Bellefonte PA mine run..tandem straights only...don't do it!

So I get a call from Landstar and I'm like sure I haven't run for you guys in a while...send it over.

Long story short... it turns out it is is Trilogy...a agent of Landstar. Once I get past all of the bad contact/pick up/delivery info I say OK good to go....and I roll.

So when you get to the place in South Point, Ohio ....to load the cable bolts.....they drop them everywhere because they have improper equipment for loading giant strands of limp cable with bolts on the end. (picture trying to load wet noodles with a regular forklift). It could have been much worse had they hit my Pete.

So no biggie I get loaded and secure the MESS of a load. I roll to the mine. Now at this point, I had assumed that a mine would have their own mine flatbeds for going down in to the mine.

As you have probably guessed they did not.

"Why, whats the problem driver? All trucks have to go down. You will need to get mine trained too."

At this point I am there, and have never been in a mine, so I get r done and head down 1500 feet at a 15% grade for 1 mile....with 26k on my back. Needless to say this takes a lot of time. Once I got in to my spot....a (literally) CRAZY cave dwelling red neck loud mouth unloaded me as violently as I had been loaded (way worse actually). This dude had no skin color and was as nuts as they come man!!!

It was cool to do once. I was supposed to have another one Monday. I called the broker and doubled the price to 3200. She laughed and I said I pray they say no....and even if they say yes I am not going back.

As soon as I pulled out of the mine I could see my truck was covered in limestone dust....and even the inside was a mess. I headed right to the hurricane truck wash at exit 78 on I80. We had to wash it twice AND I power washed the crap out of it at home yesterday.

I hope the few tandem flatbed guys in here see this. Probably good money and runs if you want them but you better have a crappy international POS that you don't plan on keeping.

They guys in the mine said air filters last a few days....brakes a few weeks.

They also showed me a pic of a crushed pick up truck from just 1 little piece of roof that fell and hit it.

NO THANKS!!!!

 

And I have that pic for my kids...who play minecraft waay to much!!

 

Yea that was the only one that came out....it was dark and dusty down there.

Plus, once I got through that opening and saw the first friggin drop I was like bye bye phone!! LOL. It reminded me of my first time on a big roller coaster hill briefly....and then I was like stop thinking about &*%#*&%^ roller coaster idiot and drive! Honestly, it was nuts. It was big though...no doubt. Heck I have seen much smaller stuff in the Bronyx!

I honestly would do it all the time....if I had a dedicated run and I bought a new throw away tandem flatbed.

 

The Mile Low Club!