Old School NASCAR Hauler Breakdowns | Wood Brothers' Best Stories From The Open Road

You ever have any breakdowns? >> Oh yeah, we got a book [laughter] of breakdowns. >> The air compressor, the bracket broke off around Jackson, Tennessee, and we come home from Jackson, Tennessee on a nitrogen bottle for brakes. >> Oh, >> we had some way of pumping air, pumping tires up at the racetrack like off the truck, which is a get down to it was a bad plan cuz you were pumping air with moisture in it into your tires. That was not good. We didn't know that at the time, but anyway, we basically turned it around backwards and came home on the nitrogen bottle. That particular hauler was sold to uh Walter Ballard. And then we bought a new tractor and a box like it was it was a ramp, still a ramp truck, >> had aluminum ramps in it. The car sit in there like that, >> but it was a box around it. The next one we have, the one with a box on it, we put that's one we put a 460 Lincoln engine in it. Two four barrel manifold. I think it's an offenhouser with two fours on it like a tunnel ram and we put it in a tractor like that. It would run as fast uphill as it would down. >> Yeah. >> Flagstaff >> Van Horn. >> Van Horn in Texas. If you could go up those mountains and 75 mph, you done something. And we did. Then another one we broke a valve spring and had to had to had to tunnel ram manifold on it. Had to pull that off >> and we had torn down the we'd won the race and torn the engine down. So there was a box of push rods and of course the push rods were the wrong length. They were two-piece push rods and so some way somehow found a hacksaw blade or something and I cut one and then cut a piece out of it and then beat it back together. We come home on that push rod. >> And then the same time they were doing that, they pulled a nitrogen bottle out to pump the cylinder up to be able to get the uh change a valve spring. We blew up one time coming home. We would have to go, this was in a summer race at Riverside, and we'd have to go to Michigan the next Sunday. I mean, be there to race and we would get home like on Tuesday. At one time, we had changed engines in the thing. I don't remember what happened to it. >> Well, you broke that one coming home from poking over that time. Broke the front end off of it. >> Yeah. The b the whole balance and everything. >> Yeah. The balancer, all the belts, every bit of it. [laughter] >> So, so they drug it in 10 miles. We changed the engine, got ready to like back it back in shop wouldn't move. And they had by when they towed it, didn't pull the drive shaft out of it, and it burnt the transmission up. >> So then daddy was picking up something like at midnight. uh at Greensboro at a that was being flown in and then Leonard worked all day. That's when we'd get to the racetrack a day late. >> Yeah. >> Everybody laugh at us. Haha. Where you been? Then we go out there and set on pole. They're dated. >> Then they would shut up. [clears throat] >> And Dale and some of them, you know, they would pick on us all the time. >> And it was nothing to blow the water out. It would get hot and blow the water out of it. >> Yeah. It just do that for no reason. >> And then you would then you would have to wait cuz you poured more water in it. You'd have to wait till it cooled down some before you could put water back in it and go right on. >> Blow tires. Used blow tires all the time. >> That was nothing to blow a tire. >> Tore two up going to California one time. >> Went and bought four radials. Oh, two radials on the front. Put the front on the back. >> Yep. We got out there and Goodyear kind of said there was a a different type of tire. We should have been using something called we were had custom high mileers and we needed super high mileers to >> build custom ones had like a almost like a a wider wider tire. So all the weight all the outside built heat >> custom high mileer had all that cut off of it. We never had we never never had another super high mileer didn't didn't have that. So we we never used anything else but that. Did you have to stay in any sketchy places when you broke down? >> Most of it was just on the side of the road. This I mean >> we didn't we didn't spend a night anywhere unless unless you were with mom and daddy >> and we stayed >> we blew up one time when we flew Curtis and all that parts that was in right out of Phoenix. >> It's called Pistachio Peak or something. Picacio Peak Tucson area. >> Yeah, we we blew it up pretty bad. >> Uh jump time. Yeah. Had to fly a guy out there and so we had to wait a day a day or two for him to get there >> cuz it had rained to race out >> and me and you and daddy. >> Yeah. And and we were there an extra week anyway. They was raining on Saturday and and it was um Super Bowl Sunday. So we had fixed it where and the Steelers were playing playing the Rams and uh so we were going to stop at a motel watch the game had it all planned was it turned out we blew up we couldn't even get to the hotel and uh I believe >> you had that little bitty TV >> had a little bitty black black it's it's here somewhere and it it would pick up just enough where you could watch the ball game >> while the other by the guy was putting the time chain was in there watching football game while I was working on the up and I believe it was Jay Thomas that picked us up and took us to a hotel. >> Yeah. And I'll say this, I'm not going to use a name, but there was another guy that basically saw us and turned his head, >> kept going. I'm not going to mention my name. >> Jab Jab come by, him and Ronnie, and they stopped and they was pulling. They had they had a ramp truck like that and was followed by a station wagon that like his crew was in it. They took us to the hotel or something. I We rented a car. I don't know. >> We had to rent a car cuz we picked stayed at the hotel and then whenever Curtis flew in, we all went back there and then we had to go back and drop the car off. That was a long trip home then. >> You Yeah. I mean, some of the stuff that happened to us on the road, you like I said, you can write a book on it. If we can ever find the book, it would be more interesting than everything you see here. >> So, we're coming up to go 40. You come out of uh Ontario, you come up 15 to get to 40 Barstow I think it is. As we rolled onto the ramp on I40, boom boom boom, tailpipe broke off a muffler. [clears throat] And so we somehow had bailing wire of some sort and pulled it back up in place and we got along pretty good until it blow it off again. we'd fix it again. Let's just say by the time we got to Texas, we didn't fix it anymore. >> We just left it. >> We We come across and you could look up what year it was, but the World's Fair when they used to have World's Fair was in >> Knoxville. >> Knoxville. >> Yeah. >> And we come through Knoxville with that thing. Every time you let off of it, it would just >> Oh, we let we It was awful. So, >> was that in this truck or the one with the box behind it? >> I think that was that one. >> We blew up everything. We We had trouble everything with [laughter] And the hard part was like the one after that. We put that four 60 in it. There was only one of one of anything alternator bracket. Anything you broke, you had to make it cuz it it wasn't it wasn't what come in that it they had a 389, I believe. What came >> uh 391. 391. >> That was a truck engine. >> Yeah. So, nothing fit. It's like you break something, you had to make it, you know. >> Well, you put the 428 in. That's what broke the crank off of it. >> Yeah. >> Cuz that was not a truck engine. We realized that after we broke the crank off. >> Yeah. >> Cuz it had it had like a damper dampen dampener with I believe there's four belts on that thing. Water pump, uh, power steering pump, air compressor. air compressor. It It was four belts on and so that that damper was way more than that crankshaft was going to stand there. Again, he got within 10 miles of here. We drove >> Daddy had about somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 trips on the ground to California. >> Wow. >> I'm talking about 63, four, five when it was hard. And then I counted me, which you'd be the same. You'd be more I was at 35 trips on the ground to California and back. >> We made it back. It was Kenny Martin who used to be our gas man back in the the Pearson days in the in ' 70s. We came back from Riverside in June. The summer race to here in Stewart in 34 and 1/2 hours. >> Y >> I'm talking about >> 2400 miles. >> We was here Tuesday morning. That's about 70 mph 70 and 12 mph average. >> That's fast. >> That's sitting still >> less than an hour. >> Yeah, we sit still. >> That counted fueling somebody going to a Wendy's or McDonald's or Burger King [laughter] >> and then uh you would be the one I'd be the food guy and you go to a phone booth and call home. >> Yeah. Had to call home. And we had to find we knew where gas stations were because it was a gas truck where you could plug into both both sides >> had tanks. Both sides of the tanks >> so you could double fill at the same time. >> Yeah. >> So one person gas and one person food and one person calling home. >> He was off the road 50 minutes. That include bathroom breaks, >> everything station. They were the they were the slowest part was the way stations cuz even a small truck like that still had to go through the way station. >> That's the only way you get home is like make a game out of it. You couldn't deal with it. I mean it is and we always came across 40 rather most people came across the southern route which was 10 and 20 285. If you drive a lot, you've probably seen some pretty crazy stuff happen on the road or the very least heard about it or seen those crazy videos on social media. The thing about it is you have no proof unless you have a dash cam in your car. This is the 70MI 4K A900 dash cam. It is the best dual 4K dash cam at an entry-level price that you're going to find. Front and rear 4K recording at a steady 30fps, delivering full coverage with smooth, blurfree footage. It's got front and rear custom scheduled HDR recording. Adapts to variable light for vivid colors and sharp image layers. 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I think it's a little farther across 40, but you could run so much faster. You didn't go through any towns to speak of. >> How many times did you have to stop? >> Three. >> Just three times. >> Three, I think. >> Jeez. I could never. >> Did you pee in bottles? >> No. >> No. We would When I say three to a to when we got gas, that didn't mean we didn't pull over and step outside or whatever. I'm not sure. I don't I don't even remember doing that. >> I I don't either. [laughter] >> Cuz you were young. >> I can tell you >> I could you you I could barely go to Winston Salem from here. [laughter] I'll put it like this. I know. Me and Terry Hall left one time and we didn't pull over until we got to West Memphis, Arkansas. >> Wow. >> Gosh, >> that's like 11 hours, 12 [laughter] hours. Now, I don't know how we did that, >> but but you made a >> just a >> It was a different time. >> It wasn't game, I guess. But it you had to have a goal of doing something someone else had never done cuz nobody I thought nobody ever got home quicker than we did. We beat [laughter] everybody. We hold the record on any of that. >> That's hilarious. >> A lot of them guys had bigger trucks that were diesel and it could go farther, but ours would run. I mean, it would really it was fast. >> When did you finally get a hauler that wouldn't blow up all the time? >> We didn't get a a hauler hauler until Warner Warner Hutch in 80. >> Yeah, we that kind of stopped stopped the problem then. >> Yeah. 81. Everybody was going to tractor trailers. >> Then you're then with a diesel then. >> Huh. The the first tractor trailer that I remember was Austral. He had and it wasn't a race car tractor trailer. It was a normal trailer like you see on the road now with big long ramps to get up in it. The Petties had the first purposebuilt one that I remember >> that was like a low. >> Yeah. It was a single axle tractor with a kind of like what a low boy would be now. You know, like it wasn't >> it wasn't you couldn't have stacked two cars and it was a low one. >> And nobody >> Yeah, we didn't carry two cars anyway. >> Nobody carried two cars for >> We didn't do that until mid80s. It was with Kyla just started carrying two cars. And if you'd had to drag the other one out, you'd probably been past race time to get it get a motor in it and get it going. I think that trailer of Austelins with the big ramps ended up being Kikis when he had the Xerx steel in his in his earlier years. >> Roland Waka >> Roland Waka. >> Yeah, >> that was his >> he was his >> general manager. Yeah, he was the guy that and he drove a little bit. >> He drove, he jacked, he gashed, he changed tires, he wanted to do everything or >> or have knowledge of everything. I'll say it that way. See, Nhard drove for him in the beginning and then I don't know what happened to MRA. I don't I don't know what happened to him. >> He sold the JD Stacy and then >> Stacy showed up. That's right. >> Yeah. Air conditioning wouldn't last. It wouldn't drive from here to Markville. Something happened to it. It never did work. >> That roof unit thing. >> Yeah, that thing on top. The other [clears throat] the next truck was just like that. It never would work. You'd get that thing fixed and was all good. Free on get out of something happened to it all the time. See that was a sleeper behind it. >> That bumped out part. >> Yeah. >> So if you had three of you in there, did the third person have to ride in the sleeper? Big one. You start out three wide and then at some point soon somebody was in the sleeper all time. >> Yeah. >> Which is you or boy or Kenny. So I'd be over there with let the dash down flip down. That's what I put my knees on. There were actually two of those ramp trucks. It was one they got in the late60s and I don't know what ever happened to it either. I don't know. Kelly Arbor bought it. >> Oh, really? >> Yep. And I'm not talking about the steel part of it cuz they they put it on another tractor, but K they had they put a box on it and somehow kale wound up with it. And I'll bet you you could go to his farm right now and it's still there. There it be red and white corrugated uh aluminum box. I don't what he he had a farm down there and I think he kept hating or something. >> That would be cool if it was still there. >> We went to see kale shortly before he got sick and it was still there. >> Oh, really? Wow. >> I don't know why that hole's there. Whether we stuck a knife in there and turned it around and around. I don't know. >> I think that's right. I think [laughter] Now we went through a time we collected knives like case knives, pocket knives. >> Now you could smell and you can smell about 70 years in there. >> Yeah, that's Yeah, but I think like the phone you Well, the phone was there and you'd be on the phone and you'd be standing up >> cuz looks like the hole is there. >> Yeah, that's hilarious. >> No secret though. So now we like all the pictures we had got all >> we had duplicates of all the pictures. So let's just say >> Marvin on the top there. >> That's so cool. >> Uh Gurnie with the with the goggles. So >> there's all the frames that were on the wall. >> The actual frames. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Jeez, that's insane. Now, we tal we talked about. Wow. And I don't know. Well, that was okay. So, this is See, this is I guess that's the Indie engine. Yeah. Said it was in the indie cars. Is that the one that Foy ended up buying and using in his stuff? >> I I don't know. I don't know. That's crazy. >> We talked about paneling this corner at one point. >> Oh, absolutely. >> I was literally thinking how cool that would be. >> We wound up with the pictures and then all the stuff and me got over it. [laughter] >> That's what you used to keep laugh. >> Oh, wow. >> So, >> before you had transponders? >> So, I went to a what do you call it? A antique shop. Found that. >> Oh, that's cool. >> Wow. never been open and then found a uh like a Christmas cookie tin thing, whatever you call it. >> Oh yeah, that's perfect. >> So then there was there was a briefcase sitting here for some reason. The phone and then actually I want to say Kim Kim made this right here. >> That's a sticker over top of it, right? Is that just folders of stickers? >> Yeah, cuz you see them. I used stickers on the front fenders. >> Oh, wow. I've seen those on cars. I've never seen one that was still on the paper. >> These used to be on most everybody's dash. The racers prayer. I think it's one on the Mercury over there. These are some of the manuals that [clears throat] Leonard would have had when he worked at the Ford dealership here on it. That's insane. 1956. >> I'm not sure. >> Yours was a 55. >> Not 100% sure had his name in it. >> Pretty sure that >> a cab whatever it didn't have. >> There's a 53. We're reasonably sure that Ry Priest, >> if you like seeing the other stuff they had in the cabinets in this museum, make sure you go watch the new Wood Brothers Museum video that we just posted a few weeks ago. I know the first one we did back in 2023 has like 700,000 views right now. So, there's a little bit of confusion that when I posted the new one, I think a lot of people thought that it was a repost of that one, but it is not. It is new. They have gotten a lot of new things in in there. They've redone [snorts] all the displays. They got really nice backdrops and more pictures, different cars, completely different stories. The video is just as long as the original one, but there is no overlap in it. It is all new stuff. And check the channel page to find it on there. I'm going to link in the description and stuff anyway, but just go to the channel page and look at videos because when we post something new, it does not automatically show up on…