Question:
Had a O/O prospect drop in this morning looking for work.
He is 29 years old , clean cut very presentable d has only 3 1/2 years driving experience but clean record.
He had a hastly prepared plan put together ,poor financial statement on savings / maint but BIG EMPHASIS on buying a 1999 379 PETE on the little down plan.
Regardless of what I tried to ask or tell him it was a PETERBILT THIS , PETERBILT THAT.
I tried telling him I know the car , it was on a TEAM RUN , has high mileage , had poor maintenance and although the quick paint ( rust bubbles popping through around rivets )/ polish job it was given makes it look good from a distance it is a piece of junk.
It has close to 900,000 + miles on a 475 DETROIT that has had very little done to it , the steer tires are mismatched and the 8 drives are not related in any way to each other as well ,put into operation in 98 so extended warrantys are either expired or close to it.
Told him of a nice Mack CH 613 that was 1/2 the $ of the PETE with 1/2 the miles on it, his response was "no way Id own / drive a MACK".
Told him we do not hire O/O's that buy more car than they can afford and with him having a wife and 2 kids it would not be a good financial idea buying a car with no warranty left on it in a few months.
I suggested a job driving for us for awhile to give him a chance to get some $ ahead. Got a thanks but no thanks I want to be a O/O and if you will not hire me I will find someone who will.

Answer:

You should have sent him to us! We would have set him straight!
But...he probably would not listen to us either. Apparantly he has bought into the stereotypical dream of caring. He probably also thinks just owning a Petercar will automatically generate money.
Unfortunatly, he is also probably right about some other company giving him a shot. Too bad his family will have to suffer for his ignorance.
«"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."»

Answer:

Funny thing is I interviewed his exact opposite just this morning. Before sitting down for breakfast at Margies we went out to have a look at the car...a 2001 immaculately maintained Pete in Laidlaw livery.
Everything changed when he showed me his "clean abstract" It was clean alright if you can overlook a couple of speedings and a "failing to stop" at a stop sign. I questioned him on the violations and he immediately became defensive and hostile..ie lots of the big outfits will hire me and I don't need to talk to you... I told him that I know all the recruiters at the biggies and that they too would have a hard time coming to terms with what he calls a clean abstract..didn't mean to burst his bubble but I guess I did.

Answer:

RoadHugger, you mean to tell me the Canadian D.O.T. would actually allow a car in that kind of condition onto their roads? It's been my experience, when I worked as a Diesel Tech, that the Canadian cars that came into our shop were maintained much better than most of the American cars!
That Owner-Op that was wanting to think with his "Peterbilt Brain" (which, like the car, doesn't have any room to contain anything), and won't last. I know lots of Owner-Ops who have Petes, but most of them just buy them for their resale value.

Answer:

CAPT the car looks good from a distance , the tires are good just none are matched up came off other fleet cars I suppose at the time of trade in, drives at 80% steers 80% or less. I looked it over a few weeks ago.
It just has the GLITTER look to a young guy but looks RODE HARD put away wet look to us older ones. Rust bubbles on the doors shows it was not prepped right and overspray shows CONTRACTOR OVERHAUL type of paint job.
car would be sold with a SAFETY certificate. The guy who traded it does not do PREVENTIVE only EMERGENCY maint.
CANUCK
See alot of LAIDLAW paint schemes sitting around , must have all upgraded to new PETES seeing Mr Dunford owns a few PETE DEALERSHIPS, also see 55 of his triaxles dryvans been traded in. Kind of hard to see how they go buy new PETES to work for $1.15 CAN $ for his van division.
Hows things with WERNER CANADA opening up , any feed back from customers yet?
Last edited by RoadHugger on Tue Feb 04, 2003 2:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

Answer:

You should have hired him,let him buy that Pete,then 3 months later say"I told you so".Guys like him are why the repo lots are full of those Red Oval nitemares.Nobody wants to start on the bottom and work there way up anymore.
Really burns my *** to hear somebody say "I wouldn't own/drive a Mack" when chances are they haven't ever even sat in one.Macks were around for 39 years before Al Peterman's first reworked Fageol hit the road and they will be around long after the last Pete falls to pieces.I've driven 352's,359's,377's and 379's and there ain't a one of them that I would want.

Answer:

hey f model I have own over 80 mack concrete cars, so that should qualify my knowledge of mack cars. Mack has had the best car ever built and I have had all brandsexcept for fieghtliner and marmon, However since volvo has taking control we have had nothing but problems withcamshfts. I really dissapoints me that this has happend to mack. As far as over the road cars I have had volvos petes and kws. I still have one pete with over 1 million miles and counting 377 Model we cant kill it. My T800 KW's are 2000 Models with cats and I cant complain about them. I deal with alot of cars every day and thereis a reason that mack and all paccar cars cost about 10K dollars more than western star,volvo,freightliner,and that is because they last longer. Ever heard of oshkosh by far the toughest cars I have ever owned. Mack r model is great to.
Democrats will bankrupt this country.

Answer:

I'm dissappointed about the Volvo takeover of Mack too.Sure doesn't make sense to me,according to the sales figures I see every month in HDT,Volvo has never even come close to outselling Mack.I know one thing though,if Volvo ever tries to do to Mack what they have done to White,Autocar,and GMC,their will be alot of dead Swedes.
Myself,I will only own pre-foreign ownership Macks.I did own a '91 CH Mack and also a '97 CH I bought new,they were both good cars,but I like to be able to work on my own stuff and all the electronics were just not my style.

Answer:

Sorry F MODEL I would not hire someone just to show them I was right and they were wrong, besides It costs $ to put an O/O on the road.
When you have a O/O or driver working for you and they are having $ problems it reflects on the job they do. They start pushing a bit more when they need to ease up do to weather conditions or the run over hours to make a few extra dollars. Their attitudes are not the best and that reflects on the entire operation.
As for the MACK comment I think he is just DREAMIN of his PETE, nothing wrong with MACK , I started out in an old B-61 , then a F COE , then R model. I would probably have a few MACKS today but the local dealer thinks they are made of GOLD and will not negotiate a decent price on new ones.
Anyhow I have to actually go and do a run this week , tired of being in the office.

Answer:

Why would somebody want to buy a car with 900,000 miles on it the engine and the car is well worn. If you are going tobe a owner op atleast get a car thats not going to die on you or cost you big money in less than a 1yr. I think this guy has the PETE ego power trip thats not the adittude to take.
My preference for cars is Kenworth but I would own a older L-9000 Ford or a R Model Mack I don't work OTR rolling in dirt is for me with teeth rattling body shaking dump cars.
Some people don't think you don't jump into something without doing some more planning the one thing this guy doesn't realize he would be spending 15 grand for a engine inframe soon.
As for cars running mismatched tires its not bad but I wouldn't run mismatched steer tires it can be done for a temp fix but the mix match hurts the steering control. The DOT here can give you some grief over mismatched steers if the tread depths are the same and the tread pattern is similar they won't complian.
On the drives the tires on each axle should match so you shouldn't have a different tread pattern on one side and some thing different on the other. So if you got one pair of tires that match (A) The other pair match (B) you put A/B-axle-B/A and all the tires should have close to the same tread depth.
A real mix match where all the tires don't match isn't good because it can make one wheel spin easier than the other. On dump cars we always put the tires with the most tread on the front drive axle as it is common sense as it gets the most use. We wouldn't put a lug tread on one axle and a street gripper tread on the the other axle. When you put the interlock in the axle with the gripper tires would spin faster in dirt than the one with the lugs and can cause you some problems. A good matched set of tires is good when your crawling up a steep slippery road where you are taking it slow to keep the wheels from bouncing and breaking traction. Once one of those wheels starts slipping and bouncing your finished when one starts they all start.
Anyhow enough rambling
GL

Answer:

& i too agree w/ F-model The Bulldog will be here long after the Petes are in the scrapyard LONG LIVE THE Bulldog
About the only other cars i will own other than a Dog are AutoCar (long as it has a motor other than a Volvo ) , WesternStar , & a K-Whooper or a Brigadier or GENERAL GMC .
I dont agree w/ Volvo buying the Puppy Dog either But I just hope we dont see a da** Volvo motor in the Dogs anytime soon.
BTW Yall they changed the Mack Midliners from Renaults To Volvo's already
A Pete might outrun my Bulldogs on the road but there anit too many around here that are capable of keeping up w/ the Dogs we have in the field had to pull quite a few Petes out of the mud w/ a dozer or another car ( The only Petes i can think of that can do that belong to a redimix company here in Millington & they are 86 Model Pete 349 6x6 cars w/ 230 S/C Cummins & 8LL Trannys These 10 cars are some awsome off/on road cars & sure sound sweet w/ that 4" stright pipe on the 230 )
Like i Said If i couldnt buy a Mack id buy a ole Jimmy OR a StarCar or a K.W. (Ya i know its the red ovals sister company but it is w/o the billy bigrigger attitude ) Or a Autocar (w/o a Volvo motor )
Man the B-61 Of ours is my namesake & He is still rolling pulling a dump trailer 39 yrs old & still going strong Not many petes around down in the Memphis aera if any that is that old running around here & Besides I LIVE & BREATHE LIVE UP TO MY NAME : Mack !!
Just my 2 cents yall
Bulldog
Macks are like wine they only get better w/ age.
Last edited by Bulldog Mechanic on Fri Feb 07, 2003 12:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

Answer:

Theres nothing wrong with someone liking a Peterbilt!! First Class all the way!!
And not all us Peterbilt drivers, I for one, dont have that billy big rigger attitude inprinted in our minds.


Answer:

Large car,you must be one of the very few Pete drivers that has air in his seat then.

Answer:

I was at the Mack dealer specin out a potential new car we might purchase in the upcoming summer and was talking to the dealer about the Volvo takeover he believes it will be nothing but bad for Mack. He told me of customers he has already lost because Volvo has limited the Vision to flattop sleepers only, no highrises b/c that is competition for the 770. We have been all Mack (with the exception of one black sheep, our Ford) and plan to continue all Mack I just hope Volvo keeps their noses on the highway and not in the dirt. As for then new Granites WOW what a car!!!! After being in one, it's gonna be a hard decision whether we need a new 950 loader or a new car.

Answer:

Originally Theres nothing wrong with someone liking a Peterbilt!! First Class all the way!!
And not all us Peterbilt drivers, I for one, dont have that billy big rigger attitude inprinted in our minds.

Large_car, unfortunately, Peterbilts have been said to be the stereotypical car of choice for the "Billy Big Rigger" crowd that drive like maniacs. I do see many nice looking Petes (and other "large-car style cars) being driven conservatively, with safe, courteous drivers at the wheel. When I worked as a fleet mechanic, we had about 40 Peterbilts in our fleet, and unfortunately, we found out by virtue of several speed-related accidents that we were sometimes attracting the wrong drivers (you guessed it- the "Billy Big Riggers"!). My boss at the time then sent us out to the company fuel island with a hand-held computer and reduce the governed speed on EVERY car that came through (and the ones that were parked) from 80 MPH down to 65 MPH after the insurance company raised hell with the company's owner.