What percentage of owner operators actually work on their trucks?

You can't oil is over $10 a gal just oil cost you over $150. I only save $60 doing it my self Walmart for the oil Freightliner for filters than have to get rid of all your used oil takes me half the day, it's worth the $60 not to mess with it!!

 

Only tools I don't have is a tire balancer and an alignment rack.

 

You must be one of them drivers that just stays in your truck and never talk to other drivers, Every mercer driver I talk to tell me how unhappy they are and how bad it's got over the last year. I spoke to a driver in Gary,In last week red Freightliner with a 50ft stepdeck truck number was high 129xx something been there over two and a half years seem like a smart guy he even knew what his all miles were running $1.48/mi said he dead heads 200 miles a load on average, he lived in Indiana he was picking up a tarp load of tubing that next day 230/mi paid $728 and instead of sitting for a day or two he would just head back for one around there the next day.

ever driver I talk too are not happy you skateboardman and two other drivers I've talked to over the last year are the only ones happy. Each has its own some people don't like changes, it's like your ex you knew it wasn't going to get any better or change, you knew it was never going to get any better but you stuck it out thinking how things use to be.

 

The oil disposal sucks. Used to have a local farmer with a oil burner for his shop. It broke & there went my free disposal.

That said, had a local F/liner to change oil in the middle of winter at their shop(Don't personally have a shop & snow on the ground here, otherwise I do it). Got the most smarta** punk they had. Didn't grease half of it & made me question the entire process. So will deal with the winter weather or anything else vs paying dealing with that crap again.

 

a cool trick for front end alignment work that more people should know about...Using a saw-blade leveler.

(repost from another thread)...


Its common for a shop to get the caster adjustment plates backwards or height wrong. Do a basic camber and caster check on both sides regaurdless. Caster should be 4-6 degrees + in reference to the frame rails when sitting on level ground. Camber should be +1-2 degrees max from one side to the other at the top. You do not need any fancy, crappy laser that is not very acurate on caster/camber, for a caster/camber check, especially if the waer is setting in that fast. All you need for caster/camber alignment checks is a decent digital saw-blade leveler (twenty five bucks from Amazon.com). Zero it out on the frame rail then stick it to the front side of the king pin housings on each side. It should read 4-6 degrees foward offset from 90 degrees. Foward offset means the bottom of the kingpin housing should be closer to the front of the truck than the top. Some dealers / alignment shops will offset one side to the other to compensate for crown in the road, so if the driver side is +5-6 and the passenger is +4 then this is still ok. Camber is a simple matter of zeroing the blade leveler out on one of the front cross members in the center (the one across the bottom of radiator is nice and strait), then setting aganst the outside of each rim with the steering facing straight foward. It should be only 1-2 degrees max difference from one side to the other and will also show how much truck is leaning. This will reveal very quickly a bent spindle, etc. Again, no need for fancy inacurate laser.

this is the one I use...has solved many alignment issues for me.
Wixey WR300 Digital Angle Gauge


this post is likely to piss off a few mechanics,..lol,...Rawze

 

I've learned the hard way that if I want it done right, I better do it myself.

bayou is right, things are horrible at Mercer, so bad in fact I'm seriously considering adding on another truck or two.
guys the industry has changed, it's not like it was 15 years ago, the days of easy money in trucking are gone for good. today it takes more effort to make good money. this isn't isolated to mercer, it's industry wide.

 

I'm surprised with all this talk about alignments. In 850,000 miles I've had a 3 axle done twice (about 700,000 miles apart) and toe checked about half way on the recommendation of my tire guy. Provided a competent shop is available it hardly seems like something to need to learn to do myself.

 

I grease my tractor, do simple things. Don't do heavy mechanics anymore. Carry belts, p/s hoses, with me. Have towing ins. Needed it twice. Polish my own wheels, ect. It's just a joy of mine, and I know my rig.

 

on a oil change i pay someone else to do it. i normally try to supply my own filters so i don't pay the marked up cost. on occasion if i don't have any i grease my truck and trailer myself once a week so if they miss a grease fitting or two its not the end of the world if they charge extra to greese the truck i just tell them not to do it and just change the oil. it beats hassling with all the used oil ect.

most other work i do myself.

 

how come you guys don't sell your used oil? sure it means you got a few drums sitting around till you get enough to make it worth the time for a guy to stop by and pump it out, but sure does beat trying to find a place to take it. and sure as Hell beats paying jacked up speedco oil change rates. my filters and oil cost 80 bucks less than what those folks charge. in my mind saving 80 is the same as earning 80. and it has the added benefit of being under the truck to scope things out and catch little problems before they become expensive problems