The Greenhorn Landstar Chronicles

I've been this route before. I've said it so many times on so many threads. My mechanic where I park my truck could smell acid and walked around until he found my batteries boiling. It was a battery charger/tender also. It was drawing so much it fried it then went into full metal jacket mode. I brought it back and they thought it was defective and gave me another one twice the size for the same price. I stayed there and it wasn't long before it started buzzing and smelling. My fridge was on and so was my Espar set to 50 but it just wasn't enough to replace what was being used.

Yachts have it down pat for years. They use the Perkins engine the same as the Rigmaster. It comes with an alternator and a generator. It's all in a different package. They also use Espar heaters in each cabin and a D5 in the galley. They use a shore power pure sine wave alternator/charger. The generator starts up automatically when battery voltage falls to a certain level. The output from the generator is piped into the shore power unit so the ships power switches from battery to 110v and the batteries are charged by both the charger and alternator. The batteries are different on a yacht also. Biggest ones I've ever seen.

As far as Landstar and broker contacts, that's true. I'm not with Landstar but did a regular gig for one broker. The loads never hit the board. I would get an email. Many of the brokers shippers they want someone in there they know. If they post the load it has to be given to any Tom Dick or Harry that calls and as you know, there are plenty of LS drivers that are real scum.

 

Well first off, most dedicated runs here at LS is usually on the lower side of the pay rate. Most agents figure guys would take a cut in pay just to run the same route and to be at home/close to home. Those Wal-Mart runs usually look fancy but until you do the breakdown on it, you're kinda running at $1.20-$1.40 a mile. Alot of us on the Van side alone do better than that just running irregular regional/OTR freight.

2nd, the old "Alot of guys don't use the load board and have agents who spoon fed them freight" myth. I've talked to plenty of guys who've been here for over 10 to 20 years who still rely on the board. First you gotta see what moves and how often does it move, by that you should always keep an load alert on in an 100 mile radius of your home. 2nd, once you see something pop up 2 or 3 times a week, call the agent and see how often that moves and see if he could keep you mind the next time he gets one.

Alot of agents will do a truck search to see if any trucks they've dealt with in the past or in a regular capacity to see if they're available before posting a load to the board. 3 agents do this for me. I'll either send them an E-Mail (or in one case a FB message) and let them know I'll be in the area, give them a phone call, or the agent will just see my availability and recognize my number and give me a call. This happens often but not everyday, this could be you but you gotta put in the work just like everyone else have.

You're are in a fairly decent market for freight. Honestly speaking, I think you can do just well running in the Midwest and still be home on weekends. Alot of Auto Parts out of Michigan & OH comes back over to KS and alot of stuff comes all over Missouri as well from the Upper Midwest.

 

Instead of all those mumbo jumbo numbers they should just write something like


Your truck is OK

 

Hey IC, if you're looking for a dedicated deal there's a guy out of Omaha pushing out a lot of round trip freight. Agency code is LJN...

 

As for those anti siphon inserts. ...they don't work. Someone just pushed mine into the tank and drained it dry. Now the anti siphon is stuck in the tank. I bought locking caps after that. For about $160 never had a problem since.

 

Is it an Espar heater? What was the altitude? They don't work above a certain level unless you have the high altitude pump. A good indication is that it runs for 10 minutes then shuts down. You can turn the power off and on and it works for another 10 min.