Life in North Dakota "Man Camps"?

Yep, but they don't carry my size 18.

 

There is no country club in the Bakken for the haul driver. If you know of a company that pays the dime for a Target Logistics mancamp (the only one I would willingly stay with again), I would like to know about it. Some of my buddies work for company X and stay there, but they pay their share of the $4000/mo expense per person.

The only company I know of that houses employees at the Target Logistics mancamps, and pay for it ALL, is Hess. What are the others?

 

I wasn't referring to lodging when I said country club. ND sand hauling is percentage- Brady; Maverick; Fox Run; Links, Tutle, DCT if they're still up here, Rockwater... who else am I missing? It's like any other industry, in manufacturing it's called piece work. You're going to be faster when your pay is directly linked to your productivity, that's just life. That's harnessing natural motivation. I'm from Michigan, the ranks of the UAW have shrunken dramatically. All kinds of issues they've had with 'entitled' UAW workers to whom the pay was coming large whether they did anything or not.

Market competition established percentage pay in ND sand hauling, that's just the way it is. As I said earlier, I'd have like one of these country club jobs but I got here too late for that. Even so, I can make much more up here on percentage than I can back home. I'm happy.

 

Yes, you sound very happy.

Another way to harness someone's natural motivation is to shock them with a cattle prod when they slow down, but that doesn't mean it's necessary to make someone work (but let's not give any district managers ideas). If you are fine with percentage, fine! But don't make everyone here think that's it, because it isn't. You missing out on a lot of companies, btw, but I don't want you running down there telling them the market demands they stop paying hourly, because it is working for the guys I used to work with. If you have no experience, percentage works because you don't really have a choice.

I thought the rumor was that percentage was going away, anyway. Something about labor laws, blah blah blah. I would have hated to hear your opinions if you had been in Dhaka when how many people died because the working conditions were unsafe (because the market demands shoddy construction and no emergency exits).

PS - you sound like the guy that held up the line at the Cal-Frac hiring fair giving Lacey eight million questions that had nothing to do with the job while everyone behind you rolled their eyes. Am I psychic again?

 

You want to be paid less to encourage you to work harder? Lol. How about be paid a fair hourly wage for everything we deal with driving in difficult conditions. Being a new driver out here on % you will find it very difficult to make decent money until you know your way around better and figure out the tricks of the trade.

 

On a icy hill if you're not going to chain, momentum is your best friend. It rather have wheel spin at 40 mph than wheel spin at 4 mph

 

You did nearly the right thing! Engines make less torque in the higher rpm range, and that's why it's better to use a higher engine speed in slick conditions. The reason is that when a tire does slip, the engine will accelerate less rapidly due to the lower torque. So even though you may be down a gear to keep the rpm up at a given road speed (which increases the torque at the tire,) because you can run a lower throttle setting and still get the same HP from the engine to the tire, if you have a spin it won't runaway nearly as fast as if you were in a higher gear and using more throttle. In a low traction scenario, the idea is to minimize slippage, as a rolling tire generate more traction than one spinning wildly. (Yes, in deep snow and mud, some small amount of slippage is desirable to keep the tread blocks clean.) As long as you weren't wildly spinning up the grade, there was no problem with holding full throttle, but you'll find you have better feel and control if you don't 'mash the gas.' Remember the drag racer's adage: HP is speed and torque is acceleration. In this kind of spot, you want as much HP (to maintain speed) with as little torque (which will break the tire loose) as possible. And as pointed out, momentum is your friend.

As far as jakes and ice, here's the deal: If it's slippery and the jakes partially or fully lock up the drives causing a skid, the trailer is effectively unbraked and will be pushing against the 5th wheel. No problem if the truck is in a straight line, but because the drives are slipping, they have less lateral traction and are likely to step out a bit to one side or the other. And this slip moves the 5th wheel slightly off center, so the trailer is now also adding to the rotation of the slip. And the further it slips, the more force is applied in the direction of rotation because the 5th wheel is further out of line. Take pencil, and place a finger at the far end to hold it, and then push on the back of the pencil. If you push is directly aligned with the pencil, it only pushes forward, but if you push at a slight angle the pencil will try to rotate, and the greater the angle the more rotation. So jakes on ice can cause a very rapid jackknife if they lock up or slip the drives. Yes, many of the new trucks will disengage the jake if the ABS detects slippage of wheel, and jakes on snowy roads aren't as big an issue because of the better traction. But on ice the truck can step out very rapidly before the jake can disengage and leave you in a very difficult, if not impossible to recover from, impending jackknife.

I hope this is clearer than mud.


And guys, take the bickering elsewhere, please!