My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

Your right I should have taken the time to tell those that tire I didn't have time for that at the moment and asked it to wait until I got to the terminal.....lol



American Trucker

 

I drove the 7 hours to The conover terminal and dropped my trailer expecting to get my load right away....not so much

BUT while I was their I did get to meet MDub and Nevanerviss! Great Meeting you two!


Then I got my 9 Stop Load to TN and of course theres only 1 TS between Conover and the first stop the Loves In marion, NC or a Pilot 30-45 minutes on the other side of the stop which I didnt have hours to get to.... SO here I sit at the Loves 2 HOURS!!!! From my first stop since I lost a good chunk of hours sitting at the terminal....oh well.


Anyway So I'm also Hooked to the Retarded Step sister of the trailer I just dropped in conover 3812L which has supper singles on it I dont like the way they ride on the tractor now that i've got them on both Good lord what PIA these things truely do suck.....

So I'm driveing a 10 wheeler...... Way to suck the badazzness out of a truck!


Anyhoo so even thought im so freakin far from the customer It wont hurt me hour wise on this load but I'm more then likely going to have to switch some of my stops around tomorrow to make this work as always theres stops that close at 4pm schedualed AFTER places that close at 9pm!

I have 7 tomorrow and 2 on friday.....the last one is 6 HOURS away from the one before it! not likeing that so much but what ever 1500 miles (according to the routeing) I dont see this being that long but OK.

I turned in 1400 miles today so ontop of the miles i turned in on Saturday I'll have 3700+ miles + stops on next weeks check!

Oh so i pull into this Loves no parking at 5:50pm......figures so I'm going slow hopeing for a spot even though there are trucks parked EVERYWHERE and what do ya know a truck pulls out of a spot right in front of me! YAY!

So now in the morning all I have to do it turn the truck on and roll 100 feet forward to a pump and fuel and leave....


(tip to new drivers reading combine fuel and pre-trip on your log to save 15 minutes!)





American Trucker

 

I also forgot that when I walked into the terminal I got maybe 20 feet inside and some one says "hey are you American Trucker?" i was like what? ya lol

Caught me completely off guard lol. I kinda like haveing people know who i am all over the place haha



American Trucker

 

So I got to the first stop at 8:30am....they dont open until 9 so i figured I'd have time to be ready as always when they got there....

Well Ya screw that place.....it'll be on your left and its a little tiny lot with a dock on the right side of the building off set from the enterance with a telephone pole and a straight truck in front of it.....

So im sitting there looking at it like "hmmmmmm" then I was like ok I've gots an idea!

So I pulled into the parking lot and backed out into the road, so not it was on my right side....then I pulled into the neihborhood across from the parking lot its a little offset but doable....Just ignore the NO TRUCKS Sign since your not really going in your just dipping your toes in the water...

Anyway then I backed out of the neighborhood and across the street and into the parking lot and back to the dock. Oh and this is one of those places where the roof overhang is low enough to hit your trailer (it was all mangled up). So be carefull!

Anyway so then the guys comes out and says oh this has to go to the warehouse.......oh and I cant go there yet I have to wait for someone to come in to run the store.... great so I have a tight day AND have to WAIT!!!!!

Anyway go that off and the next 5 stops went pretty quick with no problems other then people wasteing my time...lol


But then I skipped #6 to hit #7 first since they close at 3:30pm even though the paper work says 4. So I went down there and dropped that off and came back up to Knoxville for the last stop of the day.

First this place is hard to find....there road is not a road but a name of a complex to which they are NOT it...But anyway once I found it, it was VERY tight to get in and out of.....


Then I come around the corner and see this:



and now I'm like F%$&ing great!

But then I see this:




Then i'm like "ya F$#!^ing right!"

So I pull up to it and look at it and ask the customer if the other trucks got through there. He says "yep you have to its the only way out you cant back out of here, all the other Watkins Shepard Trucks fit"

So as always I dont trust the customer so I dropped the airbags and pulled up to right before the trailer and got out and Looked again...NOTE: this is the 2nd time I got out.

Then Idle under it real slow and see that I have 3 inches of clearance! See:





So I pull halfway through so as to get the end of my trailer next to his door, and unload.

Then I get back in the truck and pull forward 5 feet so that the whole truck and trailer were completely under it and got out to look 1 last time NOTE: this is the 3rd time i got out! and still have plenty of clearance...


So i continue through and hear a metal scraping sound so i stop and get out.....and sure enough the trailer was caught! Not I'm about to go knock the customer "ellton john" back to his pride parade!

After further inspection I noticed that the Concrete tiles/slabs that make up the "roof" of this car port thing are not all level and straight anymore...Thus why I got caught up....But luckily I was idleing under it and paying attention and caught it quick so i only scraped like 6 inches of it.

AND to make things worse the tile i had just went under was lower then the top of the trailer so i couldnt back out!

So now im like hmmmm I know what to do! I remembered about the leveling arm, I learned about it years ago. And in orientation tim had also mentioned how it works...but I couldnt remember....(make it bigger or smaller) so I called tim and confirmed smaller.

Then got out my tool box and disconnected the leveling arm on the trailer and pulled it down....and sure enough the trailer dropped 3 more inches! And I was FREE!!!

Then I had to take a bunch of pictures and report it and fill out an accident report....EVEN though there was NO damage to the trailer that I can see and the concrete was just scratched so no damage there....

See:



I called the customer and told him trucks DO NOT fit under it! and he's like so what do you want me to do? So i said next time a Driver asks you say no you have to back out of here!


So Note to newbies: CARRY TOOLS, LEARN HOW TRUCKS WORK! And that suspension botton in the truck ONLY deflates the TRACTOR air NOT the Trailer...I knew that and even though I DID have clearance.....1 stupid meesed up slab was enough to catch the trailer...






American Trucker