Strange things you have driven

Cragar

Cragar

Experienced Member
Joined
11 July 2007
Messages
532
Location
Danbury , Connecticut
I used to work in the automobile trade for about 10+ years. During that time and on other occasions I have had the chance to drive/operate quite a few different vehicles over the course of my life.

Here is an impartial list just off the top of my head of some of the things I have driven/operated.


Firetrucks
Ambulances
Police cars
School buses
Mega motorhomes
Payloader
Forklifts
Motorized aerial equipment
Box trucks
Dump trucks
Bobcats
Backhoes
Semi tractor/trailers
Bulldozers
Tow trucks / Flatbeds
Farm tractors
Tow motor / Tugger
Fuel oil trucks
Cement trucks
Garbage trucks
Excavators
Stretch Limousines
Hearse
Taxis

What kind of things have you driven/operated that are outside the norm a wee bit ?

- Note - Please no airplanes , pleasure boats or motorcycles/quads/snowmobiles/jetskis , just large ' vehicle ' type objects only .



I want to hear about some of the odd things you have driven. I want to hear someone post about some of the COOL military vehicles they have a chance to operate.


Whaddda Got ?

Let's hear it ! :biggrin:
 
Last edited:
A 12 speed manual transmission telephone line truck is probably the strangest think I've ever driven. Oh wait - I also drove a Ditch Witch.

I also drove Tony Stewart's #20 Home Depot car around Richmond International Raceway at about 10mph off the pace of qualifying speeds. :)
 
Last edited:
HIJACKER said:
A 12 speed manual transmission telephone line truck is probably the strangest think I've ever driven.
Click to expand...

Very cool. :cool: I haven't driven any phone company trucks except for small pickups and a few vans.

I have driven an old bobtailed flatbed wrecker equipped with a flathead engine with a two speed differential.

What was the 12 speed like to drive ?
 
I never qualified, but have was learning to drive a Bradley when my unit was shifted to light Infantry and the Army gods took away our Bradleys.
 
73 Lotus Europa (like lying on your back on a luge)
47 MGTC (right hand drive)
Steam roller
Divco milk truck that is driven standing (clutch & brake is the same pedal)
Honda powered backhoe
R5 Turbo II (what a rush!)
An old White passenger bus
A power company bucket truck
 
Drove a couple of JDM cars:

1. 98 Type-R around laguna seca
2. Rx7 right hand
3. DC5 Mugen Type-R


Almost got to drive the R-34 skyline, but I declined...because it was only in the parking lot.
 
Drove a military spec H1 and a bunch of different types of fork lifts. If being a fork lift operator paid well I'd quit and do that job.
 
Pretty much everything. The most fun though was the huge John Deere tractors I drove when I worked on the farm as a kid. You know something has A LOT of power when the plows are turning the paved road over because you forgot to lift the plow set after pulling on the road. Only messed up about 5 feet. I was operating that crap when I was 11 years old. Huge farm equipment. Chop corn all night with a combine then go to school the next day with a couple hours sleep.

Funny the other day my buddy asks me to go look at this house that is for sale. He has just moved back into the country and wants a fixer-upper. I get to the house and it's the farmer I used to work for. The farmer died a long time ago and the house has been empty a long time, it's destroyed. I had one of those moments though, like on the beginning of the Titanic movie where everything is new again. I see the house now as a simple little farm house but when I was an 11 year old kid they were like millionaires to me with all the conveniences of life like a stove and fridge that plugged into a wall outlet that actually worked. The stove and fridge still sat there in the kitchen with the cupped floors but now they were without power, old and dingy.

So to answer the question, lots of farm equipment. Pretty much everything. I operated an excavator that took only 3 scoops to dig a swimming pool. LOL
 
Escalade limo and some kind of bus the bus was smaller then a school bus thats all I know lol
 
I've been lucky to have had some seat time in some nice sports cars. The most memorable/unique ones I guess would be a Porsche 914 (Love the old school feel of this car), FD RX7 (amazing handling for a stock car). And the usual E46 M3's, EVO's and STI's, my old Turbo Mustang was a lot of fun as well. Also did suspension work (Koni shocks / Eibach springs) a while back on an M Coupe (2001/02 IIRC), the handling was unreal.

But the most memorable would be the following. My grandfather had one of these military jeeps in Dominican Republic which I got to drive, pretty unique. I have pictures of it somewhere, I'll see if I can dig them up.

m38%20copy.jpg


m151-lg.jpg
 
Like Steveny I grew up on a small farm and learned to drive on tractors (Learning experience)

'67 Chevelle SS, 427, 4-speed (First car ever driven!...belonged to an uncle.)

A Locomotive (Dad worked for Southern Railway...Didn't really drive but they let me put my hand on the throttle...still a kid)

I was in a rock band that had converted an old school bus into a band-bus (death trap!)

A dinner riverboat (I worked as a musician on the boat and actually got to steer it for a few minuets while on a cruise!)

Bobcat Skidsteer (Fun)

Bumper cars at the Six Flags nock-off theme park (Practice road rage techniques)

The "Orbitz" Hovercraft (Not really, just want to)
 
One of my first jobs was at a carwash. I didn't get to drive it, but I did get to handwash the..... Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. :redface:
 
biggest: D9 Caterpillar bulldozer, Peterbilt conventional semi, Ford Louisville conv. straight truck, IH 1710 cab-over straight truck,IH Fleetstar conv. straight truck, Massey Ferguson 510 combine, mult. IH and Allis-Chalmers row-crop tractors.
smallest: CRG Rotax TaG kart, Reynard F2000,Lotus Elise
on my bucket list: Formula Atlantic, shifter kart,...F1!
 
gleibig said:
One of my first jobs was at a carwash. I didn't get to drive it, but I did get to handwash the..... Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. :redface:
Click to expand...

now that's funny!:biggrin:
 
Dr.Honda said:
biggest: D9 Caterpillar bulldozer, Peterbilt conventional semi, Ford Louisville conv. straight truck, IH 1710 cab-over straight truck,IH Fleetstar conv. straight truck, Massey Ferguson 510 combine, mult. IH and Allis-Chalmers row-crop tractors.
smallest: CRG Rotax TaG kart, Reynard F2000,Lotus Elise
on my bucket list: Formula Atlantic, shifter kart,...F1!
Click to expand...
Those are all cool! Did you have to put your arm through the steering wheel so that you could operate the "Jake Brake"? Do you remember if it was a Cat,Cummins,or Detroit Diesel? Distinct sound differences.
 
My college's FSAE car. (Turbocharged F4i motor running E85)

Drove a R33 GT-R at Motorex when they were still in business and I was looking at importing an R32 GT-R.

Learned to drive an Freightliner 18-wheeler at my friend's family's shipping company.

Also driven a Lotus Elise, Lotus Exise S, and a shifter cart that my friend with the shipping company owned. Never got a chance to drive his Spec Miata or Formula SCCA car though.
 
Last edited:
passline said:
Those are all cool! Did you have to put your arm through the steering wheel so that you could operate the "Jake Brake"? Do you remember if it was a Cat,Cummins,or Detroit Diesel? Distinct sound differences.
Click to expand...

Peterbilt had a Caterpillar motor (turbo 8 cylinder) and the Eaton 13 speed Road Ranger tranny. It was the absolute coolest thing I had ever driven at that point in my life (Smokey and the Bandit era:biggrin:). Empty, it pulled like a mutha and could pass cars going uphill. The Fleetstar had a DD and two shift levers (20 ratios total). A total PITA to drive on the highway or around town. I learned (quickly) how to double clutch driving that thing (no synchros). The 1710 was a virtual sportscar by comparison, 534CI gas motor, 5 speed with an electric 2 speed rear axle that shifted quickly.
 
Hoveround:biggrin:
 

Similar threads

myf16
2005 Tour de California diary
Replies
0
Views
3K
myf16
myf16
Back
Top