highway

Looks I have to come out and visit you!!!

I'm not sure if Navistar is getting out of the engine market or not, but I heard Ford was having problems with the Powerstrokes from Navistar, so they built their own. I have a neighbor with an 08 F250 with the Navistar Twin Turbo 6.0 Liter (might be 6.3 Liter)Powerstroke, and I have a 90 F350 with a 7.3 Liter non turbo Navistar (before the Powerstroke came out), and we started talking diesels and fuel mileage. I was surprised when he told me his nearly new truck, with about 20,000 miles on it, if that much, only got about 11 MPG. My old, tired, leaky (the engine's color is oil ) 7.3 Liter with almost 180,000 miles on it gets on average around 14-15 MPG! That is sad that a 20 year engine with almost 1.0 Liter more displacement, no computer engine controls, just mechanical injection, and no turbo beats a modern computer controlled twin turbocharged engine in fuel mileage.

Charlie, I feel the cab in the link, especially since you said it uses the Dodge L700 as a donor, would be fine with the frame and engine from the L700 kit. The auto rack you are planning on using, is it the AMT haulaway hauler or something similar? If so, I think the older cab would look nice with that style trailer, I think those styles were also used in the 50's. A 40's model cab would look fine with it, low budget company or not, just because the truck would be about 10 years older than the trailer, doen't mean it's still not useful. I worked for a local towing company that still used tow trucks older than I was! They were early 70's trucks, one was a Mack R and the other was a White Western Star. They were almost 30 years old when I drove them, but they still did the job!

Actually, Casey, the tires on the Snap Ranger look like the BFGoodrich tires like on my Dodge. I zoomed in on your pic and they appear to have the same tread patten as the Dodge's.

Only 196, try 400+ like my collection! You may have a sickness, but I AM ADDICTED!!!

You and Tim both need to share with me!!!

Man, share the wealth!!!

I think you may have to result to the rattlecan for this, Ben, short of going to a place that custom mixes auto paints. I painted this 09 Challeneger with Testors Custom Lacquer System Hemi Orange, and from a spray can, it turned out nicely.

It's looking very nice, keep up the good work!

GOOD FOR YOU!!! There are some of us who ARE, including ME, and find Bradley's pics very helpful!! If you don't like them, DON'T LOOK AT THEM!!

...Or for any "accidental" misfires!!! Wonderful job!

I agree with Charlie, but I think I'd use the gold as the accent color and the red as body color. Other than the flip on the colors, maybe a nice set of custom wheels, since the colors wouldn't be stock. Essentially a nice grocery getter!

Now that you mention it, my friends reefer trailer does look a little on the thin on the sidewalls compared to my container trailer.

I'll look forward to seeing more, especially the trailer!

Ben, I have a question on the height of the Italeri reefer trailer, how is it short? A friend of mine is building one of them as his current project, and I had seen before the height was wrong, so we mocked it up on both our Italeri tractors and I checked the height with my 1:24 scale ruler. It measured out at 13'6", or really close to it. I agree the seam is a HUGE downer, it is not as easily dealt with as the seam in the container sides are, at least it is hidden by the ribbing posts. The wheels should have been done like Italeri's Volvo VN with a chrome cap instead of the usual axle hubs, also. One thing I must disagree with, though, is your view on the suspension. I drove for a company when I first started driving truck in 1998 where the entire fleet of trailers were newer model Utility 2000R 48' reefers with spring ride suspension. I hauled reefer (again, the trailers, not the herb ) for most of my over the road career until I came off the road in 2003 and started driving locally, and pulled mostly 53' and 48' reefers, and about 90-95% of them were spring ride trailers. There were very few with air ride, and many of the dry vans I pulled were spring ride as well.

That truck looks very similar to the Dodge L700 tractor that Linburg issued, tractor trailer wheels would be fine on it, just like this Ford race car hauler: Your truck would look better with the aluminum style wheels like this Ford has, though, instead of the spoke wheels shown on your box.

Yeah, they probably carried them over from the 95 longbox I pictured.

What do you have? You could send them my way, I'll build them and figure out where to put them later!

Randy, what type of truck are you using?

Thanks, Wagoneer, and I also think a modern 53 footer would be a get follow up as well, but give us guys who hauled reefer (the trailers, not the herb!! ) some love, too. They could even offer it as a 2 in 1 kit with the option of dry or reefer. I'd buy two or three cases of those!

It's looking good so far, keep up the good work!

How come the pics didn't come up, you just have links this time!

I didn't even know AMT made a snap version Ranger. The only ones I've ever seen was the Ranger STX and Splash glue kits.

Chucky, I do have to agree I'm thrilled and appreciative to have a new big rig subject coming to the shevles, but the scale MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME!! It is hardly noticeable, as Art said, and here are some pictures to prove it. They are of my latest project, an Italeri 1:24 scale Ford LTL 9000 with AMT's 1:25 scale Wilson Livestock Trailer. The view from above with the livestock trailer: The right side drive tires with livestock trailer: The left side drive tires with livestock trailer: The next set of pictures are of the same Italeri 1:24 scale Ford LTL 9000 with Italeri's 1:24 scale Container trailer. The truck and container trailer from above: The right side drive tires with container trailer: The left side drive tires with container trailer: As you can see, the photos of the 1:25 AMT Livestock trailer and the 1:24 Italeri Container trailer are VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL!!! I have know idea how familiar you are with trucks, as I do not know you personally, but I am a Class A CDL licenced driver with over 12 years experience. I have driven most everything with 18 wheels, and know most of the older trailers AMT offers are 60's and 70's technology, in which industry standards the largest trailers were 40 feet long and 96 inches wide, container trailers also fit this standard. Todays standards are 53 feet long and 102 inches wide, and one modern 1:1 scale trucks, the edge of the drive tires line up with the edge of the trailer. I have hauled older 96 inch wide trailers with modern tractors, and the tractor tires hang out from the edge of the trailer just like the scale pictures here. I also, by the way, used my scale rulers on the trailers, my 1:24 scale ruler scales the Italeri 1:24 scale container at exactly 8 feet, or 96 inches wide. I also measured the 1:25 scale AMT Livestock trailer with my 1:25 scale ruler, it also scales in at exactly 96 inches wide. I hope this proves Art's statement, in my opinion, THERE IS VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCEBETWEEN THE TWO SCALES!!!!!

I'm not sure about the roll bar padding, but I've heard of thread being used for zipties.