[AT] Strange modification

[Ron Cook]

Some folks have more money than brains.

Ron Cook

charliehill wrote:
> A motor grader is about the strongest pulling machine you'll run up with. 
> Back in the late 70's a fellow named Malcolm McClain sold out his Charlotte 
> NC based trucking business and dumped a lot of the cash into a huge farm in 
> N/E NC.  Well actually it was a pocosin.  He cleared it and began making it 
> into farm land.  The soil was so acid that they were putting 10 or 12 tons 
> of lime to the acre on cutover and root raked land just to get the roots to 
> rot.  I was one of the truckers that hauled the lime to the place.
>
> The roads on the place were nothing but 2 deep canals dug about 50 or more 
> feet apart with all of the dirt piled in the middle and graded out into a 
> roadway.  The canals were deep and wide enough to bury a tractor trailer in. 
> It wasn't unusual to get stuck with a loaded tractor-trailer dump right in 
> the middle of the main field roads and getting stuck on the side roads was 
> almost a daily occurance.  (Now I'm getting to the part about the motor 
> grader if anyone is still reading).
>
> They had a couple of special Cat graders spread out over the 100,000 acre 
> tract.  They would send them to the areas where we were hauling lime.  They 
> had been fitted with rear wheels that were over twice as wide and not much 
> over half as tall as normal grader wheels.  That is what pulled us out most 
> of the time and most of the time they did a fine job and they were fast. 
> They'd pull a group of us through a tough spot in the road.  Then as a group 
> we'd go another couple of miles and get stuck again.  By the time we got the 
> road blocked up good the grader would catch up with us and pull us all out 
> again.
>
> Most of the time that worked.  When we really got stuck bad, usually while 
> we were trying to dump, they would send D-8 Cats to pull us out.  That  is 
> assuming we were able to dump first.  If not the lime had to be shoveled out 
> of the dump bed.  Otherwise the dozer would pull the tractor and trailer out 
> but leave the trailer axles or part of them in the bog.   Occasionally one 
> side of the trailer wheels would sink while we were dumping.  That would 
> turn the trailer over and since most of us ran aluminum trailers the were 
> usually totaled or darn near it.  Most of us pulled 22' Ravens trailers. 
> Anything longer was nearly impossible to dump in the field without turning 
> over.
>
> I think they finally got about 35 or 40 thousand acres into farmable 
> condition.  The place was called First Colony Farm and it stretched over 
> part of 4 counties between Hwys.  US 64, NC 32 and US 264, east and south of 
> Plymouth NC.  The farm tracts were eventually sold off to various farmers 
> and investors.  There were probably 25 or more trucks hauling lime from as 
> far as 150 miles away, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week for a couple of years. 
> We were running from 4 am until 8 or 9 at night everyday.  The limiting 
> factor was getting the lime mine operators to stay open for us after hours.
>
> Charlie Hill
>
>   
>