the tractor vet

if you hauled so much coal do you remember the Tow Path?

Witch one ?? the one along US 30 or the one running down old rt. 8 or the one along Rt 183 or the one up by cleveland , you are talking about the canal's wright . If not then i am not sure what TOW Path your talking about. Yes i hauled a lot of coal , slag lime stone sand alloys scrap salt road and also CFC salt for baulk mixing live stock feed . Hauled coal to power plants, schools and mills,rubber plants in Akron . If it fit in a dump trailer we hauled it . worst job i ever was on was the Coke haul from Youngstown Republic to Warren Republic . seven loads a day seven days a week . The only break ya got was if you had to wait to load or if you were unloading into the hopper , yea that was fun setting next to coke ovens about thirty feet away getting to enjoy the smell and the heat if they happened to open one and shove it while you were either loading or unloading . and oh driving in city traffic 80% of the time . There was noway to keep your truck clean between the dust and ash when it was dry to the sloppy rusty muck when it was wet or snowing and Oh the flat tires yea that was a trip at least one a day or like the one day eighteen flat tires , one of the warren mills Euclid's dumps lost some of it's load of what looked like kid's jacks and every truck that drove there ended up with every tire flat . every Mobil tire service within thirty miles was called in to clear the mill of trucks with flats , to fix the problem they hauled in 57 and 304 slag to cover the affected area a foot thick. Messed up everything at both mills Youngstown had a problem with to much coke and warren did not have enough coke to feed the Furnace . They did have a stock pile but noway to load rail cars back there , they had a 988 Cat to load trucks but it could not reach over the rail cars. and they could not get straight trucks on short notice . They ended up getting me and two other semi's fixed up first and we had to run between the stock pile and the hopper till they could get caught up and trucks moving again..

wasent there a restaurant named TOW-PATH at83 north and 16 in Coshocton? I also hauled coal back in the late 70's early 80's was on with Jim Stocker, hauled to conesville power plant not enough money per day so I started hauling to Portland cement, Paulding ohio one round trip a day five days a week. would load out of any tipple down that way, go home,sleep and leave at midnite for Paulding dump then load limestone back at any national plant on the way back,dump stone at stockers then load coal and go home again. like you would load 40-45 ton pay load of coal, travel at nite, 30 ton limestone back in day lite hours. coal payed 20.00 per ton, limestone payed 6.00 per ton. tried to gross 1,000.00 per day. fuel was .79 a gal

Yea there was that place , Never hauled into connerville . My buddy and i hauled some Cannel coal down to a ware house down at Heath from Canfiled ohio in the evening for a while and we would run down the back raods till we got down past the scales on 77 and jump on 77 down to 36 and across 16 down to Newark then down thru Newark to the ware house complex . then we would go to the east side of Columbus and load junk line out of Arco and haul it back up to south of Lisbon to a Chemline dumping pit for acid , that got shut down by the EPA back in like 79 . Most of the coal we hauled came out of mines east of 77 down to I 70 Slow poke and i were signed on with Dart Trucking out of Canfield Ohio . He and i were the first two sleeper operations there and the first two that went five axle instead of six , Dart thought that if Slow poke and i went five axle we would cut down on our hauling then shell we say bell ringers. Nah that never happened both trailers were 30x68's mine had the same frame as a tri axle with the aluim. frame and we had the heavey axles as the Alabama boys were usen along with the mountain brakes . But the nice part our light weight was 2840 for Slow poke as he had the steel frame and mine was 27400. If i had to haul a legal load like out of Pa . i could get 46000 in the wagon and be legal coming out of any state outside Ohio . That frame paid for it's self just on the Claraton haul with getting up to three ton per load more on then anybody else . Did you know any of the River rat boys over east by the river , one in particular that went by the handle of Hoghead. when i first met him was up at the salt mine up in Cleveland and slow poke and i were loading road salt going to Bridgeport . Hoghead and company as we called them were from Toronto down on Rt 7 . He had a 78 4300 about the same color as yours but he had the silver 92 440 Horse . well they were not sure how to get out of the salt mine and down to get on 480 . well we told them we would lead them out and since we were all going to the same place to dump they could tag along if they could keep up. well Hoghead said that his trucks could out run the best but that they would let slow poke and i lead since we ONLY had Small cam 350 . well mike and lead them up and out of the salt mine weaved around thru the construction and onto I77 south bound down to 480 east . I was in the lead and as we came around the turn on the get on ramp wright at like 4 pm in rush hour Slow poke and i layed into our Little Small Cam 350's and that was the last we saw of Hoghead and company . Till we were already dumped and North bound on Rt. 7 at Mingo junction . Wow was Hoghead ticked Nobody had faster trucks then his trucks . Next day at the salt mine Mike and i were already loaded and getting fuel at the Truckway terminal as we had loads on for east fifth st salt shed for ODOT down in Columbus . Hog head was still hot under the collar as one of his drivers came up to Mike and i and told us that they were pretty tired because after they dumped there salt lastnight Hoghead had the bunch at Western branch Diesel working on them because no sinking small cam 350 had ever run away form him. So all night they were there till sun up then put a full day in haulen Coal to the Sammis plant the a load up to republic steel in Cleveland the a load of salt and were hopping for a load some place down on the river . Ah nope todays loads go to east fifth st. Columbus and it is a piler drop. Out of dispatch come Hoghead with the bills for Columbus and said Wait for us to load we had dealing to do . Ok hurry up i want to be home by 11 . so they load and we are ready to truck lets go , had to show them th3e way out and down on to I71 . This time we are just ahead of rush hour This time Mike is in the lead and me about half way back in the pack behind Hoghead Down past the turnpike and dwon to the bottom of the hill and i sw the superstock smoke plume off Slow pokes truck as he was getting into it for the hill Everybody had 50000 on so we are close in weight The race is on i let Hoghead do his thing and when i saw slow poke pulling away from him now was the time to put the wizzy on him I turned mine loose out into the far left lane and went past him so fast as i was in 13th going up that long pull and i was setting at 80 when i went by him. I still remember the look on his face , a true KODIC moment . Mike and i hammered hard all the way to Columbus , we lucked out and passed the first group and beat them there and were allowed to just dump and leave with out setting and dumping in the piler . We met Hoghead and company just south of 36 there at Delaware Talk about being hot . Twice in two days the super trucker of the river got smoked . For six weeks we did not see hide nor hair of Hoghead and company Then one day he showed up with a new Large car . He went to Denver and bought a brand new Black Freightliner Double bunk twin stick 6x5 transmission and a ohmy a 3408 Scatterpiller and his words were NOW i can take you two . Welp we ain't never run against a 3408 Cat Yet but weee's about to . well all loaded for the same place once again down I 71 this time to the south side of Columbus . And once again he got his COCo clock cleaned . And once again he spent all night at a dealership tryen to get more just to bet myself and slowpoke Never happened . Then the Jenkins boys out of Carrollton bought K W's with KTA 600 so with them getting 600 along with the Fatman just north of me that brought the total of 600's to five Big dee's 600 was turned up 15% and he could not run with us and the jenkins boys it was a year after before we locked horns and i ate them alive slow poke had switched companys and went with J Miller express , i did not i went a different way and that was a smart move on my part because J Miller Express hung a bunch of bad paper and went belly up and owed everybody . slow poke sold his truck and walked away from trucking two weeks after he sold his truck the new owner got hit by a fast train and cut the truck in half and darn near killed him. The fun days of a good running buddy were done . From then on it was just me as i could never find anybody to run wit that i enjoyed being with . I stayed at it till Oct of 84 and sold to a grain farmer from Mansfield . 13 months later i saw in the farm and dairy where he and his banker he talked about had a falling out and his friendly banker wanted his money back. I went to that sale with the idea of buying her back , till i saw her , in 13 months time they destroyed that truck and trailer i mean destroyed it . Broke my heart .