May Trucking, My Newbie Adventure begins

Yes, Denver is a great Dirt Lot, Pj, LOL!

Stryker, my truck seems to be governed at about 62mph.

Monday got assigned my truck. Had two to choose from. Both were older Peterbilt 387s. One was scraped up pretty bad. Guess the previous driver was bad at looking at his mirrors. The other was ok, it had about 340k on it, but was pretty clean, and had new tires all around , so I chose that one. THe cabinet behind the driver's seat was missing, but that was cool for me as I intended to put a fridge in that space.

When my manager asked when I wanted to start, I said wednesday, so that i'd have the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday to get it loaded with my stuff, and equiped the way I want.

THe A/C doesn't blow cold at all, will have to have the mechanics look at that in Layton, plus no Lower bunk mattress, they say I'll get a new one in Layton as well. So, obviously, My first dispatch will be routing me to Layton. The truck wouldn't start when I first got it. Someone had left the bunk heater and the AC in the bunk area on for two days. It took an hour to get it started after jumping it. I hope this won't be a bad sign about the batteries.

Spent the last two days buying the extras i want onboard. Got a microwave at WallyWorld for $29, a Fridge at Target, a TV, and an inverter (cobra, reccomended by others on the truckers report). May allows a 1500 watt inverter, as long as the mechanics install it for you.

THe Pete actually has quite a bit of storage space even with the second cabinet missing. Under the bunk I put two large plastic boxes full of clothes and accessories, plus two smaller boxes.

I can even hang some clothes in the other cabinet, to always have fresh clothes ready.

Ready to head out on my first solo run, My DM said she would call tomorrow to let me know where and when I'm going. So agin, I sit and wait. But at least I'm closer than before.

THe forcast is calling for snow, hopefully, I'll avoid most of the bad stuff on my first run.

Will post again soon.

Happy driving all.

Clutch

 

Thanks AF, and Glad to hear you solo'd out ProTours. As far as the trucks in Denver well, i wish you the best......read on.

On Wednesday November 10th, was dispatched to denver lot to pick up a reefer to take to coors. no reefers in denver lot. My dm gets approval for me to bobtail to coors. truck seems to be acting up a little, but with no trailer, it doesn't seem too bad.

Once i get connected and weighed at coors, i head out for my fuel and scale stop at the denver TA off ward road and I-70. it takes me three miles just to get to 40mph, obviously a big problem. Send in a breakdown, and am told to head to peterbilt in denver for repairs. get stuck in denver traffic, with truck really not behaving well. finally make it to peterbilt at about three pm. they say they'll try to get to it that night. i log off, so as to get my ten off, so if repairs are complete by the time shop closes at 10:30 pm, all i have to do is wait till 1:00 am and can head out again with a fresh 11 to drive.

about noon the next day (thursday) they finally get the truck done. a sensor problem keeping the engine from engaging turbo, ie: no power. so after sleeping at peterbilt, on the top bunk, no bottom mattress, they say i'll get that in layton, utah when i get there, i'm finally ready to roll.

finally get on the road about 12:30 headed for layton. then about three pm, hity nasty weather and road conditions on I-80 between laramie and rawlins. an R&L truck with doubles is flipped over in the median, plus two pick-ups and a car also within 1 mile all in the median flipped over. needless to say i'm crawling at about 35mph. manage to make it through and get to layton about 11:30 pm.

Friday wait most of the day to get further truck issues looked at, get my mattress and get my inverter installed. all is done by just before 5 pm. make a quick call to my dm to let her know I'm finally ready to rioll again. she says a trailer is arriving in the morning destined for pennsylvania. I tell her at 9:30 am, i will have had a full reset, (new 70 hour clock after a 34 hour period off), and will have plenty of time to make it to pa by delivery on wednesday, (that gives me an extra day for any issues).

by the way, the inverter makes everything soooo much nicer,not to mention having a mattress.

I had walked to walmart friday night to stock up on some groceries so that i can save money.

when leaving with new trailer saturday, the layton yard scale doesn't work, send a quallcomm message to get my comdata opened on nearest scale, it's the pilot in ogden.

once scaled, make lunch in the truck, and head out. then the weather is an issue again. through the same stretch, between rawlins and laramie, we're all down to about 25mph over the mountains. ice, snow, blowing snow, limited visibility.

was trying for 500 miles today, but, the weather killed those plans, that's trucking baby.

am now in laramie, found one of the last parking spots at the diamond shamrock. (the pilot and petro were full) 3 inches of snow on the ground. supposed to snow through the night with a low of 12. brrrr. luckily my bunk heater works great. sometimes too good. i end up kicking off the covers.

will head out in the morning and drive as far as possible to make up some ground tomorrow.

the adventure continues........

clutch