Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Wheathauler,i've been purty swamped lately,been hauling corn for March delivery for a big farmer to Owensboro Grain and picking up either soyhulls there or DDG halfway back for a new ''small'' feed mill close to home that called me to haul for them after one of the big outfits around here went ''belly-up'',so between relief milking for dad and son,staying up 1/2 the night pulling calves,and trying to ''make a good impression'' on this new local feed mill,i have just been poping in to check on everyone,but since i type so slow,i just get about halfway through typeing my thoughts,and have to pull up in line.Sounds like Big John's going to be making the big bucks pulling a skateboard though, by the way Big John,good luck,flat freight has really picked up around here too,i even hauled an oversized air-conditioner for Trane out of Lexington and knocked the rust off the old flat a couple of weeks ago,that was an adventure.

How have you been doing,wheathauler? Are the rates picking back up any in your neck of the woods? I think they may be creeping up here a little,but not enough to keep up with the fuel. $2.75 here today.

 

Wheathauler,never mind,i just read this post,Geeesh,thats a joke.

 

Yep,real miles ALWAYS figure more,Love my laptop,even if i can't type,PC Miler

 

And google satellite/street view. I'll even use that to scout roads ahead to see if there are weight limit signs posted.

 

Them lil boogers is getting awful brave these days. Had one come up to my truck yesterday and yell at me for not moving up in line. Me, and another guy was sitting in my truck shooting the breeze when this little punk started in on me.

The guy stood "maybe" 5'4" and couldn't have weighed 130lbs soaking wet. Started jawing on me about not pulling up in line. I finally told him to take his little illegal ### back to his truck, and if I had to get out of mine he would be sorry. Apparently he knew discretion is mostly definitely the better part of valor as he high tailed it back to his truck.

I have seen that guy around before, and that was strike one for him. Strike two calls for me to turn him upside down and shake out the stupid. He don't even wanna know what comes after that!

 

I was at Port of Memphis one day and the line had moved up while me and three other drivers were in the office. Another driver had pulled around us. So I walk up and talk to the driver that was in front of him and he confirmed what had happen. So I pulled my truck around the idiot and nosed in front of his truck and got out and confronted him. He said some of our trucks had did the same thing to him the day before, I said was it us because I don't do that crap and he told me no it wasn't but that didn't matter. After threating to whoop his ### if he tried to pull forward or cut in line again, the other trucks pulled around him. He did come up to me later and apologized for doing what he did. O' this was a white guy not a mexican.

 

How do they clean up the flat storage out there? The ones in my neighborhood have an outfit from Michigan with a conveyor mounted on a tractor. Looks sorta like a snowblower on the back of the tractor, but uses an auger to pull the grain to the side, then up a big converyor to the front of the tractor loading into the trailer. It can load a semi pretty fast, maybe 5 minutes. Hydraulic spout that swings and pivots so he can keep backing into the grain and still dump it near the center of the trailer. Similar to other conveyors that are sold, but they started building they're own and eliminating whatever weaknesses they found in the others they'd bought.

Do you have to truck it very far or just dumping into same elevator that is cleaning it up from?

I know of only 1 field of wheat around here. I can find more corn still standing than I can wheat!

I don't understand the guys that think they are going to get dumped any faster because they pull up every single time and are slightly closer to the scale? Relax, save your clutch. As long as there's plenty of room to park, whats the hurry when there's still 10 trucks ahead of us?

 

We usually get loaded with a rubber tired wheel loader. Load time varies on the efficiency of the guy running loader, some are much faster than others lol. The way you were describing is how we dump into flat storage. Pull along side tractor/auger, they swing it under trailer and we can open a hopper door.

I hear ya, there was all of two spots I could have pulled up. I guarantee ya the guy fussing was 10 trucks behind me, and he was going no where for a while.

 

If it's who I *think* it was, he just got fired from his old company and bought his own truck. He called us asking to lease on. Thanks but no thanks amigo!

Man, I miss the days when they were scared to make any waves...now they're getting ####ier by the day it seems. Good for Kansas for showing them who's still in charge!