Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

I promise I won't tear his hopper up I understand though I'd hesitate to rent one out if I had one, especially one so new.

 

So far we have gotten around 3.5 inches of rain and it is still raining. Looking at the radar it is still raining from down in Texas on up to Nebraska. Looks like I won't be working tomorrow.

 

It is just Oklahoma roads that are terrible. Kansas dirt roads are smoother then Oklahoma paved roads and that isn't a joke.

Anytime your off road it is harder on equipment. When I get off payment it maybe any where from a half mile to seven or eight miles or more and then most of the roads into and out of a rock quarry are rough. A lot of the drilling locations we are building are sandy and some companies require you to put shale on top of the sand then gypsum rock on top of the shale, some just want rock on top of the sand. When they dig shale (red clay dirt) out of the ground it has some pretty big chunks and is hard clay it will chew up your tires. You run up and down rock or dirt roads every day and your tires will not last, just like the roads they are dealing with in the North Dakota oil fields the tires are not lasting.

Then when you dump shale you are driving on shale that was dumped earlier but has only been pushed around some with a dozer and is still rough to drive on. So if dumping and you start to bog down or start spinning just stop because you are going to tear up something or cut your tires, the dozer or grader will pull or push you out. You can tell the difference between a company driver and a owner operator on these locations, the company driver will just set their and spin their tires trying to keep or try to get unstuck. I had one day of shale hauling and got pissed about 3PM and went home, I will not haul shale again.

Rock is not as bad because when you go to dump they have already smoothed out the shale with a grader. If it is sand instead they will have you stay off the sand and start unloading on the road at the driveway and the grader will push it in and start making a place for you to go in and turn around without getting stuck. I like it but anytime you get off the payment it isn't good and some of these dirt roads down here are like washboards.

 

Highway 132 between Manchester and Nash comes to mind...

 

Does anyone know anything about a hopperbottom company out of Cortez, CO, called High Country Trans ? Any info, good or not would be appreciated.

 

Nice new lite weight Peterbilts. I see them every once in a great while in Oklahoma with a hopper but I think they stay out in the western states. When I ran OTR I would see them all over out west and they had a office next to the T/A truck stop in Albuquerque, NM. They also run flats and reefers. I use to load with some of their flatbed drivers in Las Vegas at the wall board plant and they always said good things about the company. I talked to them about leasing a truck to them back in 2009 pulling a hopper but I don't like California and they do.

 

Well I sold my grain trailer today. Local guy had his trailer put out of commission by the DOT for the rest of it's life and needed a good trailer. I got what I was asking so I am glad I waited instead of giving it away to a dealer. I will get back into it when things pick back up maybe next summer and I will just order a new one spec'd like I want it.

 

Not much going on here local and their is just a few guys still hauling but half a day or maybe work one week and sit the next. I see some OTR hopper trucks running around on the road but not like I use to. I liked pulling a hopper more then hauling rock but I will wait for it to return.

 

What gets a trailer out of service for life? Major structural problems? Did they at least let him drag it home or to a scrap dealer so he could get some money out of it? I'm not arguing that it shouldn't have been, I'd just never heard of that before.