Posted by John Eickhof on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 0:27AM :
In Reply to: Re: I got my CDL yesterday !! posted by Tom Petroff (IL.) on Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 3:07PM :
My only previous driving experience with big rigs was back in the late 1970s My Brother in law owned Sierra Tow Service In Truckee and kings Beach Cal ( Worked over Donner Summit on I-80 ) ( I later bcame a partner) I usually drove a 1949 Autocar 2 axle 4 x 4 (all wheel drive) with a Holmes 600 and spent the winters pulling stuck 18 wheelers out of the snowbanks and over the hill! It was a sweet old rig..it had an old Cummins with a 5 speed and 3 speed brownie and was loads of fun to shift!! Ours second largest truck was a 1959 Ford 9000 2 axle 4x4 (ex Nevada Hwy Dept Plow truck ) with a Holmes 600 and a screaming Detroit 6V53 and a 5 speed box ( no brownie!) It's top speed was 42 MPH but I could pull a loaded 18 wheeler over the hill at 42 MPH!! plus we had two 1970 Dodge W-500s one with a Holmes 600 and one with a Holmes 500 plus 3 Dodge W-300s with Holmes 480s and 500s. Long before the era of the undereach lift and wheel lifts!! I had a Class 1 California license back then! I miss those days..but I still have several wrecker bodies I am saving to build a vintage PW with some day!!