--------Warning--------Warning------long post
First a bit about myself, and why I got back into trucking.
I drove for Stevens Transport back in 1999 and stayed with them for about 9 months. I quickly got tired of being a truck driver making 22cpm, and barely getting 1,500 miles a week. I spent a lot of time sitting at truck stops and waiting to be loaded/unloaded at grocery warehouses. I started driving a T-600 with 800,000 miles on it and while it ran well,..It was trashed body wise. You could not see through he windshield if the sun was in front of you, or at night on a two lane road when oncoming cars headlights would obscure my view to the point of being dangerous.
My next truck was a T-2000 that was very nice looking, super clean,...but was so loud that I had to drive all the time (especially climbing hills) with those little expanding foam ear plugs. I put up with it, and stuck to it until they cut my miles back down to around 1,000 per week.
I was forced to stay out for 8 to 10 weeks at a time before they would route me home. Then they would only give me 3 days at home instead of the 8 to 10 days that I earned (one day per week out).
I cleaned out my truck, and drove it back to Dallas (on my own dime) parked it in their garage to be repaired, called a cab, got on a plane and came home,..swearing off trucking forever.
I then got into real estate in Florida,..bought 4 houses and spent the last 7 years renovating and selling them. The real estate market in Florida treated me well,..I live in a modest 3 bed 2 bath block home with a 30' by 30' block garage. Its been real nice not punching a time clock for the last 7 years, but with real estate getting weak, and my desire to not be a general contractor,...I fall back to my first love,...being on the road alone.
My girl and I have been together for 15 years and she expressed an interest in getting back to her painting (she is a very talented artist).
We have 30 animals and she likes to stay home,...as you can see this is a recipe for going back on the road.
I bought a used (very used) truck and a used trailer. I paid cash for both and put $60,000 into my business as an Owner Operator. I have my truck set up with a full kitchen sink/stove /microwave/refrigerator and bathroom-w-shower, an oil re-refiner, and a solar power system so I can sit and enjoy my time alone. I like to read, watch TV, exercise, and hike.
I spent a brief period of time doing research for adventure magazines. A few that I did before were:
1.21 day trip in the Grand Canyon (without coming out for resupply) testing equipment and dehydrated foods.
2.21 day kayak trip from Green River, Utah to Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon
3.1 week in Goblin Valley, Utah
I have gotten a lot of info from this website and the people here,...my hats off to Gman,Steve,Rank,Rev,Merrick,Pepe,Heavyhauler,tooti e, and many others that I can't remember right now. Your advice has been like gold and I hope to be able to help out others like you have for me (and all my questions over the last year).I am very much looking forward to getting back on the road and doing it with my newly rebuilt truck. I did everything on this truck myself, what I didn't know,..I did research and asked questions to figure out.
Now that was what I put together a while back. I actually went out on the road last week, but had to go back home because my genny seized, my inverter had a software conflict with the control panel, and my solar charge controller was malfunctioning. Now all has been repaired except the genny. I have to go to Glendale and have A-Trans swap the engine out for me. I knew this genny was junk the day I received it,...so even thought A-Trans is honoring their 1 year warranty,.....I don't expect the process to go very well.
I managed to get my blood pressure down 20 points from 136 over 93 to 116 over 75,...that has me pleased.
My truck cruises nicely at 62mph @1,550rpm,...it hates to go down to anything below 1,200rpm,....sounds like a thrasher at that rpm under a load.
I am leaving again in the morning, from there I go to:
St. Louis to pick up my straps and tarps-n-stuff
then to Tipton,Iowa to pick up my aluminum bulkhead for the trailer,
then to Stanley,Wisconsin to hook up to my trailer.
I have spent the entire week fixing these systems,..good thing is that I thought the truck was going to weigh in at 22,500 dry,..but its ends up at 21,900lbs fully loaded.
I use a lot of aluminum and light weight woods to try and keep the weight down,..but I had a hard time estimating the weight while I was installing all the stuff.
My girl is putting together the photo album with descriptions of all the photos,..that should take her till Sunday,..so sit tight for the pic's there are about 30 of them.
Thanks again everyone, and hope to see you out on the road.
Doghouse