My truck ran over my Dogma

The real saying is "My karma ran over my dogma" which is probably a good fit too. I have had a trying 10 days is where I am going with this. First there was the flu that came to visit. I was laying in bed with fever and I kept thinking about this prank call I had heard on Howard Stern a number of years back.

It was me though, laying in bed muttering "shoo, shoo retarded flu, you ain't gonna get me..." But folks, I was got. Once I felt well enough to work again, I jumped right back in and had a killer full day of work, as you will see in the photos to come. Where does the truck come in to this post? Well, I will explain soon.

The first thing I did was tie up all the wires that were hanging down. With all that cleaned up the interior looked so much better and the possibility of strangulation was minimized.

Then I began drilling rivets. It all begins with a single rivet...

... and removed the belt line all the way around the trailer.

Next the belly pan was drilled off and it was slowly taken down too. Each piece was labeled so it can be used to make a new panel. Many of the sections have many holes from dissimilar metals and making new ones is the way to go.

Kind of hard to put something like that back in. The steel out riggers just ate their way through.

Water has been eating it's way through various elements of the frame too. I made Rosie's owner sit down before I sent her the following photos. Maybe as her support staff you might want to sit down also.

Virtually every out rigger is bad. The ones that hold the steps are fine and so are two others but all the rest are seriously compromised.

The floor we already knew about.

Unfortunately most of the outriggers will need replacing. Fortunately I LOVE to weld.

A very cool find though was taped to the bottom of the black tank. April 4th 1973 was when I am guessing the tank went in. I love these little tidbits of construction archeology.

So where does the truck come in? The following morning I needed more drill bits. As I pulled out of the driveway my 9 year old Dodge was running more rough than usual. For the past year I have been having issues with it running rough from time to time. My mechanic could not seem to put his finger on the reason. I was so tired of this intermittent problem I opted to pay through the nose and go to the dealer. Turns out I drove out to Madison Wisconsin last summer (2442 miles), three times to Central New York(666 each time), to Connecticut(870 miles), and a few 1000+ miles recovery missions for clients on a cracked cylinder head. No wonder I was using a quart of oil every 6000 miles. So two days were dedicated to finding a new truck for Frank's Trailer Works. I am now driving a gently used 1 ton Dodge.

Turbo deisel, heavy duty tow package, 4 x 4 should handle just about any situation it is put too. I will seriously miss my old red truck. She has been a good tow vehicle and towed many miles with out any complaint. I hope this new girl can fill her shoes.