Where is everyone #5

The truck of many colors

 

Trust me, I didn't always sink in my young mind. I would like a sturn conversation with my younger self. But there was definitely times it did. I am thankful for that.

 

If tetanus was a Crayola color.

 

I have a question for you heavy haul and OS/OW drivers. I saw something happen today and I am curious about what transpired. I was driving on Texas State highway 75 (TX-75) just east of the New Waverly weigh station and there is a huge OS/OW building I think and it was about two feet too tall for the overhead lines.

My question...Is it normal for one of the escort drivers to use the height stick to push the lines up high enough for the load to get under them and then just let the overhead lines drag across the top of the load? This happened 3 times in a half mile stretch. It surely looked like the overhead lines were going to get hung up on the top of the load and come crashing down. As this was happening I could see what appeared to be some kind of padding on top that would prevent the lines from becoming tangled up.

 

Looks like a Cummins hiding under the hood…..?

 

In a perfect world, the load would have bucket trucks running with the load to lift the lines properly. Having said that if it a few lines that were not expected or may have sagged due to weather or some other factor, it is common to carry an insulated fiberglass pole to lift the lines over the load. Lots of tall loads will run skidders on the top of the load to help the lines move over the top of the building. This is usually small diameter pvc pipe or garden hose that kind of thing.

 

LOOK WHOSE BACK l!!!!! I had to take the wheel off to fix the valve stem so I figured why not? See if I remember how to do this?

spent the first part of the day chasing air leaks.

 

Okay. Thanks for the info brother. It doesn't look like PVC or anything on top. It looked like carpet to me and it was dragging across the top and pulling against the poles for sure. They had the road blocked and I offered to help hold the lines up on one side but they had it covered. I wanted to make sure I understood the situation before being critical.

In the area this occured today I feel like you are correct that the lines were sagging and lower than expected because I did see one pole that was leaning towards the street allowing the lines to hang lower.

 

He got it 1 piece at a time, didn’t cost him a dime….