do any of you owner operators use run flat inserts on your steer tires?

In kernersville, it's the unloading that's bad. When scrap prices are high, DH Griffin demolition co., brings their steel in convoys. So what is normally a line of ten trucks waiting to get unloaded turns into 20-50. On a good normal day, you can unload 3 times. On a high scrap price day, you'll get one load off.

And tight is right. Scrap yards pile crap up as high as they can and go wide. So, navigating them is always a PITA.

I look at my 6 months doing it as a necessary stepping stone in my o/o life.

If anyone has old trucks and lives near an Omnisource, I recommend you sign on- power only. You can gross $1500/day in the high times and that's local with low local miles. But, you're going to get dirty.

 

Looking back I had a good time when I was running scrap.....I went back to my roots and started running hoppers again.
What kinda smacked me around about it was one day I was backed up to the shredder they were loading up a container....I ask where that was going....I was told that all that goes to China and other overseas places for it to be sold back to us for more than they bought it for

 

Oh yeah. Scrap metal is not bad at all if you have your authority and run through the yards seeing the rate cons.

I was green and fleased on with a scumbag company. The people at Omni are great. And when the lines are short, you can really rock and roll. I miss the work but having been leased on and then leaving pretty much bans me from running a truck in that NC Omni yards.

Hours were good too: 7:30-4:30. And home every night.

 

If it was rolling like it was I would do it again without hesitation. Stayed rolling and made money. The brutal run was the one down in Darlington. Usually took number 1 down on a steel dump wagon but it still tore the trailer to pieces

 

Those trailers get wrecked!

One time I was coming through the small weigh station on I-40, east of Conover, and a trooper was inspecting a truck to the right of me.

He stopped what he was doing, looked at my trailer and just started shaking his head in a "oh no" motion until I was past him.

The high side I was pulling was beat to death. The sides were bulging out so bad that Omni had rigged a chain to hold it together in the middle.

 

Oh you mean the chain that always got caught in the grabble that was tore off on a weekly basis or having scrap fall out the bottom of the trailer due to the multiple large holes in the floor lmao

 

Haha, I had almost forgot about the big holes. Had a scrap yard dropping, not putting, engine blocks in the trailer.

When I asked him if he could place them in a bit easier, he looked confused. He didn't understand that a 10 foot drop of a 400 pound engine was beating the hell out of the trailer floor.

Then the next guy pulling shred must've left a mile long trail of debris going down the highway with it.

Those trailers are reinforced too. But they can only last so long.

 

Haha yes.....on a load of shredder you know they tend to pack it as tight as possible then put 3 cars on top to keep it all in place. Well another guy got a load of shredder at the yard in chocowinity. The load was a bit too tall and had a car door sticking up from the load. As he went thru Ayden on 102 he took out half the town's cable and phone lines because of that door lol......then there was the guy that rolled a wagon with number 1 on doing 60 around a 45 mph curve......but he ran that fast around that curve all the time....they must've loaded him.wrong lol freakin idiot

 

Haha! Oh boy. So many drivers forget about the load height. Scrap yards want to maximize their loads so they pile it on.

I picked up a high side from thomas built bus in thomasville nc. It had scrap 5 feet out the top.

I told them they had to rework it or I'd be hitting bridges. A supervisor came out and gave me directions around the 13' 7" bridge on I-85 business. I just nodded and said I'd be back.

The next guy who got sent to pick it up hit the bridge.

It seems like I had to remind places at least twice a week to keep the stuff below the top of the trailer. They always looked at me like I was asking them to rewrite the constitution or something.

But it goes beyond scrap yards. I had guys put two pallets on the tail of my curtainside Tuesday. They said, "these can't be strapped cause it will damage them."

I explained the curtains only protected their stuff from the rain and that everything has to be strapped. They ended up banding it to the pallet and I strapped the pallet but they acted like I was peeing in their pool or something.

At the rate I'm going, im never going to be driver of the year.

 

Man it's good to meet someone who knows the "scrapper" struggle is real lmao.
At least you got a high side....I always hooked to open top 45 footers with the swing gate......which usually was on the verge of falling off. You literally risk your life opening those lmao