Old & Slow #13
Transportation 2

By Bill Elder

It seems that a lot of my best memories of my days in Transportation are from my early days. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, I had no real responsibility except to come to work every day and learn as much. The equipment in those days was very simple and maintenance revolved around repairs rather than preventive maintenance. This carefree world was about to come to an end.

I completed my apprenticeship and was immediately offered the job of foreman because of my supervisory experience in the engine plant. Canada also introduced a new Preventive Maintenance standard to all transportation trucks and trailers operating in Canada. The first step was to initiate a schedule for the Preventive Maintenance where the entire fleet was placed on a schedule. Each month a group of trucks and trailers had to have an in-depth yearly inspection. We had to purchase booklets from the government. The booklets showed a list of components that had to be inspected. The sheets were in triplicate, serialized and there was a sticker that had to be punched out showing the date of the inspection. The mechanics would have to sign off on the sheets. One copy stayed in the equipment; the other two sheets went into separate files for each unit and the sticker had to be placed on the equipment in the area mandated by the government. If this sounds like a serious program, let me assure you it was. If there was an accident on the road and it could be shown that it occurred because the maintenance was not performed to standard, the mechanic who had signed off was going to jail, his supervisor (me) was going to jail and as I liked to tell my boss, he was going to jail. Serious indeed!

GM and Ford did not maintain their own transportation fleets but Chrysler did. I always told my guys; Transportation is a non core part of the company. We could not afford to be careless. Think of the family of five driving along and being involved in an accident due to our neglect. That would be the end for us. So we exceeded the government standards. We had our own inspection sheets that were much more detailed than the government sheets and we did not just rely on yearly inspections. Besides the yearly inspections, the trucks had minor inspections every 4 months and the trailers came in for a minor inspection every six months. The government wanted the thickness of the brake shoes recorded at the yearly inspections. Although this could be done through the backing plates, we insisted on pulling the wheels at every yearly inspection. One benefit of this was ensuring a thorough grease job on the brake cams which insures the best braking performance. There was also a general benefit for the garage. Even if the plant shut down and the entire fleet was parked, the Preventive Maintenance had to be kept on schedule. So we never had a layoff -- we had steady employment.

When I first came to the garage, the trailers could be summed up in one word “scary”. They were old and very few of the vans had doors. The cargo was kept inside by having chains welded to the door frame with hooks. The chains were simply crisscrossed and hooked together. Engines were transported on huge open racks on flat bed trailers. I will go on record as saying the trailers' worst enemies were the fork lift drivers who loaded them. The early trailers were aluminium sided and roofed and were no match for the “jitney assassins”. If they weren’t punching holes through the roofs, they were ripping the sides out. If we protested to the Supervisors on the loading docks, we were ignored. It was all about making break times for themselves. Ram the racks in and take a break. As new trailers were specified, we upped the interior protection by adding all kinds of metal to the ceilings and at the area where the sides met the floors. One great advancement in trailer design was the use of composite panels in the sides and roofs instead of the posts and aluminum sheets. The composite panels are an epoxy filler sandwiched between two thin layers of metal. Today, I see the trailers that were ordered in 2015 still in service and doing the job.

There were three wreckers at the garage when I started; a small unit based on a Dodge pickup which we used for cars and two converted LCF (low cab forward) Dodges we used for trucks. Both trucks had 413 truck motors. One was a single axle and could only be used for flat towing of trucks but it could pick up trailers. The other was a tandem axle 413 powered LCF. It was interesting because it had two transmissions -- a five-speed backed up by a four speed. If you haven ever heard of it, it is called the legendary twin stick. If you put both transmissions in low, the truck moved so slow you would have to pick a spot on the ground to verify the truck was moving but it was so strong you could pull a building down with it. The problem with both trucks was the lack of weight in the front. You could pick up a diesel tractor from the back with old twin stick, but picking a diesel tractor up from the front was marginal.

I went on a service call with one of the mechanics one night. One of our Detroit Diesel trucks broke down on the freeway at the approach to the Ambassador Bridge. We had to pass by the truck and double back to it on the freeway. The way it was parked, the only thing we could do was pick up the dead diesel by the front. While we were prepping the rear axles a light snow started making it slightly slippery. We got everything hooked up and started for home. If you have ever been on the Ambassador bridge, you will know that at the bottom of the descent coming into Canada the roadway curves to the left. So here we are coming down the bridge and the mechanic turns the steering wheel to the left. The wrecker is skipping along saying, “I don’t think I want to turn.” I was thinking that we are going over and the best-case scenario will be that I will only need a change of coveralls. Again, if you know the Ambassador, there is a high curb along the roadway. With the steering wheels turned all the way to the left, the curb just kind of guided us around the bend.

The old truck plant (The Maxwell Plant) had closed by this time and production was converted to quality assurance for the new Fuel Injected Imperials. When the old truck plant closed, we were able to scavenge a huge quantity of truck parts including three LCF cabs, numerous hoods, fenders and crossmembers. That winter we ordered a pair of bus frame rails and pirated a Cummins drivetrain from one of the road trucks. Using our scavenged parts, we put together a long wheel base rolling and driving chassis that was to become the basis for a new wrecker. In the spring, we took the winch and some other components off the old single axle wrecker and built the new wrecker. The entire wrecker body, booms and bridle was fashioned by the very talented group of metal welders and body men that we had working in our shop. In 1987, we bought the lease out on a 1981 International Tractor and that became our next wrecker. This one had the frame professionally lengthened and the entire unit came from a wrecker builder in Montreal. The old Dodge continued to serve for many years until the frames became weak from all of the usage over the years. There is a Transportation Museum in the Windsor area. I lobbied to have the old Dodge gifted to them. They have a large property and over the years they have moved a number of historic buildings to the site along with the historic vehicles. We finally got upper management to allow the old Dodge to retire there after the museum folks signed a waiver that they would not use the wrecker for anything other than as a display vehicle. A fitting retirement for an old, beloved workhorse!

The current wrecker is a 2005 Freightliner. The frame on the 1981 International had rotted out between the inner and outer frames and huge cracks had developed. So when the 2005 Freightliners came due for retirement, we were able to purchase the truck with the lowest mileage. We sent the truck to a professional wrecker shop. They lengthened the frame, installed inner frame rails and certified the ABS brakes. Meanwhile we stripped the wrecker body off the International and revamped it totally. The control unit, which had aluminium pistons, had corroded over the years. We upgraded it with brass pistons and all new hydraulic lines. We are all very proud of that truck. If you were to buy a new wrecker, I am sure the price would exceed $250,000. We did the Freightliner for less than $75,000.