10-4 Magazine June 2024

10-4 Magazine / June 2024 53 closely inspect how they are assembled, I was absolutely amazed at the age of some of these trucks and trailers that are still in use. If these trucks were being used in the Midwest, their frames would have rusted away in just a few short years. But out west, thanks to a warm and dry climate, the service life of these units is much longer than back east. With a longer service life comes other considerations – more importantly, how they were wired or rewired. I’m used to seeing highway trucks from the center section of the country, mainly the upper Midwest, the land of bad weather and the use of abrasive chemicals for traction control (de-icer). The general construction of a hay wagon is drastically different from our generic flatbeds. A normal flatbed has a heavy main beam capable of bridging 48K to 80K in less than ten feet. Generally carried in the center of the deck or floor, our trailers are built to handle maximum weight in a close section, but these hay trailers are constructed to carry their load across the entire surface of the trailer, allowing for a lower weight per square foot of surface. The frames on these hay trailers are also lighter, since the load weight is transferred to the axles on each end of the deck and not carried on the center of the bridge. The beauty of two separate trailers, each with a single 20K axle on both ends, is that they still allow for the 80K gross, but the agility of the unit is greatly increased due to the shortened turning radius. Having seen some of the feed lots they deliver to, I’m not sure a single 53-foot trailer would work well. I still haven’t figured out that hay squeeze thing, either. Every time I see one of them on the road, I’m not sure if it’s a bobtail truck backing up or a runaway forklift! Maybe I can get one of the guys to take me out for the day in one to settle my curiosity once and for all. Back to the reason why I chose to discuss wiring this month. I arrived at PCT the week before this year’s show to help with anything that needed doing. I’m qualified to empty the trash and sweep floors and maybe, on a good day, clean the windows. Why Rod has faith in my mechanical skills is still a mystery to me – maybe he just ran out of quality workers to complete the jobs waiting for their turn. Nonetheless, this story starts like this: “Hey driver, you ain’t gonna believe this!” Oh, wrong story. This one started with a customer dropping off a recently purchased antique truck to the shop needing some upgrades. This is not just any old truck, but one the new owner intends to use on a daily basis. As the story goes, this man is the second owner of a 1963 Peterbilt COE straight truck with a single trailer combination. The original owner bought the unit new and operated it daily until 2006. I believe that’s when he retired or stopped operating the rig regularly. Fast forward to today, and the truck’s new owner wants all the lights converted to glass lenses with LED lights and new bases – and he wants it all done in just a few days so he can take it to the truck show. This is just the first step to refurbishing and updating the old rig’s electrical components. With any project, before you can fix it, it’s best to assess what you have and how much of the original “stuff” needs to be replaced or removed. This didn’t look too serious in the beginning – knock off some old incandescent light bases from back in the day and then drill a few holes for