CRETE - A Year in Review

Well, I had over freight. It was a nightmare from the beginning to the end( which im still not at) of this load. I go over to pick up laurel,ms at some PO-dunk chicken factory. I was there at 1400 and was not backed into a door for my 2000 app until 0730 the next day.. finally got loaded. Put my load locks in and headed down the road. Then my ac died... I sweat like a fat nasty pig in my truck all yesterday.. and I mean SWEAT.. im 420 pound Arkansas boy... I SWEAT! Lol, anyways.. I get to consignee 30 minutes late because i didn't get to sleep till 0030 this morning.. and had to be up at 0500.. I slept right thru my alarm... got over.. open my doors.. and every mother &%%$% pallet has shifted or fell... THANKS A LOT ON-GUARD.. It slammed on the brakes yesterday because some idiot wanted to try and make a fordliner.... So i wind up with 19 cases of crushed but not broken whole chickens...

Luckily, Kathy in freight claims is my Crete hero of the month.. she told me to go get my ac fixed.. and once it was all done, she would work me in 100 miles away so the customer could resell those 19 boxed, 1/2 pallet of leaky, soon to be week old chicken.. LUCKILY.. Rusty in breakdown came thru and became my go to man. Put me right in San Antonio freightliner and put me up in a best western inn PLUS.. So a real shop and a REAL tech is going to fix my truck.. not these acklie guys they pick up off the street. 48packard, I feel for you brother.. I know all of your woes.. thing is.. it really hasnt gotten better with time.. you just become more numb to the idiocy.

 

Read your post about the condensation, and took notice. I'm in Denver right now. Got the bunk AC on full open, but the humidity here is in the teens right now, so nothing dripping down. And the AC is still running beautifully. So I think we've got the problem figured out. Just have to devise a way to keep the water from getting where it isn't supposed to go when we're trying to sleep way down south this summer!

I am ever grateful and appreciative. It's not so much the problems that make me nuts...it's not knowing what causes them!

 

Well I'm having an ok day...except for the thoughtless S.O.B. that left trailer 216017 in Social Circle with a 3" hole in the tread of the flat left front outside tire, and dropping it for the next guy...which was me. It was brought in that way because it was wet inside and I don't think it rained that hard under the trailer...so it had to have been driven in the rain to suck up water. I also take my hat off to Rusty. It took all of 15 minutes to get a reply of which tire shop was on the way, and the guy was right on time and had me outa there quick. Plus, my 5th load in a row out of there loaded right the 1st try. I also found out they updated their scale(kinda). The Social Circle scale now axles you out, although the digital sign doesn't show it, but the guard prints 3 axles and gross weight on the back of your b/l. So no more of my axle calculating app needed there... I deliver in Jacksonville, FL at 11 tomorrow then home to see mama.

 

Well... Day 2. My truck hasnt been put in the shop yet. I was really nervous about calling breakdown about needing my room again today... because all the horror story's i have heard from drivers and what not. It was really easy and the gentleman I spoke with was nice.. which is a relief calling into breakdown.. you know how they are about calling in instead of qualcomm. I think i am going to go take a swim today and just stay cool! So then i take it you figured out the ac problem, 48packard?

 

Based upon how long the unit ran yesterday in the dry Denver air before reverting to just blowing unconditioned air, I believe the relay is the problem. The higher the humidity and condensation, the shorter time it runs. I'll try to deal with it for another week or so...I have GOT to get some miles in, given the amount of sitting I've done the last two weeks.

I'm at Cargill in Fort Morgan, CO, dutifully more than 10 hours ahead of the scheduled load time. No wonder I hate pulling refers!

 

I put myself in a motel the other day rather than spending the night in Marietta then tempting fate and driving around the north side of Atlanta during rush hour to deliver Monday morning. While I was there, I click on the History(aka the Hitler) channel to watch a few episodes of Ice Road Truckers...when I noticed something very funny. The first thing I see is one of the main stars sitting in the cab of what looks like a new Prostar, trying to figure out why it shut down and wouldn't start...they pan out to the driver side and there is a brand new Prostar, and what logo is on the hood, a Maxxfarce! Then they pan to the passenger side, and his truck(in Canada, with -50 degree winters) has the same battery pack a/c grill in the sidebox that our trucks have. Now, call me crazy, but w/-50 degree winters, and fairly mild summers in their neck of the woods (he lives at the southern end of the ice road in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories north of Alberta)...you would think that idling wouldn't be an issue in the summer, and a must in the winter when it is that cold. And why a Maxxfarce...we can't get parts down here in populated areas...I can imagine how tough it'll be to get them way up there.

Perhaps International will start sponsoring the show so they can have a say on how much shop time he has edited out on every episode.

Speaking of truck problems...my q'comm is back at it. I have learned how to force it to receive messages when it is on one of its A.D.D. moods, but now it is back to locking up and going blue again. That, and since my recent ecm - idle time - upgrade, this thing is an absolute dog, and even down here in the flatlands, I can't get 7 mpg anymore. I need hometime...maybe the job offer of a lifetime will present itself while I am checking off the honey do's.

 

I have '12 prostar with the sidebox battery powered bunk a/c and it had the same issue. So they "fixed" it, only now a good bit of the condensation winds up on the cab floor. Going back to the shop next week for a PM, maybe it'll get fixed.

 

Snack, when the QC freezes pull the fuse for it then re-install, that usually fixes it.

 

The problem with that, which fuse? There are a bunch of fuses in the sidebox fuse panel, and these new MCP200 have a battery backup, so it doesn't shut down for at least 20 minutes until the battery runs down. By then, the thing usually has restarted itself. But, this usually happens just before I get to a place where I'm going to stop and need to change my e-log duty(it may do it more than I notice, I just notice it when I need the POS). The other day, I went to review my logs before approving, and some of the times had a big red '!' beside it(like I was out of hours, but I wasn't). Turns out it had a sensor failure and I had to change it manually to Driving because when it loses that motion sensor(or speed sensor) it freaks and puts you On Duty Not Driving since it can't tell you're moving. Then notes 'sensor failure' on the log.

 

I'm at Lincoln. Finally gonna get my bunk AC fixed. T-called a load here that was ready at 2230 last night after a day and evening of, at the most, one hour of sleep.

On the good side....even with all the motel nights and breakdown days, my check for tomorrow is dead-on...everything accounted for. Here's hoping that I'm on the upswing again....