EPES TRANSPORT-Greensboro, NC

can the weather at least clear up here....freaking thunderstorms! haha

 

well i get a night at home but not by choice....a had yet another trip plan shot to hell.....

got a nice 1100 out of upstate ny to atlanta and soon as i leave the shipper get a bad vibration and grinding/rasping noise anytime i let off the fuel.....as long as i keep torque on the driveline, it's fine, but as soon as the torque loosens up the driveline it shakes and vibrates and grinds like the transmission or clutch is going to fall out into the road.....

finally figure out a way to manage the prolem by keeping the driveline wound up between fuel on the upside and engine brake on the downside and keep the vibration quiet......

get down to the shop and of course this is going to be a several day fix......the way things have been going dealing with the shop lately i didn't really feel like waiting around until next week to get my truck back so before anything else happened i asked for something else to drive instead of waiting for the shop to tell my dm i was going to need something.....so i get a vacation loaner until friday....cascadia.....i'm not thrilled about it and sure not thrilled about driving someone else's truck just as i'm sure they won't be thrilled about me driving it......but keeps me rolling and i don't lose the load and know for sure i'll be in friday....awful clutch....let's out right at the bottom

trailer i picked up yesterday needed a federal too....last pm it had was in november....but the shop guys said i'd have it in the morning since i didn't push it about my tractor and told them it would be there a few days......guess we'll see if the trailer is ready and i get my truck back by sunday/monday

but i get home for a night and by lunch tomorrow already have 1800 in

 

with all the d amn miles you get I'd break down on you too! lol just kidding.....I've been having issues with the leveling on my truck...been in the shop twice and still NOT fixed...when I get back in I'm gonna become a little b itch. It's not cool to be going down the road, no brakes or nothing and your air psi constantly goes from 120 to 100...in the mountains it has gotten down to 90! NOT COOL....actually pretty scary, thinking if I apply too much pressure going down my brakes will pop out and then I'm REALLY F UCKED! So, gonna tell them to either fix it or I'm reporting it to safety....it actually IS a DOT fine if I'm caught. And here I sit at the truck rest area on 95 behind the scale house....hit 5 pm and had 2 hours left to drive, but figured it'd make more sense to blow through there and Baltimore around 5 am! Hope you get your truck back....I LOVE my Cascadia....but then again, it's NOTHING like Les's was. You must have the anti-floating device in it......yeah those things kinda suck! Luckily, mine doesn't have one in it...kinda drives like the Kenworth I had at USA....but this truck hasn't brokendown on me yet.

 

same thing with mine...the leveling rod was broken.....but not in a way that you could tell....so got it fixed and good to go by the time i got in this morning......

cascadia i drove was an absolute POS.....less miles than mine but 3 times the wear and tear on it.....mine is spotless and very well cared for and this one obviously isn't....wasn't sure if i wanted to put my sheets on the mattress and sleep on it or not....in the end folded down the top bunk and used it since it looked like it had never been used.....but it certainly hasn't been cleaned regularly or well.....i just can't live like that in my truck it has to be as spotless as i demand my house be.....i missed my volvo....as much as i didn't like it when i got it i have to admit being wrong about it yet again.....the layout of the controls and the overall user friendliness of it is far superior to the freightliners.....not to mention the outstanding visibility and much better mirrors.....i think the columbia i drove before is a much better truck than the cascadia.....only thing i like about it better is the seats.....not to mention spending two days reaching for things that weren't there and wishing i had things that weren't there lol......and yep it had the BIG "clutch is required during shifting" sticker on the dash......what a pain that thing was.....sooooooo glad to get out of it but what a pain to move out of one truck into another and then back into mine for just 2 days......

it was a magtec truck but looked like the magtec was disconnected from the security mode since it showed a steady green from the time i got in it......until i was running home from atlanta this morning....rolling downhill in sc and all the lights on it start flashing and the check engine light comes on and it just shuts down.....thankfully i was heavy and downhill and had momentum and was at the closed rest area at the 89 in gaffney so i had an acceleration lane and shoulder to get way off out of the way......sent my breakdown call and made sure i mentioned the magtec issue and night dispatch called road service out anyway without checking with magtec first.....2 hours later still sitting there and dm comes in and calls me and immediately gives me the number and i call them.....guy told me exactly what it did before i even had a chance to.....since the guy that normally runs the truck was on vacation, they put an 80hr maintenance code in it so it could be used while he was out and the 80hrs ran out and it shut the truck down.....dm got me a code right as the road service guy showed up and it fired up and ran like a charm......if the night guys had bothered to actually read my breakdown message they wouldn't have called road service out for nothing that they got charged who knows what for

showed up at the cons yesterday and load assignment said 1330 appt on 7/19......m&w in atlanta....been there before and the chick at the desk there isn't so friendly to start with but this time she copped a major attitude and was a real ##### and she said "you're late. you were supposed to be here yesterday at 1330. we'll get to you when we get to you".....really? yesterday i was in upstate ny picking this up.....no way that load was getting here yesterday. no, your appt was yesterday. i think she was full of it. looked like they were really shorthanded in there and think they just didn't have the people to work the freight they had. ended up sitting there 6 hours to get unloaded, which made me late on my preplan and then late delivering on the next load......and then the breakdown as well.....fortunately kept dm in the loop and got the detention pay no problem as well as a new appointment for the next load.

so, home till sunday to relax and de-stress after a trying week....but even with all the issues, still turned in 2200 and got another 600 down to alabama inlcuding the pickup for monday morning delivery so another good week even with the bs.....

 

Looks like my week will be around 2800 once I drop what I have on Tues. morning in SC. Week has been good mile wise...but it seems things are falling apart on my truck. My power inverter went out, all of a sudden yesterday at pick up(had to stay the night, was out of hours waaaaaaaaaaay up at the top of CT)....so all my Dr. Peppers ended up getting all hot.....and the one sub I was looking forward to got all soggy on me. Turned off all the power from the batteries, thinking maybe that'd do the trick....well, so far it seems like it is working, but fridge isn't cooling anything down? It was brand new, out of the box and only 4 months old...I haven't dropped it or anything....just makes no sense, hope I don't hafta buy another one. Called the shop this morning and they wrote my truck up, so they can look at it tomorrow while I am at home. 657 miles from where I picked up to G'boro, knew I wouldn't make it home today but decided to get as close as I could and take an 8 hour nap and hop home...but noooooooo that won't work for me! haha Despite the crappy raining weather all the way from Maryland to DC I literally BLEW right through GW Bridge around 6 am....couldn't believe it GOING southbound! I didn't use the brake except to pay toll....if you go through GW do it either at night(anytime after 9pm) or in the early morning hours(anytime before 6 am)....you won't believe how easy it is to get around NYC at those hours. So, when I get to the southside of DC at the scalehouse there's an overturned truck around the 130! Yep, backed up 20 miles! So figured I'll take my break and snooze(it is a great napping day in this weather) then finish the drive home around 1 or 2 tonight! Well, off to catch some z's!

 

you didn't get one of those road pro fridges did you? complete junk that's for sure....the coleman is much better

out here with the grills going....yeah grills lol.....you know you'[ve got too many mouths to feed when it takes 2 grills to cook it all.....wife, 4 kids, 4 dogs and me.....takes 2 grills to stuff all those faces.....and gotta grill turkey necks for the dogs to go with our steaks.....they know when daddy does the grill on the weekend good things come off of it haha......they circle the grills and gaurd them while i've got the stuff going.....

just made me think again how glad I am that I did my homework and went with a good company right out of the gate unlike so many others in these other companies that have such worse experiences....

anytime I can feed that many mouths, and feed them well, and keep the bills paid, and save a little and the wife can stay home and not work, well, that's a good deal......

 

oh no Road Pro(ANYTHING) is junk. I gotta real fridge....one of those little college dorm room fridges. Turns out I was able to replace it at walmart yesterday...paid 80 for it...they dropped to 59 so not only did I get a brand new fridge, I got 17 dollars back! H ELL YEAH!!!! LOL Guess I'll be heading out around 4 am. Only got 160 miles to drop for a 0900 appointment with paper rolls...figured I could show up around 0700-0800 and get unloaded so I can bust tail to truck stop and scan in paperwork before 1200 cutoff...that way I'll have a nice check! You got 4 KIDS?!?!?! Wow, think the wife would be in the insane asylum with 2....our little 4 year old is almost like a broken record. lol Keeps repeating himself....wife's hair is getting grayer than mine...then again, she will be hitting 40 in Dec. Keeps telling me that if I keep smoking I'll die sooner than her, but nope, she'll need a cane before me! haha Well, off to start smoking beef brisket for dinner and sandwiches for the week! MMMMMMMMMMMMMM....who wants some?

 

#### i wish it was only 4.....4 would be easy

i've got 2 in their mid to late 20's who are grown and gone have already given me 4 grandkids between them. at least i figured out what was causing that #### and had the plumbing permanantly clipped. the wife didn't. she has 5, from 20 to 7

so between the two of us that 7 kids, 4 grandkids and 4 dogs. a regular ####### brady bunch. the wife can't stand it she has a stepson almost as old as she is and i call her grandma lol.....

thank god only 4 of them live with us. and i'm gone 5 days a week hehehehe

sitting in birmingham now getting loaded for a #### run up to shelby....only 380 miles. but i'll get that one in by cutoff too so still a #### good week even with all the bs last week.......haven't figured it up yet but still 25+

 

Here's the story, of a lovely lady, who was......haha Well called shop yesterday and they fixed my leak. I think my airbags were leaking....but, they fixed it! Also turns out that my power inverter went bad! So, no fridge this week....I went ahead and ordered a brand new one from Harbor Freight instead of buying another one at Pilot. I did call Pilot yesterday and they gave me the number to the manufacturer and I called them so, it'll take around 4-5 weeks before I get it replaced. Just figured I'd order a new one and send this one back for replacement and then just sell it to someone on the yard. Guess I'll put an ad out in the drivers lounge. Well, gotta go run down to Valdosta and drop off this load of pet food at the terminal for someone to relay this load. DM asked if I could make a 452 mile run to FL.....but the load isn't due until Friday...I told 'em it was easy but I need to deliver tomorrow. haha So then they realized the del date and just have me drop at the Valdosta yard.

 

well i'm having an outstanding week so far

5hr live load out of birmingham......got to shelby and once again no empty.....bounce 60 miles to get an empty....then 35 more to another 3hr live load.....call to verify directions because I got directions to some place that wasn't where I was going had an all day window to deliver....guy tells me new policy have to have an appointment or go away until you do......luckily was able to bs an appointment out of him but one i'm going to barely be able to make....only thing he had for tomorrow.....then preplan is 205 empty and start of pickup window puts me there with only an hour left after my delivery tomorrow assuming a timely unload.....then 2 stops one in smyrna thursday and final in memphis on friday.....memphis on friday again....we've read that story before....dm said maybe be able to drop it or relay with someone so i'm not stuck on it.....have a whopping 325 daily average since sunday. going to break the bank with that check.....

vibration is still there and hasn't gone away

and stuck in this dump of a flying j in knoxville.....

i'm ready for next week so i can start over and try again.