I'm 12 miles north of the Jeep plant on Stickney Avenue in North Toledo, Ohio and the company I retired from was the major supplier of interior steel for drive line components and suspension components and I'm here to tell you that Diamer and now Fiat will buy anything so long as it's cheap.
You couldn't give me a Jeep especially after the hunk of junk CJ 5 I owned. Over priced and under powered, they are a yuppie image vehicle and not much more. I could go on for pages about the junk they bought. Bogus Certs, off grade material, they didn't care so long as it was bargain basement cheap. We used to sell them Russian boat iron that was so bad, the master coils had holes in the middle, they didn't care as it was cheap. Got to the point where we were scrapping whole coils of it and getting more in scrap price than we were paying for the steel from Russia boated into Detroit Marine Terminal or Nicholson Terminals. Amazing business and very crooked too. I used to haul it down and if we knew the scales were closed SB, we'd load on 3 40K nuggets and roll. One of our drivers' dad was an MPSC officer so we knew when they were open and closed. Still involved with the company even today. One of the guys I hunt with just retired from their Butler, Indiana plant, he was the plant manager there and one of the other guys I hunt with ran the truck end of the company and the overall GM and my wife and I and his wife, we are all good friends. Last 2 years prior to retiring, I was the Safety and Compliance officer for the company. Cush job, company car and expense account. Those were the days and when I retired, I bought one of the company road tractors, a Western Star extended hood double bunk with a 3406 NZ Cat and an 18 speed and I still have it, it's a classic. Every tractor and trailer they bought was to OO specs. Big engine, big trans, big rubber and they all went like a scalded dog. Bought them like that so they could resell them when they got 500K on them or so, real easy. In fact they always had a waiting list to buy them. 500 K jerking heavy iron on Michigan roads took their toll on them. All plated for 163,000 pounds and many times we were pushing close to 200,000 pounds. We got paid by the hundred weight so the more you put on, the better it paid and we all loaded the wagons, regularly. The company owned the dealerships and all the trucks were maintained by factory trained mechanics. Used to call us the 'Elite Fleet'...lol Never had a year there under 100K gross. Trucks are pretty easy to spot too, all white with red insert hoods and big chrome bumpers and polished aluminum Alcoa wheels and polished fuel tanks. All extended hoods and almost all were double bunks with 269" wheel bases. All gone now, they sold off the trucking end of the business and that is the day I retired. So did the General Manager, same time as me. I took all my retirement money and invested it, what I go on hunts with and buy my toys with. Of course Oatmeal Brain has gotten into it, big time. Best job I ever had bar none. Still have the tractor and bought a 42 foot Timpte hopper bottom grainer and I haul grain for the local farmers to the elevator in Toledo in the fall. Have to look in my folders and see if I have a picture of it and post it up sometime. They are very good looking trucks. Easy to tell if a truck will run or not by looking at the speedometer. If it only goes to 80, it's a dog. If it goes to 100 it's a runner, all of our tractors went to 100 and would go past that no issue. I can lay the needle flat on 100 and still have a ways to go.
I remember one time we unloaded at National Galvanizing in Monroe, Michigan (we owned part of National as well) and headed for the yard in Toledo and decided to let them out all the way. The southbound scales were closed and 3 of us went by, well over 100 clicks and there was an MPSC officer in the scale and they called the GM and wanted to know who the 3 idiots were and we got our butts handed to us, when we got to the yard. Took us 12 minutes from Milepost 16 on 75 to the yard on Alexis Road. Light traffic and hammer lane the whole way.
Those were the days back then. Do I miss it? Sometimes I do, most times I don't. trucking, especially jerking iron is a hard job, chaining, unchaining, tarping and dealing with 4 wheelers was a constant headache. Especially in the winter and in the rain. Nice thing about running an 11 axle unit is they stop on a dime, even loaded. Brakes on every axle and we ran disc brakes on all the trailers even before they became the norm they are today. Bumping 42 tires every morning was always a job and you never forgot to lift your axles when going around a corner or you'd jacknife instantly, or stall the engine if you were loaded up. 8 down on the trailer loaded, 3 tight in the middle were stationary axles, all the rest were on air and you could raise them. Truckers like us are the ones that destroyed Michigan roads. Same thing goes on today. I even used to run to the Indiana plant on state permits and even to Chicago to pick up at US Steel in Gary on permits as well. A pair of 45's or 50's on the wagon, tarp it up and roll for the yard. Back then the company ran 3 sets of close doubles out of the Butler plant every morning up into Michigan to deliver to the Grand Rapids customers. Pulled them out broke up and hooked them back up at the Michigan scale on 69 north. Never got involved with the doubles, too hard to back those suckers up straight in a dock to unload them. Drove them empty but never loaded. In fact, I used to go to Reitnauer Trailer west of Philly and pick up new units for the fleet. Was always a hoot bringing back stacked new 8 axle trailers or short doubles on the PA pike and Ohio pike. Got some interesting looks from drivers with the standard tandem-tandem box trucks. Lots of axles going by them and all those polished Alcoa aluminum wheels... Set the cruise at 68 and walk right up the hills to the tunnels and jake brake down the other side. 18 direct all the way and never shift gears at all. The big Cats did the job. 1300 rpm. Lazy man's truck. of course they got terrible fuel mileage but I wasn't paying for fuel or tolls either, In fact I'd stop and eat dinner on the way back and on the way out on their company credit card and I always stayed in a Hampton Inn out by Philly because I couldn't turn it in one shot. Only the Hampton would allow big trucks to park in their lot, so I obliged. What a great job, I was extremely lucky in my employment and the company I worked for treated us like real people too. 6 weeks paid vacation, meal allowances, motels, Turkey on turkey day and a big Honey Baked Ham at Christmas plus quarterly bonuses and everything else. Those jobs are gone today. They don't exist anymore. Trucks were washed at least 3 times a week, maintained by factory trained mechanics, they had a crew that did nothing but polish wheels and tanks and wax the trucks. All I did was sweep off the floor mats, fueled it and bumped the tires and wrote up any defect and it was handled that night unless it was real serious and then we had a couple of spares just for that out back. I used to haul all their machinery for them as well. I'd get my own overweight or over width or over height permits and load the detachable, they had a Rogers 50 ton detachable with a flip axle and I used that to haul their machinery on. The steel business requires some big machinery to process, pickle and coat it and I got to do that quite a bit as well. Hauled some really big and wide and heavy stuff, some with double escorts and State police as well. Never got a ticket for anything and everyone knew the trucks were top notch so we never got DOT'd ever. The company let me handle all the permits and just gave me a blank check to pay for them.
Like I said it was fun, hours were long however and driving in the winter on bad icy roads takes it's toll on you eventually and it was time for me to say goodbye and them selling the trucks and dealerships came at just the right time for me so I resigned / retired and here I am today. Coming on here and agitating and having a good time of it. I do a little hay growing, run my machine and fab shop, do a little hobby trucking and generally just kick back and try to live another day with my cancer issues. I wouldn't change anything except the cancer thing, if I could. Sadly I cannot so I just play the hand that is given to me and thank the Lord for what I have and letting me live another day.
