[Novacane]

I think that I am just gonna write my updates in the same post, so I don't clutter up the board with all my writing everyday(at least the days I have a wifi signal).

Anyway, started my day early this morning, nothing got stolen, so that is a good sign, lol. Uh, lets see, Washington D.C. what can I say, .......... it has the most awful drivers I believe I have ever seen. Whoever said the stretch of 95 between D.C. and Baltimore had the worst drivers was right, for the first time in a long time I was nervous on the interstate. Traffic will go from a flow of 80mph to 30mph several times with no warnings, thankfully, keeping a safe distance from the person in front of me is a pet peeve of mine. That comes from one time when I was driving for the nursery, I was pulling an empty in the rain, and tried to stop at a red light at the bottom of a hill, and it almost wouldn't stop, since then I have been careful about whats in front of me and when I should start braking.

Anyway, I get lost somehow while going through D.C. and wound up on presidential blvd, or something like that. It wasn't a major catastrophe or anything, just nerve racking not knowing where I was. I got through it and Baltimore ok, made a drop for part of my lumber load, and made it to the drop yard in Bensalem. I dropped the trailer I had and tried to find someone in the yard that I could get some equipment off of, but there wasn't anyone there, and I waited for half an hour or so catching up on paperwork and such, and no other driver arrived, so I decided to go on. I picked up a empty trailer and headed for a place about 80 miles away to pick up a load of shingles.

Got the shingles and headed for the consignee about 50 miles away, no problem, found it and actually got unloaded with no problem, and that is rare for me, lol. So I am at the consignee, and send in my qualcom stuff letting them know that I am ready for a new load, and was preparing to wait my normal hour or so before I get any information, but much to my surprise, just a few minutes later, "beep" I am expecting to get the usual, "we hope to have a load for you in the next 60 min" but instead it was a preplan for a trip picking up lumber about 30 miles away heading to Nashville Tn.

Only 70 miles from where I live, whoo hoo, once again Roehl has come through and got me home for the weekend as promised, plus if that's not good enough, I broke the 2k mile mark this week, just barely, but much better than the 1300 I usually get, and I thought this was the slow time of the year! Of course I know that most of you would be angry at ONLY getting 2k but it makes me happy!

Anyway, I got my load tarped and ready to go, but since I was out of hours, I just shut down for the night here in Carlisle PA. and will head home taking 81 all the way into Knoxville, and then 40 all the way home. I just love the days that I can spend the whole day behind the wheel seeing this great nation of ours, man I love this job!

[Slimland]

Originally Posted by Novacane

I think that I am just gonna write my updates in the same post, so I don't clutter up the board with all my writing everyday(at least the days I have a wifi signal).

Anyway, started my day early this morning, nothing got stolen, so that is a good sign, lol. Uh, lets see, Washington D.C. what can I say, .......... it has the most awful drivers I believe I have ever seen. Whoever said the stretch of 95 between D.C. and Baltimore had the worst drivers was right, for the first time in a long time I was nervous on the interstate. Traffic will go from a flow of 80mph to 30mph several times with no warnings, thankfully, keeping a safe distance from the person in front of me is a pet peeve of mine. That comes from one time when I was driving for the nursery, I was pulling an empty in the rain, and tried to stop at a red light at the bottom of a hill, and it almost wouldn't stop, since then I have been careful about whats in front of me and when I should start braking.

Anyway, I get lost somehow while going through D.C. and wound up on presidential blvd, or something like that. It wasn't a major catastrophe or anything, just nerve racking not knowing where I was. I got through it and Baltimore ok, made a drop for part of my lumber load, and made it to the drop yard in Bensalem. I dropped the trailer I had and tried to find someone in the yard that I could get some equipment off of, but there wasn't anyone there, and I waited for half an hour or so catching up on paperwork and such, and no other driver arrived, so I decided to go on. I picked up a empty trailer and headed for a place about 80 miles away to pick up a load of shingles.

Got the shingles and headed for the consignee about 50 miles away, no problem, found it and actually got unloaded with no problem, and that is rare for me, lol. So I am at the consignee, and send in my qualcom stuff letting them know that I am ready for a new load, and was preparing to wait my normal hour or so before I get any information, but much to my surprise, just a few minutes later, "beep" I am expecting to get the usual, "we hope to have a load for you in the next 60 min" but instead it was a preplan for a trip picking up lumber about 30 miles away heading to Nashville Tn.

Only 70 miles from where I live, whoo hoo, once again Roehl has come through and got me home for the weekend as promised, plus if that's not good enough, I broke the 2k mile mark this week, just barely, but much better than the 1300 I usually get, and I thought this was the slow time of the year! Of course I know that most of you would be angry at ONLY getting 2k but it makes me happy!

Anyway, I got my load tarped and ready to go, but since I was out of hours, I just shut down for the night here in Carlisle PA. and will head home taking 81 all the way into Knoxville, and then 40 all the way home. I just love the days that I can spend the whole day behind the wheel seeing this great nation of ours, man I love this job!

I was delivering some mattresses into Colorado Springs one time. I followed the instructions exactly street everything. I ended up right in front of an Air-force base with no where to turn around. Luckily those good men that protect our country helped me move some center road separators to get it turned around.

[Novacane]

I have just been enjoying home time and haven't had time to write until now, but the trip home got off to a bad start. My last night, I noticed that the blower on the heat wasn't working when I got ready to go to bed, but it wasn't that cold(upper 30's) and I was tired, so I figured I would wait till morning to check it out thinking that it was something simple like a fuse or breaker.

I got up the next morning bright and early since I was eager to get home, and went to start the truck so it could warm up in the cab while I was getting dressed and so on. But when I turned the key, nothing, not even the solenoid was clicking, the batteries were dead.

I thought about the blowers not working and that it may have had something to do with it, but the truck was starting even when the blowers weren't working, I just figured if there was enough juice to start the motor, surely it would have enough to turn on a little blower motor.

Anyway, I qualcom in a message letting them know that something was wrong with the truck and that someone needed to get out there and get it fixed. They said they would get someone out there as quickly as possible, but it was going to be a long while, and asked me a bunch of questions about things I should check(which I already had done them all, and more).

Well, I waited an hour, and then 2 and since I was eager to get home, I figured that I would just get a boost and see what happens, depending on how it acts I would be able to figure out the problem better and hopefully speed up the process of getting it fixed.

So I got on the trusty cb and asked if someone could boost me off, and I in just a minute a truck was next to me ready to help(most truckers will help you out when they can, and that's a good feeling,). So we got the batteries connected, and she fired right up. I thanked the driver and got back in the truck to make sure it stayed running since the icon wants to shut it off, and the truck doesn't run good when it's cold anyway.

I manage not to let it die, and let it run for about 15 minutes to see if the alt. would charge the batts. or not. I was watching my voltmeter, and it was charging really good, around 14.4-14.8. So I shut it off and let it sit a minute while I took a multimeter to see if there was a draw on the batteries. I couldn't find anything wrong, so I got back in the truck and it started right up like nothing was wrong.

It really acts like I left the lights on or something and let the battery drain, but I didn't. I checked all the connections at the alt. and batt. and everything was in good shape, then, got back in to watch the voltmeter some more. I wanted to make sure it wasn't over charging and frying my batts.

After a few it was back down to where it usually stays, and didn't fall any further, so I just headed out, and it never acted up again. I haven't tried to start it today, but I will tomorrow, that should tell if it was a mistake on my part or not.

I did nothing different than I normally do, only thing running was the inverter, and that didn't have a load on it, cause the only thing that was plugged in was my cell phone charger and that stays plugged in all the time.

I checked my lights right off the bat, no problem, all connections, condition of the wires(have seen corrosion inside the wires sheathing with no evidence on the outside) and there just wasn't anything wrong. I checked the wiring on the trailer to see if it was the culprit, and couldn't find anything wrong with it either.

The only thing I can think of, and it's a long shot, is that since the truck has been hard to start when cold, maybe the icon kept cranking on the the truck trying to get it to start while I was asleep. I might not have noticed it since I am used to the truck starting with the icon now, and everyone knows how hard the cab rocks when the motor starts, so it just turning over would be tame in contrast.

Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe I did leave my lights on or something, but I checked everything I could think of and couldn't find anything wrong. So I am trying to get them to route me through a terminal to see what gives, and hopefully they will fix the cold starting problem as well.

Oh, and just one more thing, no breakers were flipped and it has no fuses, but after the boost I got, the blowers on the heater started working fine, and I didn't do anything to it to make them work, so I don't know.....

[Ardmore Farms Forever]

Novacane.............there is nothing better than getting up at 5:00 AM and reading "The Adventures of Novacane"...............your writing skills are quite good, and I certainly enjoy reading your contribution to CAD........stay safe out there........Josh

[TruckerChris]

ditto, I like your updates too... Always read them... Keep us updated with your life on the road. Hopefully your truck does not act up on the next run!

[GMAN]

Novacane, it sounds to me as though at least one of your batteries is weak or perhaps a dead cell. That would account for the quick drawdown of current and slow starts. You will usually find out if you have a bad or weak battery with the first cold spell. Heat can also work on a battery. Most big trucks have 3 batteries. I have 4 in mine. I just like the extra backup. A single battery can start the truck but may take some effort. I believe that if you check them you may find the problem. 8)

[TwystdSistah]

I'd check as GMan said. I don't have electricty supplied by grid. I make my own so to speak and have a battery bank. If one battery is bad, going bad it "lugs" the others down with it. I can check my bat's with a volt meter and I check the fluid levels. A bad cell does a number on the battery in short time when it is cold.

73's

[Novacane]

Thanks for all the encouraging words people, means the world to me. I don't know about my writing skills being "quite good" but thanks anyway, I just write down what I would say to someone if they asked me how my day was going, lol.

Anyway, I went ahead and spent the night at home since my consignee was only a hour or so away, bad idea, that California king bed is just too comfy compared to the truck, and I overslept about an hour. So I jump up and dash to get everything ready(thankfully I had packed the night before and loaded the truck) do a quick pti, and pray that my electrical gremlin didn't come back and drain my batt. again causing me to call in for a jump at my home, when I should have been on the road already.

Everything goes perfect, man it has been a wonderful day, it was nice sunny and warm, just couldn't have got better. Then I get in the truck, and it starts like a champ, there wasn't anything wrong, cool. I head to the truck stop to hook to my trailer, and it's almost empty, plenty of room, and not a lot of "lookey Lou's" watching, cool.

I usually have problems with the kingpin lock, but today it pretty much falls off in my hands, cool. Give the trailer a once over, and everything is good, cool. Get on the interstate, gauges are good, trucks running good, trailer is tracking true, hardly any traffic, good music on the xm, and the sun isn't in my eyes, cool.

Make it to the consignee, and what do you know, they don't even open till 8 a.m. and don't accept deliveries till 9:30 a.m. and guess what time it was when I arrived..........9:30 on the dot! But there were trucks that arrived earlier that morning ahead of me, so this was the first thing that didn't go perfect so far. There was no place to park, so I circled the block until the trucks moved up in line. Few minutes later and I have a parking spot, and these guys are getting trucks unloaded like nobodies business, I don't know if they are always like this, or if my good luck this morning was rubbing off on everyone, but in less than a hour, the three trucks in front of me, and myself were unloaded and ready to go.

I send in a empty message, and wait about a half hour(which is short compared to normal) and get a preplan. Now you aren't' gonna believe this, but my morning was going perfect (even though I overslept which was a blessing in disguise, since I would have been sitting waiting to get unloaded burning my 14 hour day up, for 3 hours or more) and it just gets better, I got another ONE THOUSAND MILE TRIP!!! I get to go from here in TN to Lubbock Texas........TEXAS!!

I have always wanted to go to Texas, I went there as a kid and can't remember much, but I have always wanted to go back. When I was thinking about becoming a truck driver, hauling loads to Texas, and going through the desert is what I pictured, I don't know why, that's just what I see in my mind.

So here I am at ameristeel waiting to get a load heading to a place I have wanted to go for a while, AND getting paid really good for it, PLUS it's been a perfect day so far, AND I already have 600 miles under my belt(the trip from PA to home) with a thousand mile trip ahead of me, and it's MONDAY! After this run I will have more miles under my belt by Wednesday than I usually do for the whole week, COOL.

Plus, since I will be that far from home, that means that I will have to come back, so I could potentially get 2600 miles this week, OMG! Of course since I am braggin about it, the load will get relayed or something so I am not getting my hopes up at this point.

I don't know what's going on, but it has to be one of 4 things, 1. I am finally getting a little respect and "seniority" 2. The "slow" season is over 3. It is just a fluke 4. I am just on a good luck streak that will eventually lead me to griping about how much bad luck I am having in the next couple weeks.

So, it looks like they are fixing to get me to pull in, so I will end this little novel I started, and get back with you to see if I made it all the way to Texas or not.

[BluHeeler]

And life was good

[TruckerChris]

novacane, hopefully your luck continues on to texas and then onto another 1000 mile trip... that would be nice. Let us know how everything goes!