The GREATest 2 sticks shifting video of all time!

you right now that's how you do it [Music] back the Boston trucker here welcome to my channel I hope you enjoy it I'm here with Ben Center Ben Center Trucking Brookline New Hampshire how are you doing Ben doing great how are you this morning I'm doing fantastic I came up to check out some of your rides maybe go for a ride in this old needle knows all right sounds good what can you tell me about this truck um I've had it for a super long time in various states of disrepair and we finally fully restored it we're like retro restored it where'd the truck come from originally California oh really yeah it was a Permanente uh cement company truck in California is where it started its life brand new was it a day cab yeah it was a day cab single axle yeah oh my God yeah it was pink pink yeah it was pink wow and it was it was a twin screw by the time I got it it had a cut off and it was still pink when I got it originally wow so it's going through a complete restoration complete yeah everything's been changed at one point or another and is this just a show truck or do you run it oh no we run it it's no pavement princess this thing works that's not my scene I like stuff that you can still use what do you usually haul with us uh dump trailer primarily so you're running heavy all day yeah we do heavy huh 100 000 pounds yeah are they no kidding no kidding yeah that's awesome we should get it running see what it sounds like all right if it'll start I hope we're gonna give it a shot I don't know it's an old truck I will say I don't run it in the winter anymore okay those days are on I hope she sounds good yeah I love those rain caps those are classic right there yeah totally old school small stacks I know what about that sleeper that sleeper is a Mercury replica sleeper that I had built at Double Eagle in Indiana before they closed I was originally for a Mercury sleeper for the truck it's what I wanted and I I called them trying to find a takeoff and they offered to build me a replica but yeah that's kind of what we went for it still they did the Turn Style door handles to match the cab and uh tried to really stay low with a period correct you know beautiful look yeah hardwood deck plate there yeah we wanted to try it's so hard to do anything unique because everybody's already thought of cool stuff so we decided to try to do hardwood which I really like for now I like the look those are the things that you're gonna notice that nobody else does yeah yeah when we were putting this together I really I wanted it to be period correct which I obviously didn't I was like I kind of wanted to put Square diamond plate half fenders on it like it would have had but there comes a point where it's like such a rough look right that you that you know what I mean if you're going to be period correct it should still have stud piloted Bud wheels so obviously we strayed from the path a little bit that sleeper is that is beautiful I love the The Fleets in the door yeah with the diamonds that's a nice look 30 inch crawl through bunk on it that I took off before I went there when I went to have it installed drew a Sharpie line down the back of my cab and saws all the cab out which was like it was a traumatic experience to watch the back of your cab from your 64 fall on the ground [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] and we're gonna go for a little ride with Ben gonna show us how you ship those twin sticks look at this guy all right Ben this is a fancy looking rig you got here how do you pilot this thing well you hope for the best there's a lot of shift levers in here seen a lot of videos online so I've been trying to learn see how the pros do it um it's got a B model cat in it 3406b and it's got a Spicer six-speed Main 1241 auxiliary now what does that mean to the new guys it's double overdrive double overdrive which by the way I feel like this is not as cool as triple overdrive oh my God I feel like this is the time to tell everyone all of you people out there there's no such thing as a 15 double over so stop saying it and why is that because there's one overdrive you either have a 15 direct or a 15 over the old ones high gear was towards the dash all these people that say they have a 15 double over do not they don't know what you're talking about they do not unless someone took it apart and made both top two gears an overdrive gear which I'm sure is possible by a good transmission person but no one bought one from the factory the the end and a quadruplex and us five and four are not the same another it drives me crazy I saw the movie Duel when I was a kid [Applause] it's not like a modern truck she's just pretty smooth though it doesn't I got lucky that time it is a little intimidating when you're a hundred thousand pounds taking off on a hill audience I don't care how much of a veteran you are and you can think you're great that's when you always make your right I always tell that whenever anybody gets in my truck I say I never grind the gear unless I have a passenger yeah I get a little nervous you can do this all day perfectly in the minute that someone that you know you look up to or that knows what they're doing is nearby you look like a buffoon right out of the gate so can you explain to people at home what this transmission is and how you shift it two separate boxes so it's a six-speed main transmission it has six forward gears plus reverse just like any other truck you know it's a typical box then there's a drive shaft out the back of that and there's an auxiliary transmission which is only forward here which gives you in fourth gear in this auxiliary transmission is ever try so you can put and this in overdrive okay which really this has a 400 cat in it so for a great story being in double over with 370 years you want to have a good Tailwind right you know you really gotta juice them up to to pull like that all right Ben let's go to the beginning where did you grow up um I grew I was born in New Hampshire and my family moved to Upstate New York we became Dairy Farmers when I was four so I grew up on a border in Constable New York milking cows how did you end up becoming a trucker uh when I was getting out of high school they didn't want to go to college I wanted to drive trucks and run equipment I was working at this little place besides farming I was working at this place called Malone Lumber and Ready Mix I got my commercial driver's permit there and I wanted to drive truck and they told me that uh those days and uh there was so many people that wanted to drive truck at that point so they told me that young guys were Cowboys and I would never drive one of their trucks so uh it was an exercise in futility even getting my permit for them because they let me never let me drive in they had old junk like brigadeers and worn out stuff but to them it was it was a big deal to let someone drive it so I moved back to New Hampshire and went to work for Hollis Construction in Hollis New Hampshire and uh he really gave me my start against the odds I got my license and he put me in a truck and running equipment he had all the faith in the world at me in my first couple of months I wasn't I shouldn't have been driving a truck I was terrible it takes a long time to to get good it's not an overnight game let's consider you they say and I'm going to do quotation marks an old school trucker well I don't know about that but what would you say old an old school trucker what is the definition of old school a lot of pride in what he does not choosing the job because it was the easiest thing because that's what he wanted to do old school guys were typically really mechanically inclined and more of a lifestyle kind of job I would say like you could be driving a nice comfortable automatic truck right now you could drive why do you choose to drive an old truck like this um I think probably because I'm in trucking because of my love for it I mean there's a million things all of us could do for a living do other things but truly don't have much we have some new trucks and they don't excite me to drive them they're comfortable suffer kind of more of my style so I can appreciate a breach I mean if you don't have to fiddle with a win the win drank or jiggle something or we'll have a draft coming through the door right now it's money restoring something and it's still windy in here it's endless yeah but it's just what you look like coming on the road yeah I at times you feel the most alive as in the morning the pillar or guarding and going small I mean like to tell you I remember pulling out of the driveway but it feels that good electricians get up in the morning and are excited like we are you know well said I would agree yeah forget about all the bad stuff when you have little moments of good stuff when you started really brought it all home to my childhood no ald Ben what's up with this uh no elds I can't believe it I don't know how to run one of those elds hopefully never have to learn but I think it's imminent we're all gonna have to know don't say that I feel like it's coming yeah [Music] yeah I'll see what's in his closet oh we got the trucker shirt beautiful never been worn it's my size am I taking what else we got in here what is this Relic looks like a looks like a road map this truck has all the makings of an old school truck that's pretty awesome a light there awesome stuff [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] all right I'm gonna attempt to explain what I'm doing but in actuality I really don't know you kind of just do it so I'm in Lolo now so I'll go to Second and then auxiliary third in the auxiliary and I just went to second in the main and second in the auxiliary and then third in the auxiliary and then third in the main and second in the auxiliary and third into the auxiliary so we'll go now into fourth in the main second in the auxiliary if you were to go back to first in the auxiliary similar to a quadruplex some of these gears themselves it's redundant to shift you would actually slow yourself down the way these Spicer names are oh there's a deer [Applause] right now I'm in second I'll go to third the auxiliary and now these be after my go right back you're in fifth gear on the main box then typically the ratios are closed I'll throw this into fourth on the auxiliary box direct and the main cool typically stay like this but for the sake of the video and risk of a speeding ticket we'll throw the fame box in overdrive as well double over Trucking which by the way has never happened in a 15 speed but you really don't have any idea how to ship this right I really don't I just kind of fumbled my way through it seems like you're winging it I'm winging it so you got your heat Ben light switches yep you got your air ride yup trailer brake knob yeah differential You Fifth Wheel slide over here yes sir oh you gotta have the anti-glare for nighttime Trucking can I see him oh absolutely it's a game changer right there it's the old school fuzzy dice you got your air conditioner you have rooftop that's the only way to go real real keeps your right shoulder nice and cold on a hot day works great is that a Kaiser this happens to be a red dog that originally this had a kind what about this heater box here it looks different trying to find something that would do the job that was uh period correct and that's what we came up with and if you wanted to switch from defrost to heat to mess up really simple that's that's fantastic ways here on cruise control the cruise control is my foot or a hand I do have a hand throttle under here yeah and now it's on group Works beautifully that's old school Trucking right now that is old school truck remember that yeah me too you could always get a little more RPM if you pulled it all the way if your throttle linkage was worn so it's right it is how does it sound oh yeah it sounds good yeah fairly quiet middle of the road not too obnoxious exactly your uh your double eagle keychain yeah it's now yeah they were great people too yeah yeah really nice people I got out there to have the sleeper put on and they gave me one of their cars to use they invited me to their house for supper yeah kind of people you people even do business when they tell you to stop by the house for a barbecue have you had some help during through the edge building this truck who's helped you out say the biggest help was Dennis Slocum when we decided to restore this correctly it the frame had been caught when I bought it then we added a section and stretched it so when it was time to do it correctly and do new rails out of my skill set I'm very handy and we do a lot ourselves but I was intimidated by the complete rails and changing the wheelbase so we brought it to Dennis Slocum where is he located in Wilton New Hampshire so he has a trucking company but also fabrication they're really the best in the business when it comes to building stuff that you thought up they're so good just when you think you're good at welding or fabricating then you see something that they did yeah and it's totally emasculating they're so good yeah [Music] all right first time driving twin sticks [Music] now go straight ahead into fourth you did it look at that oh my God like a hero of the highway right there split shifting six and four and these are not fake sticks folks these are the real deal you're natural in this thing Mike oh yeah grinding gear is like a natural I haven't heard any grinding yeah not that I'll admit to you're doing great what do you think Mike trade this for W900 absolutely [Music] [Applause] right now that's how you do it that's experience right there that was blocked even a flying squirrel gets a nut once in a while I'm as blind to squirrel as it can be then you did perfect yeah takes practice right it takes a lot of practice were you that's good when you first got in it no I ground the first week I ground three or four Gears of this stuff I'm just kidding it was terrible it was terrible for a while and like you become uh Adept at the Art of Faking it like you're in neutral like this but you hold the throttle steady so you drive by your friends waving like everything's great let's rip them Jake breaks come on foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign this is what I drive every day daily driver daily driver and plow truck you got a permit for them guns absolutely it's called the Constitution this is awesome so what are the specs on this ride right here oh well this was a two-wheel drive um and I wanted a four-wheel drive yeah loud so we put this on a four-wheel drive chassis uh probably like a couple months ago I think so it was my everyday driver as a two-wheel drive yeah it had a 283 with a four speed and then we upgraded it it's four wheel drive now with a 350 and an automatic because I'm getting lazy so even on making the switch to automatic yeah I could see that next I'll have an automatic in my 64 feet right well that was a lot of fun Ben that was fun yeah I appreciate you uh no thanks taking me for a ride you got a pretty impressive Fleet of trucks there how many trucks are you running these days um we have 11 on the road right now you have three GMC generals yep one's got uh two's got a two got a Detroit right yeah one has a 6V 92 Detroit truck 21 has a 6V 92 uh truck 20 that's not here the engines apart okay it said uh Tom Lee's getting the engine rebuilt it happens it happens does happen had a lot of time on it that has the big cam Cummins and then the other General has the uh av-92 Detroit my second Western Star low bed Fred look at the old school the old school green lights yeah that's Freddy's trademark he puts those on everything he drives really yeah he loves the green lights Fred is old school right absolutely old school put this gun for a motor this has a uh 556 NZ cat so it's one of these yeah one of the slower trucks in the fleet those six nz's they they try hard we tell them when they're next to the Pack cars to just do the best they can that's right brand new this is Scotty's new truck we've only had it I don't know three weeks or something just started running it uh it's got a paccar mx13 in it we were having really good luck with those yeah yeah okay get the old 359 the old 359 which it's uh it's earmarked for a uh a duel over this winter that was running every day until truck 28 came in um the truck was doing you know four or five hundred miles a day on the reg six days a week um it's tired it needs attention I've had it a really long time so it's it's probably financially it's probably not the best move but it deserves it's earned a redo so we're gonna go through it it's ready so what to take to drive for Ben Center trucker what kind of guy are you looking for um I would say like old school type of men people that show up even if they don't feel well uh guys that aren't late like there's not a single guy here that's been late for work in 10 years honestly that's amazing these guys just get no excuses we live a modern society of if we have a snowstorm it's people's excuse to show up late for work but I always say treat your job just like if you were flying to the Bahamas on vacation and there was a snowstorm you'd make sure you headed out for Logan a little bit early so treat your job the same way so it's never an issue I've I've never reprimanded anyone here for being late because no one's ever been late honestly that's amazing we have a testament to you yeah what kind of boss you are just no it's the guys the guys are good man you've had some drivers here working a long time yeah yes scarecrow's been here more than a decade Kevin's been here a decade Scotty's been here about a decade um there's a lot of Paul's been here for many years like all these guys yeah there's no one the newest guy is Pete and he was at his old job for over 10 years until they closed the doors he worked for a towing company and when they closed the doors uh we ended up we were fortunate enough to get him so it's worked out well and do you hire do you have to have a class A to work here no you have to have a class B I'll hire a guy with a Class B okay have you ever moved the guy up from class b to class A yeah Kevin Kevin started out with class B and now he's Class A okay whatever Kevin that's Kevin's got the name on the door huh yeah yeah absolutely Kevin's been here a long time who's the uh guy who drives this truck the driver Paul yeah that's awesome who does all your pinstriping uh Waltz signs it's a guy waltzman lettering for most of his life I think he's 80 years old now really he's still hand stripes on me yeah he just was here what a nice job so yeah we really we just need good men that dress like men we don't allow flip-flops and sneakers wear boots on yeah you're gonna wear boots if you work here where do you stand on air conditioning I mean air conditioning is great I finally have air conditioning working for the first time in my career in my 64. but I mean everybody here has air conditioning but if it breaks you're still going to work it's non-priority if your brakes don't work we shut the truck down right if your air conditioning doesn't work sock it up buttercup that's right not that bad I roll down the windows right roll down that's the air condition it's natural air conditioning scarecrow's truck how long has been with you uh over 10 years 10 12 years I think so you buy a guy a brand new truck for all his dedication hard work scarecrow started at the bottom here when we're still running a cab over on a dump trailer yeah but every day come on every day yep that's amazing yeah well I appreciate you taking the time yeah thanks for talking to me I'm sure there's more exciting places to go than here oh there are but you know I have nothing else to do today so I figured why not I'll slum it but thanks a lot Ben it was always an experience it's been a pleasure to know you have known Ben for about five or six years now anyway yeah the way we met was that at a gravel pit I was driving a super liner he was driving a GMC General we had that Mutual old school nod respect you stopped your hands you said hello and we've been friends ever since absolutely thank you very much it was a pleasure to see you all right you too enjoy your day all right

Channel: TheBostonTrucker

Views: 933,013

Keywords: #VideoGuru, truck, trucker, trucking, truck driver, truck driving, Peterbilt, Kenworth, mack, freightliner, convoy, cb radio, mercury sleeper, double eagle sleeper, largecar, twin sticks, two sticks, shifting, diesel, Cummins, caterpillar engine, big rig videos, 18 wheeler, 18 wheels, old school trucking, cabover, western star, ice road truckers, outback truckers, lorry driver, lorry truck, scania trucks, Renault trucks, Volvo trucks, automatic trucks, eld, log book, old trucks

Id: ZyLP5-h0mNk

Length: 34min 15sec (2055 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 03 2023