Pre trip mistake

My biggest Pre trip gaff was not checking in the area between my tractor and trailer. Someone had pulled my trailer electrical connection. I drove almost 200 miles at night from Van Horn Texas to the New Mexico port of entry. They noticed my lights out and stopped me. Bad place to be demonstrating bad pre trip procedures. Thankfully I left with my virginity still intact.

 

i open my hood up to check my oil at the fuel island. Once done fueling, i close the hood and forgot to latch it back up. well 200 miles later i arrived at my exit only for my hood to slowly creep back when i was slowing down. decide to gas it alittle so the hood came back down lol. once at the customer i lock it up

 

Did that on my Century one time. Had oil all across my door and fuel tank. The plug was where I left it, on top of the wheel well held down by my hood. Lesson learned.

 

Pre-tripped in the dark one day. (Normal). After pre-tripping, I set my tire hammer and Mag Light in the small valley between the upper tank step and fuel tank. Went to the pickup to retrieve the lunchbox and thermos o' iced tea. Slid said goodness on the passenger seat, closed the door and plumb forgot the light and tire hammer. Loaded coal 50 miles away, 5X that day. At the fuel island that afternoon, my world had gotten a whole lot dimmer, but realized I still had a mallet I could hit myself in the head with. Doh!

 

Now I have a super sweet and hellaciously bright LED headlamp. Win!

 

Been there, done that. Luckily only made it about 2-3 miles down the Interstate before I realized that rain shouldn't be smearing my windshield like that (it was early am and still pitch black out). I was able to call one of our yard dogs and had him grab as many jugs of oil we had laying out. Ended up needing about 5 gals. IIRC....

When I first got into hauling OSOW, the company I was working for had this crappy old hydraulic RGN that they stuck me with. The landing gear that are supposed to swing down and sit on your frame rails to hold the gooseneck up were bent all to hell, so they had a rectangular piece of steel to set on the rails instead. When you lowered the neck to detach, it would set on the steel, then to pull forward all I had to do was drop my airbags to unhook.

Well, we were in a hurry to get some excavators to a storm debris cleanup site, and me being the newbie, everyone was loaded and waiting on me. As I got hooked up and joined the convoy, I was just concerned that I had the machine centered right axle-weight wise, and that my securements were adequate. Made the trip from just north of Orlando up to just outside Jacksonville in about 2 hours. When we pulled into the jobsite, as I climbed out of my rig, the operator of the machine I was hauling was standing there shaking his head and pointing. I glance over towards the front of the RGN and notice that #### steel bar still sitting across my frame rails!!! How on earth that thing didn't vibrate off and get jammed under that RGN causing one serious FUBAR situation I'll never know.....

Took it as a sign from above and never let anyone rush me with a load ever again....

 

I forgot my trailer once!

 

Yup...did that...quite a mess after 3 hrs.

 

Forgot 1000ft roll of detonation cord at an Iraqi police station. Had to go back and grab it endangering my team and our security. Think your fine driver. We are all human.