On the fence - New trucks, thinking about leaving job

You box guys kill me with your low hp, plastic, aero, 80,000 lb trucks.

 

Well after going back and forth with the truck purchaser in the company, Bosses son. I finally found out what they ordered.

386, 63 inch bunk, dual side mounted stacks, extra chrome, chrome front bumper, premium sound system, and white in color cummins isx, lower gearing (higher numerical) to help pull the heavy loads we pull.

In the last few months, I have gotten in some of our 386s to try and wrap my head around them. Logged a couple thousand miles in them. They ride like crap compared to the longer hooded 379/389s.

I did two runs back to back. Day one was in the 04 379 and day two was in the 386.

The 379 had to get a windshield put in and a service job which is why I took the 386 on day 2. Both days I loaded at the same exact farmers yard up in Carberry Manitoba and unloaded at the same plant in Jamestown ND. I can't exactally remember the milage on the run but it was in the 650 mile range. I took the same routing both days, Meaning same roads and everything. Day 1 was calm and about 60 degrees all day. Day two was pretty much the same. excelt the wind had picked up to a slight breeze out of the north in the after noon which would have been pushing me slightly when loaded on my way back to Jamestown.

Day 1 I averaged 4.3 mpg in the 379 with the bridged c15 cat in it. Day 2 I averaged 4.5 mpg in the 386 with the c13 cat.

Day 2 I had to fight the truck on the rough roads up in Manitoba were day 1 was nothing but a nice drive.

The road into the farmers yard was about 6 miles of rough gravel. The 379 pretty much handled this road with ease. I mean I could have run 70 down this pott hole filled road and hardly had to hold onto the wheel. Day two, I had a tough time even running 30-40 mph down the same road in the 386. Anything faster and it was trying to throw itself in the ditch.

The 386 has just over 200,000 miles on it and the 379 has 840,000 miles on it. The 386 was nothing but rattles and squeeks all day long. The 379 only had a slight squeek from the hood pads. A little grease on the rubber pads and all went silent. I had let them get dry.

I see no benefit from the 386s.

All I see is an ugly looking truck with no style. To some style might not be important since they only look at the truck as a tool and nothing else. To me it is more then a tool for work, It gives me a sense of pride and makes me feel better to drive a cool looking rig. Which makes me actually want to work each and every day.

My plan is to exercise my right to move on to another job and let someone else have a chance to drive for the company. I don't have to drive a truck to make a living, being that I am well rounded and have lots of experience in other fields. I am going to notify the boss on Monday that I will be moving on before the new truck gets here. It is being built so I have some time to find another job.

I only hope that he will beable to find a driver that will respect the equipment and also has a pass card or is willing to get a passcard to go into Canada. Something he is having a tough time doing right now since we have a few empty trucks in the yard needing drivers.

 

I asked them awhile ago, before they did the final ordering, if I could just keep the 04 379 and run it for another 300,000 + miles.

I had planned on bringing it home here in another couple weeks and giving a complete buff job again along with a few coats of good hand waxing and giving all the aluminum a fine shine.

I already did a complete shampoo job on the interior and the carpet looks almost new again. Got a bunch of throw rugs down to keep the dirt off the carpet.

Also went through the complete coax on the truck etc and have the antenna setup fine tuned to optimum performance.

I went over every screw in the cab and sleeper and replace the clips that had loosened up etc.

Two rocks with in a months time had taken out both the passenger and drivers windshields so now it has nice clear glass up front with no pitting.