Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Just some updates...

The past week has been an interesting one. Overall I got better loads and miles than I have been, seeing more 350-450 mile days. Definitely not as high as I want it to be, but an improvement.

I've had a couple interesting events that I'll share here.

One was heading up through what I believe was PA, I was headed to Ohio. If someone recognizes where I'm talking about I'd love to know the route this was on. I've forgotten the details of what road I was on/where I was headed, but ended up going up this hill grossing at least 75k, crawling up it in 6th gear, then start seeing signs for "TRUCK WARNING EXTREME DANGER" etc. etc. Great. I get to the top, had to pull off to the side and read this sign about how the grade is so steep for the next 3 miles (pretty sure it was 3) you had to maintain a 10mph speed and stop at 3 locations to check your brakes. In front of me was an old daycab that didn't appear to have a jake brake and he was doing exactly that, so yeah... I knew those signs weren't joking.

I decided to use a low gear and my jake brake to try to control my speed and then have my service brakes there ready to work nice and cooled off if I really needed to use them.

At first I started out in 4th gear with the jake brake on.... the jake was too powerful... tried 5th gear... jake still too powerful... 6th gear... NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE TOO FAST... back to 5th gear... I tried turning the jake off by touching the throttle when it slowed me down too much and turning it on again, but it was torquing the cab all over the place and I could just see a u-joint getting sheared off or something, way to much stress on the driveline...

So finally I found that I would stay in 5th gear, jake set on high until it brought me down below 10mph, then flip the jake switch to low, speed up to 15mph, jake on high again to bring me down to 10.... rinse and repeat down this entire thing. I'd stop at the signs, make sure my service brakes were working, and continue on. It was a relief to get to the bottom of that one... but it was fun at the same time. A new challenge, one that I wasn't scared of, just enjoyed figuring out a good way to do it.

The next day, I was headed from OH to MA, and while running through PA I hit what was probably the most blinding snow I have ever seen. Visibility was down to about 100-200 feet, it wasn't actually accumulating, but just coming down at a crazy rate. I drove through it for a while until I reached a rest stop where I pulled off to check the weather radar and make sure I wasn't headed into certain death. I couldn't get any signal there for my internet card, so I just waited until it dropped off a bit and then continued on. I ran into it again about an hour later, drove through it without stopping this time... just slowed down and took my time, I did my best to maintain a nice safe distance but also be able to keep on eye on the taillights in front of me.

Today I headed from MA up to ME, I drove through Boston on I-93 through the tunnels and bridges, doing my best to follow other trucks and watching signs like a hawk making sure I wasn't going to hit a low bridge. A little nerve wracking, but much less stressful than going over the GW Bridge in NY.

Finally my old truck had to break something today... I went to drop my load of pallets and couldn't get my 5th wheel to release. I could pull the handle out, the spring tension was there, but it wouldn't lock and the jaw wouldn't open. I tried pulling forward, backwards, raising and lowering the landing gear a little, no luck. Finally called SEM and was told to try to wack the mushroom pin on the passenger side of the 5th wheel. Since I've yet to get my sledgehammer, I had to improvise and use the butt end of my 4D Maglite that hasn't been working. I should try it, maybe it'll work now. The pin freely moved all the way in, so still no luck. I told him that I wasn't having any luck, so now I had to wait for a call from SEM as to what to do next.

Not being one to let something mechanical get the best of me, I decided to play around. Of course I forgot to throw my vice grips in the truck as well... so I had to improvise and was able to use an adjustable wrench to hold the handle out... by wedging it against some bolts along the 5th wheel I got it to hold. I went around back and noticed that while the jaw wasn't fully open, it had opened up a fair bit. Hmmm... maybe... this will work. Sure enough, I got in the truck, put it in gear and pulled forward and... SUCCESS. I was free.

But, I still wasn't going to be able to pick up my empty... I noticed a broken spring up inside the 5th wheel that I think is part of the latch that locks it in the open position.

So... that cut my day short, only about 100 something miles for the day. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my truck to a Freightliner dealership and will hopefully get this looked it, when on the phone with SEM I mentioned that today I "noticed" a little pull and noise in my brakes and wanted to get that looked at as well... hehe.

And my greatest accomplishment this week has been finding a way to idle my truck without having to sit in the seat and keep the engine running. Its not perfect, but usually I can get a good 30 to 45 minutes of heat before it shuts off. Last night it was COLD up here in Maine... the bunk heater kept it from freezing inside the cab, but the sensor still read warmer than 19*F... so no idling. This truck is my HOME. I should not have to be inside a sleeping bag and heavy comforter to stay warm in my HOME. I should not be shivering while getting dressed inside my HOME. Unacceptable.

About 5:30AM I woke up and had this idea. I played around with it for 15 minutes, and with a little fiddling was able to get my truck nice and warm before I woke up and had to get out of my sleeping bag and get dressed. Unfortunately I won't say what, as I'm not going to give some higher-up that is reading this forum the satisfaction of knowing what it is. How about you can only turn on the heat in your office building when its lower than 20* out? How about you have the option of using your computer and lights in trade off for the heat turning off in the middle of the night because the power goes out? How would that feel?

Anyway... stuck up in the Northeast again. When I called my DBL to let her know my 5th wheel was busted I asked her about the issue of only have 6-8 hours to work and getting stuck with these short loads up in the Northeast, continuing running vs taking a 34, etc., didn't really get any answers, a little bit of an explanation about what to do... but we'll see how the next few days go.

Well, thats the news for now... I'll probably be on here tomorrow browsing around while my truck is getting worked on...

 

Ah.. found it.. Mt. Summit. 12% grade according to the picture name... someone else linked that picture here on the forum.

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