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With or without a monitoring system: Doesn't the driver do a brake check when hooking up the trailer? How about the daily pre-trip on the tractor itself? You know before you hit the roads whether your truck will stop, because you checked the brakes while still in the lot. No electronics...

Layout, if you read the link you know the mother in the story is involved. About as involved as you can get. The problem is that there are none to help her, and the answers we're getting--- more parental involvement-- aren't going to help. Something serious has to be done, or the kid in the...

OK, Moose. What do you suggest should be done? Somewhere along the way, my right to swing my fist has to stop short of your nose. Now, I'm not in favor of restricting people's rights in general, but when someone makes threats against other people's lives something needs to be done. See the link...

It is only by the grace of God that you've never heard my family mentioned in a deal like this. One reason I'm not quick to blame the family of the murderer in any way is because of some personal experience in this type of thing. My brother, in his younger years, was always talking of killing...

OK. The results. Neither one looks terribly survivable. The Sprinter LOOKS better, but the van just doesn't have much room to absorb impact before the driver's compartment "gits it". Cars these days are built with "crush zones". In a frontal impact like in the video, the front end of the car...

How about not hitting walls at 60 mph? Does that work for you? It occurs to me that hitting a wall at that speed isn't going to do the driver much good regardless of what brand of van he's driving. There isn't a lot of crush distance to absorb the force before it's in the cab of the van. Heavy...

Bird-cage covers. Best thing ever invented.

I used to be a moderator a long time ago on another forum. For those who aren't familiar, being a moderator doesn't mean you're sitting in an office somewhere doing nothing but watching the forums 24/7. Most of these guys are drivers, same as the rest of us, who moderate when they have the...

Google is your friend. I just did a quick search, it didn't take long to find the link below. Plenty of info here, dig in and make your best-guess judgment. Off the top of my pointy skull, this doesn't look like an expedited company. It looks like general trucking. A & L Global Enterprises...

There might not be much public outcry even then. The "black box" only comes into play in aircraft when there's been an accident. Otherwise, the plane my fly millions of miles between being built and being broken up for scrap and nobody will pay any attention at all to the black box. Of course...

OVM has a point. Just on the hours-of-service issue, there are some drivers and some companies that would try to go 24-7 if they could, only the law that requires that the driver get some time off stops them. Even then, some still try to push it and we read of them on the local papers when the...

Why do I have this feeling that OVM's "mishap" response shouldn't be read unless four fire companies are standing by?

I got to thinking about this when I stopped for a few minutes this morning at a truck stop in Fort Wayne. There was a Panther van with a generator-- it looked like a Honda generator, but it was mostly covered so I couldn't be sure. The unit was running, and I noticed the Qualcomm unit on the...

I think the Ragman might be able to dig one up somewhere.

While we're awaiting what appears to be the inevitable thread lock, a quickie recap. Sprinters have the advantage-- especially the big ones-- of having plenty of room. The payload is similar to any 2500 series heavy van, so weight-wise there's no gain/loss either way. Volume gives the...

Thread lock in three-two-one----.

Hmmm.... Y'know, about half a mile from my house there's a hill that overlooks a railroad. It doesn't happen often, but when it does happen the hill makes an excellent place to view an in-progress train wreck. I think I'm standing on that hill right now. Special note goes to Apax for somehow...

Sprinter maintenance is in a world of its own. It seems to involve, amongst other things, lighting candles on each side of the vehicle, walking backwards away from the van reverently and singing "How great thou art" while your wife plays softly on the organ. Give an American van an oil change...

The oil seems to come from the hose, and not the propane. Mr. Heat sells a hose that doesn't create the oil problem, so you can dispense with the filter.

I'm using the Big Buddy. After some thought and a bit of experimentation, plus no little concern about the possibility, however remote, of waking up dead, I decided to add a small fan to the festivities. The fan is a clip-on type, I have it mounted to the ceiling just to the left and slightly to...