Lepton1's transition from door swinger to flatbed

Since I'm so new to the company I haven't developed a network in the company to be able to advise you. Each terminal does their own hiring. Some terminals are company owned, some terminals are franchised and owned by the terminal manager. I'd advise you to contact the terminal(s) in your area to find out if they are hiring.

I know that the OKC terminal has a freeze on hiring either "company" drivers or new O/O's. We received a company newsletter last week noting that we are in the midst of a very tight market, but that an upswing within the next months is expected. Even in this down market I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm making now as a company driver, although I've now been waiting three days for a load (that's a record).

Most of the work is oilfield related. The exception that I know of is the heavy haul division.

 

I got back last night from a run to Midland after repowering a load another ACME driver picked up, then lost the ability to put it in gear with his automatic transmission. He said it was the third time this year the auto had failed on him in a '14 Freightliner. First lesson learned from this is to stay well clear of automatics.

It seems that every flatbedder has a different system for strapping, stowing straps, how side boxes are organized, etc. This driver liked to keep his straps wound on the winches, throwing the hooks. I've seen many drivers use this system and was curious about how it might work out, compared to my method:

1. I stow my straps wound in a circle with the hooks facing out, using a strap winder. This way I can set the hooks, unspool enough strap to make a toss or throw, and with the top of the circle rolling forward it will carry over a load if my throw is a tad short.

2. Once I've thrown all the straps I can go to the winch side, then fold up and tuck, insert a bite of strap into the winches, then get my bar and tighten all straps.

3. Usually when I stop to tighten straps it is rare to ever have to do more than two clicks, and often no straps will need tightening.

4. Unstrapping I can use the bar to release tension and quickly unspool and drop the straps, then I go to the hooked side and pull the straps over, tucking bites into the rub rail to keep them off the ground (mud), then go get my winder and wind up all the straps and stow them in the side box. Unstrapping the load I took to Midland would normally have been a 10-15 minute job from releasing tension to stowing the last strap...

... but I spent 30 minutes ALONE rewinding the straps onto the winches the way the driver liked it. THAT is a major pain and weakness in the "keep the straps in the winches" argument.

Three other major weaknesses I see in keeping the straps in the winches:

1. It's impossible to keep tension on the straps like you can the way I do it. When I first hooked to the trailer all the straps were LOOSE, so I tightened them. I drove 40 miles on freeway and noticed that the straps were flapping in the breeze wildly and went stopped to retighten the straps. Remember, for me doing more than two clicks is rare, but with these suckers I was having to do multiple revolutions of the winch!!!??? Wow, just wow. Besides that I had the first experience of having to retighten the straps on the way back, with the hooks just above the winches with NO LOAD.

2. Keeping the straps in the winches means whenever they get wet they keep the winches nice and moist, inviting rust on the winches. Every one of his winches had evidence of rust.

3. The straps are constantly exposed to the elements and get beat up pretty bad. The condition of his straps were less than optimal, to put it diplomatically.

Another weakness of his system is that belly wraps must be a ##### to get done. Even taking them off is a major pain if the hook catches halfway through, as it did on a couple of bellies.

This was a good experience for me. I'll NEVER stow straps on a winch.

 

It's an Eaton. He just got word today, a week before they will get it in the shop.

 

It's been slow the last two weeks. Barely getting $4000 TTT per week. I've had several unplanned 34 resets, plenty of time to binge the first two seasons of Breaking Bad.

 

Well, slow times for me have certainly taken a turn for the busy starting last Thursday morning. With 16 "tandems" (tractor/trailers) on our OKC fleet I'd been typically finishing a load and being #8 on the load board. During busier times it was rare to be above #4. Since Thursday I've consistently finished loads and been #1, and once #2, and running hard every day.

Right now I'm sitting at a drilling tool customer, waiting for them to finish preparing subs for a customer in Texas. While I'm waiting I got the deck prepared and thought I'd share with all of you how I set up a deck for bottom tools.

In the first picture I'm showing how I set up the "sub box" on the front of the trailer. I've screwed two 4x4's into short stakes on the front, so they are there permanently. I use a short 4x4 and a short 2x4 stacked on each other to build the back of the box with a 2" strap. I've laid two 2x4's on the deck, with pocket stakes in place and have another 2" strap ready to create a belly wrap. I use two chains and binders to secure the subs.

Notice I've got a few small rocks lined up on top of the 2" strap on the back of the box. This particular yard has a "tilt" and those rocks become handy to hold pieces from rolling as you are loading.

 

Here's a view of the full deck. I lay out four 4x4's positioned on either side of the pipe stakes. Usually on a bottom tool load you are going to get a mix of 25-40' long collars and motors, then some 8-15' long stabilizers and collars. This also leaves a wide area in the middle for forklift operators to find the balance point of some of these multi-ton pieces.