Good night from...

Hermiston OR last night, Wells NV tonight. Seemed like it was uphill all the way, 79300, lots of 27 mile per hour climbs. Just above Jackpot NV I had about 1:47 left on the clock and my GPS said my preferred shut down was 1:55 away in Wells NV. But they are repaving the road and I was made to stop for the one way lane control instead of tailing the last of the convoy. Sat for about 8 minutes, it felt like an eternity. I got going and slammed it to 70 and hook slid into the fuel isle with 6 minutes to spare. Fueled and had to park on negative time.

I tried that IdleAire once, will try it again but the thing made my truck smell like cigarettes. I finally let it hang and used it for shore power to run my A/C and crock pot.

 

Scottie,
What kind of truck and transmission do you have?

I hope you logged sleeper after 5 minutes fuel...

It would be nice if truckstops had shore power hook ups like the RV parks. I've lived on boats and there are a few 110v things that would be nice to have on this truck including the two you mentioned. The next time I do a 34 I plan on trying to find a place with Idle Aire; at $2/hour its cheaper than a crappy motel and far, far cheaper than a nice one. Also my truck's AC at idle seems to have two settings. One's labeled "Antarctica" and the other, "Mississippi in July".

Frank

 

Well I have the 400 HP Cummins with a 13 speed Eaton Fuller transmission.

I think I got those time just backwards up there 1:55 DOT and 1:47 ETA to shutdown.

Climbing those hills I was very thankful for the 13 speed. Very nice to always keep the RPM's in the sweet spot between 1200 and 1400. With the 13, climbing a hill, I can let it fall in speed to about 53 then thumb it down from 8Hi to 8Lo down to 47 miles an hour at 1200 RPM before downshifting to 7Hi.

When it was standard 9 speed I could never do that because at 47 miles per hour it would lug down to 1000 RPM and that is not good on so many levels for the engine, for the DPF and EGR systems too I came to find out.

So, before the choices were, let it lug down or let it scream at 1600 RPM so you could get that next gear. Often times you'd just have to downshift again as the RPM and speed say "nuh uh". That create a lot of fatigue and angst for the driver because you want to keep it closer to the sweet spot in that lower gear as you're watching the oil and water temperatures rise almost out of control, meanwhile other trucks are passing by using the perfect gear.

I blame the big companies for this, they are more interested in an accelerated training cycle for the drivers, so rather than use the ole Super 10's, 13's etc which take more time to learn, they dumbed down the industry by using these 9 speeds which only have 1 main thing to remember-- range shift-- as opposed to range shift and split shift.

Since I've been running the Canada freight, I've had to sit on the side of the roads more often for the breaks so I've been dipping into my snowstorm cache of soups and canned spegettis/raviolis/lasagnes/beans etc and cooking in the crock pot. That and some bread and butter and a big chug of cold milk straight from the jug is dinner lol.

 

That was my biggest dissapointment about Swift, not having 13s. I didn't even know you could do that to a truck, untill I got with my trainer. (I learned to drive with an old two transmission truck, and all of my family's trucks had 13s)

Scottie, do you use your small generator for the crockpot or is it one of those a 12volt?

 

Albequrque NM terminal...after waiting almost 24s for a tcall trl at a target in Shafter Ca (just all kinds of problems with it after it was accepted)finally get it,with no time to spare! going to Amarillo...(driver left his lock on it now!) com'on driver! lol,takes him 2 hrs to come back and take it off....was #####in' the whole time mildly that it was cutting it close to dispatch...because I gotta lug it over the tehachapis and desert mts in Cali and the big Mts in Az before i can start getting back mpg on the downhill all the way to Amarillo....12 min left on my clock at near midnite in flagstaff....too dog tired to do anything but park and eat....then of course wake up early,I cant sleep past 5 am usually....and start calculating my hrs at 60mph...wow,too close only if i do 600 miles with no breaks then can park at the receiver,might be able to do an 8 hr split...IF everything goes perfectly...(lose 2 hours to the time change too),so i tell my pod...to see if they can reshedule appt for 3 hours later to have some breathing room....get the csrs response changed to monday? wtf? hey! haha not fair....but i asked to tcall it in Alb nm.....So at the terminal with quallcom constantly going off for super short loads 96miles,223miles,118 miles...im tired leave me alone jill!(quallcomms sexy female voice,grrr tiger!) lol

 

The great north west ... pulled the plug at 10PM and it was still daylight. 79500, 4th of July and Snowqualmie to go before Tacoma tomorrow.

 

The great north west ... pulled the plug at 10PM and it was still daylight. 79500, 4th of July and Snowqualmie to go before Tacoma tomorrow.​

Smelterville, WalMart?

 

Well, the idea was to use the little 400 watt cigarette plug inverter to power the little crock pot which is rated at 100 watts. Cooked in it a couple times with that but the cab smelled like burned plastic-- turns out the inverter all the way back to the ciggy plug were smokin' hot. So, yeah, I use the generator for cooking now.

Getting close to the longest day of the year soon. I was tripping out one morning about 0100 AM going due south from Calgary Alberta, looking in my mirrors the sky was already starting to brighten up and straight ahead was pitch black.

Well, it's not good night yet, being unloaded at the moment in Las Vegas and a another 1200 mile load to go pick up soon behind this 1200 mile load just delivered.

 

Little America, WY...

 

Little America's have the best shower rooms. I never pass up a chance to enjoy one.
That big bath tub and shag rug are the cat's meow.

I'm in Denver CO.

Some home time to see my girls. We are going to Elitch's tomorrow, and the kiddie museum on Sunday. Maybe the aquarium too, if we have time.

I spent several days in Florida helping out on the Walmart account, and I was told I would be headed to Denver for my home time when I was done.
I was first sent a load to Atlanta, GA. Well, it got me out of FL to someplace that might actually have freight. And north is kinda on the way to Denver, I figured.
Then I got a load to Pueblo CO, delivering on the day I had requested home time.
The next morning I had a load that picked up at the Denver terminal, and delivered 8 miles away. Loaded miles, 8 - empty miles, 113.

They got me here just a day after my requested time, and exactly when I wanted to be here.

Sweet.

Not to mention I made as much last week 'helping out', with only ~1100 miles, as I usually do running OTR for 2000 miles.
Doubly sweet.


If you get a call asking to 'help out', it seems wise to accept the offer - if you can.
The turnaround is like karma - what goes around... come's around.
They certainly came through for me.

And it never hurts to make new friends in new places.
Who knows? I may want to migrate to Florida in the future.