Lost and Found – Toast Edition

Some of the trucks that find their way to the Lost and Found category of this site have a chance of coming back to life. Others do not. Do you think this old girl still has a chance? It looks like a fire started under the hood and spread to the cab. This will NOT buff right out. But then again this was at a local repair shop soooooo, who knows?

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Around the corner was this International S2300 complete with the desirable areo package. Based on the custom mirror and light bracket I’m going to say this truck once hauled mobile homes or other oversized loads around town.

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I don’t think it is as lost as the Chevy but it’s well on the way!

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Stuck in Traffic

It was easy to take a picture of this truck as it was stuck in a massive traffic jam. The story begins two weeks ago when the east bound lanes of the local interstate were closed so a bridge decking could be replaced. The detour for thru traffic consisted of a segment of local downtown streets that provided barely enough room for numerous unsuspecting semi trucks. To spice things up just a bit construction was occurring on the very same streets of the detour. That’s how we do it in Syracuse. While the turns were tight they were not impossible and most truckers were having no problem. Things quickly changed at the start of the morning ush on day two of the detour when a Toyota Corolla lost a wheel and came to a dead stop in an outside turning lane. One poor driver of new Kenworth T700 just couldn’t handle the obstruction and parked his rig in the intersection. He tried to backup. He tried to pull forward. Each move he made only served to straighten his truck out more and more making the turn that much more impossible. By now police had arrived and many onlookers were shouting advice with more than a few hoping the driver would back into a nearby police cruiser. He came close a few times. Thankfully an army of construction workers were on hand and moved many of the barricades to a nearby sidewalk and encouraged the driver to make another shot at the turn. With workers in front of the truck, watching the sides, and hanging from the doors the driver was finally able to make the turn after a tense 15 minutes. Talk about back seat driving. Subsequent truckers had no trouble making the turn. Go figure.

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ChampTruck World Series

I don’t want anyone to spool up their turbos prematurely but it looks like semi truck racing is making a return to the United States. The ChampTruck World Series is slated to host eight races starting in 2015 at various locations across the country. The racing trucks will be comprised of Class 8 trucks from the 2010 model year and back. Engine choices will be limited to commercial available diesels mated to manual transmissions. Full safety setups such as roll bars, fuel cells and fire suppression systems will be required along with restrictors limiting the top speed of the rigs to 100MPH. Teams will be comprised of your average joe and industry manufacturers. ChampTruck hopes that a series of rules regarding chassis and engine setup will help keep the playing field level. With racing taking place at famous tracks like Daytona International Speedway, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and Michigan Motor Speedway organizers are striking for the hearts of the American motorhead. A deal is in the works to bring the series to TV in both a 30 mintue and one hour program. Keep your fingers crossed!

Take a moment to read up all the details by clicking here. While your at it check out PowerShiftPerformance.com for even more details about the series and the creation of ChampTruck. From what I see the first race of the season will take place in April at the Charlotte International Speedway. I’ve shared this video before but its a good representation of what to expect when the series is off the ground.

 

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Macungie Mud

Talk with anyone who has attended the 2014 ATCA national meet in Macungie more than once and you’ll probably hear stories about how muddy the show field can become with just the smallest amount of rain. This year rain soaked the grounds right up to Saturday making for a interesting time as trucks attempted to enter and exit the show. This International Transtar 4300 tow truck had to make the run up the slightest of hills more than once before it reached the top. Some people felt his actions made it worse for anyone else wishing to leave the show. I feel it made for a fun video.

Filed under the category of hearing before seeing is another International Transtar 4300. This awesome looking truck is Detroit powered.

I think I have at least one more mud video laying around so stay tuned!

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I went to Jersey

I went to Jersey and all I got was a picture of these two Macks. I know it sounds like a bad cheap t-shirt logo but it’s true. The past week I have spent some vacation time in the the beauty that is the garden state. I bet you didn’t even notice I was gone with how smoothly things have run around here. During my stay I saw plenty of great sights from the beautiful shore line of Ocean Grove to the casinos of Atlantic City. I saw plenty of great trucks too. The roads of Jersey are jammed full of tough looking Macks riding big rubber, customized Petes with excessive amounts of chrome and lights, and our personal favorites, Autocars! In an attempt to keep my car on the road among the crazy traffic I didn’t get shots of any of them except for this pair. This Superliner stuck in traffic about sums the travel conditions.

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And then there was this nice looking bulldog setup as a skip loader on I-95 outside of Elizabeth, NJ.

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As you read this post I am traveling back home so it’s possible I may find a moment to grab a few more shots if road conditions permit.

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Autocar Mondays – Autocar Of The West

A simple truth for the day. Autocars are the original heavy duty work truck. Nowadays this setup would be probably be found a Kenworth or a Western Star but they can’t be what this truck is. They are pretenders to the throne.

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Sure, it may not be as comfortable as a modern C500 but look at that external AC unit and those custom fender markers. Love it.

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Thanks to Ryan for sharing!

 

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Tankers

Tankers, the get stuff done. I’m not sure what was in this one but whatever the liquid was it was hot.

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This Freightliner FLD was on the job cleaning out electrical vaults. The lettering on the side got me thinking, what is residual waste? It’s probably the name of a punk rock band somewhere but here it stands for nonhazardous industrial waste. I didn’t know there was such a thing.

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Loadstars Revisited

Back in May I brought you a pair of International Loadstars from a stretch of Madison County (NY) road. In that original post I mentioned that for a many years that there was at least one other truck that in a past life was a fancy looking fire truck. Sadly by the time I decided to take pictures it was long gone. Thankfully Andy wasn’t as slow with his camera.

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If you can look past the missing fender, grill and bare chassis you can see that this was a sharp looking truck at one time for the North Rose, NY fire department. Further down the road on a dead end end off shot Andy later found this boom truck.

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Another missing grill. Not much back story on this truck. If you have any details please feel free to share.

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Mack Roll Back – The Next Generation

I think we all had some fun yesterday with that Mack Titan so lets keep the Mackfest going with these two roll back trucks. To begin here is an old R-Model that I have been hoping to snag for a very long time now. A major traffic jam in downtown last week provided a great opportunity to fire off a few shots. A nice survivor here thanks to Syracuse Haulers.

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Representing the new breed of bulldog is this Mack Granite of Riccelli Trucking. The historic Niagara Mohawk building provided a nice back drop to this truck.

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Mack Titan – Trans American Trucking Service

It’s sorta embarrassing to mention this but…this is this first Mack Titan I have ever seen outside of a truck show. I supposed I live in a dull part of the trucking world. Coming back from the ATCA Macungie show I pulled over to check out this truck from Trans American Trucking Service. To give you the idea of how long this setup was it took me over a minute to walk the entire length. I’m not sure what it was carrying but it must be heavy. Probably a UFO because aliens. The Trans American website lists the capacity at 300,000 pounds spreading out the weight over 19 axles. The Western Star out back is physically connected the rear of this setup by a draw bar. He’s along for the ride if anything should go wrong.

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Awesome!

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