Number 6

This past August I was contacted by the people at Feedspot.com regarding a list they compiled of the Top 50 Youtube Trucking channels. Good old Daily Diesel Dose came in number 6. While it might not be a major award that comes in a large wooden crate with Italian lettering on the outside I still treasure the attention.

This ranking caused me to reflect on some of the videos I created this year. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at a few and share some behind the scenes information.

The Disappointment

This past construction season witnessed the complete demolition and rebuild of the east bounds lanes of I-690 that pass through the City of Syracuse. I whiffed on getting any coverage from the west bound lanes demolition the previous year so this video helped to ease my tortured soul. I thought I captured some really get action shots of the large steel support girders crashing to the earth along with equally nice concrete crushing action. I even dressed up the video with captions that looked like road signs. Sadly, this video crapped out a 935 views and has received almost no attention in the past few months.

The Well Rounded

This past summer I went on a whirl wind tour of trucking hunting with Ryan and a few other equally obsessed truck guys. One of ours stops brought to the collection of Paul Sykes. I was able to get some great shots of both the outside and the inside of his of 1959 Oshkosh W-2211. Short of seeing this truck plow snow I think the video turned out well for being shot a warm summer day. Plus I think my font take on the History Channel hit TV show,  Ancient Aliens, was out of this world. 😉

The Viral

This popularity of this video was a complete surprise to me and I was amazed to see the reaction it gathered it such a short period of time. With over 170,000 views, 546 comments, and over 2,000 like/dislike reactions, this video was by far my most popular of the year. Unfortunately this latest entry into the “Looking at Trucks” series became something of a lighting rod for the anti-government folks and cast a negative light on hard working DOT employees. Here are a few take aways from the smash hit, Government Surplus.

1. People will not read the description or watch the video to learn why the truck in the title slide is cut in half but will instead post a comment asking “what happened?”
2. Governor Cuomo is not popular on Youtube.
3. While a truck can have a rear differential, hubs, rims, and tires this does not mean it has an axle. More than a few people were willing to share this fact with me but I only began to listen after the 100th comment.
4. Every 3 out of 5 Youtube commentors is an experienced welder who could repair these trucks without breaking a sweat.

The Fun

The first early days of spring when the days are little longer and the nights a little warmer are always a welcome sight here the frozen tundra of New York. This time of the season is usually when classic rides begin to emerge from months of hibernation. In early May I stopped by to hang out with my buddy Dave and his Detroit powered Brockway 457. A magnetic mount for my GoPro allowed the camera to chill on the roof and again under the cab for up close access to parts of the truck rarely seen while running. The short introduction at the start with history of the truck and some vintage photos is a template I hope to mimic in the future on other videos. This video also did fairly well in the views department by racking up almost 16,000 hits in just a two month window.

So here is to 2019 and all that it can bring. Who knows, maybe there will be a new video series, Looking at Trucks with a Baby?