The journey begins - purchased a truck.

WHAT !!!!????

 

Frames

Ran the Elizabethtown to Kansas City loads last week - put in 3 round trips. Dropped home after the third one I delivered on Monday to take a 34 hour reset at the house. And a 34 reset is all it will be, my clock ticks over in about an hour so I've just got to put the laundry away and set off.

I took a page out of Old Man's book, given the lack of time, and took the truck to Garners Diesel. So far, so good. Nice shop, 5 bays. The son Shawn now runs it, having partnered with his father, so together, lots of experience. Keep them in mind if you're in Joplin area as an alternative to the dealerships/Petro etc. Shop rate is $80/hour.

Replaced air dryer (whole unit), replaced starter (with gear reduction unit), changed out fuel filter (rather than chasing the prime issue, cheap attempt as they were running short on time). Total $906. They'll fit the FS2500 unit next week, and run cables for the inverter, and run an overhead.

Picked up repaired tarps - $140. Placed them neatly in shop . . . to gather dust. Dropped by the machine shop to have him measure up a simple dunnage rack for the 4X4 timbers, fab up in spare time, paint, then fit later. This will give me my deck space back - hate having 'stuff' on it.

Now - before you all throw me under the bus for paying the shop to do the work - I'd already discovered the air dryer filter was seized on, and the original unit, and though I should have changed the starter myself . . . I needed some sleep too. We've been putting the 21 cpm into the maintenance fund to cover things like this, and it has over $3k in it.

Ordered another drum of oil and some fuel additive from Schaeffers - around $600 total (haven't got the bill yet), delivered to the machine shop.

Last weeks settlement included the 2 loads of frames, should even out his week to catch the 3 loads in each settlement.

Fuel mileage settling down the more fillups I have - down on about 7.1 now.

All else is OK. The organization at the E town end has improved ten fold, so plenty of steady work ahead, in theory anyhow.

Ran with a LS guy - who is the Mobil Delvac poster guy. Nice guy, interesting story. Learned a few tips.

And - from reading here, somewhere, I learned that toothpaste does, in fact - quieten squeaky fan belts. Thanks - whoever you were/are.