For all you old timers,we never forget.

[kiwiray]

Originally Posted by OleGuy

I think that was one reason we did no doze off so easily. Driving then was kinda like riding a bicycle- Alway pumping the clutch, moving the lever , and straighteneing the wheel. Constant activity.
Take a new truck now, 500 HP, cruise, auto-shift, interstate, and a really good air ride seat it is sleepy house now....

You are so right around mid 2005 the guy I drove for put a brand new Scania top line on the road it was the first & only high roof in NZ, it had a 580hp V8 with 12 spd manual shift it came with aircon, 6 stacker cd, Dvd with flat screen tv, fold out table to eat your meals, a nic e comfy bunk up top & a fold down bunk on the back of the cab, Oh boy did I think I was the coolest kid on the block, it was 4 axle truck pulling a 4 axle trailer 45 ton all up & I did an overnight run of 425 miles that was pure luxury that truck, then for some strange reason my boss decided to replace the Scania muffler off & replace it with a Mack free flow muffler & turned it into a noisey peice of expensive , he said he loves the sound of a roaring V8, all very well for him, he didn,t have to drive it all night, he only drove it occasionally when ever he felt like it, still I suppose it was his money.

kiwiray down under.

[OleGuy]

Oh Yes, the Golden rule--- The man with the gold, makes the rules.

He may be one of those OLD drivers that shifted by exhaust sound rather than tac.
I did that on the old gas jobs until I started running our northern states with diesel trucks. Too cold to keep the windows down to hear pipes. LOL LOL

[outofworkjoe]

Originally Posted by OleGuy

Oh Yes, the Golden rule--- The man with the gold, makes the rules.

He may be one of those OLD drivers that shifted by exhaust sound rather than tac.
I did that on the old gas jobs until I started running our northern states with diesel trucks. Too cold to keep the windows down to hear pipes. LOL LOL

Hey I do that now,and Iam an young"un.

[OleGuy]

Hey, you are a young'un if your hearing is good enough to hear your pipes with windows up, heater and defroster roaring, trucking thru a PA winter. Ran eggs from Osage, IA to NYC a few times across the Pike. Y'all do get some weather.

[xchief]

I never use the tach. I learned on a '62 f model mack, 711 with a 5x4 quadraplex. You always used the exhaust sound and I grew up in west/central Pennsylvania. Those things were so noisy you didn't need to roll the window down!!!!

[Apostolic]

I'm with you on this action xchief.
I never learned to drive using the clutch to shift.
An old timer taught me to float the gears way back in the early 70's when I first started driving semi's.
I'd driven a straight truck,or a box truck as it is called now days.
I used the clutch driving as there weren't to many gears.

I also never used the tach,I went by the sound of the motor.

After getting used to it which didn't take very long, it was like doing something every day without thinking about it.

Over the years I had to train some dock hands how to drive semi's and that is when I had to figure out when to shift using the tach for their benefit.

Looking back in the day at some of the junk I was driving.
I know the young ones now days would not look into driving for a living had the power units not improved.

Yes I'm talking no power steering,am-fm radio's,or air conditioning.
How could we deal with that?
Oh yeah and mostly floor loads, skids,or pallets were very rare,also no such thing as hours of service,you worked till the work was done.

No I'm not whining just taking a trip down trucking memory lane.