The NUMBER ONE requirement for OTR driving

build your life around your job,not your job around you life, there has been many times that there has been things to do with family and friends. but the load must go if the wheels are not turning you are not making money.

 

Hey brother Sweeze,

Your trying to make a living here, and trying to get a foothold with this company.I have been exactly where your at ....you did what you had to do. 18 yr old truck and not much of a maintainence program. Your household bill's don't stop coming at you, and you need for this job to work out. Allow me to suggest a small fix for the mechanic aspect of this. Which will make your life easier.

Make friend's with the mechanic(s). Be real good about checking the truck out everyday, and KNOW,what is wrong with it. Pull the hood and spend time checking everything! If it has air leak's. DUDE...get those fixed!
Thin brake shoe's or an oil saturated hub.. Guy's have perished with these problem's. And it usually end's in a crash w/ fire. And you live where there are some serious grade's. Start with the brake's and become an EXPERT on them!

You might be dealing with mechanic's that have long since quit careing or don't get the budget they need to do thier job correctly. These guy's need a fire lit under thier butt's and you have to be the spark. Kindness and knowing what your talking about goes a long way. Get to know thier first name and find out what they do in thier off time. Like fishing/hunting...ya know..manly stuff that you can relate to. This will break the ice an start a good working relationship that will pay big dividend's. Don't be afraid to get your hand's dirty when you show them the problem's with the truck. They respect a guy who's not afraid. I know I do...

This has worked for me with many a mechanic and many a company. They are the first person I make friend's with. This will make your life profitable and safe!

And I don't want to see anyone posting anything childish.Like, "sound's like your telling him to take the mechanic out on a date" either.. See....I know you guy's too well

Be safe brother....carry on.

 

Well now I don't think that would be too childish being that I am female..lol

Thanks for that weaponx... I will take your sound advice to heart. We were well trained on doing pretrips at school but when I went with my trainer he never checked all those points. He'd just pop the hood and take a peek every so often ( I was usually washing the windows). After I got my own truck I got around it by taking it to the shop at the diff terminals often to have them check it. So the pretrip never really got re-enforced. My truck never broke down either cuz they would always catch it.

And being female I am not so mechanically inclined and hate getting dirty.
But I am in a different spot now. The mechanic is not lazy or anything. He does care. What it was is that the lady who runs the co knew that i was broke from being out of work so she was trying to get me some miles before next pay period. She doesnt get too excited about things, she has been doing this for years. The dash has a short in it so alot of the gauges dont work. The mechanic told her not to let the truck out of the yard before he fixed it but she wanted to help me out. Still I would have rather waited a couple days.

He was being rather a d**k toward me until he realized I wasnt going to take any #### off him He sort of apologized later. I think your advice is good and will start utilizing the pretrips and being nicer to him... It helps him out so much more and I no longer have a terminal I can just pop into. They only have just one mechanic, him, since they only run 7 trucks. This will be a good learning experience for me for my own sake. And your are right about those brakes I will say this truck has a GREAT jake brake. I can come down the grapevine at 35mph and barely touch the brakes.

 

This is some of the best advice I have ever gotten off this board and just because I am female doesn't mean I cant apply it. I want to thank you again for your kind words of support weaponx.

 

I just want to chime in here..

(Still gonna stick by what I said earlier - I understand your reasoning, but I still think it was the wrong thing to do)

Back to my chime - what do "mechanically inclined" and "female" have to do with each other? I'm male and not mechanically inclined. It's not something in our genes, y'know. It's more how we were brought up.

Dad's a physicist - so I grew up around electronics and computers (Computers not PCs. Room-sized gizmos with less power than we're using on our desktops right now) I can change a tire or the oil.. probably even the spark plugs and filters. After that... WTF is that gizmo? Call a mechanic.

My wife, on the other hand (Paramedic) changes brakes, she's in the middle of rebuilding the engine in her cougar...

You see where I'm going?

Advice re befriending the mechanic, though, is good, and I know *I* certainly appreciate somebody who's willing to do what it takes to help me solve a problem - whether it be pick up a soldering gun or get oil under her nails.

 

I thought you was a dude, sorry.
No matter, you still should learn air brake's in an out, upside down and all around. Have you had hot brake's smoking on a grade yet? 80,000 pushing and someone on the two-way say's,"hey so-an-so, you brake's are smoking"! You look back an see brake smoke,and your heart start's pumping and right then you look forward and see the "escape ramp" sign. (Cop's theme song) Bad girl, bad girl whatcha gonna do.Whatcha gonna do when grade come's for you?

Jake brake's are nice...I like 'em..but I trust what my eye's have told me about the condition of the brake pad's and the hub. I have been taught how to adjust the brake's by a mechanic. Please ask a mechanic to show you how too.

Rock on.....

 

A logical course - you do the best you can with what you have to work with. Seems like you had a pretty good idea of the trucks deficiencies and you probably took them into considertation as to how you drove.
Went to a new job once. Waited around the "bunkhouse" in terminal area a couple of days. Was sent out the 3rd evening for a 30 mile pickup and then 120 delivery. Old spare tractor and ragged trailer. Hooked up and gladhands were spewing air faster than compressor could put it up. Walked over to the shop and asked for 4 washers. Shop helper told me he did not have time to put them in for me. I informed him I had probably put more in than he had seen.I did not want installation, just the parts.
Got them in and moved out. Dusk dark came and trailer lights flick on and off each pavement joint. Got to the stockyard to load and find the divider gate was hanging by one thready small rope.
So I scrounged up eough baleing wire for my needs and went to work. Loaded front half and tied gate securely at all 4 corners with wire. Finished loading and then pulled the elec connecter and found the male ground prong on the trailer half had been spread to far one time to many and half broken off. Took a nice long piece of baleing wire, scraped a clean spot at a hole in the tractor frame, twisted a tie in it tight, ran it up thru the air hose support and rigged to the trailer metal same way. Shazam---Lights.
Made the trip, back in was asked how it went. I said OK, trailer lights connecter needs replacing.
Two days later I was out of there in a drivers tractor who thought he deserved better. Ran it for a month and seemed to get some good trips
Less than a year later I picked up a new tractor in Ft Wayne and drove it till I quit. Several years after I was hired, and after several (6's) beers with my boss, I was told: "I first tried to starve you to death, then thought I'd run you to death." "You did so well , I decided to keep you."
(Hay baleing wire was the bullhaulers duct tape.)
Good luck with getting your truck in shape and they will probably want to "keep you."

 

Actually I have

When I was first released to solo I was coming down the grapevine heading toward wheelers ridge (you know that really long grade). I thought my jake break was on but it wasn't. Seemed like I was having to hit the breaks an awful lot and I could see smoke in my mirror... was that me?? Sure enough it was. I stopped at Petro to cool the brakes and you could see smoke and feel the heat. I worried that I had damaged them. Now THAT is stupid.

Yes that was the first thing that came to mind when I read your post...

 

LOL... that would be me as well altho I do pay sharp attention when I have to. Never again will i forget that there are supposed to be 4 belts on the front of the engine. And I really hate getting dirty. Ive got hand soap, dish soap, windex, Purell sanitization hand wash, simple green and paper towels all in a plastic pan next to the seat (thats the other thing I like about this pete. There is lotsa room between the drivers seat and the door.)

My father brought me up as if I were a helpless thing without a brain in her head. So that is probably where it is coming from. I am alot smarter then he ever gave me credit for. When it comes to 'guy' territory I still have that helpless thing going on but its not true. Maybe I can't fix it but I sure enough am smart enough to be able to relay info to the mechanic.

I am proud of myself for learning to drive truck. It was intimidated, very intimidating when I first climbed in with my trainer. But I kept going anyway. And I feel and look very unique. You should see some of the looks I get from other truckers.... this tall female driving this old pete with the wind blowing my blond hair all over. I feel like its totally me.

I will say he is very proud of me now and will brag to anyone who will listen

 

The easiest job I ever had. I was in the taxi businesss in Los Angeles and Hawaii for 22 years. Now my cargo doesn't sass me back like passengers do. Get out and open doors, drop dolly. No problem. Being mentally strong? If you are a weak person to begin with, working at McDonalds would be too hard.