Stay away from western Express

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by Davegg, Jul 27, 2020.

  1. tommymonza

    tommymonza Road Train Member

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    S.W. Florida
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    9DE2C646-3647-4CC3-A209-18F3A16202A7.jpeg
    Make no mistake about it, somedays it can be a long grueling job.

    I ran around Chicago from mid Michigan up to northern Wisconsin or Minnesota 4 times a week.

    Nothing fun about that drive until you get above Milwaukee.

    And you can be tired as all hell and want to pull over for a 30 minute nap at one of the OASIS but good luck finding parking.

    So a quick pee stop at the pumps and roll on before someone hits you in that mess.

    Than when you do arrive at the dairy after midnight with minutes left on your 14 you have to scale in and than hunt down someone who will actually let you know when you can get unloaded.

    The whole time your dying to pass out in the bunk .

    You do all you can do to stay awake until you get that knock on the door that you can back into the bay that was made for horses to pull into in the pitch dark.

    Hence the don’t fall asleep , because I never did well backing up after waking out of a coma.

    Now you can jump in the bunk for 2 hours while you get unloaded , which I rarely did. Once again the coma thing

    Finally pull out and park after a 14 hour day with your preload of 2 hours and 11 hours of driving .

    And that Restfull 30 minute break you Had to take which turned into Stressful because there is no parking on that route around Chicago and your stranded in a accident caused traffic jam.

    And you just used up 4 hours of your 10 hour off duty clock moving around on pc at the dairy and getting unloaded.

    But once I was parked the phone got turned off, earplugs inserted and the A/C turned down to Minnesota in January with the truck totally blacked out.

    Dispatch be dammed. But that was dairy life

    The next day after waking up at noon I would take my time make a pot of coffee and give dispatch a call letting them know I am Alive and slowly get on the road after doing a full 15 minute pretrip

    Just kidding.

    My post and pre were always done in the lit dairy bays while I washed the truck and trailer earlier.

    Company paid us to do it and I liked a clean rig and by the time I was done I had gotten my cardio for the day and was thoroughly Exhausted.

    Roll down the road for an hour or 3 to find Civilization and a place to fuel up and grab a shower.

    Come back to the truck and cook up some late breakfast and jump back in the bunk for an hour or 2.

    Wake up well rested and head for my route around Chicago After rush hour And Enjoying Life.

    Usually bed down in my little hideout in Indiana after grabbing a full and dropping my clean empty at the massive Fairlife farm

    Rinse and repeat. Some days suk- Some your Happy to be Alive.

    But nothing as bad as the last 2 days I spent working on my van trying to remove a broken alternator bracket bolt stuck in the block in the 98 % humidity and 96 degree heat with passing showers to add to the humidity.

    Florida heat is more Brutal as I get older.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2020
    Dale thompson and Chinatown Thank this.
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  3. MericanMade

    MericanMade Heavy Load Member

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    Aug 14, 2019
    Pensacola, FL
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    I think you’re my new best friend (and I think you know why). Where do you live. I’ll bring my arc welder, mig welder, and tig welder and set of extraction bits along with a handle of Erza Brooks 90 proof Kentucky bourbon and a 2 lt of coke, and we’ll take care of that broken bolt...eventually. :p
     
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  4. tommymonza

    tommymonza Road Train Member

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    Sep 10, 2013
    S.W. Florida
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    I was just chasing a squeaking sound I was hearing at start up thinking a new ac and serpentine belt would fix it since I did not replace them when I did the idler pulleys 6 months ago because the parts place didn’t have them and they looked new yet.

    Ran it up on my homemade wramps at my buddies house in st Pete in a nice deed restricted neighborhood thinking I would be done in an hour .

    His Wife is a doctor and doesn’t understand the intricacies of mechanical repairs.

    And is Not humored by a vehicle up on jack stands in front of her waterfront home

    Removed all the belts and rechecked all the idler pulleys and by chance rolled over the alternator and heard a slight squeak.

    No problem easy fix. Napa has a new one in stock.

    As I am wrenching off the alternator I notice the bracket kind of moving.

    I just bought this Super clean one owner 2003 van last year with 90 thousand on it.

    This is my first real time tearing into it other than doing the idlers and replacing the front wheel bearings.

    I’m like Well. I can’t live with this Worry in the back of my head.

    Tear down the drivers side of the motor.

    It’s 96 in the sun and now it starts pouring rain and I am working in it thinking here is a respite from the Heat.

    My first time working on a LS motor so not familiar with it and all vans Suk to work on the front side of the motor

    Get the bracket off than time to remove broken bolts.

    They are not moving.

    So off to buy a torch and some Map gas and PBB blaster.

    Heat doesn’t move them on this rust free Michigan van.

    Soak them in blaster and let them soak over night.

    Next morning I am Twice as Beat as I was the day before after a long weekend boating and Sand Barring 60 miles away by boat in Dunedin

    By the way I saw over 500 Trump flags and Clearwater is having a World record recordable Trump boat parade this weekend.

    Day 2 I am beat and wake up early to 98% humidity but only 85 degree heat at 7 am.

    Whoo Hooo

    I wrestle with the bolts till noon before I break them loose and than go find some replacements

    Now time to reassemble. Drive out the old alternator bracket bolt bushings and look in the box and the new ones are missing

    Off to Napa to find them.

    Get it all together and now the Joy of trying to Route the serpentine belt through its twisted journey all by feel because with this stupid van you can’t see #### in the engine compartment.

    I almost missed working down in the bilge of boats because there no one could hear me Weeping and Slowly Losing my mind and proclaiming I will Kill the first GM engineer I meet.


    I am Soo Sore from Heat Exhaustion and crawling up over and under that van a 100 times.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2020
    Dale thompson Thanks this.
  5. MericanMade

    MericanMade Heavy Load Member

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    Aug 14, 2019
    Pensacola, FL
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    I watched a video of Make Cents on youtube where he used a plug welding technique to remove broken exhaust manifold bolts on his K900 with an ISX, IIRC.

    I don’t remember the exact thing he did, but it was way easier than using an extractor thingy.
     
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  6. tommymonza

    tommymonza Road Train Member

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    Sep 10, 2013
    S.W. Florida
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    Yea if it’s flush I would weld a nut on it and get on it. I had bolt meat left after removing bracket.

    I’m guessing bolts were not threaded all the way and got ran in at factory.

    Dealership probably worked on it for rattle and twisted off the bolts and left it.
     
  7. Omegaangelz

    Omegaangelz Bobtail Member

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    Aug 3, 2020
    Ohio
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    Starts at .26 a mile for any run over 600 times, .34 for anything under 600. Raises on the lower amount every 90 days, 1cpm. Not sure how far up it goes. This is dry van.
     
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