Been otr solo for almost 2 weeks, somethings I have learned

On the bright side gravedigr, you aren't paying to lease that truck! You would have paid to get it repaired and not had any miles that week! Oh yeah, and still have to make the truck payment next week.

 

I feel ya gravdigr. I've been down for nearly a week while our mechanic fixes my transmission/speedometer issue. But at least I'm home and can watch "Wow wow Wubbzy" with my youngest and listen to the teenage drama of my oldest. I have a load waiting to head on to Georgia on Friday. The longest run I've had since I came back to trucking.

Backing is the hardest part but it came back to me slowly. Now it feels as if the 10 years between my periods of trucking no longer exist.

 

For the new drivers... Get a cb.
All was fine on my pretrip. Along the route the spring holding the hoses in front of the.tandems broke. A nice and abservant driver bhind me saw something hanging down and told me. I stopped in two mile to find the air hoses dragging on the ground. A few more miles and there would have been a hole, and no more miles until repaired.

Not to mention fixing it before a DOT bear saw it, or i crossed a scale etc...

Mikeeee

 

Lol you might have just saved me alot of money. I my gfs Explorer started smoking from the harness only does it when bliker is on, and the od off light keeps blinking didn't know where to start to fix it.

 

Being new myself I guess I'm lazy, Lol. I grab that easy parking spot If it's available. My company loves to give me runs that start at 9 or 10am, which means I'm trying to find a space in the dark at midnight. Seems like 6 days a week I'm trying to sqeeze that rig into a tight spot. So I'll take those easy spots when I can get them. Good luck out there. Sounds like you'll do good.

 

I always use a pull-up like Chromedome said get it in the center of the lane. Work smarter not harder. Nothing wrong with a pull-up. I thought I was comfortable enough with my back-ups and then I went local city route, mucho back-ups plenty of blindsides and also plenty of pull-ups , and yes 4 wheelers do not care what they do around a truck, so pay attention to them. and your backing will get better. Good job man glad you are back.

 

Duct tape and heavy duty cable ties can fix that.

 

Of course. The next things to learn are to have tools and some repair knowledge!

Mikeeee

 

Absolutley, Always have a small bag of tools, including duct tape and zip ties, zip ties came in handy a few weeks ago, my truck was in on a PM, had a loner from shop and different trailer, this one had a city door on the side. I stop for lunch run in to your local taco shack,gone 5 minutes, come back eat ,release brakes take off,get into 2-3 gear check mirrors, guess what I see city door flopping in the wind. After a few choice words get it pulled over, so I zip tied the door shut did not have a lock for over there. Was driving almost all day i he city had no problems, maybe someone pulled lever I do not know, after the embarresment wore off a leason well learned. Know if I could learn to do all my own repairs I would be a happy camper.