Most Memorable Load?

Not sure.
Could have been the chillers I took to the zoo where they were building a polar bear habitat. Got a nice tour from the zoo keeper and site engineer. I also learned Polar Bears can get sun burn.

Maybe the time I took a load out of the radio telescope in west Virginia. Got a real nice personal tour from a few of the staff. That place is very cool.

The time I had to back a trailer into a C141 then taxi all over the base was odd, not real fun but it was something to do.

The time spent on top of a mountain in Wyoming. Not sure what the altitude was, but enough to see the curvature of the earth. Odd seeing the land disappear like that while standing on terra firma. Aircraft you sort of expect that.

Don't really know what it was that I loaded, but had to be watched by some very large young men in dark suits that did not say much. then inspected by three different people, plus pictures. Delivery was on the apron at the port to what I think was a not yet commissioned navy ship of some kind. I know I was followed by unmarked vehicles. Had a very specific route to use, had to call in all the time, even to stop to take a whizzz. The port escorts were a lot like the people that watched me load.

 

I think you need to break it into sub categories :
1) Best madman run.
2) Most money earned.
3) Least money earned.
4) Most terrifying.
5) Best female companion.

 

I think the one for me was the one to a hydro dam... 2 hours on logging roads to get there and no cell service. What makes it memorable might be the hill I couldn't pull my loaded B-train up...

3 tries to get up when finally on the way back down it got ever so slightly crooked and lost it (not enough room to swing enough to straighten the trailers and it was sideways just enough that I was screwed). From there I tried more from a stop but to no avail. I couldn't move forward even a little.

Well not much I can do at this point but I wasn't blocking the road completely. Then a rock truck shows up and we hook a chain. BUT, this truck had no tow hooks (I was aware and trying to get some but nope!). Just so happens I hit a dog at 60mph earlier that same week and my bumper was broken. Perfect. We manage to hook the chain somewhere secure with part of the bumper missing and not in the way.

We get going and it turns out ok, and unhook at the top of the hill.

So all's good and I continue on. I come upon another smaller hill, ok doesn't look like much–HAMMER DOWN!! Well.... Nope. I come to a stop.... #%$& SAKES!

I back 'er down and a little ways to a wide spot, a little pissed I dropped the pup and continued on. Then I come upon and site, jeez...

Ok check in with security, need to grab my other trailer, BRB! I drop the lead, run out bobtail and grab my pup and bring it back. I hook them back together and follow an escort to where it gets unloaded. Oh you need to turn around 180 degrees in a tight spot then back over a bridge and half way up a slope. Ok. Separate the trailers again and get on with it. I ended up losing a mudflap backing my lead in because nobody spotting me gave a #%$& I guess.

Finally unloaded, that's pretty much it I zoomed out of there in the dark. Fun ride actually.

 

it was a dry van load and I was still a student...picking up in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center.

I was familiar with the area so I was driving while my trainer was taking in the sights.I would point out the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, Lincoln Memorial, he was busy snapping pictures.I can see the Kennedy Center...but I'm trapped in a lane that goes away from it. I even pointed out the black Escalade and Chevy Suburban that we're probably secret service tracking a semi so close to the white house!

my trainer yells low bridge stop I stopped and I told him I wasn't ready to back out of this situation in this kind of traffic...so we switch seats.

as I get out of the truck to go to the other side I noticed there's a sign on the bridge that it's tall enough for us to get under if we go right through the center.there's an exit on the other side of the bridge so we knew we could get out of itif we had the clearance.

there's Ivy hanging off the bridge.we were inching under its scraping the ivy.I'm hanging out the window to see if it looks like the top of the tractor will clear

the bottom line was We Made It...can you imagine what the Secret Service was thinking watching me hang out of the truck as we enter under a low bridge?

they were probably laughing so hard and saying these guys can't be a threat they're too stupid...we have photos of our truck sitting in front of the Kennedy Center with the fountains where the limos drop the congressman off for the evening events it was great

I've never met another driver that is actually driven inside of Washington DC and I did it during my training so I was pretty excited.

we picked up a piece of art that was on loan from the Mexican Government.the sculpture didn't weigh more than 500 pounds.

we laughed all the way to Laredo

 

One bundle of 2" 11ga. tubing to an Amish fab shop. Pull in the drive and see two boys about 5 and 11 years old fishing in a beautiful pond. Pa took the buggy to town but was coming right back, and since it was my last drop of the day I figured I could wait.

I got the grand tour of the place from the barn to the horse lot and we ended back at the pond where we talked fishing. I mentioned that my boys, who were about the same age as the older one,loved to fish. Eventually I went back to the truck to organize my paperwork, and I look up to see the older boy struggling my way with a big bucket.

He had caught a 15 lb catfish and was bringing it over to show me, urging me to take a picture for my boys. Long story short, I ended up buying a couple of horses from the dad. Our kids have become good friends and they get together to fish whenever they can.

 

Awesome story.

 

MAdman... Lancaster PA to Idabel OK Over night. Cummins M11 and unrestricted. 1550 miles or a touch thereabouts. Aluminum eye to sky times three wrapped in shrink wrap. Due to temp differences between Lancaster, overnight and 7:56 am arrival, there was liquid pouring off them. tsk tsk tsk. 4 Police evaluated me in Little Rock on 30 bypass at speed. In those days Arkansas was not tolerant.

Most Money Earned? One christmas sitting in Texarkarna hotel. 3 days #### near a thousand dollars laying on my flat, bored ###. Oh lord... not doing that again. In fact I started to formulate the 9 month trucking plan that year.

Least money earned. Delivered 10 truckloads of coil 100 miles into louisville with trainer off a riverport barge. Whirlpool. I did not make much at all. You were not supposed to. That was 6 days.,

Terrifying? Ok there is a easy scary load. 52,000 pound steel half inch rolled coil, 20 #### feet belly loaded on a Ravens Aluminum Covered wagon just high enough to be right at 13.6 #### your eyes and all tippy as get out with the side panels bulging, 20 chains, 20 binders, 20 straps everything we had was on taht ####### load. Leaving out of SE chicago area mill, we had to use a fly over at 5 mph with the #### outside wheels lifting from the pavement. I had to actually speed up to 9 or so to get em back down. Limit was 25. High off the ground.

Close second. Anhauser busch to Williamsburg VA brewery, eye to sky aluminum, times two. Full 80K gross and nothing at all left to secure the #### things in Kentucky. No wood, No nails no nothing at all nothing. zip, Nada. So... threw a chain across the deck in front of each pallet making a wish that no one pulls out in front of me and put a full cup of coffee in front of the shifter without lid as a guide to smooth hauling.

Made it #### to 4 ####ing miles from customer someone pulled out. I stood on the brakes, destroyed both pallets. The hue and cry that rose from the brewery you think I murdered people by feeding them into the can stamp machines or something.

 

Back when I first started trucking in the mid 80's truckers in general were all more than helpful and alert to another truckers needs. Example: I had a blow out and ended up on the shoulder. My boss had given me a couple spares and a jack,.. but no way to break the lug nuts loose,.. nor did I know how to dismount or mount a tire.
I dont think I was on the shoulder for more then 10 - 15 mins when 2 trucks stopped to see if I was ok. 20 mins later I was rolling down the road on the spare tire. Thats how I remember it back then.

Today a lot of the comradery has been lost. When I was doing reefer work I always felt like I was on my own no matter what.

Open deck and car haulers are about the only groups left (On a large scale) that will actually go out of their way to help another trucker. Not all,.. company drivers are falling to the wayside with their own agendas,.. but many O/O of the 2 groups will still give a lending hand for those in need.

For me,.. regular flatbed. A load I recently did that was 12' wide and stood 15'1 on my deck will stand out for me. It was not technically challenging to load or secure. But rather the technique I used to make sure I did not hit any bridges will go down as being a lucky SOB.



Here again,.. nothing technical or complicated hauling a container. But backing up into a Russian cargo plane at Dulles airport will remain one of the loads I like to remember as being pretty cool.


.

I still remember laughing out loud when I finally saw what a Tug Tractor actually was. I was expecting something much larger. I laughed all the way to the bank too. $2400 to go from Regan National in Washington DC up to Buffalo, Ny.


.


I did some RGN work last summer which gave me a new insight, enlightenment and respect for guys who do heavy haul on a regular basis.

This was an old Army spec CAT 621 scraper. The challenge with this one was backing it onto the trailer pretty much blind because you can not see much beyond the belly and the beast had no working brakes and the go pedal would stick and I had to reach down and pull it back,.. but not too far back as that was also how you shut the machine off.


Another memorable load was this demolition spec high reach CAT 349F. I picked it up at the Baltimore port. The machine has a 4 piece boom section that was removed. They left the counter weight on though. The track and carriage base were wider than regular 345 - 349 machines that I had delt with before. It was extremely heavy over the counter weight. So much so that I could not load the machine traveling in a forward direction where I could see the tracks on the deck with out fear of the machine tipping over backwards. So the only way to load it was to back it on. In the first pic you can see my goof up,.. I forgot to lay the boards on the outriggers. So all careful tedious backing to get it on,.. had to be repeated a second time. Then came the wonderful learning curve that comes with heavy haul. The initial permits that were ordered were based on the brokers info that the machine only weighed 91,000 lbs. The truck and RGN scaled 58,000lbs, Permits were ordered for 149,000. Once my escort showed up, I went to scale the load just to make sure we were legal and good thing I did. I scaled out at 166,000. My carrier,.. obviously stressing out,.. asked me to scale the load again in case the scale was off,.. or I wasnt on it correctly. I did as he asked,.. and again,.. I scaled 166,000 lbs. The problem this created was that in Md anything over 150,000 lbs becomes a super load and police escort is required. So ended up sitting for almost a week waiting on new permits and an available state trooper. 8 days to take a machine from Baltimore to Columbus, I was being paid a base salary,.. so the sitting really frustrated my carrier. I'm posting the first scale ticket. I had a 3 axle trailer with a 4th flip axle. It shows me as being over 80k lbs on 4 axles. Barely,.. but being unsure how far over 20k lbs per axle they may or may not let me slide,.. I made sure all axles were under 20k lbs. All the rigging had to be undone,.. then I had to block up the tracks of the machine, drop the trailer to the ground and dump all of the air out of it so the machine was resting on the wood blocks so I could rotate the machine around to shift some weight off the trailer and onto the truck.









A walk in the park for guys who do this every day. Me being thrown to the wolves with this truck and expected to do it right,.. I used every resource available to me to make sure these loads were done properly.

Hurst