Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Belt traps are stuck?? Yikes. I guess they're not as low maintenance as that owner's maintenance plan is. I didn't know that was possible.

 

Easy day today only two loads. They were only open 12-6 today. It rained over an inch so no cutting...think there will be something to haul tomorrow. There are a lot of outside trucks here now.

 

We received a bunch of rain and hale last night. Their is a little left to cut closer to the Kansas line. Hauled four loads today and it was a 86 mile round trip and had enough time to do one more but I found nails in two of my trailer tires and they were loosing air so I called it a day. Get them fixed in the morning and hit the road again. ADM will be open 8 to 8 next week so I am hoping for a good week and then go back to 8 to 4 starting on the 20th. We had one company hauling with us today which has a bad reputation and a bunch of idiot drivers. One of their drivers was loading a head of me inside of the elevator and had an axle break after he was loaded and grossing about 100k. Poor maintenance and stupidity, if you saw his equipment you would be scared to drive it around the block. I am glad they could load me on the outside leg so I could keep Movin On!

 

If I came to Hutch for harvest would you call me an outsider? Would you even talk to me on the radio?

It sounds like we are going to have plenty of work for a while so I think I am going to stay home.

 

We don't have an issue with outsiders. More the new CDL holder. Early in season you look to help them out but you have those companies that pay people so little that they are rolling through drivers during harvest. You hate getting behind these guys. Feel like a kid growing up in So Cal fighting on the beach because we aren't local.

 

Well, when I am pulling from the fields I am not worried about being over weight. All local stuff. And would not need to dump when loading out of other locations.
What do you mean by “walk it in”? I am new to all this. I have only hauled from the fields to the elevators. Any education on what to do and not to do would be great. I have an Ethanol plant in my town so still need to figure out what, if anything, I can do to make money with them.
In the end, I make good money OTR with my van and soon to be flatbed. So if I only use the hopper 6-weeks a year that is fine.

 

Big John you could come up and I wouldn't call you an outsider. Actually I don't mean to use outsider in a bad way it just means they're not from here. Usually they are more polite in lines than the farmers. Sometimes they overbook how many trucks to bring up and there isn't enough to go around. Its just unique to the wheat harvest they aren't around during fall harvest.

 

I was just giving you a hard time WH. I have a couple of friends that pull hoppers from Kansas that I see and talk to on a weekly basis and I am always giving them a hard time about being out of state trucks down here cutting the rate and hauling our freight, they know I am joking. The grain buyers/elevators weren't expecting a big harvest so they didn't call in a bunch of trucks which was a good thing for us local guys because it has been pretty busy and no lines at the elevator. Harvest was a lot better then they expected and I hope Kansas has a good one to.

 

I knew you were giving me a bad time. We really haven't had too bad of lines yet either. It was bad today but the elevator had some glitches. My body is feeling the harvest...did seven loads yesterday.

 

At least Wheathauler and Big John got to run today...we got shut down from the rain. Can't say I'm upset, though. Spent the whole week getting started early and home late. One day off is hard to turn down.

I started my week on Monday putting brakes on my trailer. Brakes, s-cams, bushings, and wheel end seals - the whole nine yards. Bring on the DOT inspection. Tuesday she broke loose, and it's been pedal to the metal ever since.

I do have to express my frstration with Timpte's quality control back in 2000. We recently bought a 2000 Timpte from a farmer that only used the trailer during harvest. He put a hub odomoter on it when he bought it, and it showed only 20,000 miles. The miles were accurate, as the trailer still had the original tires and brakes on it, plus it pretty much looked brand new yet. Any way, we started having problems with the clearance lights on the side of the trailer going out, and blowing the fuse on the tractor. After finding multiple spots on the wiring harness that runs down the driver side of the trailer that had been rubbed through, we thought we found the problem. Wrong. We fixed all the problem spots only to have the problem return after a day or so. With CSA and overzelous DOT, we had no other option but to fix the trailer before we'd send it back out, and after 3 mornings of finding our problem had returned, and spending a few expensive hours of downtime each mornig to locate the problem, we found it. The trailer has 3 rows of two lights, but had the wiring for 5 rows of two. Apperantly, Timpte just stuffed the unused wring and plugs out of the way, and it was one of the unused wires down the passenger side of the trailer that was shorting out. Gotta love the idea that a wire that goes to nothing can cause a guy fits like that.

Hope everybody's harvest is going smoothly, and jst as importantly, profitably.