Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Thanks highside,mine just has the 2 jaws and the one jaw that is supposed to have the sawtooth edge is almost worn flat,and the no-slack spring is so weak its not holding enough pressure against the jaw to keep it tight. Fontaine has a really good video on their web site showing how to put the rebuild kit in,so i think i'll try and order it this weekend,it looked like it would be purty simple to do myself,once i get it clean.I am going to go ahead and order the ruber bushings too,so that info on drilling holes in the rubber will be handy.Do you remember what the kit cost?Thanks againOh by the way,hows your new baby?

 

Welcome to TTR and the hopper thread, 008.

Good luck with your 5th wheel, dairyman. I wasn't brave enough to do mine the last time, but after watching it done, its not that bad. A couple tips, get an old piece of cardboard you can lay it on, then you won't have much mess on your floor or grass. And my guy that rebuilt mine brought some disposable rubber gloves with him, keeps the hands from getting so greasy.

Fuel is $3.34 here right now. This might be a long winter.

 

Or gravel embedding itself into your back. Best to wear a pair of work gloves over the rubber ones when messing with the 5th wheel. We had one guy that got a sliver of steel ran up into his finger while he was spreading grease on the 5th wheel. I don't know why you would do that but he ended up with permanent nerve damage.

 

I know a hopper guy from Anna, TX from another site that drives a fancy burgundy Peterbilt and he also has a cabover hid out back of the barn. Welcome aboard!

 

Highside, met one of your owner operators today at Kenworth in Wichita driving an older black Pete. Nice guy. He talked very highly of the boss.

 

I needed some fuel the other night in Colorado and paid 3.25 and bought some today at the Loves in Tonkawa for 3.06. Paid 3.19 in Salina, KS the other night.

Sometimes I wished I had one of those Freightshakers that these guys claim they get 8mpg then my 5mpg Large Car. But then I wouldn't look as good as I do in my Peterbilt.

 

Wow! Couple of posts to respond to here...Dairyman, don't quote me on it, but I think I had under $175 for both the rebuild kit and the bushing/pin kit. (BTW, I never saw the need to take the 5th wheel completely off the truck...I just flipped it on it's back on the frame rails. Worked fine for me. Those things are heavier than they look)

The baby is doing great! She turned 3 months on the 8th of November. She's in the 92nd percentile in weight, 82nd percentile in height, and the circumference of her head is in the 90th percentile. So, with that information in hand, I've determined that I'm going to have one tall, fat, smart daughter! LOL Just kidding She's still pretty particular about what she wants, when she wants it, and how she gets it...if she's not completely happy, she's raising 7 different kinds of hell, so, she's just like her mother.


Big John, sounds like you got to meet Chad. Great guy. Funny story about him; my dad and I recently made the rounds to personally inspect our O/O's trucks, since CSA 2010 is right around the corner. We wanted to make sure everybody's equipment was compliant. Chad and his brother are both leased on to us. Anyway, those two were the last stop on our list. When we got there, Chad had a couple of TALL bourbon & cokes for us to enjoy while we inspected their trucks. Needless to say, their trucks passed with flying colors For some reason, though, I can't ever remember crawling underneath his to check brake strokes! Funny how that works isn't it? Glad to hear that he had good things to say about the boss. Out O/O's work hard for us, and we work hard for them too.

About those 8 mpg Freightshakers:

I've got two schools of thought about those. The first is that 8 mpg Freightshakers are like 12 inch you-know-whats (gotta keep it clean for bullhauler'swife) You only hear about them, but you never see them (not that I really ever want to see either one though!)

The second school of thought is that even if those 8 mpg Freightshakers DO exist, I'd still rather have my 5 mpg Petercar than a 8 mpg shaker any day. Some things you just can't put a price on!

Everybody have a safe weekend. I've got some wrenching to do tomorrow, and I'm having a hard enough time psyching myself up to do it. Maybe another beer will help

Cheers...highside

 

Anyone hiring experienced drivers? I live in southern Oklahoma.