Good Night From II

OceanDan, last I knew you could move just about anywhere and stay with the same terminal. No need to turn in the truck unless you'll be out more than four days. That's as far as I know.

 

I don't mind it that much if I have the time to spare.
The place itself is fine, always a quick drop and hook and they have a scale there.
It's just getting to it, and out again. If my hours are tight, no way I'll even try.

 

I'm a case in point.
My home terminal is Otay Mesa, CA. I was transferred there about 6 months into solo because I lived in San Diego.
Shortly after that we moved to MN, about 20 miles from Inver Grove Heights.
But, I like my DM so I never transferred terminals.

Home times are split between Inver Grove and Denver.
One advantage of taking home time nowhere near your home terminal is that it is less likely that they will make you turn in your truck.
I would hate to live near Phoenix and have that as my home terminal as well. From what I hear, anything over 2 days and you are waiting for a different truck.

 

Planners finally tossed me a load I could do. Short and kind of heavy going to central PA for a drop. Routing looks interesting on back roads.

After getting dispatched with a new PTA went straight to mac30 for something..anything..to get myself outta here and back to the central area of the country. Felt like I hit the jackpot when it opened. Three loads from same shipper to same destination just southeast of Kansas City. Two loads were 5K lbs each and the third was 1.6K lbs. You can guess which one I grabbed. I'm sure the other two didn't last long.

 

My condolences upon your entry into the vortex of the black hole of Edwardsville planning. Have your emergency kit fully stocked before entry: the complete works of Shakespeare, at least three cases of MRE's, and have the suicide prevention hot line on your speed dial.

 

haahaa!! How true!! I'll be tapping mac30 hard for another load as I get closer to KC hopefully before I get dumped on. If I was dropping closer to the terminal I'd go straight to the terminal manager for a load. He's my old boss from Houston and has taken care of me in the past.

 

Missoula MT. TA by the strip club. It should be called TA&T&A. Woke up at 1:AM in Lewiston freezing. Bunk heater had a maint required code. So I turned on my truck, only to have an audible for the closed thermostat. I put it in the shop, and the maintenance guys did a great job fixing those and some other things.

But then they changed my windshield. It only had a tiny chip passenger side. Now my truck squeaks because I swear that #### windshield is not sealed.

 

I don't think I'll start a thread, There are mentors in this thread who know a ton more than I do, and have been at swift for a super long time.

As far as dedicated goes, it honestly depends on the account. Some are super. Some are not. See if he can surge on one for a while and get his feet wet.

 

Well, my 'check engine light' fix didn't last very long.
'Fixed' yesterday, back again today.
Exact same symptoms, so I'm pretty sure it is the same problem - something to do with a sensor in the cooling system that detects low coolant.
A month ago while it was in the shop at Salt Lake they mentioned that the sensor was bad. There were a lot of other things at the time as well.
This time, at Columbus, they said it was a bad connector to the sensor.
It was fixed for less than a day.
I'm not sure what they did to fix the problem, but they didn't go far enough.

On the other hand, they did find and correct the problem with the batteries.
Over the past month I've had Salt Lake and a TA check it and they both told me the same - the batteries are fine.
Yet within 10 minutes of shutting down all power was cut off from the cab and 12V sockets because of low voltage readings.
One idiot from Salt Lake told me it was my Coleman cooler. (If my cooler was drawing THAT much current I would think that I would be blowing a fuse or the plug would be overheating and melting.)

The guy in Columbus noticed the bad wires around the battery shut off switch. They were frayed and loose.

He removed the switch entirely and wired it up directly, and it is working perfectly now.
I can run the Coleman, the computer and the lunchbox oven all at once, once again without a problem, even with the engine shut off.
I can once again wake up to my cooler working, without having to idle all night.

I hate gremlins in the system, like I have now with this stupid sensor/connector/wiring problem.
I always have a check engine light now and sometimes the engine gets de-rated. The turbo boost gets cut in half. And sometimes when I start the engine I get a STOP ENGINE red flag for several minutes.
Still, I can work with it until I decide where to take it next to (maybe) fix the problem.

 

Moose when you find out what it is causing the issue, let me know, lol. I got a new sensor this morning for the same thing. Hopefully I fire the truck up in the AM to no flashing lights and annoying beeps.