Truck recovery and when to say no to the company. (with pictures)

to me, what is worse, is that many "entitled" drivers think they should only get the new or newest trucks to drive, or they just walk out of the interview.

i'd driven many older trucks, that had no a/c, or power steering, but they ran, and could pass a DOT inspection.

done that more than i care to recall. but many newer drivers simply think that they are that good, and are entitled to nothing but the best of the best.

 

My 1st truck was a 1973 Cabover Kenworth. 335 Cummins / 9 spd with 10:00-20 bias ply on Dayton’s . No a/c & no p/s. That was in the 80’s.

Today I have p/s but only got the a/c fixed couple years ago.

No way I’d let just anyone drive my truck, I have the engine built hot and it’s fully mechanical. In a world where the computer does it all, most only know how to read the fuel gauge, and would burn it up…..

 

Looks like someone left the truck parked a day or two too long and homeless squatters claimed it as their own. Just like a perfectly good old empty country house. Someone comes along and “claims” it as theirs because it’s just sitting there and nobody’s using it. Lol

 

Not sure, but the lady at the bread store where I picked it up said it was left that way by the last driver, then someone knocked the glass out while it was parked out back.

When I got to the receiver in South Carolina, they were a little disappointed lol, they hadn’t seen any pics of the inside before the purchase….

 

Same here on the letting someone drive my truck. Time has taken all that I’m 100% comfortable with and trust. Heck they were doing it looong before I was born and they trusted me. There are only 3 in my circle nowadays. One 15 years older who drove the same 1975 White-Westernstar from new until he retired in 2011. One 8 years younger who like me collects and drives the old stuff and has a nice ‘71 359. My wife who can but would much rather enjoy the trucks from the swamper seat.

 

Filth like this is easily avoided. I learned a long time ago it's easier to maintain cleanliness by doing a little bit more often than it is to wait until it's filthy and then try to clean it up.

 

Really? They looked that bad when you rented them?

 

Joking figure of speech sorta. They are never “clean”. Always well used and Very well stained and have that sweaty crew of five sitting together in the cab smell. Worse if it has cloth covered seats. It also always seems that whatever they wipe the steering wheel, gear shift knob, and floor mats down with to clean them leaves a not so nice sticky feel to them. Lol! I always had a bottle of simple green and some towels to wipe that stuff down before I drove off. Don’t know if it did anything for the funk germs but it always made me feel better.

 

That’s how it used to work. Still does some places. Back in the day you go in just about any trucking company kind of outfits yard it was the same. That half beat to death Louisville with a 290 in it parked at the far end of the line, that was the FNG’s truck. And they’d jump in that with a big grin and go haul the worst of what was on the board with it happy as #### that someone threw keys at them in the first place.

 

I've cleaned grease and grip traps and also ran a vacuum truck in the oilfield. I never had any odor problems in the oilfield, but the vac pump exhaust from cleaning a grease trap is one of the nastiest smells on Earth. And unlike your 2-year-old, grease traps aren't cute & cuddly.