General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

I'm not talking about BBQs outside a sports stadium.

I'm just venting about the aggressive behavior of drivers that follow so closely that it is dangerous.

I had to think about this for a week... Just another life experience. This is not just some stupid opinion. I have been driving heavy trucks for 40 years. I have personally avoided, with luck, failures of equipment , that could have ended in death.
I had a driver in a 10 wheeler behind me on North country rd in an empty 10 wheeler. I know the feeling, when you are light, no load on. It feels like a car. IT IS NOT!
IT IS STILL A 15 TON VEHICLE !
Any way after giving some strong signals, he did back off. I was ready to rip him out of the cab and kick his balls in and break every phucking bone I could. I know how dangerous a heavy truck is.
Did I change his driving habits? DOUBTFUL. I should have ripped him out of the cab and busted his asss. The same as pointing a gun at me... Maybe more dangerous.

I have a car in front of me. I am leaving room for a safe space to react to ANYTHING. Listen girl... If you insist on riding up my tailpipe... At least buy me a beer first.
SPACE AND DISTANCE GIVE YOU REACTION TIME.

Just venting...

He is probably posting somewhere right now about some dangerously slow driver he got behind.

Yes I was doing 10 over the limit. With other cars in front.

Trucker dude... You are basically threatening me with your reckless concern. Should I rip you out of the cab and pull a gun on you? Just blow you away?

I don't think so...
That truck... Requires as much responsibility as loaded firearm.

More people die from drug overdose. More people die from car accidents. More people die from slip and fall accidents every year... Than all the gun deaths in America.

The big one is car accidents. With trucks, the average driver doesn't have a clue. I saw a good one yesterday.
The road turns into a left turn right turn. Some kid in a jeep, probably tailgating at speed limit... Because the truck wasn't speeding down the road... Both were probably going to make the right. However, the impatient kid in the jeep did not see or allow the trucker the opportunity to signal his intentions. The kid raced into the truckers blind spot. The end result was a driver side swipe. The jeep was damaged severely. The truck, only slight damage.

I don't know how to say this enough. Space is safety. The greater the distance between you and any other vehicle or obstruction means the ability to react with more time... Even milliseconds.

When that trucker was riding my asss without buying me a beer first... Thank God he wasn't texting.

Just a thought. The next time you are riding along side of a truck. Pass it or get away from it. Has anyone seen a truck tire blow. It is rare but it can happen. IT WILL TAKE YOUR HEAD CLLLEEEEAAAN OFF. (clean). In the old days we used angled locks under the nut to hold the rim on. I saw it first hand where one of the lugs had been fully removed and tension had not been removed... The lockdown went flying 3 feet and embedded into the concrete wall...

My point...Trucks are dangerous... Cars are dangerous... STOP TAILGATING unless it is at a JETS GAME and you are cooking some burgers.

More people die from drug overdose. More people die from car accidents. More people die from slip and fall accidents every year... Than all the gun deaths in America.

The big one is car accidents. With trucks, the average driver doesn't have a clue. I saw a good one yesterday.
The road turns into a left turn right turn. Some kid in a jeep, probably tailgating at speed limit... Because the truck wasn't speeding down the road... Both were probably going to make the right. However, the impatient kid in the jeep did not see or allow the trucker the opportunity to signal his intentions. The kid raced into the truckers blind spot. The end result was a driver side swipe. The jeep was damaged severely. The truck, only slight damage.

I don't know how to say this enough. Space is safety. The greater the distance between you and any other vehicle or obstruction means the ability to react with more time... Even milliseconds.

When that trucker was riding my asss without buying me a beer first... Thank God he wasn't texting.

Just a thought. The next time you are riding along side of a truck. Pass it or get away from it. Has anyone seen a truck tire blow. It is rare but it can happen. IT WILL TAKE YOUR HEAD CLLLEEEEAAAN OFF. (clean). In the old days we used angled locks under the nut to hold the rim on. I saw it first hand where one of the lugs had been fully removed and tension had not been removed... The lockdown went flying 3 feet and embedded into the concrete wall...

My point...Trucks are dangerous... Cars are dangerous... STOP TAILGATING unless it is at a JETS GAME and you are cooking some burgers.

those wheels which are not Budd wheels by-the-way, were called widow makers for a reason Glen, and glad you pointed out how hard it is to make a living at anything, and how absolutely dangerous it is to make a living doing certain trades-work..

I think split-rims were basically outlawed in 1969 or 1971?

Glen

A trucker tried to run me and my brother off the road when we were taking a van to Jacksonville to paint a hotel. I was shall we say, reverting to my nasty self.

We had to pull over and the trucker parked his rig in front of us and his door opened, he was a big one. I told my brother Cleve, who was maybe a little naive, to slip out the passenger side, sneak up behind the dude and kick him hard behind the knees...

"From behind?"

"This ain't a duel. Move it."

I grabbed a .357 and walked out to great our new friend. If he wanted to play for keeps I was in, if not, I was setting him up for a whupping to teach him some manners. The idiot saw my brother creeping around and he turned and ran, jumping into his truck and slamming it.

Why had he attacked us? No clue.

My brother always looked at me a bit differently after that. I think he'd kinda suspected me of being a nice guy.

The surprising thing to a road runner like me was a encountering a trucker like that. I'd hit half the truck stops in the south and many on the road west, and my experiences suggest that they are usually a darned nice bunch of guys who like the same grub I do. Always a bad apple somewhere I suppose....

And that's my story!

Now for the local news...back to you Glen...

Talbot

I think split-rims were basically outlawed in 1969 or 1971?

Thats what the phuck they were called . Thanks Dayne, those things were dangerous.

Thanks Dayne... You just proved what an old phuck I am.

COOL.

We have 8 split rims on our backhoe trailer we bought at auction from the City of Phoenix in 2003. The tire shop just looooves us!

That's one tire shop.
When you come riding up my asss with an 80000 thousand pound vehicle... I don't give a damn about any equipment on that truck...
You are basically driving a gun, and you have NO RIGHT TO BE WAVING IT AROUND!

Relax dude. I drive our stuff slow, otherwise bad sh*t happens. Been driving CDL for 18 years. Plenty of blown out tires. No accidents. 2 fender benders and a rear ender (by someone else) when I was driving the pickup truck, but not in the big one. Someone tailgates me, I go excruciatingly slow. F 'em. Most aren't even paying attention.

Used to joke on my Facebook page about being a truck driver who stops to sing every 22 hours. Had to stop because people thought I was really a CDL dude moonlighting on the weekends.

Drove 1,540 in 7 days to do 4 gigs last week before flying to Toronto for the weekend. Hit 404,000 on my 7.3 Ford Diesel in Greensboro NC last Thursday. Spent most of the entire day on Wednesday in Opelika, AL waiting for a tow truck to bring me to a local Walmart for a couple of blown tires.