CRETE - A Year in Review

thats good to hear man lol...i only handled the 53 footers the first six months of driving so thats all the experience i have with them...its been nothing but flats since...its only 5 extra feet so i shouldnt worry.

 

mattfield80, i sent you a pm.

 

The best thing you can do for the low-beam headlights in the ProStar is replace the stock bulbs with Sylvania XtraVisions. A little pricey at 19.99 for a pair, but well worth it, IMHO. I can actually SEE now.

Next up is the 3M plastic headlight restoration kit... and on that note, people...if you want to clean your headlights, don't do it with the sponge and squeege at the truckstop - that's meant to clean GLASS, not plastic. Spray glass cleaner and and soft paper towels only (I recommend the blue "shop" towels), otherwise you're scratching them all up to guarantee that they're almost opaque in just a couple years...and that drastically affects light output.

 

I don't know if I'm just fortunate lately being in the right place at the right time, or if someone on the weekend shift is taking pity on me. A few weeks ago, they deadheaded me from nw of Chicago to Green Bay for a load. This weekend, they're deadheading me from Romeoville, IL to West Branch, IA (198 miles) to pick up a load to Brookhaven, MS. for Tuesday. 1011 total miles. Not that I'm complaining, if you add that to the load I just delivered to Romeoville out of CT...I'll have over 1900 by Tuesday. When I spoke to another Crete there on the drop yard, she was under a 40 mile, 2 stop load, and anothere Crete was picking up a McCook, IL load. Things are starting to fall into place for another typically busy January for me...I just hope we can keep the ball rolling.

 

Talk about a temperature swing. Sunday morning, it was 62 degrees. I walked to the truckstop in Austintown, OH at 6 am in my shirt sleeves and no jacket. Tonite I'm in Walcott, IA where it's suppose to be 10 degrees. Can anyone say pneumonia weather? I went from warm and dry, to rain to freezing mist to snow and back to dry and cold...all in one day. The Gary, IN area was a skating rink on the bridges, and I94 was a parking lot going into Chicago...thank God I wasn't routed that way.

 

SS, we are so close, yet so far. I'm in Altoona,IA tonight.

 

Walcott, eh? That's not far from my home-base in the Quad Cities. I actually left the truck at the Iowa 80 last time I went home, because my mom's friend who was picking me up missed the 292 exit so I told her to go to the Iowa 80 and wait for me there. She has bad vision issues at night so I ended up driving the car back.

 

Oh and I'm currently sitting in the little (& surprisingly nice, for a hole-in-the-wall) truck stop in Folkston, GA...the Land of Lots of Trains... on a 225 loaded mile load to Eastman, GA from Palatka. I don't really care about how short it is, because it got me out of the Vacuum of Florida.

 

I fear the end has come for "big blue" the 09 freightliner they had me in died last night on me. Coming out of the pilot in Drums, PA i went to get on I80, and lost my gauges, turn signals on the truck, radio, CB, wipers, and all the power jacks in the truck. With the truck still running and being 3 miles from the truck stop, turn signals on the trailer still worked, and the headlights were still on, ((though the low beams were acting like high beams, which wasn't good in the dense fog last night)) i figured i could use my GPS as a speedo and limp her the 30 miles back to the walmart DC in Pottsville. I made it to the gate.... HOWEVER i had to shut her down to be able to remove my lock from the trailer and that's when all heck broke loose.
First the gauge cluster flashed back on and locked on where they were just before i lost them coming out of Drums. The horn sounded, the 4 ways flashed twice and that was all she wrote.

After waiting 20 minutes for breakdown to pick up, they told me they'd call a wrecker to tow me and call me back. 20 more minutes later, i get the following.....

Brakedown :"The tow truck is coming out of Harrisburg, and will be there in about an hour or two."
Me: "Why are they coming out of harrisburg, when there's 2 tow companies in Minnersville?"
Breakdown:" Where's minersville?
Me:" 10 minutes up the road.
Breakdown: " do you have a number for the company there?"
Me, after asking the security guard for a phone book: " getting a phone book now."
Breakdown: " i'll call you back in 2 minutes, let me cancel this other truck.(click)"

10 minutes later.....

Breakdown:" I called ((tow company name withheld)), they'll be there in 10 minutes."
Me: "yup, that's who i was going to give you the number for anyway. what do i do about a place to stay for the night?"
Breakdown: "I need you to stay with the truck."
Me: "what part of there's no electric power in the truck did you miss?"
Breakdown:" well how cold is it there?"
Me: " Cold enough for me to need the bunk heater."
Breakdown: "ok find a hotel near the tow yard and then ride with the truck to International tomorrow."

The ONLY hotel near the tow yard??? Country inns and suits.

Arrived at the dealer and they had no idea i was coming. Called the only hotel that picked up from there... "Holiday inn express", and here i sit in my 3rd hotel in 2 weeks. I was at the Days inn for a week last week when Big Blue wouldn't start.

I wrote it up as...

"batteries won't hold a charge. Opt-idle runs for extended time during a 10 hour break. Truck wouldn't start, had to jump to get here."

And what did AMS do to "fix" my truck? "We changed the starter."
Why is it that every time i go to the New Kingstown AMS shop in the back of my mind as i speak to the service desk, i hear "yackety sax"??? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUOe_hLg7Bo for those of you who are too young to remember Benny Hill.

With any luck i'll get to be part of the "test fleet" of Kenworth's they say they're looking at. EH... i just really hate not making money.

 

What do you mean your not making any money? Isn't breakdown pay $80 per day, plus a free hotel room. sheez, what do you want for not working?

I'M JUST TAKING YOUR CHAIN.

You have my full sympathy. The lack of competency in the AMS is one of the reasons I would not become a company driver at Crete after deciding to sell my truck as an O/O leased on there.

I'm gonna say a prayer for you. You will need all the help & grace possible.