Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

I always put the blade on blocks not the deck.

 

Well I always put something between whether it's a bucket or boom or blade or rippers you know just to keep the deck boards in good shape.

 

Well it's one of those things I'd got to taste it bigger stuff before and they strung me along on it and it never came again. And I had kind of gotten thoroughly bored with training folks. To me there wasn't that much challenge left in flatbed at least not with what I was working with. And at least for the moment hauling equipment and stuff like that has brought some excitement back to the job and made it kind of fun again. I mean for the most part it's about the easiest I've ever had it though. Yeah it is a big adjustment running permits across the entire country. Since before I only had to deal with like five states ever.

And at least when I get machinery or vehicles or whatever on, a lot of times loading or unloading is simply down to how quick I can drop the deck and tie it or untie it.

"Sign here im gone"

I mean every now and then you end up waiting on a crane or something but I still ain't nothing like the old days when I was doing refrigerated and you didn't know if he was going to pull in there for 4 hours or 24 sometimes (which while the latter was rare it did happen more than once)

And then that big 15 wide crate that I took down to Wilmington. Me and the escort we're still out on the street when the dude came out immediately to meet me and we both rolled into the yard and they had two giant forklifts lifted up high enough for me to slip the trailer out from under it and it was an easy in and out in 20 minutes you know. Don't always go smooth but in that case they were ready for us they were in place like they were supposed to be. And for the most part that's been how everything's gone for me other than having to sit on a site waiting for the crane to call us back or something you know. Which in the last 3 months I've only really had one major wait for unload. And that's cuz it was an active construction site and they were bringing everything in in a very specific order and all that. Cuz it was going straight from trailer to roof.

And with the way that we order stuff ahead of time as far as permits go sometimes days in advance or more we don't have so many issues with having to wait for those. Only snafu there really comes down to holiday weekends and stuff like that so far.

I've just been enjoying every minute of it. Like I said it brought some enjoyment back to the job for me. And since the vast majority of the time I'm the one physically loading the trailer I put a lot more thought into things and I suppose that's something I've always liked.

But yeah Swift could offer me 200k a year and I'd tell em to go pound sand. That is an environment that I can no longer tolerate. But you know working with people that actually respect what you do and what you can do. And that are actually there fighting for you, that's something you can't really trade.

 

That’s the beauty of certain machinery’s. It’s all on you. Not dependent on anyone except getting checked out.

 

Oh yeah, thats for shure. As a side effect it also cuts out any possible argument as to exactly what's about to happen. Other than "well that didn't really work"

 

I’ve had my share of “it didn’t work out right weight wise moments”. But I fixed them

 

How does that work, throwing the chain between the duals? I’ve never seen that done before. Seems that would damage the aluminum rims, or do you put something over the rim to protect it?

 

I wouldn’t do it on a show truck but on one our trailers it’s fine. Just have to watch out for the valve stems and tire inflation hoses. That’s why one chain is on the front axle and the other is on the rear.

I wasn’t there to drain the air tanks when the trailers were stacked and we don’t have dump valves on our trailers. With air in the suspension I would have been fighting loose chains the whole trip if I went to the bumper like I normally do.

 

Dusk till Dawn trucking

 

Makes sense. Just to be clear, I wasn’t trying to suggest it was wrong or anything, it just kinda struck my curiosity... lol. I don’t doubt your expertise one bit.