Autocar Mondays – Hungry Cows

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Eric

Did you know the average dairy cow eats 100 pounds of food each day? That’s a whole lot of munchies when you consider most farms have far more than just one cow in the barn. Head out into the country around these parts and it won’t be long until you see a Newton Ag Services truck hauling silage or a whole lot of poop. This particular truck handles the cleaner side of the equation. With tractor style tires in the rear its capable of handling most any section of the American Farm.

Make sure to check out Newton Ag’s facebook page (link above) for more photos of this truck and many more of the great rigs they run.

Do you have an Autocar truck you would like to see featured in Autocar Mondays? Email eric@dailydieseldose.com today!

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NEMF 1977-2019

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Eric

*Editors Note* This story was to be published three weeks ago but was delayed due to technical difficulties.

The historic LTL carrier New England Motor Freight suddenly announced yesterday plans to voluntarily enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy and cease operations. News of the bankruptcy came as a shock to the LTL community as capacity within the trucking segment is at near historic highs. Specific reasons were not provided as to why bankruptcy was the only option but industry experts suspect that carrier was too reliant on major contracts from one or two major clients that left little room for margin in already highly competitive market. Ten other subsidiaries of NEMF also fall by the wayside including the well know Eastern Freightways.

For true industry insight check out this article over at Logistics Management.com

I always enjoyed seeing NEMF trucks on the road as the company kept up a livery of colors other than white. It was also fun to pronounce the company acronym. Fun fact, the company was founded in 1977 by Myron Shevell. Myron’s daughter is Nancy who just happens to be married to Sir Paul McCartney.

Now that Excellence in Motion has become a fallen flag lets let back on some photos from years past in this memorial gallery.

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[Show as slideshow]

It’s ironic that the many folks blame the dog eat dog state of the modern trucking industry to deregulation. Usually it’s regulation that stifles an industry but in this case the exact opposite has occurred. Poor old government, can’t win for trying.

Posted in Industry News | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Still Working – International Eagle

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Eric

Has this truck been featured on this site before? Maybe it was a truck that looked similar. I’ve been meaning to grab a shot of this truck for sometime now. I figured my lazy ways would lead to me missing it but for unknown reasons this truck seems to have been parked for good.

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Still Working – Ford L9000 Dump Truck

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Eric

I figured it was time to get a better shot of this International dozer that has been working a project in Cicero, NY for many a year…..but that didn’t turn out to be possible.

While I wasn’t able to get a cleaner shot I did come away with this photo of setback axle Ford L9000 dump truck.

Sometimes you have to play the cards you’re dealt.

Posted in Free and Easy | 2 Comments

My Classic Car

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Eric

There is only one man in this modern age of ours that can rock the handle bar mustache and that man is Dennis Gage of the long running car show My Classic Car. Last year he paid to a visit to the greatest annual truck show around, the ATCA national meet in Macungie PA.

Watching the trailer made me a bit jealous that I wasn’t able to make the show last year but I know that Dennis found the coolest rigs and talked with their owners. I couldn’t help but point at the screen each time I saw a truck I recognized and none more so that when Ray Hildreth’s perfectly restored 361 played the backdrop for the show open.

The Macungie episode of my classic car is scheduled to air February 2nd at 8:30 AM EST on the MotorTrend network.

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Here Comes Tomorrow

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Eric

I have never tried to hide the fact that I like International Trucks. In my personal ranking system I would put the S-Series in my top five all time favorites. Until this very moment I never knew that my humble S-Series had its very own theme song but it does! This video changes everything. The disco inspired tune is the opening salvo in a dealership video on why you, the average truck buyer, should purchase the all new model. I’m sure more than a few people bought a dozen trucks just to get out of the room.

By the time the S-Series was starting to reach its prime the International Harvester Company as it had been know for nearly a hundred years was slowly being spun off into the hands of its competitors. By 1986 the truck and engine segments were the only remnants of the former industrial titan. The S-Line was the little truck that could. It proved to be a product line that buoyed the bottom line of the newly formed Navistar through the turbulent economic times of the 1980s. By the standards of today these trucks are antiques but when compared to the models they replaced (Fleetstar, Loadstar, etc) they were straight from the future.

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Blurry

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Eric

It’s possible that I’ve shot this truck twice…..and came out with a slightly blurry photo each time. Things that make you go hmmmmm. Maybe it has an anti photograph force field in place.

Here is it is back in 2016 when it was sporting a red and black paint job.

And here it is just few days ago wearing its new all white paint job.

Now I’m just assuming they are the same truck as I can’t imagine Northshore Excavating has two identical steel nose DM in their fleet. I’ve poured over the photo and I can’t find any detail to suggest it’s not the same truck in both photos.

If you can find any differences let me know. I liked the red paint job better.

Posted in Still Working | 2 Comments

International 9700

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Eric

I recently came across a worn out copy of Owner Operator from 1988. Usually I would like to keep a magazine like this intact but it was so weathered that I figured I would slice it up for some of the cool truck related advertisements. With surgical precision I removed the staples, trimmed the pages and scanned them in for all to enjoy. The paper is a tad a thin and yellow after all these years but most of them came out decent.

Here we see the International 9700 billed as the only way to travel first class. I would gladly buy a ticket for a ride in one of these of an airline flight any day.

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Brockway Fuel Truck Duo

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Eric

As a kid did you ever have a “spot the difference” activity book? Here is the classic truck version. While the two 358 model Brockways below are not the same truck they certainly have more than a few similarities.

I picked up the above photo on eBay while feeding a baby late at night. At the time I thought I might have found the original version of a truck I spotted at the 2018 National Brockway Truck show. After I took a full look at the photo when it arrived I realized it was a case of close but no cigar.

Clearly the two were cut from the same cloth and who knows, they might have even passed down the factory line one after the other.

Posted in Vintage | Tagged | 4 Comments

Western Star Heavy Hauler

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Eric

The other day I came across a heavy haul load, a massive electric transformer, that had a pilot car in the front and the rear. I don’t have any pics of the truck doing the hauling but that’s okay because it wasn’t as cool as this Western Star of Charlebois Towing.

Trucks just look better with squared fenders, big hoods, and large grills. Hugh caught this truck awhile back as it was hauling a few dump bodies. Now that I’ve seen this photo I wonder what trucks make up the rest of the Charlebois Towing fleet? If you recall from many years ago they have a massive Freightliner twin steer tow truck.

Posted in On the Job | 1 Comment