[danske]

dd,

I delivered last Sunday evening on time, but then sat 3 days in Greenville, TX waiting for a load. Finally on Thursday, I got a load from Scott's in Cresson, TX to deliver Friday at Lowe's in Wichita. On Friday I reloaded w/ a OD load from Spirit Aero(formally Boeing) in Wichita to Boeing Everett, WA.

Right now, I parked behind the Days Inn next to Muralt's in Missoula. Tomorrow, I leave here at dawn with 490 miles cover to Everett by 3pm. There is a 3-7pm curfew for OD moves in the Seattle area. If I can't make there by 3pm, then I will have to wait until 11am on Tuesday.

Did you make it out of LA last week?

[devildice]

Originally Posted by danske

dd,

Did you make it out of LA last week?

Yeah I sure did.....

[devildice]

Typically when I post an update I say how my trip for uneventful for the most part.....well this past week was anything but.

I made it to Barstow, CA Tuesday afternoon and shut down as I was pretty much out of hours for the day. I had gotten ahold of the consignee and the gal there told me they start receiving at 6:30am. This is great, because I have a load to pick up in Henderson, NV going to Ranches De Taos, NM and they want me to load as soon as possible on Wednesday with a Thursday morning delivery.

Wednesday morning I get up and head on down to Bloomington (L.A. area) and arrive at the consignee at 6am. By 6:15 they are coming out to unload the 2 AC units I had. This again is great. I start making my way north on I-15 towards Las Vegas. Up to this point everything is going smoothly. Enroute, I get a call from an agent asking me if I had anything lined up yet in NM. He tells me that he has 2 flatbed loads out of Albuquerque, NM to Eunice, NM that were scheduled to ship but something happened to both trucks and now he was in a bind to get them moved. He offers me a very nice rate and all I had to do was pick it up no later than 3pm on Thursday and deliver Friday morning. I say sure and go ahead and book one.

I finally get out of that slow state of CA and cross into NV. I hammer down and figure I should arrive at the shiper right around 11am or so. Well I come to that first chicken house in Sloan (mm 25) and get pulled over for a Level 1 inspection. I am not really concerned except now they are going to slow me down getting to my customer (which is only about 22 miles up the road)

The first thing the officer says after he introduces himself and informs me of the Level 1, is that he heas an audible air leak between axles 2-3 and KNOWS EXACTLY what it is (with a little $h%t grin on his face). I too know what it is.....it's my leveling valve on the tractor, it takes a couple of minutes for it to settle when I come to a stop. But the officer believes it's coming from my brakes. We roll through the motions of lights, horns etc. he rolls under the trailer and checks the brake stroke. All is good to this point. He gets to the tractor does the stroke check and continues to try and find this air leak he believes I have. By this time I have explained to him 3 times that it was the leveling valve but I guess I am just a dumb driver that doesn't know his equipment because he insists its on my brake line somewhere and he'll find it.

After about 30 minutes looking for this air leak he finally gives up (it has long since stopped as the truck had settled already) and I get the feeling that he is not that thrilled. After looking over my brake shoes he states that there is a hair line crack in my front right bottom shoe and it's on the "border line" of being put out of service and that he needs to check with so & so. I tell him that I will bounce right up the road a couple of miles to the Las Vegas TA and get it replaced ASAP.

He takes my log book, license, registrations, insurance, etc and tells me to go park over there and he'll be back shortly. an hour later he shows up and says he has good news and bad. The good news is that my trailer will get a decal and my logs are good. The bad news is that he is putting my tractor OOS.

I call the TA Road Service and 4 hours and $256 later I am rolling. During the time I was waiting for the TA to show up, I called both agents on the 2 loads I had lined up and explained to them what was going on and how I was going to have to cancel. I also called LS to inform them of the situation.

About an hour or so after talking to the agents, the one from the first load called and asked if I would be able to pick it up before 6pm that evening. I tell her that the road service still has not shown up and I would hate to say "yes" and then have to call back saying sorry I can't make it. I tell her "besides, even if I could, there is no way I can legally run 700+ miles and have it delivered the next morning. She understands and says thanks anyways. Well about 30min later she calls and tells me that she's in a real bind and that if she can reschedule the pick up and delivery so that I can do it legally would I still be interested? I said sure, let me know what you work out. A couple of hours she calls me back and tells me that I can pick it up Thursday morning and deliver Friday before noon. By this time the road service is there working on my truck and are almost done. So I tell her that I can in deed make the pick up before 6pm if she likes.

So, I bounce up the road and get loaded. I am just about out of hours and since it doesn't deliver until Friday, I head over to the TA for the night. The next morning I get up at the crack of dawn and hammer down. I call the consignee and tell him I can be there as early as 3pm Thurdays or first thing Friday morning. He says friday will work better for them since the load (cell phone tower equipment) is going to a job site. I shut down in Albuquerque and roll out the following morning.

I get up to Ranches De Taos (which in up in the mountains of nowhere!!)and it's freaking cold and snowing. The guy wants me to turn right into the paved driveway that is about 10' wide and so snow covered that you can't even see where the driveway edge ends and the culvert begins. About 15' up this driveway I have to go through a rout (*sp*) iron fence attached to a succo wall. I swing as wide as possible and slowly start my turn. I am watching the passanger mirror to ensure my clearance on the wall/fence. Well i am not going to make it so I stop and slowly back up in hopes that I can reposition and make it through. As i am backing the trailer (I have a spread axle) isn't tracking where I need it to and before I can stop she slides off the driveway and down into the culvert. The entire trailer it twisted in ways that it just shouldn't be and it is impossible for me to get it out.

The consignee comes over and starts yelling and cussing at me about what a crappy driver I am, this that and the other. I inturn have several choice words for him in exchange. I ask him "when's the last time you drove a (cuss word) big truck? When's the last time you drove a (cuss word) big truck with a spread axle flat bed? When's the last time you drove a (cuss word) big truck pulling a spread axle flatbed and tried to make a (cuss word) tight turn like that? Before he could even say anything I respond that's what I (cuss word) thought. Look at my (cuss word) tracks in the snow (showing I was as wide as possible). So until you know what the (cuss word) you're talking about, then just shut the (cuss word) up!!!!! And I walked away.

About 10min later he comes over to me to apologize stating that he has had a bad couple of days. I too apologize and as I point to my trailer tell him I am having a bad day. They eventually get one of their front loaders over and I hook a chain to it and my ICC bumper and they pull me out. No damage to the load or trailer what so ever. I get unloaded and now have to back out the way I cam it. Not easy but at least I was empty and able to jack knife the trailer if needed (not good to jack knife a loaded flatbed).

I head on down to Albuquerque where I figure I'll be stuck the weekend. Fortunately, I get a call from an agent that was ASLO in a bind (what is with all the agents and them getting into binds lately??? good for me because they are paying to save their butts) on a load from Aztec, NM to Houston, TX. It has to load on Saturday and deliver on Monday. It was a tiny 10' container that was modified with a built in water purification sysytem for GE and weighed a whole 4,500lbs.

I delivered Monday in houston and bounced over to the TA in baytown (not because I like it here, but because my log is shot and I only had 2.5 hours left on it). Here I met up with Broncrider and a friend of his. We all have been swapping road lies and having a good time.

[Orangetxguy]

Don't you just love those guy's who are gonna write you a ticket, no matter what??

[devildice]

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

Don't you just love those guy's who are gonna write you a ticket, no matter what??

Yeah and I think that was what he wanted to do. Luckily for me I wasn't cited, he just put me OOS.

[tootie04]

There is alot of that crap going on here in AZ lately....Bo fixed up a truck (used off road) so it could go to Tucson to get fixed and they "inspected" it at the AZ line....the only things they could find was the windshield washer fluid was empty....not like we are expecting any rain storms....the the reflection tape was not on the back of the trator....these truck hardly ever bobtail anywhere...nit picking for sure!!

Glad you got out of the ditch OK! That could have been bad!!

take care out there!!

[devildice]

Originally Posted by tootie04

There is alot of that crap going on here in AZ lately....Bo fixed up a truck (used off road) so it could go to Tucson to get fixed and they "inspected" it at the AZ line....the only things they could find was the windshield washer fluid was empty....not like we are expecting any rain storms....the the reflection tape was not on the back of the trator....these truck hardly ever bobtail anywhere...nit picking for sure!!

Glad you got out of the ditch OK! That could have been bad!!

take care out there!!

When the road service guys showed up they were telling me that they personally have been out to that chicken house 5 times in the past 2 days not counting how many times guys on other shifts had to go. He said that for whatever reason, that station has been cracking down and in many cases nit picking all week.

As for the trailer in the ditch.......you ain't telling me how ugly that could have gotten. The ironic thing about it was that the total weight of the load was only 25k and I had 5 concrete blocks weighing about 2k each stacked on 2 skids. Normally I would load those over the spread axle because it can carry a lot more weight than my drives but this time I loaded them on the nose of the trailer. It turned out to be a smart move (or lucky move) because the way the trailer was leaning in the ditch had I had that weight back there it might have rolled the trailer.

[broncrider1]

who says you cant teach an old (sea) dog new tricks?

ol DD has been posting without needing all the prodding!!!

i hope things pick up man, but it was fun hangin out with you again

next time though, lets do it at my house

[devildice]

Originally Posted by broncrider1

who says you cant teach an old (sea) dog new tricks?

ol DD has been posting without needing all the prodding!!!

ha, ha.....you should be a comedian instead of a driver!

Originally Posted by broncrider1

i hope things pick up man, but it was fun hangin out with you again

next time though, lets do it at my house

Looks like I got something lined up for Wednesday the 29th. I'll find out all the details later. If we hang at your place, make sure you got plenty of the cold stuff coz I got a feeling we would be there a while......:lol:

[broncrider1]

with our combined level of motivation......FO SURE