An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Change of plans again. Back on the OD load because they had a shortage of OD drivers in the area. There is a 2nd load shipping out of there. Picked up the 1st trailer that we thought was fixed and try to slide it open, now it won't open. No matter what we did, one of the pins won't retract...so we f'd with it for an hour or so, but no bueno. So, now the trailer guy is coming out to work on it.

At least this gives me time to get my laundry done and take advantage of the newly functional shower, and pester @The Block Robert until quitting time.

 

Finally got the pins to function. The bad news is, it's a temporary fix. Where the air line for the passenger side air chamber that pulls the pin goes thru the frame, there is some sort of restriction. The problem is, it goes thru a small hole into a channel over the other frame and then down to a 'T'. The mechanic got the air chamber to retract the pin just fine with his truck's air pressure. He can't get the old line to pull thru the little hole from either side, so for now, since this is so far back on the trailer, they ran a replacement line under the frame and attached it to a cross piece of metal and back up to the "T", and they ran it thru a piece of rubber tubing to give it some abrasion protection. That far back, it isn't likely to drag being that close to the axles, just have to worry about road debris kicking up.

Now the problem. The load is supposed to pick up tomorrow morning...but I have no permits, no pilot set up (we weren't even sure I would be pulling this trailer until late afternoon)...so I don't know what the plan is at this point...I know Wichita usually asks for the dimensions before ordering permits, but if Cali is taking 48 hours to process, and this is a regularly hauled load for us, we should have the dimensions already, along with the permit...and the Cali annual won't work because it exceeds the width allowed on it. After the last 2 days fighting ragedy trailer issues, I am ready to haul freight, but undecided if I should take a chance and head down to the shipper and get staged, or wait until I get some of the legalities resolved 1st.

 

Got loaded and secured, but there is no #### way I can walk on top of that load. Plus, they gave me 10' drop tarps to tarp it with, and the wind was so strong that I had to tie a rope around the upwind side just to unfold it...then the wind swirled and picked up the whole tarp and blew it off the trailer. At that time I said F-it, rolled the tarp back up and put it back on the trailer. They have me heading to the Rancho yard and getting some help to tarp this in the morning. Times like this make me question my decision to start flatbedding so late in my career...maybe I need to admit that I am a natural born door slamer

 

I appreciate it, but I still like SPD. Every company is gonna have one of those loads or one of those customers, or you're gonna have one of those days. I get a little discouraged probably because I have higher expectations than my experience allows...I'll put on my big boy panties in the morning and suck it up and get over my personal pitty party and push forward. The only way to get better is to try harder, and work beside more experienced people that can guide you without too much judgement.