The only dump valves that i have operated was for the drive axels and when i used to drag 3 axel trailers so the third most forward axel on the trailer would not be active under light or empty loads.... Having said that i have seen flats with standard spread axels with the dump for the forward axel. I just have never drove or should i say pulled one.

Been following the covenant thread and now this. Sorry to go off topic but I'm curious what exactly is your "rig". A motorhome or bus? Does it have an old mechanical Cummins in it? Got any pics of the motor?

No pics of the motor. There isn't much to see anyway. I have a 2007 Winnebago Tour motor home. There is a pic of it in my photo album. It is a 40-foot diesel pusher. When you open the engine compartment in the back, you don't see much. Just the place to check and fill the oil, coolant, and a little indicator for the air filter. You can see the air filter canister on the left side but you have to get to it from underneath. RC says it's easy to get to. As I understand it, if major engine work needs to be done, the mechanics remove the bedroom mattress and the board it sits on to get to the engine from that direction. Otherwise you work from the bottom.

Latest update.

Redcoat spent the night at the consignee. Oh yeah, I found out that he picked up the load of channel in Cayce, SC. When he arrived, he went ahead and removed all the chains and then tossed the tarps back over the load and held them in place with just a few bungees. It looked a mess but it gave him a head start for the morning.

He is learning as he goes. He knows there is a certain way to fold the canvas tarps but he kind of rushed through it last night and they weren't exactly right. The consequences of this is that if they aren't folded just so, it's difficult to put them into the storage box. He managed to get them in and the door closed but now he knows that next time he needs to make sure the job is done neatly to make it easier to get them into the box.

Redcoat is always very self-critical of his backing skills so he was proud of himself this morning that he got a perfect 45-degree angle to the shed on the first try. Then they opened the doors and he had to back straight into the shed so that took away the enjoyment of his great backing job as now he had to back the rest of the way into the shed and that took him a couple of tries.

There were a couple other Mav drivers there. One had been with the company 17 years and the other 14 years. They told RC that he would probably get shingles and that it would be an all-day affair and good luck on getting home this weekend.

They were right. RC got his dispatch to pick up a load of shingles in Frederick, MD and take them to Hickory Hills, IL for delivery on Monday. The good news is he can drop off the tire with the nail in it at the yard in Gary. The other drivers told him to make sure the shipper doesn't load him full up because of the extra weight of the tire. He also thinks that maybe this load won't have to be tarped so that will be nice.

Stay tuned.

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It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

Maverick does not have them.

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A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Tell him if he ever decides to cut thru the woods coming out of there not to take 40 in PA unless it is daylight and not raining.... My wife and I cut thru there one night and she kept saying I wish it was light so I could get some good pics. I told her I don't think you would want to see this in the daylight. A heavy load of shingles is not the way to go when you can't see past the hood on that road... There is some steep drops and curves on that bad boy....

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A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Got a kick out of Mrs. RC post about the other Mav drivers telling Redcoat
he was gonna get shingles, I thought of the medical condition when I first read it, lol ...

The specialized division does have dump valves on the flatbeds ,they dump both axles at the same time,it is not used for turning, they are dumped when you get parked in position to unload, the glass is very top heavy and dumping the bags keeps the the rocking to a minimum. You also have to keep cranking down the landing gear as the load gets lighter. the weight really shifts from side to side when unloading . you dont want to forget to dump em. (or stand next to the trailer when unloading.) the new double drops dump automatically when you pull the trailer brake.

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Do you want your pizza cut into 4 pieces or 8 ???? better make it 4 ,I don't think i can eat 8.

Maverick to Covenant is like Golden Delicious apples to rotten oranges

Correct but i'm pretty sure in order to qualify for breakdown pay, you have to lose the load you are under in most circumstances. However, i was on a monday am delivery once when the truck started having issues. The gear indicator would sometimes show what gear you were in then flash an F. Fail code, and the truck would be stuck in whatever gear the f code started flashing. 40 miles from the delivery on the side of the road, i called fleetnet. They told me to shut the truck off for 20 mins to reset the transmission and that would allow me to shift. 2 20 min stops later i delivered my load on time and was routed to the closest freightliner for repairs. Was down for 1.5 days while they replaced the ECU and fixed the broken x/y shifter, and did get breakdown pay for that.

Nope no dump valves on the standard flatbed trailers. They also tell you in orientation to avoid u turns and make 4 lefts instead. In a perfect world, yes, in this world, sometimes impractical. Hard turns are sometimes unavoidable at some of our customers. Just try not to make U-turns and hard turns a habit.

Tom Petty put it best, "The wai-ai-ting is the hardest part" and unavoidable. If he is not loaded after 3 hours of his arrival at the shipper then he qualifies for detention time. $8 per hour paid on the quarter hour. I try to be productive as possible while waiting. "If i have time to lean, I have time to clean" dashboard, windows, lubricate binders, etc etc etc. His load was unblocked channel iron. no wooden blocks between the bundles of steel which with a proper wrap keeps the bundles of steel from shifting side to side on the trailer so when its unblocked, you need to wrap each bundle with a chain to keep it in place. There is a diagram in the maroon book in his truck depicting it. We load steel like this out of jackson tennessee and my last time there, Before finishing my own load, I walked two people thru it by doing the rearmost chain on the bundle as they did the front chain. Then the canvas tarps, all 3 to protect the steel tarps from the sharp corners and both steel tarps for a total of 5 tarps and yes, quite a few bungees.

Some loads have delivery windows, 7am--3pm. Other loads, by appointment. 7am sharp. I would guess customers have appointment only delivery to try to eliminate the great wait but sometimes it just doesnt work out that way. So yes your deliver/bounce/load/drive/rest/deliver description would be a good one. We do not live in a perfect world however and you just roll with the punches and do your best to get to the customers within the perameters of the work assignment