Picture yourself as the mechanic that is in charge of the work on this Kenworth for a moment. You go over this truck like you do every other truck in the fleet. You take pride in keeping these rigs going. You bust your ass on scheduled maintenance, services, and repairs as they come to you. Then you see this video. You see that the last driver to have this rig out used it like he was trying out for the local sled pull night, wheels in the air, engine making magic happen as the transmission does everything possible to keep forward momentum a reality. Grunting and straining to haul a wheeled crane up a hill, you curse quietly to yourself, knowing that you’ll have to look over everything after crating that rolling lump around. You wonder how high the EGTs got as the truck was cresting the hill. You wonder if there’s a twist in the frame that needs to be addressed or if the clutch needs a look-over just to be safe.
As you’re mentally jotting down the workload, here comes Cheerful Charlie himself, ready to take the truck you slave over for your paycheck out for another day’s worth of work. You fight the urge to beat him senseless with the logbook, and instead hand it over to him with the kind of smile normally worn by Academy Award winners and tell him, “Be careful with her, ok?” It doesn’t feel the same now that you know he’s going to work that truck like a rented mule…
Well, if the boss said: Get this load up that hill with this rig, He’s doin’ it right!
Are those planetary rears? If so, this is set up for extreme heavy haul. I wonder if starting the hill in extreme double low First gear would have prevented this exhibition and still maintained enough momentum.
I’ve seen 3/4″ drives hit concrete walls for far less. I can only imagine the flowery word-showers uttered when a twisted box arrives at the shop.