The Greenhorn Landstar Chronicles

Nope, I was in the midwest. I'm guessing its just carbon buildup. I've also wondered about just running a separate tank to ensure it not running on dirty diesel.

I'm probably going to just leave it alone till September and clean it all up then.

 

Quick little update.

New dedicated gig is rolling right along. Cheap and heavy though. All miles mpg is now 6.4mpg. I miss those auto parts runs, well, the pay at least. Home time is way better on this run. Everything has a trade off.

Greased my truck for the first time. I purchased a cheap harbor freight grease gun, and settled on the Mystic JT-6 red tube. It's a lithium complex, which has good compatibility with other greases, and had great reviews and specs.

After my first grease experience, I was really dirty and a little sore from all the crawling around. Next time must haves include a creeper, electric grease gun, and a cheap jumpsuit. Those heavy duty thick Nitrile gloves are nice, kept the hands clean and didn't tear. Another item would be a hat. Got some grease in my hair. No fun, well I did have a little fun. It's nice having an excuse to crawl under the truck and check everything out. The $34 grease job at the TA seems like a bargain when your rolling around in grease, but they over grease and make a huge mess. I watched the last guy sling a huge line of grease right on my steer tire last time. He then looked at me when I cleared my throat and he apologized and barely wiped it off smearing it all over. It's nice to know it's done right and clean, and I can feel and check everything else while I'm down there.

Got my taxes done and paid the dag gum guberment. Since I leased on I didn't total one thing. I just checked my statements to make sure loads were paying. So far the only thing I got stiffed on was detention for agent PAL, then I get a call this week about it, out of the blue, asking that I resubmit the BOL, 5 months later... I already had the email because I had sent a reminder email last year. So again, I sent another email right there while the lady was on the phone with me. I think she was surprised how quick it went down.

Call comes in, I recognized the area code.

Agent who didn't pay: "hello, I'm calling about a load you did for us back in..."

me: " is this PAL?"

Agent who didn't pay: "yes"

me: " yeah, you never paid my detention, do you need me to send a third email?"

agent who didn't pay: "yes please."

Go to phones home screen. Open gmail app, search PAL, resend email.

me: "check your inbox."

agent who didn't pay: "wow, that was fast."

me: "have a nice day..."

Did all that from a smart phone. Man those new phones are awesome. I couldn't imagine the days of pay phones and little black books.

So I had a lot of paperwork to sort out for the tax prep. Glad that's done. Got my quarterly vouchers printed out and ready to mail in for this years quarterly payments. My accountant/tax preparer made me a spreadsheet and I added to it to have a good template to follow this year to keep track of my earnings. I also used the H&R Block software to file. Just punched in the numbers as I went along. Pretty easy. I should be good to go next year now that I have a handle on everything.

I also got my 2 year physical done ahead of schedule. LS sent me a reminder notice it was due 5/20, and I didn't want to wait till the last minute like I always do. I also swung by the DOR and got the self certify all done. Easy peasy. The lady at Concentra was nice and told me she had a tough week and breezed through the physical. Took twenty minutes.

I hope to get to painting the frame this weekend. Just depends on weather and time. I purchased new mud flaps and hangers and conspicuity strips. Hopefully all that goes smooth and looks better. The rust isn't terrible but it bothers me. Going to hit it with some quality rustoleum.... $3.77 a rattle can. Lol.

I got a small air leak I need to address. I wouldn't call it a safety issue, because it's a slow leak, but I can barely hear it. It's coming from a compression fitting on a spliced line on the frame. Looks easy enough. Another issue is my left steer tire is barely showing inner tread wear. Need to get her in for an alignment. Steering feels straight and tight.

I have a little slack in my fifth wheel. It's a holland. Model FW35-7002x3L11. It's got an adjustment bolt on the front. It's also a nice visual indicator your jaws are locked. Messing with the fifth wheel freaks me out a bit, but I'm just going to go 1/8 turn at a time. Fellow BCO of mine suggested using a PVC pipe the same diameter as the king pin to use as a guide.

Final thing I need to get done that's bothering me is this bypass oil filter the FS2500. They ran the oil line too close to my turbo. The protective spiral wrap on the braided stainless steel oil line has warped from the heat. They should have ran the lines under the frame. I would have preferred the unit be installed on the opposite side of the turbo, but I wasn't really thinking much about it. When you pay the same people to install something your buying from, you expect it to be done right. Simple fix, and they are only two miles from where I park my truck. Just need to get a business day off to do it.

Well thats all folks. Looking forward to a weekend where I feel all caught up and nothing left on my trucking checklist. When that time comes I could always install more chicken lights and become a super trucker...