My Maverick Experience

So today went pretty well. Woke up around 8 AM this morning and went down by my Dad's house to drop off my new bike. Then I went and had lunch with my Mom before leaving town. Got back to the truck around 1500 and rolled out of the truck stop where I park at 1600.

Drove for about 6.5 hours and got to the customer at 2230. Didn't get into a door until midnight though even though I had a 2300 appointment. Took about 2 hours to get unloaded and I rolled out the door at 0200. Drove over too the Walmart down the street for the night.

While waiting to get into a door I installed my TV finally. I now have my Xbox and TV available again to keep me entertained during 34 hour resets. I also bought a 700watt 0.7CU FT microwave from the Walmart for $50. It works pretty well. I can even run my TV and laptop at the same time as the microwave. At least I remembered to grab my computer this week.

I can't start my day until 1200 tomorrow which kinda sucks but I'll only drive until around 2200 depending on what I get for a load. Right now they have me on a DH from Owatonna, MN to De Witt, IA. It's about 250 miles so I won't even get there until 1600-1700 tomorrow. No load yet though. I hope they don't make me give up my DGL that I've been dragging around for the past 3 weeks.

I've decided that the DGL is my favorite of the glass trailers. It is the easiest and fastest to load/unload. It also means that once I deliver a load I am going to be getting a large deadhead move back to a glass plant with it since it can't haul anything but glass.

Now that I've had my first warm dinner in the truck in a while I'm going to head off to bed for the night.

 

I guess I can write another update.

After that last load in Owatonna, MN they had me Deadhead to De Witt, IA. I stayed at the flying J in Davenport that night and planned to drive up to the plant in the morning since I didn't have an assignment yet. After I got to Davenport I found another glass driver parked out back so I backed in next to him for the night.

Woke up the next morning and while getting ready to head out I stopped to talk with the other driver. While we were talking both of our Qualcomms went off with new messages. He was needing a repower to get home and since I was empty they had us swap trailers. I took his load and he took my empty up to the plant in De Witt to pickup another load going home. The load looked good when I picked it up.

The load was 1500 miles paid from the Davenport Flying J to Calgary, Alberta. My first Canada load. After looking over the load it looked ok so I started on my way with it. I made it all the way to Sioux Falls, SD with it the first night. Found a spot right on the front row for the night. Got up the next morning and everything was looking good still so I kept rolling with it.

I made it about 150 miles across South Dakota with it before I noticed the tarps flapping too much in the mirror. So I pulled over on a ramp and went to check them. There were several large holes in the tarps now. The glass on this load was in steel racks. These racks have sharp corners. The guy who I swapped with didn't put anything over those corners to keep the racks from shredding the tarps. Not to mention that he tried to cover the load with a steel tarp and a lumber tarp and there was only about an inch of overlap between them. You can see the steel bars sticking out of the tarps in these pictures:



So I did what I could to keep the tarps from flapping any more. I then made my way to the first truckstop I could find in Murdo, SD. There wasn't much I could do to patch the tarps while they were still on the load. Since it's a glass load it has to stay tarped. It can not get wet. I decided the best option was to cover the sharp edges as best as I could and then throw my other Lumber tarp over the top. Throwing that tarp in 5* weather with 20mph gusts was not fun. Took me about an hour to do it but I got it done. I was also able to finally cover the gaps and have plenty of overhang between the front and rear tarps. The holes in the rear tarp weren't very big yet so I just did what I could to keep it from flapping and making them any bigger.

I was walking back to the front of my truck when I noticed a piece of strap hanging off the front of my trailer. It was going down between the frame rails and looked to have a good amount of tension on it. This is where the weekend was ruined. I had managed to take that 2" strap and suck it into the intermediate drive shaft. I was wrapped around the yoke and had been sucked into the differential a little bit. I tried to cut it off and pull it out but it was in there too tightly. So I sent in a breakdown and waited for them to call me. They finally got back to me and told me they were going to send a guy out to try to get it out. The first guy showed up in his personal car and tried to just dig it out with his picket knife. Something which I had already tried. He gave up after about 5 minutes. After he left I called back and told them how useless he was.

Then they called a repair company in Chamberlain, SD. These guys actually called me to see which parts they needed to bring just in case they needed to replace anything. Unfortunately Chamberlain was over an hour away so I knew my day was done at that point. When the second guys got there they actually seemed to know what they were doing. At least they brought a straight truck that was essentially a shop on wheels. They spent about an hour working on it. When they finished they told me they thought it was the main drive shaft so they brought the wrong parts. They got as much of it out as they could. I took the truck for a short test drive and had no problems so I was given the OK to drive to Rapid City which is where the Freightliner dealer was. I was only able to go 150 miles on Sunday because I had to wait in Rapid City. The shop didn't open until Monday morning.

Got to the shop Monday morning and they had me fixed up and out of there in about 2-3 hours. I made it to Billings, MT on Monday night.

Tuesday was spent driving across empty central Montana on US and state Highways. Not a whole lot out there besides Cattle ranches. I stopped in Shelby, MT to fuel one last time before crossing the border into Canada. It was another 30 miles to the border.

When I got to the border there was a short line. I had to wait about 15 minutes to get to the booth. Once i got to the front of the line I handed the Canadian Customs officer my paperwork and my Passport. He asked a few questions and then handed everything back to me and I was on my way.

Driving in Canada is pretty much the same as the US. The only real difference is that everything is Metric. It works out rather nicely that the highest speed limit is 110Km/H which is 68mph. So I can't possibly break the speed limit. I made it to Nanton, AB for Tuesday Night. There's a small Flying J there. If found the soft spot in the parking lot with my steer tires. Luckily I was able to pull my self out since it was only the steers that had sunk. I then decided to go and stay on the paved areas of the parking lot.

Wednesday Morning I drove into Calgary and delivered my load. Spent about an hour untarping it. I'm not sure who taught this guy how to tarp, but it was all screwed up. He had the bungies weaving through D rings and under the rub rail 5 times between each hook. So I had to take and undo all of those. At least the guy who was going to unload me gave me a hand with getting the tarps off the load since I couldn't just pull them. He also helped me with unstrapping. As I would loosen each of the straps he was pulling them through to the other side to save some time. He also took and took all the bungies hanging from my rub rail and put them in one place so I wouldn't have to walk around and pick them up later.

Once everything was loose he got his forklift and started unloading. For those who think pulling a Flatbed means you'll never back into a dock you're wrong. I backed up to a dock here and he drove the forklift on from the back.

After he finished unloading all the racks he then came back outside and helped me fold all 3 of my tarps. Also gave me a hand with lifting the lumber tarps back up onto the deck. I really enjoy places like this that are willing to help without asking for it.

After getting unloaded I went to the Flying J down the street so I wasn't blocking their yard any longer than necessary. I had gotten my next Preplan while getting unloaded. Unfortunately it was too late in the day and the lumber mill was going to be closed before I could get there. So I stayed the night at the Flying J and was going to head off the next morning.

Went to the lumber mill the next morning and got loaded up. Took about an hour to get loaded and then another hour of playing on the scale trying to move things around so it would be legal until I got back to the US. Made it back to Calgary about an hour later.

Had lunch at the Denny's with a friend I met through online gaming. This is easily one of the best parts of my job. I get to meet friends that I've only met online.

After lunch I then spent 30 minutes trying to get my Customs paperwork faxed. This place was ridiculous and took for ever to get the number right even after I wrote it down while also just ignoring it and doing other stuff while I was still there waiting.

Finally got my fax sent and headed back for the US. I spent Friday and Saturday driving back across Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Made it to the Sioux Falls Flying J last night where I am now doing a 34hr reset. I also got my truck washed last night so I finally got all the salt and mud off the truck. Delivery Monday in Marshall, MN and then I'll probably be deadheaded to De, Witt, IA for another glass load.

 

I was up in Canada for a few days last week so I didn't have much for internet. I was working on writing my last post last night. I got tired and decided to finish it this morning.

Thanks for the well wishes.