haulin coal, the tractor vet

back in the late 70's early 80's did you haul coal out of mines on 83 north of Coshocton, I hauled out of there to Paulding ohio every nite five days a week, coal payed 19.00 a ton going up and limestone payed 6.50 commin back loading out of any national you wanted to, was a long day. anybody else haul coal back then?

No i was never down at that mine . But i did haul out of darn near everyone west of 77 as far down as I 70 . The fun one was W B COAL out of Union Port . One plum nasty place to come up out of . Took all the pony power my buddy and i had as he and i were the only ones able to drag a 45 tonner up and out on our own power . We hauled Akron Cleveland Painsville Toledo Ritman . Hauled oil treated stoker to a lot of school systems . hauled a lot of Lump coal out of Cadiz and Fairfield coal even up into the U P of Mich. Hauled god only knows how many tons of Salt out of Painsville and Cleveland along with out to Toledo and Cinnci . Hauled alloys off the river and Philo . Lots of lime out of Woodville And Carie . I also did long distance Salt hauling to feed mills thru the mid west for Truckway and brought back stainless scrap for Chem haulers to Pittsburgh . Lets just say i was a Lady of the evening and a Gipsy as i had 13 permanent leases leases and in any given day i was hauling a load for up to five different companys . If you saw me there was a 99.9% chance my buddy was either ahead of me or behind me . We both ran hard and nobody could keep up . Don't know if you knew Hog Head from down on the river , but we had that boy fired up and what all he did just tryen to run with us and still could not get the job done even with his new Freight shaker with the 3408 Cat , then there was Big Dee with his K W with the KTA 600 and the Jenkins boys with there KTA's that could not keep up . Ah the fun times of OUTLAW trucking Run fast haul heavy and look light.

...?they couldn?t keep up with us?... they were probably always spinning out in the BS you we?re spreading! One thing about it when someone comes in first there is always someone who has to ?humbly? say they were second. ; > )

I've never hauled coal but I lived in Coshocton in '77/'78. It's a beautiful area. Peabody had a mine near by being worked by the world's 2nd largest, walking drag-line.

"8^)

stonerock I use to haul scrap from dayton and cincinnati into clow. Then coal from Coshocton to Fairborn. Late 70 s...RB

Peabody Kayenta coal mine shut down a week or so ago because the Navajo Generating Station in Page, AZ. shut down last week. Put a bunch of people on the Rez out of work. Predicted to take up to 3yrs. to dismantle plant. Coal was hauled from mine via conveyer to silo then to NGS by electric train. Sold a lot of bolts and nuts to both locations back in the day.

tractor vet, know what you mean, ran hard and nobody could keep up. about 20 of us that hauled coal into Paulding I was the only one that made 5 trips a week on about 3-4 hours sleep a nite, the others would miss at least one day a week. every other Friday I would get the 6th load in as long as I was there befor midnite, then load Saturday for Monday and start all over again. most of us hauled heavy I tried for 135000 a load some were heaver at 140-150. on the back haul daylite hours would haul limestone about 30 ton that was heavy enough for daytime. pulled a tri-axle east trailer for the brakes and had goodyear G 167 that ended the tire problems

So out of curiosity what were you running for a truck, what engine and drive train set up? Never hauled coal but just like to hear about old trucks. I have a ?74 Pete with a 12v71 Detroit that was a pretty hot truck back in the day but lots of power in some of these newer trucks. Thanks, Mike

I'll bet that when I was trucking there were guys that thought that I couldn't keep up. I had 475 HP and I didn't run heavy so I could pull the hills just fine. One time on a fifteen mile haul I had a kid in a new Mack pushing me so when we got into the quarry I waved him by. I made the same number of loads as the fast guys and girl, LOL, though I took an extra half hour a day to get it done. I got an extra half hours pay for the same work, and beat my truck up a little less. Fuel, brakes, suspension, all last longer. Go ahead and keep thinking they can't keep up, LOL.

Showcrop, sounds like you were payed by the hour, load lite drive slow, big difference I got payed by the ton could only make one trip a day so I would fill the coal bucket up and tarp it leave at midnite for Paulding dump coal go to national in Delaware pick up limestone 30 ton daylite hours take it somewhere south in ohio dump and go load coal then go home and do chores that was my day...get home around 6 pm. you had more hp than I did

. mschwartz, had a Int 4300, 400 cummins running 450 to the ground and a 13 speed truck would run 72 mph . had about 400,000 on engine before I put a bottom end in it , traided trucks at 600,000 still runnin good

I had a 77 4300 I H eagle 210 wheel base Engine started out as a 350 Small cam transmission was a 12513 feeding into I H R A 44 rears with 4.33 gears on a 40,000 lb four spring . Trailer was a East MFg. 30 footer with 68 inch sides and the heavy tri axle Aluim. frame with New Way 544 supen. , 12 inch Johnson 60 ton scope two way gate with coal door . The box had 12 inch on center cross members something they had not done on any other trailer before mine . I had 1/4 inch sides and a 5/16th floor . It was built to haul a charge but still be vary light . total net weight of tractor trailer full of fuel went 27400 on International Salt scales and 27500 on Standard Slag's scales for a certified light weight . What was done on the engine to improve power was the heads were redone and all valves were stelite Injectors change from five hole to six hole and a matched set all delivering 178 CC per 980 strokes , turbo charger was changed out and a custom turbo built raising boost from 26-27 PSI to 68 psi , Injection pump was changed and built . Springs inside were swapped out fuel delivery pump was changed from the 3/4 gear pump to a 1 and 1/4 gear pump used on the 1710 V 12's cam timing was changed a bit just a little as stock was .036 and we changed it to .038 . RPM was raised from the stock 2150 to 2450 full gov run out . Now how much pony power went to the ground we can't really say as the last reading we had on here was 478 at 65 MPH and when they tried to load her down more the drive rolls stopped the drive wheels on the tractor with power divider locked in did not stop and the blue smoke rolled from the drives and she made three huge bounces and broke the chain and went out the door dragging the gauge conceal off the wall taking it with it out the door and Chucky the mechanic standing on the brakes trying to get it stopped before it hit the retaining wall . This happened at Cummins in Hubbard O. They had just dynoed a KTA 600 that was being tested by Nick Strembu trucking out of Sharon Pa as he had 6 KTA's in testing for Cummins pulling doubles across the Ohio and In. pikes loaded with steel . They were complaining that the 600's were having problems pulling the Cuyahoga hill on the pike with a 160 grand . On the dyno and yes i was watching that KTA 600 turned up 20% laided down 475 at 55 MPH to the ground in seventh direct on a 12513 transmission where mine was in *8TH direct at 65 MPH and just purren along at 1975-80 RPM and was just starting to really build boost as it was showing 38 psi on the boost and could go as high as 68 PSI under a real load and Chucky only had 480 psi on rail pressure and it would go to 540 Psi when ya had he running 2100-2150 . Plus he did NOT have it flat on the floor as he was easing into it and watching gauges with his mouth hanging open . NO Cummins did not do this work , some of the work was done by ME and most was done by Diesel injection out of Chesswick Pa. knowen as the HOT ROD SHOP for Cummins . I can tell you this that even today that little old small cam Cummins would plum eat what is out there today . Back several years ago i went back to driving and was hauling the big ugly stuff 99 % of the loads were permit loads Some wide and heavy some wide high and heavy and some just plum heavy . That truck was and International 9400 sporting a 3406 E Cat that was set at 550 factory at 1850 . Then it was sent over to OH guess where Diesel Injection and had the first gen . power box installed and raisen it to as they said around 740 at 1850 and peak torque at 1450 around 2100 Ft.lbs . Had a 13 speed had 44 rears on air ride and had 4.11 gears on tall 11 24.5 rubber and that is like the old 10.00 22 back in the day of my 4300 . Now the 4300 was NOT a high speed deamon but you could stretch her out to over 80 and on paper they said 88 . Don't know for sure on that as the speedo only went to 80 and we had her pegged a few times . BUT back then 55 was the max . So they said. Now as far as what the 9400 would run myself not sure but the BOSS got a high speed driving award on I 80- in Pa for 98 . Now as pull power if you run the same roads with about the same weight over the years one learns what gear and how fast one can drag the hills . I pulled many 90 to 95000 lb loads up I 77 thru Va. W.Va. and the buckeye when coming up Fancy Gap north bound the old 4300 could top that hump at 75 with 95 and change in the bucket Not gross we are taking net . She would just stroll up that hill in 8th directat around 22-2250 the 9400 with 90 setting on the deck would do 72 over the top in 8th direct. . Going the oher was i took 54 68 and change loads of tire presses to Wilson N. C. over the course of 2 years and i could stroll down thru running 70-75 . those loads were vary top heavy . . The Cat got a little better fuel mileage Little hard to get use to even more so then a Mack with the slower turning engine . Kept wanting to shift at 1750 as i did with my old Cummins as it would pull from 2350 down to 1750 before going under the Charger and the Cat acted like a Mack and Chug along down to 1350 then fall on it's face. The jake brake on the old Cummins worked REAL good , on the Cat yea it worked some what but not as well as the cummins . Going down Fancy gap with 68 and change you could hold 65 in 7th over if you kicked in the engine fan manually no fan then ya had to hit the brakes . One can not believe how much drag a fan can put on and engine . Old trucks had a fan clutch controled by a thermostat with no manual over ride and mine was one of the last with air controlled shutter, nice in the winter to keep engine temps up at night while idealing . . Some will calm B/S but this is how it was . My trtuck and my uddy;s trucks were bought on the same Thursday evening with the same line set ticket and only one number different in the S/N and both we set up just the same . If you never hauled Coal in the Buckeye back in the day you have no idea of how we did thing or how we hauled . Yes there were a few times we DONATED to the great state of Ohio for or discretion , yes i made donations elsewhere also ,Some days you get the Bear and somedays the Bear gets you . It was the cost of doing business . Ya can call us Outlaws if you like . BUT it was FUN. Wish i could figure out how to scan the only picture i have of the whole outfit and post but being old and not computer savy and all the kids are gone i don't know how . Neither mine or my buddy's looked like BIG trucks or fast trucks , we did not want the look . BIG trucks have dual LOUD exhaust and BIG engines and if they go slow up the hills then they are the ones who get stopped and checked over . Little trucks have ONE exhaust pipe and are QUIET and they haul light , MOST little trucks back then only had tandem trailers where the big trucks had triaxle trailer and the great state of the buckeye just got the sixth set of scales and now could weight TRI AXLES and like a dog with a new bone they were going after the TRI axles HARD . Mike and i gave up the tri axles and went new Light weight tandems . We went on a diet Going from TRI AXLES to Tandems i went from 31500 down to 27400 Mike went from 32500 down to 28400 his steel frame was a 1000 heavier then my aluim. . Our thinking was IF we had to change our ways and we were going to have to run stuff other then coal and salt , sand and gravel and run more into Pa or W. Va. then we needed to lighten up and drop the tri axle and loose four tires . BUT as long as we could get away with loading the wagon if it fit's it ships . Yes we hauled heavy as everything paid by the ton so don't worry about the Mule load the wagon and go . we wnet by RUN FAST HAUL HEAVY and look Light and BE QUIET . Something goes past ya quiet you will never look up but let something be loud and go past your going to look .