Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

For whatever reason, this post about the logo reminded me of my Crete tractor when I worked there (briefly due to their poor dispatch practices). I live just outside Scranton, PA, so my orientation was in Mechanicsburg with the old guy who said he had started there as a kid sweeping floors at 15 or 16, long before the Acklie purchase of Shaffer (wish I could remember his name as he was a nice enough guy and had some great glory days stories).

Anyhow, they did not have any trucks on the lot for me, and me being the team player that I am, I agreed to ride out of there with another driver to a body shop outside of Pittsburg to grab a recently repaired truck. In hindsight, I wish I said no way! I get to the body shop and see a beautifully clean blue Prostar with absolutely no lettering on it, anywhere except the unit number on the hood. Doors and sleeper were bare.

Apparently this tractor had burned due to the exhaust stack rotating loose and entering regen mode, catching the fiberglass roof cap on fire. It has a brand new interior (for the sleeper anyway), headliner and roof cap but it had been stripped of all its decal to be polished on the surfaces that were not repainted. There were a few items salvaged from the previous driver in a cardboard box under the bunk, which stunk like burnt plastic, and the truck still smelled like smoke whenever the heat or air conditioning was on. This was pure torture for me having lost a house to a fire just a few years earlier.

Dispatch, in their infinite wisdom had me take some painters tape from the body shop and write our name and US DOT number on it, stick it to the door and call it good. I was in that truck for almost two weeks before they routed me to Lincoln for a replacement. I was promised a brand new one and ended up with one with 200k on it, but at least it didn't smell like burnt fiberglass and smoke. Shame too, because that truck only had 10,000 miles on it when i got it and ran great, unlike its replacement (also a Prostar).

Ultimately I left Crete because the runs were too short and the equipment was garbage. I never had so many truck or trailer issues in my whole career as I did the six weeks I stayed there.

 

Say what you want about freightliner cascadia at least they don't have the issues that the prostar maxxforcce had...Crete was smart switching just to freightliner and kw....

 

Yeah, the Maxxforce motor was awful, although I personally liked the layout and style of the ProStar much better than the Cascadia or even the older Columbia and Century class Freightliners. If you could get a ProStar with a Cummins in it then you had a decent running truck.

My all time favorite however is the International 9200i or 9400i with the midroof 54" sleeper and a N14 Cummins paired with a 13 speed. For me, that was the perfect interior layout, just enough room and all the controls, except the hookup light (where the switch was over your left shoulder) were in just the right place. If not an International 9000 series, then my next favorite was the Freightliner FLC or FLD series. Again, a pretty good layout for the controls and enough room, although a little tighter than the International.

I won't make any friends with the next comment, but I can't stand a Peterbilt or older KW. That little cab is just way too cramped for comfort. The newer Petes, like the 589 car hauler with the 2.1M cab, now that is a comfy truck to drive, but the older ones were torture.

 

Maxxforce The only thing that engine was good for was a boat anchor

 

Yes if the anchor constantly puked smoke and can't pull a grade

 

Im genuinely curious, with your experience, how are you unable to find a small to medium sized outfit that is better suited to actual professional drivers, rather than the mega carrier bunch?