OOOohhh...........Dude!!!!! What a great story!!!
"And You Still Have It?" [sm=jawdrop.gif][sm=jawdrop.gif][sm=smiley32.gif][sm=smiley32.gif]
Mine had a 3sp slush box, and I went through 3 of them in two years. Always wanted a 4sp.
Have any more stories?
Dave

 

4 Speeds, 5, 6,.......give me a break!

I used to drive a dump truck for a mining outfit.
They would load the truck in the pit. You would then start up a hill, to get to the haul road that was ten foot wide, with 40' of water on each side.
When you crest the hill, it's hammer down, and flat out to the dumping area.
I was running a '66 Autocar, V-6 "Screamin' Jimmy" 2 cycle diesel w/671 blower, 5 and 4 gear boxes, and 2sp rear. Giving the option of 40 gears ahead.
I only used the clutch when I started, and when I stopped. Have to shift too fast, to double clutch each shift. It's all timing. Tryin' to hold rpms from 1900 to 2500. The closer to 2500, the better.
16 shifts to the top of the pit, a shift every 3 sec., and 1 shift for every 1 mph in speed. No grinding gears allowed, you miss one shift, you loose your momentum, and you have to start all over. Basicaly, start with rear in low, main and aux. trans in 1st. This is called deep under. Now you shift the main box till in 5th, come out of main box 5 and go to 1st, while shifting the aux box to 2nd, all at the same time, and so on up the ladder. Once over the top, I could take full gears 'til I reached 67mph. (in a truck that weighs 64,000 lbs. loaded)
The engine had one straight pipe, that ran up the back of the driver's side rear corner of the cab, sounded kinda like drivin a top fuel funny car.

 

Behind the scenes........
My wife and I worked at a concert/sports venue here in Reno, and were involved with hundreds of entertainers like ZZ Top, Tina Turner, The Eagles, Kiss, Clint Black, Tim McGraw, WWF, Monster trucks, Disney On Ice, and many many others.
Most of us have been to a concert put on by one "Star" or another. Ever wonder what it takes to put on a show?
The show trucks show up about 7 am., and every one goes into high gear. About 80 people gather around the truck entrance for instruction as to the process for that particular show.
Now the truck unloading begins. It was very common to have 12 to 15 semis waiting in line to be unloaded.
My crew and I have just spent the previous 4 hrs building the stage, and now the props, sound equip, video, satelite hookups, instruments, and lighting equip need to be set up.
Ramps are set up to the back of the 1st truck trailer, the doors open, and there packed from end to end, side to side, and top to bottom are the trusses for the lighting supports. These are assembled on the stage and raised to the proper hight by winches, hanging on chains that are anchored to an overhead grid/catwalk about 80' above the floor.
Now comes the sound equip. Speakers weighing as much a 300 lbs, Oh..about 50 of these, plus another 50 or so 100 lb cabinets. Cables, platforms, amps, and pyro are laid out. We are now about 8 hrs into the "load in".
The show director now gathers the people to work the show. Spotlight ops and sound support are briefed for the show, take their positions and rehersal begins. One hour to show time and the excitement builds. Last minute adjustments, a briefing by the lighting director, and we're off to our posts.
We get a 10 and 5 minute warning and then FLASH!, the lights come on and the band comes alive.
I think I had the best seat in the house, 65' above the floor, 100' from the stage, and operating the lead spot light. I could see everything from my spot platform (and hear it too!!!) It was like havein a miniture band playing on your coffee table.
The show goes for about 2 hrs and then the work begins again. Time to tear down and load the trucks.
It's kinda like an orderly collapes of a house of cards, what came in last, goes out first. Everything flows like a river as the pieces are dismantled and put back in the trucks.
It's now 4 am and I've been going strong for the past 26 hrs!
We've done shows that had as many as 25 semis and taken 34 hrs to complete load in, show, and load out.
We had the Eagles for 3 days as they were starting their new tour, and used our venue to put the show together. That was 2, 16 hr days followed by 26 hrs on concert day.
We were'nt allowed to consort with the "Talent", as they were called, but I had an all access pass due to being the in-house electrician, which put me in the dressing rooms to instal a coffee pot, or extention cord for a hair dryer.

One thing I found, is that most of the "Talent", were just regular people and were quite friendly.

Tina Turner, was 60 yrs. old when she did our venue. What a great gal, and what ENERGY!!! My god, that woman didn't stop the whole time she was with us. She had some BIG BAD body guards. Her limo pulled into the arena, 4 BIG guys got out first, then Tina with a big smile and a cheery "Hi Gang", to everyone within earshot.

I had gotten a call on my radio to come to the truck tunnel. While briskly walking (every one and everything moves fast at a show), down a hallway that circled the arena, I ran smack dab into Hulk Hogan as he was coming through a door from the arena. I tell you what, that guy is pretty good size and solid as a rock, I thought I'd run into a closed door. He grinned at me and asked if I was allright. He said he was sorry and shook my hand. Now, I'm 6' tall, and pretty stought, but Hogan is one BIG DUDE!!!

Tim McGraw sang to my wife during rehersal, while she was doing some last minute prop adjustments. He kept following her around the stage and made her blush a beautiful red.

And there is "Guitar World". Thats where the gutars are cleaned, restrung, and tuned for the show.
I got to play one of ZZ tops guitars.
When the Dixie chicks were at our venue, the guitar tech gave me a guitar tuner that has Dixi Nat printed on it.

My wife and I have posters and T-shirts form every show we did. The T's are my prized possesions. They're not the ones that you buy from the vendors, these have the band logos, the name of the venue and "Local Crew" printed on the back or front. You have to work a show to get these!

I really had a blast doing shows, but the hours were devistating. Work a show for 24, 30 hrs, and then DIE for about another 24 hrs.

The shows were allways catered, and we ate REAL good!

I wont' say who the band was, but I crawled through the air vent system with some microphones, laid them out at strategic places and pirated a copy of a concert by one of my favorite groups. That's a big NO-NO, but
I have the tapes, and I'll deny it if questioned.

Ya,.......that was a fun job!

 

Man, you guys, what awesome stories! I really enjoy these. Now that the emergencies are over, I am hoping to find some time to post more of mine too.

 

Take that......Woodpecker!!!

When I was about...oh... 10 I guess, I was home sick from school. Dad was at work, and Mom was in town at the store.
I was feelin' pretty miserable, just lyin' on the couch, when this woodpecker starts hammerin' on a telephone pole down the street. "Hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer..........! Was drivin' me nuts.
O.K. Mr. woodpaecker, I'll fix you.
Went to Dads closet, got out his Winchester, Mod 70, 30-06, w/scope, loaded a shell in the chamber, and stepped out on the front portch.
There, just down the street about 80 yrds, about 40 ft. up the pole, was that damn woodpecker. I laid the rifle on a brace for the porch roof, took aim, and BANG!!! Feathers flew everywhere, and what ever was left of the woodpecker fell from the pole. As the wooodpecker was falling, the neighbor, whose house was next to the pole, stepped out to see what was going on. I just slipped back in the house and put the gun away. Never heard anything about it from the neighbor, I bet they wondered for a long time what the heck happened.
Dad started teaching me to shoot when I was about 6, so it was "no step for a stepper".

(I had to look up how to spell neighbor)

 

That reminds me... when I was about 12 my cousin and I were out rabbit hunting and haveing no luck. we were setting under a group of apple trees when a huge red headed woodpecker flew up and started hammering away like you say, on a tree about 20 feet from us. it went on for about 20 or 30 min and then my cousin had enough, turned and just that quick let him have it with both barrels of the 16G shotgun he had. nothin' but a bald spot on the tree and feathers every where.
also on that same trip, (mind you, my cousin wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer), we came upon a hornets nest in a bush. you know the big huge gray ones, we made our way around it as not to get stung but Mark turned around and blasted it with the 16 G and ran like hell. needless to say we used alot of calamine lotion that night. and after I could walk again I pounded his a$$ real good. I musta had a hundred stings.

 

Kicked his ****, did ya? That was too good!

 

YEEEE-IKES!!!!!! Just like pokin' a sleepin' mama-bear.... You'd best be sure yer Nike's are up to the task!

 

A'ight, here's a TopSpeed original, all true, each word.

Back in my late teens, I had a propensity to uh, lose my license. Not lose, in the sense of "where did I leave it last?", but more in the form of "if'n you don't hand that over to the department of motor vehicles, we're gonna toss yer butt in the Hooskow with Bubba and Big Jimmie." Needless to say, I didn't want to meet these guys, so, I'd hand it in.

Now, that hardly kept me outta the drivers seat. Today, you wouldn't catch me dead doin' this stuff, but back then, things were much more laid back and here where we live at night, there was hardly any traffic anyways, so....

So, what I used to do was go get one of my buddies, and have him drive for most of the night, then take over again when it was time to go home... minimize time in the drivers seat sans la license.

Two of my friends were less friends, and more like sworn enemies who forgot they were enemies when confronted with flats of beer and other party-type-substances... they really found great joy in seein' the other one in trouble, or squirmin', or whathaveyou. Real gentlemen.

Now, back then, somethin' had happened to whatever car it was that I had at the time, and it wasn't road-worthy, so we'd, uh, acquire, my dad's VW Westfalia van unbeknownst to him, and go out. I'd lift the keys, go get buddy, and then we'd go pickup the rest of the crew.

This one night in particular, everyone was really enjoyin' themselves in the van, as we cruised about. One of the guys in back was really annoying my buddy who was pilot, to the point where he was getting VERY agitated.

Finally he has enough. At the exact same moment in time that buddy #2 just happened to be standing between the two front seats of this van/bus thing. Now, imagine 2 bucket-type seats, with an opening between where the auto gearshift sits. This is where dude #2 is.

The "pilot" decides this is a great time to POUND on the brakes, and have a little sit-down chat with buddy #2. Not bearing in mind that we were securely fastened into our seats up front, in seatbelts, but buddy #2 was more.... how to say.... free standing in said vehicle. Now, we all know what happens to unsecured objects in a vehicle when it comes to an abrupt halt... yep, you guessed it, they keep moving until they encounter something solid.

This time, it was the front windshield.

BANG!

Buddy #2 does a faceplant on the windshield, and then abruptly falls down, square in the middle of the van/bus, on his back. Out like a light.

The pilot, at this time, his eyes... go wide like dinner plates. His mouth gapes....

"We KILLED him!!!!"

"NO, WE DIDN'T!! He's out."

"Is he gonna be OK?"

"Uh.... sure?"

We scramble outta our seats, leaning over the now unconscious remains of buddy #2... waiting.... gently poking... a light slap on the face.

*blink, blink*

"See?? He's alive."

At that moment, buddy #2 decides to open his eyes, sees us, and smiles.....

Missing 2 front teeth.

WELL!!!!!!

EVERYONE in the van, falls out... LAUGHING to beat the band!! One of our friends, went off onto the golfcourse we happened to be parked by, at least a few hundred yards in... you could hear him laughing SO hard, he was having problems breathing, he was crying, he was utterly in hysterics.... it WAS funny.

Now, at the time, my mom had long since passed, and dad was quite used to my antics but never really fully prepared.

When a solid moving object smashes into a windshield on a vehicle, the said windshield tends to break. It was so bad, on the way home, I could barely see out safely to navigate.... head out the side window of the van kinda stuff.....

I get home. Park the bus-thing. Go upstairs. Replace said "liberated" keys. Go to bed.

Woke up the next morning to see my dad in my room, very very upset.

"We had vandals last night!! Do you KNOW anything about THIS?"

"Me?? No, God no, dad. Why? What happened??" *blink, blink*

"THE FRONT WINDSHIELD IN THE VAN IS TOTALLY BROKEN!!!!!!!"

"Oooo, those bad guys, those rotten vandals. Wow, they musta tried breaking the window to get in, huh?"

"Yeh, I'll phone the insurance place.... you really don't know anything about that??"




Hehehehe.

Well, the van goes into the insurance place for a look-see. Our insurance adjusters are apparently, not operatin' with a full deck. They missed all the glass fragments on the inside of the van. They missed the fact that the actual part of the windshield that was the centre-point for the disaster, there was a clear spot in the middle of it on the inside of the van, where point of impact, ultimately the 2 missing teeth from buddy #2, truly was. Just a wee bit of cypherin' woulda revealed the whole incident occurred inside, not outside.... either I was lucky, or everyone else was a tad stupid. Your call.

 

Great story Scotty...Did you save the teeth?