Town of Mohawk – Western Star 4800

I first saw this truck at the NYS Highway & Public Works Expo but only grabbed one shot of it. This truck is massive and I just couldn’t get a decent shot of it completely in frame. Plus the lighting sucked and people were hanging off it like it was made of solid gold. A few days later I made a pit stop by Tracey Road Equipment as I so often do and was greeted by the truck on full display. Soak it in. Winter doesn’t stand a chance.

15391740490_e08af9fa43_b

The Details:

  • 2015 Western Star 4800 6×6
  • DetroitDiesel DD13 – 470 H.P. 1650 LB/FT
  • Allison 4500 RDS Automatic Transmission
  • Fabco TC-143 Transfer Case
  • Meritor 23,000 lb Front Axle
  • Chalmers B54 Suspension
  • Henderson plows and dump body

Posted in Snow Plows | Tagged | 2 Comments

Long Serving Heros

Zack, the purveyor of fine fire truck photos to the stars, is back with a nice collection of trucks still serving their communities in one form or another. I’ve always enjoyed the look of these Mack chassis trucks.

old saybrook ladder 372 (1024x683)

 

Thanks for sharing Zack.

Posted in On the Job | 3 Comments

Classic Peterbilt Trucks

Coverage continues today (thanks to Ryan) of the 75th Anniversary All Peterbilt truck show. As we’ve seen there were plenty of tricked out 3X9 models with insane paint jobs and blinding chrome but there were also plenty of classic models from the golden age of trucking. Check out this rig that once was operated by timber giant Weyerhaeuser.

Former-Weyerhauser-Pete-2-1024x683

Many great trucks in the gallery below and even more to come. Cabover fans prepare to drool.

Posted in Truck Show | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Christmas Season

Halloween is over. Thanksgiving is on the horizon. You know what comes next…Christmas! This past Monday the official Christmas tree for the City of Syracuse arrived for display in Clinton Square. Technically the city will never refer to this as a Christmas tree. In press releases it is simply known as “the tree”; just another part the Home For the Holidays celebration that takes place on November 28th. We all know the bottom line in this age of P.C. Annnnnyywaaaay, after two years of trying I was finally able to catch the arrival of the tree during my lunch break. It was a warm and beautiful fall afternoon that lead to some nice photos. Unfortunately I ran out of lunch time before the true setup began but I’ve got you covered through the links below.

JPW Erectors assisted Syracuse DPW crews with the hauling and setup of the 68 foot tall Norway Spruce. Using a specially designed tree stand that is physically part of Clinton Square crews cut and notched the base of the spruce to make a sturdy and upright display. City electricians will now spend the better part of the month rigging over 16,000 lights that will help make the holidays bright. Full setup details, videos and photos can be found here.

JPW Erectors

Link-Belt glamour shots.

Link-Belt Crane

And here it comes, 68 foot, 11,000 pound main event.

Posted in On the Job | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Spam

You may have noticed that since Monday there have been no updates to this site. Believe it or not I was locked out! For the past three days I struggled to regain access only to be blocked at every turn. I became a leech desperately bothering anyone I could at the WordPress support forums. I read every illogical post that remotely had to do with my problem hoping to stumble across someone to share my misfortune with while attempting to find a solution. Finding no shoulders to cry on I googled incessantly. I cleared cookies and caches until I saw the menus in my sleep. FTP this. FTP that. Reconfigure. Rename. Reboot. This hobby began to feel like work. During the darker moments I seriously considered just walking away from it all together. Leaving the page permanently frozen on an Autocar Mondays post wasn’t that bad of an outcome I figured. Nothing lasts forever. After reaching monumental levels of frustration I finally traced the problem back to an overloaded MySQL server. The root caused happened to be the spam filter that is so desperately needed around here. Over 645,000 tables entries marking every instance of “Cheap Gucci Shoes” and “Free Viagra” posts had finally taken their toll. After a surprisingly brief conversation with my website host I was able to setup a new database server and migrate over the data. Now instead of megabytes of storage I have gigabytes. Bring on the spam! I guess running this website requires a little more than just posting truck photos. HA!

1640269715_25c5485f81_b

In order to get back on track I’m going to post two or three stories today so keep checking back to see what it is new!

[Daniel Craig/Flickr 2004]

Posted in Free and Easy | Leave a comment

Autocar Mondays – A Tradition of Reliable Performance

Where have all the Autocars gone? More specifically the A-Cars mentioned in the article below. Published sometime in the early 80’s the goal of this advertisement was to highlight the unrivaled dependability of Autocars when paired with Cummins engines. Four separate trucks are mentioned with their then current owners telling amazing stories of dependability and power. Mike Moore speaks about his turbo powered HB-600 “Iron Turkey” hauling scrap through the desert. A HRB-600 for Mario Susi of Boston is remembered as a hero after plowing snow for one week straight following the Blizzard of 78. Don Macke tells us about his NHB-600 affectionately known as Ol’ Auto powering through the hills of Arkansas with a 5 + 4 transmission.  Have these legendary trucks been lost to the sands of time? I did some googling but didn’t turn up any leads. Does anyone out there know if these fine trucks still exist?

DRG78

Page 1 – Click to Enlarge

DRG76

Page 2 – Click to Enlarge

DRG77

Posted in Autocar Trucks | Leave a comment

Wegmans Food Markets – International TerraStar

There is no good reason to go to a super sized Wegmans grocery store on a weekend. Imagine the busiest mall parking lot you ever saw and then multiple that intensity by a factor of five. And just wait to you get inside. Aisle after aisle of people wandering around in a daze with carts full of organic produce, smoked meats, craft microbrews, and artisan cheese. If you don’t have a Wegmans in your part of the world or have never been to one you simply cannot understand the cult that develops around this chain. Full disclosure, I worked for the company for over five years until I was kidnapped and sent for reeducation. The deprograming was long and painful but look at me now. I’m a fully functioning member of society. Anyway, I went to the DeWitt store yesterday figuring that I could get in and out quickly as I was only there for two things. Nope. My faith in humanity has once again been reduced to near historic lows. The one shining moment was spotting this International TerraStar lingering near the loading docks. I enjoy catching the old ball trucks of usually homogeneous fleets and this International fits the bill when it comes to Wegmans. Their typical tractor usually consists of Volvo VNL’s with a few Kenworth T660’s sprinkled in for good measure. Of course those trucks pull 53 foot trailers van trailers from warehouse to store. I’m not sure of the exact roll of this little guy. Maybe it stays local running produce from nearby farms directly to area stores?wegmans truck international terrastar

Posted in International | Tagged , | Leave a comment

75 Years of Class

As Peterbilt fans will tell you, class pays. It also pays to know someone on the west coast who much like myself is obsessed with trucks. Last weekend Ryan attended the Peterbilt 75th anniversary truck show and came back with enough photographs of chrome, chicken lights and big stacks to last a life time.

Maggini Trucking

Maggini Trucking Needlenose

Lil Rays Transport

Lil Rays Hardway Pete

Rethwisch Transport

Rethwisch Transport

Believe me when I say there is much more to come!

Posted in Truck Show | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How It Once Was

Time to share more photos from David regarding the trucks that once were part of the plowing scene in Connecticut. Here is an R-Model Mack from Newington having a bad day. Look at all that twisting.

newington2 (1280x987)

The Town of Bloomfield ran this sharp looking Ford L-8000 built to heavy dump specs using funding that should have been enough to cover only a single axle lighter duty truck. As David explains.

Ford Brazilian 240 horse under the hood. Had a 6613 trans, you had to row it down the street when loaded. Otherwise, all heavy duty, including the heated dump; had full live hydraulics. Occasionally got a 10 sander stuck in the back to cover a route, but mostly used with a tall one way behind a reversible single axle plow truck in front of it. Great for clearing shoulders. Also good for materials, it held a solid 18 yards.

Ford L-8000 Dump Truck

Rustic. No frills. Just a few of the words that come to mind when looking at the Bridgeport Public Works garage. At one point in time the facility was a trolley barn. In fact, some of the bays still had tracks running through the floor. Plenty of Macks in this photo.

Bridgeport Public Works garage

In the gallery below you’ll find two shots of near identical Ford Louisville plow trucks on the day they were auctioned off. The trucks were equipped with 1160 Cat engines, 5 speed trans with two speed rears and Tarco slide in sanders. The plow make is unknown. Both belonged to the Town of Bloomfield. The garage seen below with plows at the ready is from Newignton. Just look at all those Internationals 2674’s. Beautiful. The little yellow International was a custom build to plow commuter lots in East Lyme, CT. At the time low profile trucks wouldn’t hold up to the work while 1-ton rigs simply couldn’t get it done. Know you know why International felt the need introduce the TerraStar. Big truck desgin in a little truck package. Thanks for sharing David!

Posted in Snow Plows | 2 Comments

Bridge Inspections

I recently came across this older White WIA (I think that is the model) setup with a bridge inspection boom. Owned by McClain & Co these trucks lower their operators over the side of bridge so critical structural components can be inspected.

bridge inspection truck

A few weeks after spotting this machine I spied another bridge inspection truck parked at a local motel. I was on my way to check out some new rigs at Beam Mack so I made plans to stop on my way back for a quick photo. Ten minutes later I returned to find the truck gone! I headed home dejected. About thirty minutes later I left for the local supermarket and found the truck again right as it was leaving the parking lot. My wife did a a good job snapping a shot through our dirty windshield.

international workstar bridge inspection truck

Another McClain & Co truck this time in the form of an International WorkStar with a very set forward front axle. The working end of this truck is an Aspen A-40. Moral of the story. Never give up on the hunt.

Posted in Free and Easy | Tagged , | Leave a comment