You'd be surprised. I've put my truck in places where a NORMAL driver wouldn't even think of going.

But in the event that I cannot get my truck in, I will rent a truck, like a U-haul, Penske, etc., and load the shipment on there. After I get the rental loaded, then I have to take it all off and put it on my truck.

I get about 10 shuttles a year, at best. So far this year, I've done 2 of them.

I wish these weren't so grainy, but I guess that's what you get with a camera phone at night. <shrug>

http://i4.tinypic.com/10pdb3a.jpg

http://i4.tinypic.com/10pdaoo.jpg

That is quite the nice shade of teal paint on that truck :P

Teal: So are you currently under load with United, or is that an old photo?

Bandit: How is the new truck working out?

Haha..thanks. It was originally Teal, I had it painted a couple months back, had some stuff shaved off, next up is turn-outs on the exhaust, new strap-less fuel tanks, and WTI fiberglass fenders. Kinda going for a "hot-rod" look, as I've shaved off all the badging, etc. on it. I'm not underload right now, I just came back over to United, and will start loading in a Monday morning.

I spent the past few days in Chicago with Bandit, and he finished loading 20k lbs. today over by Wisconsin going to SC, so I'm not sure when he's going to be back.

I'm going for an old 50's style pickup truck look with mine. I was considering pulling the dash from an old pickup truck, and making it fit the Pete in place of the current dash.

That would be pretty sick. Alot of work, I'm sure, but the Pete cab is pretty narrow so it might not be alot of work to get it to fit width wise.

I've always built sports cars, etc. and now that I have this truck, it's more addicting to do stuff to them, I don't even want another car, lol. One question though, did you do anything else with that truck when you bought it? Or, did you buy it to pull HHG-Seems it would have been easier to put blue accents on a white truck, than to put white accents on a blue truck ;)

Lets say you hire help and a uhaul for every p/u AND delivery so you dont have to do any work, or even goto the residence. Assuming they break an average amount of stuff, would you still show a profit at the end of the year? Just curious.

I bought it new, but since it was a prototype, I couldn't spec it. But it had the Cummins I was looking for, plus it was speced out to the wazoo, and the price was right (about $53,000 under list price). It was speced to pull reefer, and I'm sure I'd get better fuel mileage if I would have been able to spec it myself, but for $53K, I'm willing to go with what I was given. The paint job ran me $3500.

Some of the future plans for the truck:

- Hardwood floors (not that plastic flooring that looks like hardwood)
- Replace the dash
- Replace the headlights with lights off an old pickup truck (not those gaudy Double JJ lights)
- Shorten the stacks even further (I've already dropped them 9")
- Lose the hood ornament completely
- Remove the air horns, and hide them under the body somewhere
- Bullet style turn signals on the fenders
- Tinted windows
- Rebuild the sleeper, adding a shower/toilet, kitchenette, etc.
- Full fenders, with custom taillights on the rear
- And possibly, suicide doors

Any broken items are too much. You wouldn't last long in the business with a business plan like that. Moving is a touchy area - most people either don't want to move, or are apprehensive about putting all their worldly possesions in the hands of someone they hardly know. The HHG companies expect, and the customers expect, that you will make the move as easy and painless for them as possible.

It isn't just about the labor for loading and unloading. It goes far beyond that. You are expected to hold the hand of your shipper, and get them through a traumatic time as painlessly and smoothly as possible. And the first step to doing that is to take an active role in the process, and get as "hands on" as you possibly can.

Just finished my first load of the contest today. The Mrs. was really apprehensive about moving from Jersey to Colorado. But I set her mind at ease, and they were overjoyed with the results.

The Mr. was so happy, he slipped me a $500 tip at the end of the day. Not bad, considering the reason he was so happy was because I delivered early. But because I delivered today, I got some nice overtime unloading pay, and overtime unpacking pay.

Got my second load already booked - the first part of a 47,000 lb load going from Denver to Toronto. I'm supposed to get 28,000 lbs of it. This one is a VIP load, and the shipper is a close personal friend of Bill Graebel, the owner of the company. Gotta love that 3 grand border crossing pay!!!!!!!!!!

The shipment is going into storage on the 6th, and I've got another load already booked to load on the 7th in Toronto, then it is off to Jersey (again) to pick up another, and then assuming they don't fill me out with anything else, then it is off to Florida to deliver on the 12th and the 13th.

:nervous:

So has Bandit fallen into a deep hole somewhere. :shock:

Hey Teal get with it can't let a petercrap beat a KW!

Hey, I'm running already. I came outta the gate with a $14k linehaul, and only 21k lbs. This one is going to be on my truck for less than a week, and I'll be taking off again. Bandit is still alive, he just hasn't had access to a computer lately.

I'm still here-

This past week I had the pleasure of meeting Teal in person and we met some girls, had some beers, and messed around with my 2nd trailer when the brakes locked up :shock:

Also, Teal met my father, and all was merry.

So far- I have 21,000 lbs for south carolina, I did a 20K lb local, and a commercial office move yesterday. Tuesday andn wednesday is a 11.5K pack/load aux service, then running the SC load down to the shipper.

Bring it on!!!! 8)

So do we get to include tips in our monthly figures? 8)

No, because I'd be keeping up, almost as well!

Also, the T600 isn't gonna work out for me so i have a piece of crap freightliner century class that i swapped for during thr transition. It has no jake brake, any recommendations for going down Mont eagle?

Thus to date, I've made around 10, but with HIGH overhead. It seems you have it going on and me and Teal will be fighting for 2nd lol.

It's important to learn how to carry yourself down hill without a jake anyways, b/c just as anything else mechanical they can fail, and you don't want to rely on them solely, and then have them go on you. I'd take it slow and steady, if you have a 10-speed, I'd probably stay down around th gear at around 40-45 and when you've sped up to 50, use the brakes to slow you back down to 40-45 and then release. You don't want to "ride" the brakes, so I would scrub that speed off QUICKLY!

Just drag your feet. It worked for Fred Flinstone!!

You could always use the advanced technique. I've had much success with it on icy mountains.

Get going about 35-40mph, yank the trailer brakes, jump in the bunk and pray to god you don't hit anything on the way down.

It also worked for the Bandit- The song The Legend by Jerry Reed. :lol:

"...when he got to the bottom
...safe and sound,
everybody asked Bandit how he made it down-
He said, "Folks when the truck picked up too much speed,
..."I just ran along side it and I drug my heels"

They are called gears.....does the freightshaker have any worth talking about?

Drop a few gears and take it sloooowww. I lost an engine going off Monteagle one time. I didn't have a jake on that truck, either. If you don't have a jake, better keep it at or below the posted speed limit. You can probably keep it at around 35 mph. One thing to keep in mind while going off is that the runaway ramps are on the left side, if you are going East. There aren't any runaway ramps on the West bound side. There is a mandatory break check stop as you start off the hill. Make sure you stop. The State watches that check to make sure commercial vehicles stop. Don't start off in too high of a gear. You will probably want to be in about 5th gear or lower if you are heavy. 7th would probably be all right with a jake unless you are heavy. If your brakes start heating up too much, there is room to pull on the side to let them cool off. I have seen drivers with their brakes on fire (literally) going off too fast. Without the jake, you may want to keep a light steady pressure on your brakes. If you put too much pressure on the brakes, you will heat up too fast and your brakes will fade. You really don't want that to happen. Just take your time and you will do fine. 8)

Thanks for the advice guys!

The good news is, its furniture, so my gross is 60K loaded this trip, so I should be ok. Also, I'm taking 40 to 26, a route I haven't traveled yet, so I am unsure if I will run across anything larger than MontEagle. Good thing ol Monte is bad going south, northbound is a piece of cake for me.

The race is still on! 8)

If i remember correctly 40 to 26 has a big hill quite a bit worse than Monteage if my memory serves me correct.......As for Monteagle, i live about 20 minutes away from there and have been up and down it a zillion times in cars and have seen to many sets of smoking and on fire breaks to count. When i worked for Star out of nashville I regularly took near capacity loads down monteagle. That grade is nothing like some of the big ones out west but it is still tough...it never flattens out at all...points down all the way and G-Man is correct, the right side of the road is a drop off of the mountain all the way down so the run away ramps are on the left. With no jake i wouldnt get much past 7th gear on the way down....I run 8th with my jake now but when i worked for star my truck had a busted jake on it so i got a lot of experience going down the big hills the hard way. I can almost promise you will see at least one set of smoking breaks on the way down as well. Lots of hot rod truckers go down fast anyways.

[whine]I HATE FOLDING PADS![/whine]

But I got it done.

Yanno, that made me think of something. I NEVER, and I repeat NEVER hire help out of a truckstop, but I ran across a fella who was very persistent about helping me. Well, one night I was folding pads (i carried 320, and had about 200 of them badboys to fold) and he walked up to my truck at the Flying J in Aurora, Co. and asked if I needed help, and I initially told him "no thanks" and he kept on. Well, he asked if I could just buy him something for dinner...so long story short, I got all of my pads folded, for a meal from the chinese cafe, and a pack of cigarettes. I spent...$15? To have all my pads folded.

It would be a cold day in hell before I let some bum touch my pads. I had to do all of them - about 300 pads, and about 150 skins. Took me about 3 hours max.

As I said, normally I don't do that kinda thing. He was a neat, well kept clean cut fella, and had gone and helped 2 north american drivers and a united driver in the coule of days that I was there. He worked quickly and was polite.

One day, I am going to invent a Pad Folder, which can fit in your belly boxes...pull it out, set it up and feed pads through it and it folds them for you.

Too late - that idea is already mine.

a pad folder with breasts, so THERE! :lol:

That idea is taken already too. I called the wife earlier today, and asked her to come out here and fold my pads. She said that it would take too long to get here, so it wouldn't work.

But I've gotten her to do it in the past with me.

Well I would hope so.

Never ran without a jake? Whoa remind me never to be going down a mountain with you! :shock: Exactly how long have you been driving anyway.....wait a minute maybe I don't want to know that either.

So, Bandit I'm sure this freightshaker will be short lived. What is the new truck going to be?

So, I loaded 13k lbs. today, pickup 3k out of the warehouse tomorrow, and then 12k out in Cleveland Friday...ALL going into storage on the other end...how lucky am I? ;) Linehaul of $18k, it'll be off my truck before the end of next week, eeeeeeeeeeasyyyyyyyy money!

Don't be scared to run down a mountain with me, I only cook in the kitchen, not my brakes 8) BTW- I've only been driving about a year and change, but I've been down grapevine, cabbage, and monteagle 2nd seat since I was 5, so I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly :wink:

Anyways, I picked up a new (literally) Freightliner from Penske today with 6,000 miles on it and a JAKE 8)

Let the contest continue, I am on waiting time from Friday through Tuesday in S. Carolina with a decent backhaul lined up.

Vroom-vroooom.

Jason- that Jenny girl still says she hates you, but I think its a love/hate thing :lol:

she only loves my fat bank rolls......in addition to other things not worth mentioning here :lol:

Also-you need to learn to either answer your phone, or return my calls in a TIMELY manner, hippie.

I'm busy working doofus :lol:

See you at the end of the week if all goes well. My turn to buy the White Castles, your turn to drive my arse around hollering at girls by the lake lol.

Don't be mad i don't call back all the time sweetie, but the honeymoon IS over! 8)

BTW- Planes got it goin on, I admit that. My agent...well...it is what it is.

Silly, you can't take big trucks down by the lake...although, hollering at girls in the W9, is always good times. I admit, I'm glad I went back to United, especially with this first load coming out like gang-busters!

I went to White Castle the other day, funny you mention them..they were good, but I imagine they'll be 100 x better when it's not MY money paying for them ;)

I think I still prefer you to stay some distance from me. :shock: Some of us had to learn the mountains without a jake (and it wasn't because the truck didn't have one either) .... no I've never smoked my brakes.

Sorry I don't count second seat ..... doesn't count unless you the one manuevering it down. Next thing you'll be telling me is you don't know how to hang iron but you've watch everyone do it repeatedly so you're pretty sure you can do it. :shock:

I do realize one thing though.....you're just a kid. :)

I don't know how to hang iron. :shock:

I just play slip and slide :roll:

OMG.....okay...newbie....catch me in the Rockies and I'll instruct you then give me 1 hour of lead and hopefully that will be enough to put space between us.

Better yet do what all them southern boys do....park it and wait for better weather. :shock: