have, thanks for the tip. Dave

Howdy All, Those that have met me can attest that I am just an old gimped up kid, never going to grow up, just don't see a future in doing so. With that in mind I have been wanting to do a flame job on the Hood of the Pete, I have searched the net for such things and have not had any luck finding what I want or like, however I came across this company, "East Coast Vinyl Werkz", I sent them an email asking if they could make decals other then those posted on their web site. I just received an email from Melisa, asking me to send them some photos of my truck, the paint code of the factory colors and a sketch of what I had in mind, they would then use my photos to mock up some different ideas of flames so that I could see what they would look like on my truck before they were actually made. This sounds like it may work out, I answered her email said I would send photos as soon as it stopped raining and asked that BEFORE she put a lot of effort into this project to give an estimated price based on my sketch and desired color combinations. So has anyone ever done such a project, if so how did it turn out, were you happy with the results? Thanks for any information, suggestions or advise you can offer. Oh my idea is to have the flames in different shades of purple and contrasting colors to compliment the metallic purple fenders and fuel tanks now on the truck, as this project progresses "IF" the cost is semi reasonable I'll post up the mock up photos they send and ask you folks to comment on them good or bad I am interested in what others think it will look like when its done. Dave

Howdy All, "I", for one think and feel that a lot of this new technology that is being put into cars and trucks is only going to make the problem of distracted driving WORSE. If you need a computer of some sort to keep you in your lane, apply your brakes, adjust your speed or park your car in my personal opinion you should have NEVER been issued a drivers license. Seriously, all of this new tech is supposed to save lives, when in fact all is does is allow idiots to survive when they would do the world a service by being eliminated from the gene pool if it weren't for this new tech. The only good that I can see from this is that it probably does save the lives of innocent people who did nothing wrong but may have been killed by the other idiot who if they had to exhibit skills other then being able to fog a mirror where never allowed on the road to begin with. Along with it being darned near impossible to maintain a safe following distance, my other pet peeve is people who have absolutely no concept of how to enter the flow of traffic on a freeway or do the zipper type merge when coming to an area where the number of lanes decreases. Add to that the idiot who will not disturb their damned cruise control and allow to you make a pass by simply speeding up or slowing down a couple of miles per hour so that you can change lanes and go on about your business. Or the people who pace each other blocking multiple lanes so no one can pass, neutered trucks are not the only ones who practice this form of idiocy. Yes, I am on a roll today, the "Cob" side of my personality is running rampant, its a good thing I am not on the road, doing "honey do" stuff is not good for my frame of mind. Dave

Howdy Darryl, I guess I am mellowing with age, happens to even the crabbiest of us. Dave