[TK THE TRUCKER]

An update.... We bought a replacement truck 2 weeks ago. We had been looking around but had our eye on this one truck that was up in Canada. We had been waiting for the insurance company to get back to us with the amount they were going to give us for the old truck but couldn't wait any longer so we headed up to look at it. We had it all set up so that if we wanted it we could bring it back same day.

So we headed up there early in the morning about a 200 mile trip one way. Get there about 9:30 am, check the truck out and take it for a test drive. We were very surprised with the condition of the truck. Very clean on the inside and outside for the year. My boss didn't want to test drive it at all so I drove it the whole time. Drove really good and shifted like new, no slop at all. No rattles or anything which I'm really happy about, I hate rattles. Ice cold AC, all the gauges work except the pyrometer. No major leaks, drive line is tight, good brakes, tires so so.

My boss works the deal with them about 10:30 and then we waited while the dealership did the paperwork and all the border crossing stuff. Finally got out of there about 3:30. Made a wrong turn within 10 minutes and got lost for 45 minutes. My boss had me lead even though all the maps were in his pick up :lol: Got to the border and then sat in line for 2 hours. Ended up pulling in the yard about 8:00pm.

So far we're really happy with the truck. We weren't working with a whole lotta money and what we paid for the truck we got a lot of truck. The truck is a 1997 Freightliner FLD 120 about 640,000 miles, 435 HP CAT 3406E, 13 spd, 14,600 lb front axle, 46,000 lb rears, air ride suspension and cab. They wanted $14,000 for it, my boss said $13,000, they split the difference $13,500. Not bad for a heavy spec truck in good condition. My boss paid $16,000 for the the truck that got wrecked 2 years ago, the insurance gave us $18,000 for it. Bought it back for parts for $875. After the deductible we came out $1500 ahead. That will get eaten up with the sales tax when we register the replacement truck. We're definitely in the hole a little with many other costs but it turned out ok.

I've been busy working on other crap in the shop and driving everyone else's truck when they don't come in to work I finally got to start working on replacement truck yesterday. First we had to take of the wind deflector on the roof so it will fit in the 12 foot doors of the shop. That was a nightmare. It's adjustable so we were going to try and keep it up there but in the end we just took it off. The company that had it hauled dry bulk tankers with it and it has a PTO driven blower unit on it. I took most of that off today too. Couple other odds and ends things today also. Tomorrow we'll drop the actual blower off it and PTO. We're going to take the hydraulic pump off the wrecked truck and put it on this one along with the tank and lines. We also have to swap all the tires over as the ones on the replacement truck are only 14 ply and in order to run with the overweight permit they have to be 16 ply.

We'll probably gonna sell the blower unit which I don't know how easy that will be. Anybody looking for one ? I avoided cutting anything with a torch to get it off. I unbolted it all so that everything is still intact. It doesn't leak at all and seems to be alright. Maybe I'll try throwing it on EBay. There's a pic of it below.

That's all that's been going on for now. Hopefully we'll be running back to normal within a couple weeks. I hope so because I'm working in the shop is wearing me out

[BigWheels]

TK, thanks for sharing your story.

Thank God you were OK (albeit a bit shaken up) and that you were able to avoid that 4-wheeler (97K--wow)

Looks like you'll be back on the road in a jiffy!

[TK THE TRUCKER]

Hopefully I'll be up and running soon. It's taking forever to get the wetline put on it. I keep having to work on trailers and other stuff. Today I was moving the battery box to the other side of the frame, taking off some steps and a few other things so we can make room for a hydraulic tank. I also moved this neat little alcohol device that was mounted to the frame that automatically adds air line antifreeze to the air system so it doesn't freeze in the winter. My boss wanted to eliminate it instead of taking the time to move it so I moved it anyway. It seems to be in working condition. One other thing about the truck I forgot too add yesterday was that it has 4.56 gears :shock: I'm not sure why someone would get those gears in a highway truck like this but they did. It screams 1800 rpm @ 69 mph. It will probably pull a mountain pretty good, too bad there's none around here! 8)

[heavyhaulerss]

you are one honest guy.. a lot of drivers would never admitted to taking their eyes off the road.. they would of made up something.

[TK THE TRUCKER]

I'm finally getting my lazy azz going to do an update. So I left off that I was setting the truck up to do the walking floor. I completed that maybe about the beginning of July and was all ready to get back to normal pulling the walking floor to landfill when the guy that did our "freight work" quit. So my boss asked if I wanted to switch over to the freight work which I did. This would require me to switch trucks also but he wasn't going to hire somebody to pull the walking floor right away so I continued to use the truck we just had just bought. The freight work is a pain in the ass but is a little better than going to the landfill 3 times a day. The freight work is lot's of drop and hooking. Taking an empty to a customer, drop it, pull the full one out, drop it, put the empty in, drop it, hook up to the full one and leave. I had 2-3 of those a day, a couple live loads maybe and then some machine shops where you gotta wrestle these 2,000 lb roll bins into the trailer or 400 drums of metal turnings. I was pretty worn out at the end of everyday.

So at the beginning of November I decided I want to be a little happier and have a little more money I came back on the road. I decided to go back to Marten due to how well they treated me before. I gave them a call and was lined up to go through orientation, again, on the 13th. Since I had worked here before I knew who to talk to, to get things done. They were going to give the same CPM as when I left but I was able to get a half cent more ( not much but better than a kick in the nads ), also the same fleet manager I had before since we worked well together, and a very nice truck in brand new condition with a APU on it. I got the truck on the 15th and picked up a load headed to Boston so I could run through the house and pick up my stuff. I've done a couple short trips since then but had 2850 paid miles last night. However due to the holiday and my location all they had was a very short trip that doesn't deliver until Monday morning.

Pretty bad but I could use the rest. I didn't take any time off between jobs. And also between the day long flying to orientation, orientation itself, running through the house, a couple short trips, settling into the truck, I'm pretty worn out. Tomorrow will be the first day in almost 2 weeks I can sleep in. I wanted to be home for Thanksgiving but since I wanted to get back on the road asap it didn't work out. I went inside to the Perkins and had some turkey dinner. It was pretty damn good, and expensive after adding soup and a extra side, oh well.

I started my blog back up on my www.myspace.com/tkthetrucker page and will be posting on it about every 2 days if not everyday. Below is pic of that truck after I got done setting it up for the walking floor. Also a pic of my new Marten truck, it's dirty but there's no point in washing it where I am right now. Thanks for reading.
.