Well how’s everyone’s winter going? We here at Snakebite Racing Have been very busy. We were down at the body shop yesterday looking over a very sad looking race car. It had been taken all a part by Gary Morrison getting the car ready for paint. Brian took some pictures of a work in progress and this is about the last time any one will see this colour on our car.

Keltech Designs in Fergus will get the car after the painting is all done and put the new graphics on for us. All the parts are now in sitting in my bedroom just waiting for all the other work to be completed and then it will be Andy’s and my turn to rebuild the motor.

So the road to Louisville continues.

This week we had some interesting developments here on the home front too. Our dodge dually got into an accident and we are just waiting for the other body shop to call and tell us that the parts are in to fix it. Then we can take it in to be fixed. That same day our oldest boy Robbie was travelling with one of his friends and was involved in a minor mishap with their car.

Thankfully none of them were hurt.
So we hope to meet many of you at MATS this year. On the Thursday night after the show in the Papa Johns parking lot were we will be set up our newest sponsor Airtab LLC will be there to give a live demonstration on how to install your own set of Airtabs. They will answer any questions you may have about their fine product.

We are very happy to have Airtabs on board this year as an Associate sponsor. After talking with drivers that have Airtabs on their trucks they have told me that the benefit to having them on their trucks and trailers is great! With fuel savings along with more visibility in rain they cannot be beat. Of course we can not for get about more stability when driving thru wind too one driver told me. So that was good enough for me. I made a phone call to Jack and the rest is history. We are even going all out and trying them on our race car this year. If they work on trucks & trailers of all kinds then why not a race car as our speeds are dramatic compared to interstate speed.

We feel this will help us when it comes to all the winds we face at some race tracks we attend every year.
With the addition of Airtabs to our truck and trailer we will be able to enjoy the benefits and saving’s that other people, that have installed them on their vehicles,  have. The safety aspect alone for our crew is a great plus as we travel to races and shows.

Well that’s it for this month. Just think the days are getting longer. And it is only 76 days to go until opening day of racing at Empire Dragway and that’s where you will find us at our first race. But it is Louisville and all you happy drivers first.

Snakebite 

Bob Heans (Snakebite), Snakebite Racing No Comments February 2nd, 2010

January 25, 2010 : For Immediate Release

 

The Mid-America Trucking Show is proud to host country music legend John Anderson and award winning bluegrass band The Grascals, presented in concert by Mobil Delvac at the 2010 show this March 25-27.

John Anderson will headline the Mobil Delvac concert with hits from his new album "Bigger Hands" and country classics such as "Swingin", "Straight Tequila Night", and "Money in the Bank". With one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable voices in country music, John Anderson has received countless awards including multiple CMA Awards, a Grammy nomination, multiple #1 singles and produced a multi-platinum album.

The Grascals are slated to open with their trademark blend of traditional bluegrass and classic country, which has earned them multiple Grammy nominations and several prestigious IBMA and SPBGMA awards.

 

The Mobil Delvac team unveiled its year-long sponsorship of The Grascals on September, 28, 2009, at a media luncheon kicking off the 20th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards in Nashville, TN. As part of the sponsorship, The Grascals will tour the country in its Mobil Delvac branded tour bus, which will be filled with Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15W-40, a high performance diesel engine oil formulated to help extend engine life in on-highway and off-highway applications. The tour bus will have oil analysis sampling and testing done on a regular basis.

The concert will be held on-site in Freedom Hall of the Kentucky Exposition Center, immediately following the Friday edition of the Mid-America Trucking Show. Complimentary tickets will be distributed, while supplies last, from Mobil Delvac’s Booth (#18160 in the North Wing) during the 39th annual Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, KY.

For more information on Mobil Delvac, go to www.mobildelvac.com.

Trucks and truckers, advertising No Comments January 28th, 2010

 

Guerrilla Kindness (Friends of Ms. Wyatt)

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Today at 1:06am

Does $5 make or break you? 10? 20? To some people that amount of money can be food for days or a roof over their heads for the week. Simple, but true…
People still continue to amaze me. It seems that no matter where a person goes, you still can find good, heard working people. Kind people who are more than willing to lend a hand however the best they can. it renews faith in some ways. This is a note about one such person and a way that her legacy continues.
I was lucky enough to meet a very interesting elderly woman in Ohio, Barb Wyatt. Barb was one of these people. Living on a very meager income, she spent most of her life teaching, educating, and just plain lending aid to others in the ways that she was able. Late in her life, Barb was able to befriend a large group of truckers, and was able to educate us in her kind ways.
Barb was able to see nobleness in many people. She was able to explain her version of kindness. "Small things, unknown, can add up to a great deal to someone." She was the inspiration behind "Barb Wyatt Weekends." These events are plain and simple. If she or someone in a small group would learn of a person in immediate need, where a small amount of money would make a huge difference in their life…. a group would mobilize.
Mobilizing meant this. We would be given an address. Nothing more. To that address a group of people would anonymously grab a card, throw a bill in it (denomination was our choice and never disclosed) and mail it anonymously to that address.( Again, it was never anything huge. Maybe a 20. Something that wouldn’t hurt our financial situation. ) That was it. That simple. They never knew who was sending it… and it usually aided a great deal. This didn’t happen very frequently, only in urgent need. May I also add here that doing this really makes you feel that a small contribution is making a huge difference.
That said, Barb has passed some time ago. In honor of her, the "Friends of Barb Wyatt" continue this practice as needed to this day. Sometimes with huge events, but more often than not just doing a simple card and honoring this lady who inspired a great many people to do great things.
A need has been learned. The "Friends" have been called upon because there is an need that has been discovered. I say discovered as they did not ask…. it was found. A situation where a small amount of money or food can make a huge difference in someone’s life.
Please remember that this is done anonymously. No return addresses, just a card and a gift. Anonymous giving was always referred to as guerrilla kindness. Where nobody really knows if you did or didn’t, and no big thanks ever comes. You just trust that it helps. And, in my experience, it does.
I know with Haiti, with all of the worlds frustrations, that one more isn’t really needed. However, I will say this is a direct approach to making a difference.
If you care to send an envelope, please email me and I will gladly send you an address. Its really not too late for Christmas cards! You’ll be amazed at what can happen.
By the way, if mailing a card isn’t your thing… here’s a great way to turn a bad day around. Hit a drive through. When getting your food leave an extra five and tell the cashier to apply it to the next car. They wont know what hit them, but you will have made their day! Oh yeah, and guess what…. that bad day? Usually turns around on the spot.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Again, if you care to send a card, or just to think about it, please send an email. I will be glad to get you an address of a family in severe need.
Chris

I took this with permission from Chris Thom’s face book page.  For those interested in joining the Friends of Barb Wyatt, you can contact him there, or even email me.  If you cant figure out hw to email me, try rusty  here…

Facebook | Chris Thom: Guerrilla Kindness (Friends of Ms. Wyatt)

Chris Thom, Trucks and truckers No Comments January 26th, 2010

January 20, 2010

We here at Snakebite Racing are pleased to announce our latest sponsor, Airtab®,  to come on board for the 2010-racing season. “The addition of Airtabs™ will only make our team stronger and faster this year,” said Brian Heans crew chief for Snakebite Racing. Airtabs™ are a vortex generator that helps reduce drag at the back of your vehicle. We plan to use Airtabs™ on our truck as well as our car hauler. With placement of Airtabs™ on our racecar this year we hope to have a slight winning advantage with a more consistent car on the ¼ mile.

Snakebite Racing along with Airtabs™ will be at the Mid America Truck Show in Louisville, KY. The show runs March 25th thru the 27th 2010.

After show hours on Friday March 26^th, over in the Papa Johns parking lot, there will be a demonstration on just how easy it is to install your own set of Airtabs™. We look forward to meeting everyone there to talk about Airtabs™ and drag racing. This is also were you can meet Brian “the Brain” one of the youngest Crew Chiefs in the IHRA

Bob Heans (Snakebite), Snakebite Racing No Comments January 20th, 2010

“12/11/2009
Heavy duty trucks registered the best sales of the year in November, improving 4.2 percent from the month before. November marked the third consecutive month-to-month improvement as some truck buyers eye savings ahead of the more costly, 2010 emissions-compliant equipment.
According to figures provided to The Trucker by Ward’s Automotive, November Class 8 sales totaled 8,861 trucks in the United States, up from 8,500 trucks in October, which had been the best month of 2009. “  The Trucker

Seems like a nice feel good piece hinting at recovery doesn’t it?

But wait.. further down in the same article they give a starker view of those numbers.

“For the first 11 months of 2009, 83,241 Class 8 trucks have been sold in the U.S. (down 31 percent from last year), the worst showing on the Ward’s books dating to 1985.

In 1991, the previous low, 88,422 trucks were sold in the same period. By comparison, in the 2006 record year, 257,446 trucks were sold through October — meaning a decline this year of 67.7 percent from the peak three years ago.

Based on maintaining the current rate of decline from 2008, projected sales are about 92,000 units for 2009, versus 133,473 in 2008. In 2006, 284,008 big trucks were sold in the U.S. “

Last year they told it differently, and were less optimistic.

“12/12/2008

Sales of Class 8 trucks fell by more than 12 percent in November from the month before, and with a month to go 2008 is likely to be an even more dismal year for big trucks than woeful 2001.

Again further down in the article.

Still, for the year so far, the industry has sold only 120,726 trucks, trailing 2007’s 11-month total (138,931 trucks) by 13.1 percent.

More strikingly, compared to 2006 record sales, the total is down almost 138,000 trucks so far, a 53 percent slide. Projecting a full 12 months would leave this year at just under 132,000 trucks versus 284,008 two years ago. In 2001, the bottom of the previous industry downturn, there were 139, 576 trucks sold (128,178 through November). “

One might think these numbers mean little, unless you apply them as a look at the picture of fleet maintenance.

The Department of labor says 90,000 employee drivers have left the industry in 2009,  OOIDA says 200,000 independent drivers have also left. So what number of trucks would have to be sold to keep just the normal rotation of equipment in force for those remaining in the industry.

We know that larger OTR fleets have gone into regional mode causing better utilization of equipment on shorter hauls. This will allow some stretching of tractor life in the fleet if their depreciation schedule doesn’t cause them to trade anyway.

We also know that port drayage fleets have mandated replacements driving vehicle sales that would not have happened without those government forced replacement mandates.

What then is the reality of fleet aging and replacement. What market other than government forced replacement is there for the class 8 manufacturers to adjust their future sales projections on?  If anyone is even whispering these things no one is discussing them openly.

Take away the forced replacement of equipment by the state of California and the ports what sales would there be for class 8 trucks?

Just my opinion!   Yoda

Trucks and truckers, opinion, yoda's opinion No Comments January 19th, 2010

Local currencies do not replace federal currency, but rather complement it. Participating businesses set an acceptance policy, such as a certain percentage of each purchase, or a flat limit per purchase. Employers also may opt to pay part of their employees’ wages with local currency. Many communities, including Seattle, Bellingham and Portland, have local currencies – including Clark County’s neighbor to the east, the Columbia River Gorge.

Keeping it local

RiverHOURS is paper scrip managed by the Gorge Local Currency Cooperative, which launched in 2004 with 60 participating businesses and $2,700 worth of scrip.  Now about 5 percent of the businesses within the GLCC geographic area – a 35-mile radius of the Hood River Bridge – accept RiverHOURS and about $15,000 worth of RiverHOURS is in circulation. Local currencies are considered legal as long as they are tied to the federal dollar.

For example, each RiverHOUR has the cash value of $10. A tenth of a RiverHOUR is equivalent to $1. For accounting and tax purposes, participating businesses treat RiverHOURS as they would $10 bills. No special accounting or financial forms are necessary.

While local currency differs from federal money in that it is meant to be spent, not saved, inflation is something that affects both types of currency and is a potential pitfall of local currency.

Bruce Bolme, a founding member of the GLCC steering committee and a licensed civil engineer who lives in White Salmon, said the GLCC monitors how much scrip is in circulation per member to ensure it doesn’t pile up.  Their circulation goal is $200 worth of RiverHOURS per participating business members.

Who’s using it?

Pam Morneault, who owns White Salmon-based Collage of the Gorge, a custom framing business, handles about $400 worth of RiverHOURS annually. “I have used RiverHOURS to pay for bands for a summer festival, and also for landscaping at my house,” Morneault said. “When my soup business opens, I will use them to buy soup ingredients from the local market.”  Other businesses use RiverHOURS as “health insurance policies” – spending them on medical services at local medical clinics. But Bolme admits it’s an uphill battle getting business to participate in the program.  “There’s no shortage of people who are afraid of change,” he said. “We’re not just changing minds, we’re changing mind sets.”

The GLCC concentrates its educational efforts on businesses that are likely to participate – locally-owned businesses that use locally produced resources. Distributors of non-local products, such as gas stations, are unlikely to be interested. To draw in businesses, the GLCC steering committee makes presentations at local chambers of commerce and other business associations. 

The Mt. Adams Chamber of Commerce and the Hood River Downtown Association have endorsed RiverHOURS. “It’s a great concept,” said Marsha Holliston, manager of the Mt. Adams chamber in White Salmon. “I’m positive it will build.” “The opportunity for growth of the program is tremendous,” Holliston said.

One-on-one educational efforts also are important in spreading the word about local currency. Steering committee members work with business owners with whom they do business, and already-participating business owners spread the word to customers and other business owners.

By this sort of networking, the GLCC hopes to soon achieve their goal of 15 percent of local businesses participating in the RiverHOURS program.

But the success rate of local currency programs is similar to that of any start-up business.

According to the Small Business Association, 95 percent of new businesses fail within five years. Similarly, 80 percent of local currency efforts fade out, often because they are run by volunteers, who suffer burn-out after a few years.

An economy boost

Some associate local currencies with “the sky is falling” economics. But used correctly, local currencies are one innovative way to boost the local economy, improving awareness of locally owned businesses and increasing their traffic through “spending loops,” claim local currency proponents.

Suppose one person pays for a sandwich at a local deli with local currency. The deli owner then uses that money to pay part of his or her rent, and the landlord uses the money to pay a landscaper. It comes full circle when the landscaper then buys a cup of coffee and a donut from the deli.

Federal money has the ability to “leak” outside of a community, whereas local currency can’t be used outside of its designated area.

“One thousand dollars spent ten times around a community is as valuable as $10,000 spent once,” Bolme said, referring to the “multiplier effect.”

The multiplier effect is computed by multiplying the amount of local currency in circulation by the number of transactions in which that currency has played a role – resulting in the total value of that local currency to the local business community.

“Any time you can keep dollars local,” it’s a good idea, said Pat Guard, owner of Camas-based Columbia Litho Printing and Imaging. “It’s very important to keep traditional small businesses alive.”

Local currencies have been around for thousands of years, and there have been a few unsuccessful attempts at other start-ups locally.

What is new, perhaps, is the realization that local business communities are priceless repositories of talent and innovation, and should be actively preserved and promoted, Bolme said.

“It would be smart for Clark County to start a local currency,” he said. “Define your economic watershed, and work within it to keep resources local.”

As gas prices rise, people will tend to stay closer to home, offering an opportunity for “small communities to come alive again,” Guard said.

But, he added, getting consumers to consciously shop locally takes planning.

How to start a local currency:

• ?Start with a group of enthusiastic people

• ?Contact successful local currency facilitators for input

• ?Read “Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender” by Thomas Greco Jr.

• ?Advertise your efforts in local newspapers

• ?Educate businesses through “one-on-one evangelization”

— From Bruce Bolme, a founding member of the Gorge Local Currency Cooperative Steering Committee

Learn more about local currency

There is vast information out there about local currency and how it may help promote local business health. Here are a few particularly helpful sites:

www.mylocalcurrency.org – Identifies and creates technology solutions in support of local currency initiatives; lists local currency programs in the United States, Canada and around the world

www.smallisbeautiful.org – Site for the E.F. Schumacher Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to linking people, land and communities by building local economies

www.livingeconomies.org – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies brings small business leaders together to answer questions about promoting local business economies

www.accessfoundation.org – Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies

www.sustainableconnections.org (click on the “Think Local First” icon) – shows how the community of Bellingham is promoting their local businesses

AGAIN! This is information on Keeping it local

The second form is a more direct participating exchange using debits and credits. This is using both business and personal wealth valued as time, service, or an asset. A local system of barter and trade is formed using the excess capacity that either would have.

For example, I may own a restaurant. All of my tables are not full, and a member of our bartering circle wishes to dine on barter. He also happens to be a website developer. Would this not encourage a trade to happen. Lets say a half hour to hour of website development for the meal? Any goods / services can be used here and you are not using currency. Merely local to local agreements within a group.

In the above example, I as the restaurant owner would be owed something from the barter group, where the website developer would owe something. These services and goods could be traded. I as the restaurant owner may not meet website development. BUT, the local company that bakes my bread does in order to market their product nationally. Why would this not be an acceptable way of handling that and thus keeping business local? It also in the long run decreases MY total cash output using the barter exchange? Reducing costs, keeping it local, and

encouraging local growth and prosperity?

On a personal level, lets say that I am very talented at making banana bread. I have enough goods to make an extra loaf. I in turn can then trade that to my neighbor in this program for

some of his time in the garden.. I think a lot of this goes on currently.

Again, this deals with the EXCESS. Rooms that aren’t going to be filled, tables unfilled, hours left unbilled, extra pails not needed, whatever the case may be.

There are plenty of things to think about here, but really, these programs both could be set locally to keep local business in mind.

I took this from a friends blog….. It belongs here also!

opinion No Comments January 18th, 2010