Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Supposed to have freeze maybe Saturday. Think NW kansas may get some snow.

 

I think Bar R hauls for TMA a lot. Should keep busy.

 

Well, actually did some hauling for Cargill today. It's been a while...they needed beans brought in to their elevator. They are going to load a train but didn't have enough of their own beans to load it. Farmers weren't bringing enough beans in because of weather.

 

Yeah, Bar-R out of Hesston. Small company I am the 5th truck all O/O's.

That's actually a decent price on Michelin, but ####, that's still a lot of money for a tire. They say its about the best tire on the market... Ran alot of Hankook tires back when I had a drop deck. Being a triple axle spring trailer, it was hard to keep tires on that thing, but we did prefer the Hankooks, and that was before they were a brand name.

 

I won't spend that much on steers, we run a lot on gravel, short trips, tight turns, not to mention that if your truck gets out of alignment, wears out any of the front end parts, etc, its going to eat up an expensive tire just as mercilessly as a cheap one. We usually run Firesones, Yok's, BF Goodrich, whatever we can get a good deal on when its time to change em. Also have centramatics on both trucks, I think they help too.

 

It's cold here today. 34 right now with a nasty wind chill. My son in western kansas was getting freezing rain. Seems early for this nasty stuff. Supposed to get freeze tonight...not good for milo.

I use Goodrich for my steering tires...they seem to do pretty good. I also use centramatics.

 

I was at least gonna put the counteract balancing beads in the tires and I just had truck alighned (mainly due to drive axles) made a huge difference it has xza3 steers on it (had them when I bought it) and have worn very well for what I have put them through I just dont want a tire with the little decoupleing groove around the edge as rocks really seem to drill in there and cut the rubber on newer tires these had wore down enough before I got them the groove had wore down to where rocks wouldnt stick in it

I run my own harvest hauling and run more gravel then than any other time and I only store about 10,000 bu on a gravel road (one mile) and most customers are only a quarter mile or so down gravel then I run 250 miles on asphalt so I dont know I dont want to count on the truck causing tire wear if the cheap tire craps out in half the time it became a lot more expensive its just the same old deal korea vs USA vs Chinese ?

I still dont know

 

I have centramatics on the steers and drives and had them on since the truck was new and love them. I have about 265,000 on the original drives which are Bridgestones and hope to get another 30 to 40,000 before I change them and have 52,000 on my steers and the last set of steers went a little over 140,000 and they were Michelin's. Most of my miles on them were running Vegas and back every week for two years on a dedicated account and since pulling the dump I won't get the mileage I have had before so I go with a good tire but a cheaper one. I can't see paying $500 for any tire. I am looking at putting Kelly's on the drives the next go around.

 

Okay Kansas, I was thinking you were a company driver. Glad you are doing good. I have hauled a few steel coils into Hesston Tractor and have a good friend that is leased to JD Entriprises in Moundridge pulling a flat.

 

Wheathauler it is to early for this stuff. I turned the heater on in the house today. What happen to the warm stuff. I hope I have good weather next week, loading for New York on Monday.