Instant O/O and Load boards

I never actually saw the guy, it was channel 14. No one got mad, but the guy was all business, completely ignored any questions or comments I made on the cb (jokes at my own expense). He would just bark an order every few minutes and it was radio silence otherwise. I did what they asked, it's just I would forget to push the brakes in before backing or pulling up and just basically looked like a dunce.

Then, when loaded, you couldn't pull up, you had to completely back out the way you came in up a twisty road. We were under some heavy industrial infrastructure, so there were lots of steel support beams here and there. I got myself into a MESS trying to turn around to drive out forward. I'm sure it was quite a sight. Eventually had to give up, pull back up where I started and back the whole way out.

 

If you were there, YES that was me! I was on the dead end road just behind the pilot. I bought my truck at that dealer right next to the pilot, so I had 2 reasons to be comfortable there. Unfortunately that one business on that street had a big sign "NO TURN AROUNDS". Sign would have been helpful if it could be read before you were committed!

So that was the serpentine I was talking about, had to pull through the dealer lot to get off that back street, and it wasn't planned for trailers.

 

My trailer has no load guage on it. I checked it all over and see nothing like that.I was loaded ON a scale yesterday though. They put just over 50k on me and I was at 79,900 when I left. I will go wherever they send me, my tag is good for 48 states. I've lived in the SE my whole life so I'm anxious to get west whenever possible.

So how do they sound to you so far? I never dealt with Marci, just Carrie and Earl. Earl will do his best to lease you a trailer, and it's not a bad deal. They do all the maintenance and pay for anything it needs on the road via t-check. The only reason I didn't do it is because my trailer is a 2009 and I figured those expenses would be minimal so the flat 1k a month should be a little cheaper.

 

All right so I'm still at the Love's stuck for the weekend. Last night was some of the best sleep I've had. I didn't open my eyes until 2:30 this afternoon... what's that like 12 hours sleep?? VERY comfortable, white noise and "magic fingers" of the engine vibration was right up my alley.

So yesterday I made a lot of mistakes and learned quite a few things. I didn't plan my trips well at all, was too reliant on the GPS. I don't know what to say about this but I've had that GPS since last November and it's been nothing but great, but over 50% of the day yesterday it couldn't find satellites at all and was USELESS when I really needed it. It's been terribly overcast and rainy so I hope that's it, but I still don't understand why cells and internet work just fine, I guess the GPS's don't use relay towers and get their info straight from space.

I should have planned my trip to the receiver while I was still at the shipper. After getting snarled up I was in a hurry to get out of there, came up to a street, and figured a right was as good as a left since I didn't know anything about either. Ended up in a little downtown type area with 4 businesses on each corner. I went for a Shell station to the left far side figuring lefts were easier and I could keep the trailer straight getting in. Well it was TINY. I have to stop thinking like a car. I got all bent around a grassed curb and didn't really even have enough room to get my tail out of the road. I pulled up anyway and just sat there breathing hard, GPS useless, laptop just about dead. I saw a sign to 52 in the direction I was pointing so I was able to drag my trailer across the curb and grass onto the road and find a shoulder later.

At this point I was still freaking out about driving for the first time LOADED to the gills. Everything I knew about shifting, the groove and when to do it was out the window. The truck moaned and rattled, by the time I was ready for 2nd gear, I couldn't believe the truck was even moving at all, and by the time I could hit the fuel, it certainly wasn't, so I'm not sure what good 1st did me. At the end of 4th I don't think I was even doing 5mph.

The interstate was hilly, and going up in 10th my speed would drop and RPM's dropping into the 10's, and I wasn't sure if I should downshift or not, didn't want to go even slower, and the tranny didn't want to do it anyway, so that remains a learning curve. I hadn't thought the Jake was for anything other than mountains, but Wayne has me using it just about anytime I would use a brake to save the wear and expense, and that seems to be working out great.

Next I had instructions to take I-20 to 319. I went way past where my GPS had begged me to get off the highway for the 3rd time and my estimated time of arrival was growing considerably. I pulled over at the top of a hill on the shoulder and my GPS went out again. Long story short (and it is long and involves all my technology and a call to Wayne) it turns out it's not called 319 on 20, it's 221. So I lost 40 miles there.

Then my written instructions said make a left at the end of 319 and go down 4 lights. By now it's pitch black, tiny reflected lights from the back of my cab on the windsheild look like cars racing up to my road on adjacent streets, and all kinds of mindtricks... I went over tracks at 50mph and myself and everything in my cab just about went through the roof. I made that left and went down 15 miles or so, even crossed 16 which I knew was now way south of where I was supposed to be, so I got kinked up again in another small gas station. What worried me about this one is that it really LOOKED like it was big enough... I gotta learn to judge these things better or improve my angles.

They were helpful in inside and gave me new instructions from I-16, and that worked out ok (another 30 miles lost).

What else? Oh yeah, stuff I didn't even think I had to worry about. too much thinking like a car. So I'm going up a town street and there's a couple cars parked on the curb. No big deal, when I get up there I just ease to the right and go around. But no, OH MY GOD that #### trailer I see in the left mirror misses the car by half an inch! My bad... I was thinking if I'm not backing up, the trailer will do what the cab does. Well it does, sort of but like a retarded younger brother. So now my list of things to look out for has grown quite a bit and I've gotten VERY lucky is all I can say.

I got to the reciever (a dog food processor) about 9:45. They had had an equipment breakdown earlier that day so they weren't going to be able to unload me for a while. The one guy kept coming up and apologizing, I really didn't mind and felt kinda bad. Man there are some hard working people in the world. It's almost midnight and they're crawling all over silos and working through steam... I've not seen this kind of work up close, but while I sat there cursing my microwave for blowing my inverter fuse in the A/C I realized we really don't have it so bad.

Finally it was time to unload. I got it going and quickly realized this was a filthy job! Fine, powdery corn gluten was everywhere... I was evenly coated, in my nose, ears.. then I had to crawl all around the trailer beating it with a mallet and shoving a broom down in there... the sweat started turning the gluten to a paste, which eventually dried to an itchy cracking sensation.

As far as how I treat shippers and receivers, I am very eager to learn and help. The guy at the receiver said I could go, but I insisted on staying back and grabbing another broom to clean up the area even after pulling out of the bay. He seemed a bit shocked but didn't mind the help. Gave him a coke and made a new friend. I hope he won't mind having me back or helping me out getting unloaded early again.

Feel free to PM me for my number if anyone wants to chat on the road... I could use all the help I can get, and help out anyone looking for info on this type of work as well.

Thanks to all who follow the thread and comment. I love reading the posts, especially since I'm gonna be stuck here for a while!

 

Yep, definitely was me. It was a black wrought-iron type fence and lots of weedlike bushes all around. Too bad we didn't meet up. Really I'm shocked you remembered what the pics looked like.

Scarecrow I just left you a message... thanks for the PM and all the great posts.