Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

bullhaulerswife · Jun 20, 2010

Happy Fathers Day to all the Durn Fine dads in this thread!!!

cowdoc · Jun 20, 2010

Spent this past week in Warrensburg, MO. It's alot cooler and wetter up there. We're bone dry and hot (100+) here. The bosses are waiting for moisture to plant their beans.

kajidono · Jun 20, 2010

cowdoc said: ↑

Spent this past week in Warrensburg, MO. It's alot cooler and wetter up there. We're bone dry and hot (100+) here. The bosses are waiting for moisture to plant their beans.
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You missed the storms rolling through all weekend. Looks like this week it'll be back to near 100.

bullhaulerswife · Jun 20, 2010

kajidono said: ↑

You missed the storms rolling through all weekend. Looks like this week it'll be back to near 100.
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Good gawd, its raining here again. We still have impassable roads and bridges from last week. This is just a mess. I'd almost take 100, if the humidity didn't come with it.

kajidono · Jun 21, 2010

bullhaulerswife said: ↑

Good gawd, its raining here again. We still have impassable roads and bridges from last week. This is just a mess. I'd almost take 100, if the humidity didn't come with it.
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Oh yeah, it's great. The a/c at the house isn't working right either. #### thing runs all the time, cools the air, but the fan is barely blowing. I'm sitting here putting off cleaning the truck out since I am apparently done for a while. Somebody broke a nail (I guess) running over my loading ramp a couple months ago and filed a lawsuit over it. So the company says I can go drive a boom truck on the rails for a few months if I want to. I dunno, pay seems kinda crappy and I'd be gone for almost two months at a time. Or more.

coadman · Jun 21, 2010

You should be the "star" in one of those "reality" TV shows, keeps me entertained reading of your escapades!

HwyPilot said: ↑

Hey there friends, hope things have been going well out there!

After the lousy trip at the beginning of the month, it's been hard to check the tires this trip because I couldn't get out of the drivers seat!

I'd been held up leaving out on the last trip by 3 days due to low rates, and then rolled out and had an electrical problem. The 14 hours I was down for repairs cost me time and my reload for the holiday weekend, so I wound up on a 355 mile run from Friday to Tuesday....... Ran it through and wound up sitting the next weekend for 2 days waiting to load. I can only say that it comes in handy to have a large sleeper when you're stuck in it for days on end out on the road.

So after 10 days on the road, I was trying to pick up the pace, and I wind up walking under a steel beam sticking out of a grain mills wall..... I was watching my feet at the time, there was a wet slimy wheat midd mess on the ground with a thousand flies having lunch, and I bumped my head on something - no big deal. Then I realize I'm bleeding a bunch from my forehead, and sure enough I split it nearly wide open. I haven't seen a hard hat since I pulled into the place, and that beam was a nasty trick!

So after I find someone who has some first aid skills and a kit (bigger than the one I carry in the truck), I come back down to my truck to find the 2 guys that run the pit hard at work on my trailer. The front hoppers empty, so I pull forward, and then climb out and explain what happened to the guy that patched up my head so he can take a report. The 2 guys come back around and open the door, and then drag up a railcar vibrator.....

At this point I take a closer look at the sides of the front hopper to find they're pushed in about 3 inches on each side, and bowed away from one of the knock rails. I pointed all this out to the guy taking the report, and told him there would be a quiz later! A minute after that I hear banging on the opposite side of the trailer, and it's the other guy swinging an 8 pound sledge at the hopper slopes..... sometimes you just have a very bad day.

So they get done with the damage (no point in stopping them after it's half done in front of a company witness), I'm empty, and I pull off to the side to size things up and rest awhile to make sure I'm alright to drive. I find a VA hospital about 90 miles away, and I'm 12 miles from my reload. Call that customer, give them some notes, and they're glad to store my trailer overnight. So I head over (no pun intended), drop the trailer, and drive to the VA to get my head sealed back up (tetanus shot and antibiotics to be safe). The next morning I'm back at my trailer and reloading to get closer to home.

I call in to give a status to the agent, and he wants to know if I want a reload going 700 miles the opposite way from my house - after I explained to him the deal with me being injured..... Told him no thanks, I'm headed to the house and I should be ready next Monday to roll out. I'd also noticed on a rough stretch of road that I have a slight concussion, and barely made it through that load. As it turned out, that customer was in the middle of a 40 mile stretch of 19' wide asphalt going 55mph in both directions. Most of the miles close to them was me driving on both lines with opposing traffic and a dirt shoulder.

After closing out 500 miles, a reload and unload within 24 hours of splitting my head open, I make it to the house. And the next day I get a call about a good rate leaving out in 2 days...... I've got no choice thanks to the last 2 weeks of lousy rates, repairs and delays.

So I load up and head back out after being home about 48 hours, and it's been a better trip so far. I loaded in AR headed for MA, MA to OH, MI to TX (yep 400 miles d/h and well worth it). And the loading in MI was something new - frak sand and couldn't be dumped off to balance. With my tractor air gauges I can't tell within about 3k pounds no matter what I do. I stop it short, and still wound up at 81k...... No worries, not my first rodeo! I sized up the atlas and replanned a route, caught some sleep until traffic cleared and left out in the middle of the night.

My plan was to drive the path of least resistance until I'd burned fuel and got legal again (I had about 240 gallons of fuel on). So for the next 14 hours (breaks, etc) I drive state highways from MI to MO, and come back out of the woods where I planned. I pull in, scale the truck, and then head for a great parking spot in an empty lot - all the air gauges look good and I'm just above the low fuel warning. Wander in and get the scale ticket - 500 pounds over on the tandems...... grrrr. It's 100 degrees outside and I'm not moving 2k forward to maybe adjust 500, so it's what it is. I'm sitting in TX now, and I never saw a weigh station from MI to TX!

I don't plan on ever doing that again (or in the first place) - I like interstates and mpg, and extra freight always costs more than it's worth in time, effort (maybe fines), and fuel. But at least it worked out when I needed it, and I know quite a few back highways that I didn't before. It's the reason I carry an atlas in the truck at all times, no substitute for it.

From the short line travelled (no proof otherwise) I covered about 3,800 miles this week - about 700 miles d/h. With all the OOR mileage it's been a busy week, but all is well and pulling a reset now down here in TX bound for upstate IN next week. Stay safe out there, and I hope you're all having a great weekend!
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wheathauler · Jun 21, 2010

BHW hope it gets better for you. We've been near 100 last 4-5 days with humidity. It is drying out here pretty fast.

Cluck Cluck · Jun 21, 2010

I'm ready for the fall I hate heat!!

wheathauler · Jun 21, 2010

It was hot today. Transferring some wheat from Chase to Hutch today.

cowdoc · Jun 21, 2010

Yep it was hot on the power unit fuel detail here too.

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