Back in like 1973 i was driving coal bucket for a guy . Back then our control levers were on the out side of the drivers door , you had two levers one for the PTO and one to control the up down hold . . It was COMMON knowledge to ALWAY keep the up down lever in the DOWN and that was the forward possession and foward on the PTO was out . I was the last truck in the yard this one evening and backed up next to the fuel tanks as we just had the common 350 gallon tanks up on stands like most farms had and gravity flow . While i was fueling the BOSS came down and he and i were talking and he was messing with my levers as he was the nervous type and always had to fidgit with something . I was going to move my truck because i did not know if his boy hadd come in as his truck was not setting in the yard as he dove a tri axle straight truck . When i went to get in the cab to move over the boss say just leave it as his kid had come in and fueled before the other driver came in and took the truck to his house for the night as he was working just down the street from his house on a construction job . So i left it set and went on to the house . Next morning i was running a bit late from when i wanted to be off and running . Bob the other driver was gone the boss was GONE and i just knew i was going to hear about being late . My truck held good air and would hold air for four days , yep un heard of but it would . It was foggy as all get out and at best you could only see a 100 feet . I fired up the might 318 kicked the brakes off and out the drive i went i did not even have to stop for the traffic light . I did no0tice when i went to change gears she was a little slugish . Mirrors were covered over with dew and the mirror heat had not started to work just yet and i started to hear this twing twing twing and felt a sorta jerking of the truck and i stopped and looked out the drivers door back at the trailer and there she is up about to the forth scope piston and all kinds of lines hanging from the tarp basket , OOOOOOPPPPPPPS hit the down and jerked the PTO out and the box dropped and i was pulling phone lines off the basket had a FEW house service lines also hanging also . got back in the truck and on down to the coke plant . Got back to the yard that evening and there were all kinds of utility trucks working sucking up on that inch and a half fixen lines . I back in next to the fuel tanks and start filling and here come the boss and once again he is messing with the levers and telling me about how they lost power sometime early in the morning as someone took down all them lines and i said SOMEONE really wonder how that happened and i point to all them black marks on the box and again said really just don't under stand how that happened and i point to his hand on the levers . I get OOOOOHHHHHH don't say anything . Some how all them black lines on the nose of the trailer vanished over night . John Never touched my levers again. About a year later and Acme coal driver was killed on I680 while it was under construction when he failed to drop his box after dumping and took off flying with the box in the air and he caught the only over pass in that section and it caused the truck to be pulled up and slamed the cab into the bottom of the over pass smashing the cab down flat even with the hood and that driver i knew he was a BIG boy that took up most of that D M600 Mack cab. I did not see it happen but i saw it shortly after it happened as i was also hauling on that job . we were hauling out of Standard Slags Struther plant hauling base and it was a short run with lots of trucks on it . Now today the trucks all have incab controls Some are air shift and still some cable and levers . Most have a warning light that tells you hey dummy you left the PTO in gauged . Old ones did not have that light . Also i don't care if ya drive a straight truck or a semi you shold check your mirrors . A lesson learned the hard way and luckly it was only wires . It makes one aware of what is going on more around you then looking straight ahead . What gets me are the guys that hit bridges pulling box trails and heavy equipment . there are signs that tell you ahead of time there are BOOKS that will tell you before you move what lays ahead . Just because i could fit 40 ton of coal under one under pass does not mean i can make a 13.6 box fit , first off ya can get up enough speed and chicken hauler stack will be of the CURVED design if ya try . a 14.4 load will not fit under a 14.4 under pass with tarp and padding added.
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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