(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Could this tale be true?

Our Phone System is Down!

Please use the Contact us Form

We are working to resolve the issue ASAP! Thanks for your patience!

6

60 acre hillside

Member

A fellow told me that while driving on the interstate at the speed limit last summer he was passed by a trucker running extremely fast with what looked like flames coming out of both stacks past midway the length of the trailer. He estimated that the driver was going in excess of 100 mph. I was wonering if an engine can throw out this much fire.

My grain truck runs 2600 rpm at 70 mph. If this truck was actually running 100 mph and had the same gearing as mine the engine would be running in excess of 3700 rpm.
 
I doubt that it would last very long. Some people can see things that are not there, they tell big stories. My old high school teacher always said, Dont believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.
 
I've been behind trucks on the interstate that I couldn't keep up with in a formula firebird, think they were running a steady 110mph my poor firebird would eventually overheat. Think they had a georgia overdrive, my bro said they were hell to get rolling,but could sure walk.
 
I think he was maybe colorizing the story a bit. Getting a semi to 100 mph takes some doing. I've heard it can be done, I've just never seen it. My truck setg at 575 hp and putting nearly 500 hp to the ground wouldn't get that done on it's best day going down hill.
 
If it was shooting fire it probly had a blown turbo and then it would only last til the engine ran out of oil. No truck running properly will show flame, they would melt the turbo in short order.
 
Different but the same:

I bought a couple new buses (new to me) when I owned the business. They were about three hours away. I was following one of my drivers home with a new bus and she happened to shift the two speed rear just as she went over a repaired railroad intersection. She was probably going nearly 55 as she always rapped them up a little tight. That bus shot flames about three feet out of the tailpipe. Complete front to back pipe on a 37 foot bus.

This was a gas bus, so that makes it a little more likely I suppose (with the more flammable fuel) but it was still shocking. Always thought about that when I drove that bus. Good old #11 was a thorn in my side.
 
Well as far as the flames i don't think so as the old sayen goes when the go they go BUT WHEN THEY GLOW THEY BLOW. Now as to speed yep there are large cars out there that can do the triple digits and have seen it . I was not one of the ones that cared to get a loaded semi up much over 90-95 . As i never geared my trucks for high speed . I wanted a truck that would PULL the hills . A little story here , one late night on I 55 in Ill. i was south bound and running around 75 maybe 80 heading to Bloomington with a load of CFC salt on there was nobody that i could see either coming at me or up behind me then out of nowhere i see head lights in my mirror and they were way off but you could tell that they were really moving . At first i thought that it was a bear and i started to slow down just knwing that i got vascared . Then i could make out his cab lites , Oh heck it is just another truck mash the gas and we will run with him i had mine flat out and this guy came up on me and was around me like i was on jacks . Flat out the old 4300 would do 88 and he passed me like a Hemi Road Runner passen a V W bug . We talked for a few min. before he was out of range . He tolde me that he was running around 120 -125 and as soon as he cleared the land of Lincoln he was going to stuff it in the big hole and set sail as he had two more gears to go . I learned one thing that night my 4.44 gears were NOT the gears for the west . BUT when them big trucks got over my way i could eat them alive in the hills with twice the weight on . Back in the good OLD days of trucking a company out of COL. by the name of Monfort use to run from Col. to N y across Ohio and Pa . Across the ohio pike they could cross the 247 miles in a little over two hours If it was not for the tow little hills on the pike they could have done it in under two hours . After they clocked one of there trucks doing a 137 MHP on the pike and this was back when the speed limit was 55 . They caught that truck and driver and he went to gray bar motel and the truck was towed and impounded Back then the left lane was called the Monfort lane and only big trucks would get out there .
 
Where I usted to work they had a 4300 IHC with a 3406 Cat engine. It was geared for a little over 100. Pulling a empty tanker, it would go 2000 rpm in high. This should have been 100, but might have been slipping the tires some. The speedo just went to 85. It sure did slow down a bunch before the needle moved from a little past 85. I have learned any thing is possible! A contractor north of me has pulled his lowboy with his KTA 1100 Cummins he truck pulled with. This truck may have 2000 hp. It would surely go 100.
 
Reminds me of the Dave Dudley song.

"There's flame from the stack and that smoke's a flowin' black as coal"

I don't know anything about modern semi's, but in 1968 I had a new VW beetle and it would run 85 MPH at full throttle, with two people in it. We were southbound on I-57 in Illinois, and two Rose Brothers Trucking Co. Cairo, Illinois semis passed us like we were backing up. 85 MPH and they were pulling away fast. No flame from the stacks though. I've always wondered how fast they were going. And how they got away with it.
 
With the new computer control engines yea it takes some doing The last truck i was driving was set to lay down 740 BUT two things held it back (1) was the 3.90 gears (2) the 24.5 lowpro tires (3) governor run out of 1850 But i could still get 90 out of her . Empty or loaded Now back in the day of the old mechanical engines and tweeking your old 425 kitty or 3408 kitty or the old Cummins up like mine would run 2675 and on 4.44 gears she would hit 88 Now stuff in 3.55 on tall rubber or 3.25 throw in a twin stick With a five and four with triple overdrive or a reworked 13 speed with double overdrive They would fly .
 
A good truck driver can smell a cop five miles away against the wind , and the old C B radio helped a bunch , But that was back when truck drivers were all friends and any truck driver ya did not know and friends with was the ones ya just had not met yet. Back then Channel 10 was ablaze with chatter of guys talking giving bear reports road conditions accidents passen info down the line tryen to reach some driver that had a family emergency back home there was no cussen ya knew people from all over . ya chatted with guys and gals on base stations and got to know then and they got to know you . When ya came into a new town and needed directions someone on a base station would get you to where you needed to be or they would jump in there car and take you there . Then we moved up to 19 and they followed . Then along came the late 80 and 90's a whole different breed of socalled drivers now and the good people on the base stations started to leave due to the cussen and foul language and the whole trucking changed as us owner operators got out and the truck school grads took over Now instead of stopping to help if your broke down they try there darnest to see how close they can get with out hitting you.
 
First semi tractor I owned climbing the Rockies at night always had a foot of fire when pullin hard, both stacks. 400 warmed over Cummins. They always said you needed a foot of fire and a mile of smoke 30 years ago. True story!!
 
Don't know muck about trucks on the highway but we had a IH 966 turned up a little that would smoke black in the daylight when pulled hard, but at night it was orange flames out the stack. This was plowing in 5th gear with 3 18s roll over plow in river bottom and when the plow was adjusted right you couldn't tell the land was plowed it was so smooth. It didn't run hot just smoked.
 
(quoted from post at 21:28:30 01/23/13) A good truck driver can smell a cop five miles away against the wind , and the old C B radio helped a bunch , But that was back when truck drivers were all friends and any truck driver ya did not know and friends with was the ones ya just had not met yet. Back then Channel 10 was ablaze with chatter of guys talking giving bear reports road conditions accidents passen info down the line tryen to reach some driver that had a family emergency back home there was no cussen ya knew people from all over . ya chatted with guys and gals on base stations and got to know then and they got to know you . When ya came into a new town and needed directions someone on a base station would get you to where you needed to be or they would jump in there car and take you there . Then we moved up to 19 and they followed . Then along came the late 80 and 90's a whole different breed of socalled drivers now and the good people on the base stations started to leave due to the cussen and foul language and the whole trucking changed as us owner operators got out and the truck school grads took over Now instead of stopping to help if your broke down they try there darnest to see how close they can get with out hitting you.
Click to expand...

Times change. Now we have the internet! Still socializing with strangers, and some do it on the go! I do agree that the old school truckers in the 70's and 80's were a different group. They made movies and TV shows about them!
 
(quoted from post at 21:33:18 01/23/13)
A fellow told me that while driving on the interstate at the speed limit last summer he was passed by a trucker running extremely fast with what looked like flames coming out of both stacks past midway the length of the trailer. He estimated that the driver was going in excess of 100 mph. I was wonering if an engine can throw out this much fire.

My grain truck runs 2600 rpm at 70 mph. If this truck was actually running 100 mph and had the same gearing as mine the engine would be running in excess of 3700 rpm.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the physics of it. All I can say is that the fastest I've driven in a car is 125+ mph in a 1968 Corvette with a 427 cu in engine a loooong time ago. I was white knuckling it in broad daylight on the interstate in a car designed to go that fast and handle at that speed. I can't imagine doing anything close to that in a semi. I'd have to change my shorts at every rest stop.
 
I was pulling a combine with a 9300 Binder with a warmed over 400 cummins through a lake resort area in northeast Utah and I can't think of the name of the lake right now. Bear lake? Anyway, in all of the stop and go traffic I got tired of shifting gears so I was lugging it up from too low of RPM's sometimes and she was really smoking. One of those times the car behind me had it's wipers on trying to wipe away the smoke. I don't remember fire coming out but I didn't drive much at night. I wasn't permitted to go on that road but I was avoiding a 12' width restriction in a bridge construction in Idaho. I'll never pull oversize through that place again. That's for younger guys with better nerves. Jim
 
Ya need to keep the fire down in and ya need to tame the smoke down with a wee bit bigger hair drier . Now i could turn the maifold turbo and exhaust pipe red up to the muffler BUT no fire out the top and No smoke under full load . Myself i never got to the rocky's . mostly east of the big creek. and if i did cross it it was only fifty miles west with my own truck. But anything east north and south i covered .
 
Oh yea that was the one thing ya did not want to do is get under the charger and on mine if ya let her get down to 1650-1700 you were screwed she would do the under the charger like a pulling tractor But when she was setting a 1950 to 2150 she had the sound of a freight train engine pulling the grade coming thru town .
 
A 966 is non turbo and they will shoot a flame, if you had that flame with a turbo for any amount of time you would almost certainly melt the turbo. I used to love to plow at night with the old cases and watch the flames too.
 
At one time the county where i live was noted as the owner operator capitol as we sat just below the steel mills and just on the north side of the coal fields . I started pulling dump hauling coal slag salt and alloys local never any feather west the Toledo and nothing east of Pittsburg and nothing south of the ohio river . Drove day cabs as normally ya were home at night only for a few hours but home never the less . But when the road salt started to run there were more nights then i like to think about sleeping over the steering wheel of a R700 Mack . In 1977 my buddy and i bought two brand new 4300 Eagle's with sleeper with BIG power for back then , we went the whole rout with polished aluim. wheels chrome stainless we got rid of the triaxles dumps and went with new East tandem dumps with 30 foot boxes two way tail gates tarps with bows and we were the first at the one company that had sleepers and five axles so we could go just about anywhere and our outfits were super lightweight as mine weighed in a 27400 full of fuel and all my junk , Mikes weighted in a 1000 more as he had a steel frame under his trailer and i had the extra heavy aluim . frame under mine So i could haul back then 46000 legal anywhere east of the big creek. in Ohio i could scale 52600 legal . That two grad i paid extra for my trailer over what my buddy paid paid for itself in short order when we had to haul legal . Most of the time there was what ever we could fit in the wagon . Standard instructions to loader operators if we were not loading ourself was fill her up and make her look like a dairy queen from ft. to back .Haul heavy haul fast and look light.
 
I have seen that on a few harleys before at night. Glowing at the tips with a slight flame maybe 3-4 inches. It took around 50 miles at 80mph on my friends bike for the pipes to start glowing.

Never seen anything like that out of a diesel.

Rick
 
WAY BACK in 1955 I had a brand new 1955 Nash Ambassador 2 door hard top, with the big V-8 And
one time on Ohio St. Rt. 30 about 5 miles east of Wooster, I had it running over 125. I scared my new wife almost to death, before her screaming slowed me down.
 
Back in the late 70s the company I drove for gave me a GMC tractor with a turbo flow v6 diesel engine with daul exhaust. That tractor would throw fire 2 foot out of tail pipes and so much smoke that you couldn't see who was behind you.It was the only tractor I ever drove that I up shifted coming over the Chicago Skyway loaded.
 
Ah, the good old days, I remember them well. Back in the late 70's & early 80's I worked for a large mining company as a Union Certified Top Millwright / Mine Maintenance Mechanic and I drove an old, old long-nose Mack 10-wheeler service truck with a day cab. Came back from vacation in 1980 to find that someone had been playing with the Blue Ox exhaust retarder (they liked hearing the engine back-rap like a Jake Brake) and had slipped a liner - radiator EMPTY & milkshake in the crankcase. So, I got to do an engine swap. The only thing available was a brand-new CAT 3306 that was destined to go underground for an LHD (load/haul/dump). I shoehorned it into "my" Mack, had to have the Machine Shop fabricate an adapter plate to mate-up to the trans. . I now had a CAT 3306 engine coupled to a 13-speed Road Ranger trans. with dual overdrive, Tandem drive axles with Allison 2-speed rears. What a SWEET COMBINATION that was. Got the chance to drive it over to our Mill - 40 miles away & in another State - so I opened it up just to see what it would do. The ONLY time that I got to go through ALL of the gears, the speedometer only went to 85 & I was WAY past that. I'll never know just how fast I was going, but if that truck would have had wings it would have been airborne. Smooth running, absolutely no vibrations of any kind, just FAST, FAST, FAST.
 
I believe GM called it a Toro-Flow. It was a four stroke.I was involved with just one of them and then I only replaced a few gaskets. When the neighbor drove by with that truck it sounded like an airplane flying by. Jim
 
First people are bad at guessing speeds, especially big vehicles. The local plow trucks, tandems with a one way and wing running at 80,000 lbs + when leaving the sand pile are reported all the time saying the drivers where speeding while plowing. They rarely plow over 35 mph, speed limit is 50 mph but they are big and noisy.

That said in younger days I've been in a car going 120 mph passing folks going 65 mph, and they almost seem to be sitting still. They will not notice you until you're past them.

Re the flames, yes it can happen, I've seen it described twice, but both times the turbo was emptying the oil pan out the stack. The other time I've heard flame half way back described was a trucker who was hauling another truck on his flat bed claimed the truck was already on fire when he fell asleep and drifted head on into an oncoming truck leading to a fire that consumed all three trucks. Evidence didn't support it actually happening that way.
 
Its been so many years ago you are probably right. They did make a lot of noise (had Riker mufflers) and this one would throw out a lot of coal black smoke. At the end of day the rear axle of tractor, dollies and trailer axles were covered in soot. I told our company mechanics abount the smoke and they replied its a diesel it smokes. About 6 months latter got stopped by state police and given a warning. Was told to turn down the smoke or put stacks on it and get the smoke up in the air. Mechanics turned it down so it wouldn't smoke but after that the tractor was a dog.
 
IF the story is even remotely true, it was a blown turbo dumping crankcase oil into the intake. Runaway engine's producing plenty of power, way more than stock.

The engine is done no matter what the driver does at this point. By the time he can get stopped, get the hood open, and stuff something in the intake to choke the engine off, it'll be too late.

Crazy driver is riding it out to see how fast he can get it going before the engine blows. He probably wasn't going 100. Maybe 75, 80, even 90.
 
(quoted from post at 21:00:50 01/23/13) Well as far as the flames i don't think so as the old sayen goes when the go they go BUT WHEN THEY GLOW THEY BLOW. Now as to speed yep there are large cars out there that can do the triple digits and have seen it . I was not one of the ones that cared to get a loaded semi up much over 90-95 . As i never geared my trucks for high speed . I wanted a truck that would PULL the hills . A little story here , one late night on I 55 in Ill. i was south bound and running around 75 maybe 80 heading to Bloomington with a load of CFC salt on there was nobody that i could see either coming at me or up behind me then out of nowhere i see head lights in my mirror and they were way off but you could tell that they were really moving . At first i thought that it was a bear and i started to slow down just knwing that i got vascared . Then i could make out his cab lites , Oh heck it is just another truck mash the gas and we will run with him i had mine flat out and this guy came up on me and was around me like i was on jacks . Flat out the old 4300 would do 88 and he passed me like a Hemi Road Runner passen a V W bug . We talked for a few min. before he was out of range . He tolde me that he was running around 120 -125 and as soon as he cleared the land of Lincoln he was going to stuff it in the big hole and set sail as he had two more gears to go . I learned one thing that night my 4.44 gears were NOT the gears for the west . BUT when them big trucks got over my way i could eat them alive in the hills with twice the weight on . Back in the good OLD days of trucking a company out of COL. by the name of Monfort use to run from Col. to N y across Ohio and Pa . Across the ohio pike they could cross the 247 miles in a little over two hours If it was not for the tow little hills on the pike they could have done it in under two hours . After they clocked one of there trucks doing a 137 MHP on the pike and this was back when the speed limit was 55 . They caught that truck and driver and he went to gray bar motel and the truck was towed and impounded Back then the left lane was called the Monfort lane and only big trucks would get out there .
Click to expand...

Was it a White Cabover Pete? I just mentioned Monfort in the other post.
If it was a White Cabover Pete, it may have been me. Used to run alot of Charleston SC, to Chicago and points west.

Handle was "Red Pepper"
 
A 13 speed, reverse the back box, 100 is kids play. We"re not talking fire like in a trash barrel, but a red glow a foot tall. My 2470 and 1170 Case do the same on a hard pull.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Cub Cadet 125 running hot - back firing
Replies
11
Views
696
Russ from MN
R
E
JD 2240 brakes
Replies
7
Views
800
Elos
E
K
IH 1440 hydraulic trouble / steering wobble
Replies
2
Views
822
Kell
K
D
The outcome was different than expected-long post
Replies
8
Views
1K
DRussell
D
M
battery configuration on 1850
Replies
5
Views
771
herk
H
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top