highway

I bet all the Patriot's balls will be checked thoroughly before the Super Bowl!!

That or it was added for intermodal use. It seems the one is a standard 50 gal tank but the other looks smaller, and I think the long tanks on regular rail use trailers are 75 gal. It appears as if it is a Pegasus unit, I'm not sure if they ship by rail or not. It could also be for drop and hook ops, just to insure the trailer doesn't run out of fuel on a drop yard.

No JT, I've got one better! A good friend of mine had a Papa Truck that I did everything short of steal to get off of him and I just couldn't seem to talk him out of it. Well, a couple years ago we were talking and he told me he was going through the model room cleaning up before he came over and he had a "surprise" for me. Yeah, it was a surprise alright, he walked in with Papa Truck in hand and floored me with his response when I asked him what he brought it for, he said "for you"! He said he lost interest in it since he didn't have the Super Boss to go with it and he knew I wanted all the years he had it so he just gave it to me. My years of persistentance paid off, and proved just how good of a friend to me he is!

I don't like football, but just let the Colts play with the Patriot's balls!

I didn't even know the Granada lived to see the 90s!!!

All the skirts themselves are fiberglass, aluminum, or plastic depending on the manufacturer of the skirt, but the ones like JT replicated on his are only flexible at the bottom where they are black. That area is most likely rubber, because sometimes driving down the road they will "wave" at you with the air currents. I'm around these every day, and a few different manufactures styles, I can get some pics if you like and post them when I get home after that.

Well guess what Cliff, as I was sitting at the gate leaving the DC today, I seen an Xtra Lease trailer wearing skirts!! I couldn't see if it was a reefer or not, because we do haul dry grocery out of there as well, but it was at least an Xtra with skirts.

I just wish the moderators would leave truck related posts in the TRUCK section!! Anyway, it does look like Steve's suggestion would work, another idea you might try is a fine point Sharpie. I don't know if they still make them, but there at least were Sharpie paint markers with a fine point that I have used for small detail work and they covered well.

At least in my current job, I don't have to worry about CA, I only deal with western PA, eastern OH and most of WV, but if the 2020 use of super singles means national fleets like Schneider move to them completely, that will be the year I retire! I just don't like singles, I'm too oldschool and see it like this, if I blow a tire other than a steer, I at least have another to safely limp to the next exit ramp or truckstop if one is very close and get off the road, but singles mean I'm stuck on the side of the road. I've also heard they are horrible in the snow and ride rougher than a dual set. The only truck I ever drove with singles was in Dallas when I worked for Werner, I was there waiting to be assigned a truck and they had me shuttling new Petes from the factory in Denton to the Dallas terminal. They were all small bunk 386s that were supposed to be for a dedicated account and of the 6 I brought back, some had singles and some had duals, and the singles did ride rougher and tended to "walk" more than the dual equipped trucks just bobtailing. Also, Cliff, not saying they don't have them, but I don't remember seeing any Xtra Lease trailers with skirts. Walmart will get some in at stores and in the yards as extra storage for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season that we call "turkey trailers" and some that were at the yard especially were newer units, and I don't remember seeing skirts on them.

I only get on rookies because I've seen a bunch of stupid stuff in 17 years! At one time I was one of the rookies too, I just have always been more safety oriented than most drivers though, mainly because my brother was also a driver and lost his life in a crash 6 years before I followed in his footsteps. His accident was medically related, but still it makes me more safety conscious, as in shutting down in bad weather like snow and making sure I do an inspection any time I park, even if it is just going the truck stop after I get fuel. Schneider makes us do an annual safety ride along, which I am having Tuesday, and I'm sure the safety man will only have the same comments he did last year, my bad habit of resting my right hand on my gear shift! Also Mike, surprisingly I don't see many owner ops pulling their own trailers (at least around here) running the skirts even though you'd figure they would want the most fuel saving gadgets they could afford. The only ones that are common are ones leased to companies like Schneider that are pulling company owned trailers. Another idea you might want to think about with the skirts since you said your plan is a spread axle is adding a tool box between the spread on both sides. The theory behind the skirts is to reduce the air drag that gets sucked under the trailer in the openings, and there would be a drag area in the spread, and the boxes would help reduce that area just like the skirts do, plus anything to add chrome on a nice custom truck!

Yep, between 17 years on the road and Google, it helps! The newer trucks are also wearing skirts, they may be hard to see here, but there is rubber skirting on the fairings of my Cascadia. Schneider also uses those wheel covers on all there tractors. I'll try to get better pics when I go back to work, and also if I see any other odd styles of skirts at work, I'll get some good pics.

Also, this is what I was talking about the rubber strip on some, it still extends the skirt but prevents this: And an example of another thing for rookies to tear off:

Actually Mike, all of the skirts themselves are rigid, the only thing that is flexible is a rubber strip at the bottom of the skirt, which is the black area JT replicated seen best in his first pic above (and below in this reply) that is to prevent damage going into angled docks where the skirt may drag the pavement. The ones in JT's pics are the most common setup, and when installed on a reefer, they also have two holes cut in them for the filler neck of the tank and the fuel gauge in the center of the driver's side tank face. These two pics have another style of skirt, and these were both pics of brand new Wabash trailers on the factory lot in Lafayette, IN. By the way, for those of you that may be wondering why the second trailer is white, it was a dedicated use trailer (Best Buy if I do remember correctly) that also had a roll up door instead of barn doors. There is also a brand that I seen once that slides with the tandems and also there is one trailer similar to this one I found in a Google search that I pulled at work that the skirts meet in the middle of the trailer. Walmart and others also use these style skirts. Nice job on the skirts JT, but here is a little help for you next set.

I have also seen them on their pups too. Supposedly that is the claim that they save fuel, I just see them as another thing for rookies to tear off!

I echo everyone else's advice, the Revell KW or Peterbilt would be a nice choice for that trailer era wise and also for ease of building. I haven't really checked in on Clayton's build lately, but if he lowered the Prostar and the belly of his livestock trailer isn't dragging, I'd try to mirror his technique. That would be the only issue I'd see arising with a lowered truck pulling those style trailers, the belly scrapping the pavement. As for the length, us truckers would see it LOL!! The nice thing is though, trailers that short are rare but still in use today, so even a modern rig with a 70s era trailer is a possibility. One other note on that "racing" trailer though, when it was first issued they were moving vans, the racing options were added in the 90s.

No, I think that guy was trained there and moved from OH and got a CDL to drive where Clayton works LOL!!!!

Wow Clayton, sounds like he needs a new job NOW, and NOT in another truck! At least with Walmart, only the Walmart private fleet drivers that deliver the GM (general merchandise) trailers have floor loads, and all of those are drop and hook! The grocery side is always on pallets, even though when the DC forgets what shrink wrap is made for or they hide a case in the middle of the pallet that is too high to clear the door some does hit the floor! I just love when a store unloader doesn't catch the case dragging the top of the door opening and yogurt flies 7 feet to the floor and splatters! It does give our trailer washout guy at the shop job security though!

Yeah Clayton, that was mainly why I took the pic, that was the first time in my at the time 14 1/2 year career (17 years now) I was ever unloaded like that.

If you run into a tree, you don't need to be driving a tractor or anything else for that matter!!! I'm not sure of the model, I think it may be a Wheel Horse, but there is an older tractor already in kit form and can be found in this kit. I have two of these kits that I bought only for the tractors, I don't want the cars! As for my wish list, just about any new modern tractor trailer, both trailers and trucks, and some big mining trucks and equipment too. The old Payhauler is nice, but bigger is always better!

Haven't you ever heard of "saving some for later"!?!?!? I'm sorry, but being overweight myself, I find that comment quite offensive!! I don't use electric scooters, but just because one may be overweight, it doesn't mean that is the ONLY reason they may use a scooter. You, in my opinion, are just being crude and judgmental with that statement! You don't know their story or problems, you just see an overweight person in a scooter and think "just another lazy fatBLEEP"! I weight 360 lbs, walk and stand on my own, but with my past, should actually use a scooter sometimes because I have a very bad back thanks to a compression fracture to my L1 vertebrae that I suffered in a fall down steps in December 2012. It is people like you with your narrowmindedness that I would rather suffer through the pain I get in my back that sometimes is so bad I can't move the day after just for some of the most simple things in life even at one time I took for granted like grocery shopping rather than using a scooter and being judged by idiots like you! Take some time to think (that may be hard for some) before you judge, there may be a more serious reason a person is using a scooter to get around!

I'm sure those of us who do more than build big rigs but drive them to afford our hobby too all have had days like this, a day when you wish you would have just stayed in the bunk. Well, yesterday was one if those days for me! It all started with it actually being one of my scheduled days off, but I decided to work it for a couple reasons, one being that I had just gotten back to work on Wednesday after two and a half weeks off thanks to the flu that ended up turning into bronchitis. The other reason was my girlfriend has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so I figured I'd take today and tomorrow off instead of the scheduled Friday and Saturday. Anyway, the first part of the bad day started when I first got my load assignment for the day. It wasn't the load itself, but the last of four stores (for those of you that don't keep up, I drive on a dedicated Walmart grocery account) just happened to be a store that I have been to three times in the past two months to and each time that store has left me sitting for over two hours each time just because of store associates that seem they just don't care to actually work for their paycheck, but other stores in the same area can have me in and out within 30 minutes, so seeing that store on the route didn't thrill me, knowing it was my last load for the week and that store's performance would dictate whether or not I slept in my own bed last night. I went and got my paperwork and hooked up to the trailer and found the last driver figured he was too good to top off the reefer fuel like we are supposed to before dropping the trailer, so a few more minutes of time wasted for me to fuel it. After that I went to scale out before I checked out at the guard shack, and steer axle weight was 11,700 lbs like normal, the drives were 33,600 lbs, and them I rolled the trailer tandems on it and seen 36,000 lbs on the scale readout, NOT GOOD!! I turned around and went into our office, the dispatcher let the DC know, and I had to get one pallet taken off, so I had to put it back in a door, and I go to the door the DC assigned me, and there is a trailer in front of it!! It wasn't in the door, just parked (poorly if I might add ) about 10 feet from the door blocking it, and it was an outside carrier trailer to boot! Another 5 or 10 minutes of wasted time getting another door, and then more time for the DC to pull the pallet and rework the paperwork. In all, just for 2,000 lbs and one pallet, I lost 2 hours! I seen the chance of actually getting home last night slipping away very fast, especially with the last store and their poor unloading reputation, which even the other stores in that area have heard about and other drivers have been complaining about in our office as well. At least after my trailer went on a diet and I scaled out legally and I finally got rolling, the day got better even though I was 2 hours behind what I planned to be. The other three stores all got me in and out in about 30 to 45 minutes each, and even the nightmare store surprised me! Even though it took them almost 30 minutes to let me in the back door at the docks to be unloaded and the manager heard about the past three times I had been there and I'm used to waiting up to an hour just to even be let in, he actually had me unloaded and in and out (including the wait to be let in) in just a little over an hour!! I made sure I thanked him for getting me out so quickly, hopefully some things are starting to change at that store, because I told him because if it had been like the past three times, I would have probably not had the time to make it home last night. And yes, the day ended much better than it started, because I had plenty of time to get the truck back to the DC and get in the car to come home and sleep in my own bed last night!

Also, since my other to pics were when I was driving for Werner, here's one from my current job with Schneider working on the Walmart dedicated fleet. This was at a store in Kingwood, WV, which is a sorta out of the way store in the WV mountains east of Morgantown. It's on top of one of the hills and a major PITA to get to, especially in the winter or with a fully loaded trailer, but it does offer some nice scenic views. The next time I go out there, I'll get some pics of the view that, as much of a pain it is to get to, make it a nice way to forget the stress of the drive out the little two lane that is the only way in or out!

Even though the foreground may not be the most scenic, the backdrop of clouds are, and the view from the top of Garbage Mountain was actually quite nice as well!

Wow, I think that puts a whole new definition to the term "psycho girlfriend"!