is it unreasonable to WANT to know where i am going?

Lepton1 has a point, I suppose. I just happen to be a driver that really likes to know where I am going before I'm told to go there. If I don't have a preplan before I'm unloaded, I get grouchy. This is mostly because I prefer to do my planning when I can't possibly be driving.

 

I had to laugh out loud at this one. You make a most excellent point! No time to kick back and wait for your trailer to get unloaded. Gotta love that aspect of the job.

 

That kind of trucking Lepton1 wrote is a special kind of trucking. I see one truck trying to intercept a moving object for whatever purpose. When there are two trucks or similar situation going on and both are moving, the amount of needed communications back and forth goes way up.

In ordinary trucking, when we had to intercept a single trucker to get his or her load off him, that person generally stays in one place waiting for us to get there UNLESS it makes sense to have us roll towards a truckstop between us and the customer which is also between the single trucker and his load and customer. Sometimes the Geometry makes sense for one being intercepted to sit and stay. We will be along when we get there to get the load.

The railroads where we are take it one step further. If one train is to be passed by another for a variety of very good reasons, when there is enough dual track availible, the passed train does about 30 mph being passed by the other train doing 50. Sometimes its a 70 mph train passing a 40 or even a 50 mph train both blowing for the same crossing in town. Shakes the very ground. But at some point end of the day, both trains would have been moving and both would have resolved the traffic conflict nicely before reaching single track territory.

 

Which is a big attraction to someone like me who find that unloading that mack dump only takes a short time. It's off that truck. Just never make a mistake and put it down where it does not belong. And part of that is making sure your gate is shut but that is a minor detail most dump drivers know about already.

A 18 wheeler can wait days before loading and unloading. It's not acceptable anymore in my life. I prefer drop and hook, let someone else do the loading and unloading. Otherwise we would be late to the customer. There is a very easy fix for us to be able to put up with long unloading and loading, 100 dollars every 2 hours detention. Pay me. that should incentive the shipper to load right quick or unload pronto.

 

You snicker at the mack. It precisely is a Mack Superliner 500 and a model letter added to the end, which I forget. It was at one time a over the road tractor with a 400 to 500 engine in it and a 15 speed. It's bloodline comes from when Mack was part of Brockway and designed as a prototype of such.

The 5th wheel was replaced and the dump put on plus a tag axle with lift bags added. The rears were on the order of almost 50,000 pounds capacity back there so dump truck work is good with it whatever the weight of stone in the back. 22 ton at times which makes it #### near as much as a 5 axle 18 wheeler weight at times.

For the work we did with that and one other dump of a smaller type for smaller places (International with small dump and two shift speed rear axle) and carried about 8 ton of rock. those two trucks were very good. I had it for years, splash fuel into it, check the oil every morning and maybe do some shade tree mechanic work like replace the bearings by hand with another person. No shop needed. There was nothing that was a too big of a problem.

You are younger probably and I get it. Pete this mack that and freightliner over yonder etc. all different kinds of trucks. But in the world of trucks, whatever the cab is made out of means nothing. It really does not. I should not have to defend this righteous little big mack that did everything we needed it to do and then some. If I was to gain ownership of it on the east coast I would be more than happy to bring it home to Arkansas and find someone old and solid to run that thing a little more. It wont be very fast but it will do the work all day and come home without broken parts.

The one thing it was able to do was lug down to 900 and you could shift just so that low on the tach. We used to have these races where shifting was key but being able to lug that far down and dominate the other man's 350 cummins with a big block mack that wont quit at 900 was awesome. Won a few that way.

This is my last post here. I can work with a Pete just as well as I can with a Mack, and don't you forget it. It matters not to me what the truck is made of as long it's done well. It was a good part of my life, probably the best part other than McKesson teaming with wife and if that makes trucking worth it, then it's awesome. Cannot get any better than that.

I refuse to get into pissing contests for this truck and that truck, what I will do is take a moment and explain the reasons why this truck did well and why we would use it again in a heart beat. Petes are nice, Im dealing with someone who owns one with brakes that seems to be not doing a good job, there is no disrespect, teasing or none of that going on. Man has a problem. If you have a problem I can help you. Otherwise there is no point.

 

I like an owner that babies his trucks. Far too many drivers complain about stuff not getting fixed as needed. Way too many on this forum ask questions like, "My boss refuses to fix X, should I still roll with it or find another job?"