Rookies, Wannabees, & superheroes. This is a true run about Heavy Haul.

I sit in the restaurants and listen to drivers cry and complain. They complain about the weather. They complain about how long the shower lines are. They complain about how far they have to walk to get inside the truckstop. They complain about pay. They complain about hometime. They complain about being tired. They complain about the DOT...

I remember being on a job in northern Alberta, stuck for a week because of the weather, eating out of the truck and watching DVDs. Needed fuel, and so the plant had me go to their fuel pumps and filled my tanks. Got empty and went to that Flying Hook in Grassland. THEN the weather went to hell. Got extremely cold. Snow and wind pounded the truck for days. Everyone left their trucks running with the marker lights on so that the other truckers could see them when they pulled into the parking lot.

I remember sitting there so happy to eat hot food with a fork, and even had a cute waitress. The amazing thing was, there wasn't one person complaining. The temps so cold it burned and wind blowing so hard, you felt sandblasted, yet no one complains. I guess they were glad to be able to walk into a restaurant and get a hot meal too. It's a real eye opener. Some of the places where they wanted big loads shipped didn't have a name, just map coordinates. Man, talk about rugged.

When I started trucking, a trucker was a thin, wiry weather beaten, leather faced, boot wearing, ball cap wearing guy who was tough as nails. Somehow along the way, leather face got replaced by some fat effeminate guy who goes around telling everyone what he won't do and crying about being away from home.

I'd wager that every heavy hauler here has been to a mine. Grades so steep that you have to chain up in good weather. Then I see drivers who say, "I won't chain. If I have to chain, I park." Amazing. Went to Dundalk with a couple other drivers, had to load escavators. Would you believe that the other two drivers refused the loads because they had to drive them on? We've all done it...go to the port, stand in line and get checked in, and go walking through all the equipment, find your machine and drive it on your trailer. What's so hard about that? Well, some drivers won't do it. "Well, WHAT IF...." You're going to refuse a load over a 'what if'? That's why I have insurance.

Had 2 drivers come out of Vancouver BC with oversized. They stopped at that casino near Everette due to weather. The next day, one of them went to the TA, while the other stayed at the casino. The guy at the TA waited and watched the weather. He saw a break in the snow and got ready to move. He called the other driver in Everette. Suddenly, the DOT dropped the chain law, and the driver at the TA shot over Snoqualmie. The other driver in Everette, by the time he got to the TA, had to wait because once again, chain law was in effect. For FOUR DAYS. Then he calls me and complains about his paycheck.
Ask him why didn't he leave when the other guy left, and he said, "These loads aren't worth your life."

'Youre right, driver. That's why I carry provisions in my truck. Water, canned goods, extra blankets. If I lost all power in -50 weather, I would survive.' So they call you a Supertrucker and hope to see you in a ditch. You fuel up and leave them to the safety of the parking lot.

HH, keep it up big guy. If you're going to grab them other loads and take them across the ice, you'd better hurry. Those ice roads will probably start to weaken in a couple weeks.
You young guns, keep on pushing and applying yourselves. Whenever you go to a restaurant, sit at the counter and listen. You will hear a driver cry about his paycheck, but within 5 minutes, he will tell you why he doesn't make any money. Try not to laugh too loud.
You old hands, get up and get ready to go. We still have work to do. Lovin ever minute of it.

 

HH & TripleSix

I haven't heard more inspiring words.


You young guns,like Six calls ya.

Keep your drive alive, don't even for a minute think its tough.

HH is at the top of the game and still pushing.

Don't become a door slamming, truck stop hopper. Your not being paid by the hour. If your wheels aren't turning your not earning.

Be safe. HH you inspire more than you know.

You did take some pics didn't you?

 

I like to see a young driver step up, and apply himself. Everyone sees the loads and thinks, "Hey, I can do that! I wanna do that! How do you get into heavy haul?"

Well, I started with a flatbed company. Used to run aluminum out of Scottsboro, AL north and then steel back south to Birmingham. Osborn had 2 teams of drivers, Red Team and Green. Red was forced dispatch, but paid $.40/mile. Green was non forced and paid $.36/mile. I was a Red Team driver. Didn't matter to me where I went, I was there for the money. I made money, but in the process, you make a name for yourself. My dispatcher was Osborn's grandson Mark. One day I walk in, and one of their heavy haul drivers had quit and they offered me his truck. Had a hood, big power, big transmission, and dual rotators on top. Wow! Not bad for a young gun.

Osborn wasn't a heavyhaul company, but they had heavy haulers. They would fab up trailers to pull any load that a customer wanted, but they weren't a heavyhaul company. We would pull really big and really heavy, but the thing was, that wasn't our bread and butter. The problem comes start when you as a heavy haul driver working for a pretend heavy haul company has a question or an issue...there's no one that can help you. A true heavyhaul company will have someone in the office that can help you. So, if you feel that there's no one in the office that can do anything or knows anything about what you are doing, you are working for a pretend company. I'm not saying that's a bad thing...I'm just letting you know that you are on your own. Might as well be an owner operator.

Flatbedding

There are two different paths to heavy haul. 1.) go drive for a small company that has a few heavy haul trucks 2.) go pull a flatbed for a company that has heavy haulers and work your way up. One of them, you will be hauling escavator's and dozers and cranes...gravy. The other will have you haul everything, sticks and bricks, steel, junk awful loads to awful places. There is money in taking the loads that no one wants to take...big money. My first load to one of those big job sites was was load of crane mats on a flatbed. Then you get in on some crane moves. Then rig moves. The loads just keep getting bigger and bigger.
The main advantage going the flatbed route is the variety of loads and the tarping. Somewhere you're going to run into a customer who wants his high dollar load tarped, and he's willing to pay your price. You may have to cover a 15 wide, 15 tall, 60ft long piece. You need to know how to do it and do it well. On a big load, a tarp job can pay thousands. If someone is paying you a couple grand to tarp, you want to give them a good looking tarp job,

 

Excellent read......

 

With hauling heavy, wide or long you either have it in you or you don't. If you are used to living in mom's basement and having your parents take care of everything you probably won't make it. If you have had to scratch and gouge to get where you are then you will probably make it. As an owner op you can make good money in heavy haul. It also takes a lot out of you. If you get stressed easily then stick with something else because if you ever needed a stress test, heavy haul will give you one.

Driving down the interstates is the easy money part. It is the 2 lanes that will get to you like snaking through narrow canyons, Having to make blind right turns where you have to scrub the left curb on the road you are turning from along with taking the entire road you are turning onto to make the turn.

Then you do like HH and drive across frozen lakes.... NO THANKS on that for me... LOL

I am not in the same room with some of these guys. The biggest things I have hauled to date are a Volvo haul truck, JD 350 excavator and a 14' wide 17' long 77,000 pound concrete box (it was also my first time driving in snow on this one).

 

That's why I love this segment of trucking. I'm one of TripleSix's young guns, under 30. And I can honestly say, in the 3 and a half years I've been doing oversize and heavy haul, I've gotten nothing but good lessons, free advice, and encouragement from the older hands.

 

A year or two back they were doing construction on I-30 in and around Texarkana. I suppose because of that many overloads came across country on our two lane highways and though the town 6 miles west of me. Some days would see 4 to 6 of them pass by my house.

Coming through town there's 3 to 4 very sharp 90 degree 2 lane turns. I happned to be in town when a few of them came though, some of them had a very rough time in our home town. Several times the local police had to block traffic from both directions so wide overloads could make their turns.


I know they were happy when they finished work of I-30 opening it back up and missing out on this two lane cross country drive.

 

I can't remember the route exactly, but we had to get off 30, take 59 north to 371 east to Prescott. It's a hundred mile run. 371 is tight road for an oversized.

 

Yes that was the route. I'm something like 12 miles from Lokesburg and about 6 from Nashville on 371. I was pretty sure that was not fun route to run.

 

Yo Bro, Thanks for opening up this thread. I'm a gold miner. and my goal now to to work for the largest gold mine in the world. I haven't have my CDL Permit yet, I start class on Monday, So I plan on doing my rinky dink year, finish that, then go to HH school get retrained then look for a new place to work, Like kinross or Barrick or Rio Tinto !!