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Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
Amen Brian.....My grandfather has a 64 Chevy Grain Truck on the farm. It has a 327 in it with lumpiest idle I have ever heard. Every time he fires it up I get goose bumps. I too always loved the "little red button". It was the first truck I ever drove.....He let me drive it a mile of two back to the barn after he filled them. I would love to own that truck some day....even though I have no idea what I would do with a GIANT grain truck. I think his is a C500.
Last summer the carb crapped out....He took it down to the local parts store and put it on the counter and said "I need another on of these".....The guy across the desk about fell over....It was the original carb. Needless to say they did not have a replacement. They hooked him up with a Dominator off of a Hemi drag car.....It didn't run very well so he had the original rebuilt and it runs like a top.
BTW...He bought the truck new in 64'.....It only has 26,000 miles on it. It looks like it has 26 miles on it. He even has to run leaded fuel in it still......Cracks me up.
Seth200 mph or bust.......
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
The summer I turned 20 I worked a short while for a company that was carving an airstrip and parking lots etc. out of the mountains in northern CA. They put me in an old F-600 bobtail dump that ran on perhaps 7 cylinders and there was one particular long hill I had to climb with a full load for maybe eight trips a day. Once I got headed up that grade it was a steady 5mph...all I had to do was keep my foot on the gas and a knee on the steering wheel, otherwise I'd have a snack or lunch, whatever, and enjoy the scenery...I'm glad they paid for time and not mileage! Fun job....
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
still remember the old F600's and C60-C70 GM trucks.
Drove a few during a short stint as the "beer man"(didn't last long, too much BS....plus I kept taking corners like I was still dragging a 53' trailer behind me...LOL)....once I got the hang of the 2spd. rear axle, wasn't too bad.
Brian, did that Ford have one of the old 472/500-something LIMA big-blocks? Seen plenty of those....and the odd truck-block 427's and weak-suck 366's with the Holleys that could never hold a damn tune.
These days, it's a 379 Peterbilt with a 435 Caterpillar and a 10-speed(yuck)......not a speed demon(electronic choker chain sees to that), but will pull 80K up hills/mountains with no issues.
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
I love those old trucks. Ford F600's and Chevy C65's is where I learned to drive trucks, and to split shift those 2 speed rears. The thing that goofs folks up is you start out 1 low, 1 high, and so on, UNTIL 4th, then its 4 low, 5 low, 4 high, 5 high. And I'm guessing the engine you had was a 361 gas. The 472's and such were in the bigger, air brake trucks. Ive even driven F600's with a 300 straight 6.
Did you know medium duty Fords in Canada were badged Mercury until the mid 60's?
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
Bulldozers.
And '47 Clark flathead tractors that top out at about 16mph.
And huge aircraft tugs that weigh a quarter of a million pounds, have four-wheel steer, and V-16 diesels.
Just the side panel/fenders on those things are 1" thick steel...
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
While I lived in Mooresville I had became friends with a guy that owned a local junkyard . He had a 67 Ford 3/4 ton wrecker had a granny 4 spd and 390/335HP Thunderbird engine. Top speed about 50,but I swear it would run,you would think it would pull the earth in half, a real workhorse.
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
Old (and new) sternwheeler steamboats. Worked as an engineer on the Delta Queen, also American Queen when it came out in 1995, which was a new boat with rebuilt vintage steam engine pulled from a wreck. The Delta Queen, however, had that original "patina" of age and coolness.
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Re: Barnstormin': The Glory of Slow
Love it
I wish I was closer to my grandparents growing up - we were in Chicago 'burbs - the majority of the extended family was in NJ (not far from where Spidey is in the hospital).
I was in college - the only kid from my highschool to go to WMU - and I walked into my dorm room for the first time to see that my room mate whom I'd never met - had beat me there and was already unpacked - of course I was nervous having never met the guy - but soon we became great friends and he took me to his Dad's excavating shop about 20 miles from campus.
What a place - the coolest thing there was the old linkbelt drag line crane - this old mutha had about a 20hp "pony motor" small engine (twin cylinder) that was used to start the HUGE diesel with the compression lever flipped.... what a mastery of mechanical wisdom went into the design of these old monsters... WOW. The mechanic who still works there is a master of many crafts - one of the few guys I've ever met that is good at mechanical, hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical, welding, body work, paint, engine work, he's good at all of it - learned a ton from him, he still puts in 10 hours a day keeping the whole fleet running great.
Every time I see an old red and black link belt I remember the total amazement I was in when we started that thing up to move at and started digging a retention pond - I think heavy equipment operators are some of the luckiest guys on the planet - they get to play in a lifesize sandbox all day!There's always something new to learn.
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