Junkero's Swift Adventure

Ok here is what happened after Phoenix, and the trainer trouble that ensued. After dropping off the machinery at a site in Phoenix, the trainer put me in a hotel while his truck had some work done. We waited the next day for the truck to get finished and rolled around town to his friend's house and such.
He didn't seem in a hurry up to that point. About 5pm we make it down to a steel plant south of Phoenix and pick up to some fence post stock. Note to all Flatbedders, if you get sent down to Queens Creek AZ for a load of steel the address on the GPS will not get you there. The trainer is asking me all sorts of questions on securing the load. I tell him what I remember from class. He corrected me and told me to look it up in the book. Tying down this type of stuff was not in the book but long pipe would be used as an equal example. The info I gave him was correct partially. If the product is over 21 feet you need three tie downs in the front. After all that passive aggressive correcting on what was required he belly strapped and threw a whole bunch of straps over the load. He is fickle to say the least. On a load of steel last week I said I would probably put another chain over it and he said he doesn't do extra work. Here in this case he throws over 5 or six more straps than is needed and after making a big deal on what DOT requires doesn't quite do it orthodoxly and I end up not knowing what the "f" the lesson was. We hit the road and stop at a truck stop. I'm driving into the night so I get some water and juice and a slice of pizza.
We get into the truck and I pause for a few minutes to eat my slice and he gets antsy and wants me to drive. He makes a big point of saying that the 5 min it takes me to eat that pizza is the time that might be the difference between a shop being open or closed when we get there. This after he goofed around most of the afternoon. I drive on and head to Flagstaff AZ. There are some nice grades on the way up there and I got plenty of practice down shifting. When I get tired I kind or get out of sync and miss shifts.
I was doing pretty good until one point on this steep hill I had to shift to 5th and It took too long to get there and lost to much speed. I had to down shift to 4th I revved the motor to high and totally lost where I was. I tried for third but nothing worked. I had to come to a complete stop on I-25 and start from scratch. Lucky for me the trainer was asleep and there was no traffic. I was well past Flagstaff, almost to Page AZ when I had to shut down because I was nodding off. The trainer took over from there. I crawled into the lower bunk to get some sleep. There is something totally wrong with the cab shock and airbag system. This thing bounces and bottoms out horribly. I was sound asleep when something hammered me and a sharp pain in my shoulder. I woke to the truck rocking and the cab and sleeper bottoming out on the frame. It was hitting so hard that it felt like my shoulder was dislocated.
He drives too fast for the road conditions. The next morning at sun up he gives me this big speech on how I'm not paying attention and that my focus is too much on my phone and my laptop. I'm a way from my family and trying to stay in touch and he is faulting me. Meanwhile he has two phones ringing at once all night and day and he sits behind me with a big screen over the driver's right ear playing video games and watching movies. It got me to thinking about how this all was going down.
We arrived and unloaded, then went to a truck stop a mile down the road. We showered, ate and went to the truck. There was two loads available and he was trying to jockey in home time. One could get him home and he didn't have to deliver it until Tuesday. Well I needed a nap so I could drive later. It must have been over 90 in the upper bunk, I was already sweating and just wasted a good shower. I asked him if we could run the truck for a bit and he said no. I sat down at the driver's seat hoped for a nice breeze and slept there with my shirt off. The final straw was come 5, when he wanted to leave. 10 min to 5 I asked him if I could start the truck and cool it down before we left. No. He was moving around and getting in and out of the cab so I waited for the cue to leave. He asked 30 min later why I hadn't left. More passive aggressive. This is not my truck, I'm not in charge of leave time he is, and there was nothing in the lessons so far that said I was supposed to leave without his permission. He sat down and played a game and I grabbed my laptop bag and went to the drivers lounge. Now I was not driving us to get the load. That was the last straw. I texted him from the lounge. "Do you want me off the truck"? He said he would have put me off if he had. He said he was leaving in 15 min, I waited until then and went to the truck. I had texted to him that I was uncomfortable with having to spend much more time in the hot bunk in that truck. Just for safety reasons was a concern. I was not getting good sleep and very groggy at the wheel. His concern was for the wasted fuel and it's cost. My concern was not addressed. I was getting off at Salt Lake City. He Qualcom'd the powers that be and we headed north to pick up the load. It should be noted that no hostile words had been said and that there was no malice in any of the conversations. I told him on the way up that there was nothing personal about this, and he told me that if I got another owner op mentor that I would probably have the same problem.
I have many mixed feelings about this mentor. Do I like him personally, yes. Does he have the knowledge and know how to show me the ropes in this business, yes. Does he know how to show me, not very well. He has taken good care of me while out on the road. If he wants a fancy diner he buys mine, If we go to a movie he buys. I'm so far in debt right now it is pitiful so this is a nice change. I have bought some small meals for him thanking him for his time and effort.
When I got on his truck he should have handed me the qualcomm and said this was mine to work while in the truck and had me learn that from the get go. He said he didn't have time for that and we had to roll. He doesn't do well in separating the business side and training side in these instances.
Information. He gives long speeches on how things are done and what I should learn. Most of the time this is while the radio is blaring. He listens to sports talk radio or Rap music, and he doesn't like it when I turn it down to hear him. I'm not learning if there are two competing sound inputs into my head. We also have to throw in language and cultural differences here to make the problem worse.
He is not stupid in any way or form, but his terms and my terms for words are two different things.
We stopped at Walmart the next morning to get some things and he bought a good size fan. The air in the unvented sleeper area is dead and un moving. The temp difference from the cab to the sleeper can be 20 deg. Blowing air to the back would make things a lot better.
On the drive back down to Salt Lake City we had a long talk. I was sorry that we could not make some sort of middle ground arrangement on things. I told him that this fan would help a lot if we stayed away from being surrounded by hot running trucks when we stop. Side note, when we sleep with the widows open at night he gets eaten by mosquitoes, silver lining. I told him, what would make this work is if we don't run the radio while we are doing teaching time, keep the truck as cool as we can during sleeping time. He was going to try to get the cab fixed. I told him I was ok with staying if these things were doable.
He said it was out of his hands now. I drive us down to the SLC terminal, we unload my gear and go to the office. We are both happy guys and we are joking and talking as we go to do what is probably usually an angry and un pleasant situation. The story had changed since we started in the morning. I was going to meet a new mentor in Loredo. Then I was going to be bused from SLC to Loredo, then bused to Phoenix. By the time we reached Salt Lake it was I was riding with a driver to Phoenix. My hours were causing some trouble. We only have about 90 hours left. I asked the trainer if it would be better for all if I stayed on his truck, and that my offer still stood if he wanted it. He told the guy what we had discussed and I told him that the issues , had been resolved. The powers that be were happy with this, so we threw my gear back in the truck and headed down to El Paso so my trainer could get his scheduled home time in. I'm in a hotel and I have internet and a Walmart across the street. Is it going to be easy for the next 90 hours, NO. Am I taking a new tack with my trainer, yes. I hope by the end we both get what is need out of this.
A nice final note. Our route to El Paso from Salt Lake took us near Arches National Monument, near Moab UT. There was a large full moon out that night. The landscape is majestic and beautiful. About 40 miles south of Moab was a sign that said "such and such Arch" I looked out the window just in time to see the arch ( it was shaped like a huge eye) and the moon in the middle of it. Hauntingly cool image of a giant eye looking at you.
Junkero

 

to the n00B, is that good or bad...lol

 

In Loredo Terminal. I added some freon to my trainers truck last night. The A/C hadn't been blowing very cold of late. Close the hood and then the High Pressure hose on the compressor blew. Tried to sleep in the front seat last night there was a nice breeze but it was still to warm and muggy to sleep. Found a small couch in the Drivers Lounge and got some sleep. Not sure what load we will roll out of here with but we are waiting for the compressor hose to be replaced. My shifting has improved but still have times I miss a gear or two. My trainer does it from time to time too so I guess that is normal. After all that issue with me complaining that the truck was too hot some nights this has to happen. When it rains it pours.
Junkero

 

I'm not sure an owner op is always the best thing for a new student. This one can not always understand where he should not mingle the student vs the business side of this deal. I have some Knowledge from past flatbed work and securing heavy equipment. I'm sure I will need more help as I go but I find,so far, any other flatbedder is always helpful if needed and I'm sure my good natured trainer will help me if I call him.