Finally got my own truck

The engines never quit provided you did not hold the pyrometer at or past 1400.

I also miss the old iron. But not too much. Get onto a bad concrete road with all steel suspension, hard cab connection to frame, no airride seat and so on. The shaking dislocated one of my shoulders once. Docs popped it back in.

What I should have done is quit that day when I got back to B&B Concrete in west little rock. A concrete man told me today that outfit is gone. Essentially the management themselves were bought out. Considering our relationship being less than cordial that's a good thing.

I had a chance to fire a couple air starts at the auction house. One was a cummins 280 or 300 I forget which. It was cold. PUT her into nuetral, drives chocked due to slope both ways on that ice, trailer brakes in. shove the fuel valve at the side of the seat on the floor to on state. check air pressure in both primary and secondary.

Hit the starter button and held it down. PSSSSSSHHHHHHH WHIR WHIR WHIR WHIR WHIR... COUGHT WH CHOUGH cou kaff. kjak CHOKE WHir whir whir cought SPUTTER (BINGO!!!) sput sput sput boom boom whiiirrrr bommm bom bom boimbombom RAOWAR>... it's alive!

All that in about 8 seconds.

The state in which it took her a few moments to start building compression after that first two or three cylinders fired always is a anxiety time for me. AIr is running low and she needs compression on all cylinders now to fire.

She got it that. time. But I was not sure.

Sit there and listen to that cold monster lope across it's timing and pour thick blue smoke over everything. Including the new cars on the crain account line. PReceeded by yelling.

 

Yeah it burnt down last year. Your only about 20 mins from me!

 

Try backing in there with a 280 inch wheel base long hood pete. The first and last time i stopped in that pilot.

 

Im not particulary interested in the smut. But I remember recovering a tractor in Fort Worth Texas which was for me a profitable gig. Not too much money, like about 30 to 50 dollars via comcheck gratis, no taxes either. Just toss some money at me And go get the tractor a few times a day (Goes to show how many were to use a gaming term rage quitting LOL.)

Recovering tractor and sometimes trailers I enjoyed very much.Due to the potentail for stabotage left behind by the previous enraged driver. The satellite qualcomm is full of reading material usually 10 to 30 pages of ranting, bad words, profanity and accusations against a particular dispatchers parentage etc. etc. etc. You learn quite a bit through the #### thing.

As a metter of course I check the side boxes, under the bunk etc. One truck in particular featured children between glossy covers. Until that date in my life I had not experienced the anger that makes the world somewhere between pink and red in my vision. And the kind of really hot anger that required a 30 hour intervention at Methodist Hospital with IV medicines to control. The Law got ahold of that tractor before they allowed me to drive it back to the yard cleared of the smut.

There are certain triggers I guess if I had children and they were in pictures I would have wanted to kill the people who made that smut. It's not acceptable. Period. I don't understand why some drivers are so dirty as to engage in that kind of behavior for lack of a better word. Surely trucking is NOT THAT BORING... or whatever. Probably sure he is married also according the references to wife and kids at home and bills in his ranting, whoever it was.

Im glad he's gone that day. properly fired. Why? He did not shut up with dispatch. Who contacted his drier manager who agreed to firing him once they got a eyeful of the ranting over the satellite. There is a program that interdicts profantiy and bad words so that Dispatchers only see either the word "Love" or #### etc. so that they too don't get flamed more than they have to.

Once in a while a pre-trip is failed to the tractor and I'll have to leave it where it is. Fuel lines cut, airlines cut, abs wiring pulled, stripped, snipped. and everything else that driver could possibly pull was also cut.

The call to dispatch was interesting. "Boss, you aint getting this truck today." "Wat?" I sent you to get it. Don't tell me what I am or am not getting today" Boss... this truck is stabotage, you need to call the law to gather the damage. 'WOT?> can you drive it? ' Nope." *(&^% and a few minutes later the blue clears out of the phone, tow truck shows up. Then HE calls dispatch saying he does not know how to pull the drive axles themselves to tow safely. More blue air.

Shrugs. It's a interesting day. For sure.

 

You must be a hit at the counters at truck stops!

 

Just for future knowledge, they have a decent sized lot two doors down from the truck stop. I had to squeeze in there one night. Can't complain about the $25 if it's supply and demand. I will use it if I'm in the area and desperate for a spot.

 

It's been a long time (longer than the statute of limitations, if the DOT is reading this), but I rarely had torn out logs in my trash bag, unless they were legitimate screw ups. Mine either got torn to little pieces, and tossed into a t/s garbage can, or set on fire, and left to burn in the parking lot.

Might wanna take care of your evidence a bit better.

 

Finished. Read this thread from front to back AGAIN. I'm doing some long term goal planning, and getting a lot of DOs and DON'Ts from these 116 pages.

DO at least try running reefer.
DON'T bite off more than I can chew on a truck payment.
DO sign on with a reputable company, and look for loads using that reputation.
DO have a plan for accepting rates, and stick to it.
DO keep meticulous records.
DO as much maintenance as I can.
And so on.

You have some good and knowledgeable veterans following your thread, BW. You should feel lucky. You're not doing too shabby yourself! Keep it up.