From desk to own authority part 2
 

I guess they locked my topic so I'll start another one, why I'm not sure unless they are censoring me telling my story. Doesn't make much sense.

Rank:
My truck has 250,000 since an in frame overhaul.

Locked
 

Steve,

I don't think it was locked because of you telling your story, but probably because some of the favored oxen were getting gored in the latter posts.

Petty, petty, petty !

You just keep on keeping on ! "If you can do it, it ain't braggin !"

NFRay

glad to see part 2!! I was getting worried there.....We are waiting to get loaded at a steel mill in PA so reading the posts really passes time....and I love reading steves stories!! 8)

tootie

Re: From desk to own authority part 2
 

Steve,

I just P/M'd the Mod's....

They claim you exceeded the limit on the site's------>"fun-O-meter".
Seem's that the meter goes to 10 and you had it banging the needle on 12!!!!

If you do it again, you may get spanked....

But, as an ex girlfriend say's.....it doesent have to be your birthday for a good spanking!!!! :o :D HEHE, she was a fun one!! Sigh.....

Be good, Jim[/b]

I just wanted to comment on your oil usage question on your other thread. You should not be using 2 quarts of oil per week. I use no more than 1 quart between oil changes. I think you are blowing oil somewhere. Now be good children. :P

Yup, I have pretty good blowby coming out when the engine heats up. I'm assuming that's where it goes.

Steve, you oughta go over to blogger.com and start your own blog over there. A few of the members on here have there on trucking blogs there and have quite a following. Its free and the ones who want to view it can. The rest of the grumpy sob's can stay here and find someone else to take down. I find it quite amusing they are blaming you for all the outlandish behavior. Guess they will have to shut down the newbie forum next cause too many ppl are asking questions up there! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Well, I screwed up today and caused myself about a 180 mile deadhead. The pipes I was delivering where for 2 stops. The load board listed the furthest one and that stuck in my mind. Little did I know that the other stop was about 10 miles from where I slept last night...DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was on the road pretty early this morning heading for Surprise Arizona. Now I know why they call it Surprise. You would think with a name like that it would be Andy and Opie sitting on the porch. It was more like the Las Vegas strip. I punched in my destination to my handy GPS and it proceeded to almost lead me down a no truck street. I caught the sign at the last second and kept on going. I had to drive about 10 miles before I could find a lot big enough for me to pull in. I looked at all the directions the GPS was going to give me and it was a million streets. When the place opened up and I called the street was the next one down from the no truck street and the place was right there on the right. From now on I'm calling for directions. This is the second time this has happened.

What a ride going Rt 17 to Surprise. Hill after hill and one 6% grade after another coming down. I was pretty deaf from the Jake. I just can't believe that some truckers are screaming down the hills 20 feet from the car in front of them. I still remember what Rocky what's his name said that I should have my feet on the floor the whole way and that's been my motto since I started. It doesn't always work and sometimes I have to stab every once in a while.

I use Splenda for my coffee and ran out so I broke out my backup 5 pound bag of sugar. Now it's all over the black floor of my truck. The Dustbuster picked up most but not all. I'm assuming the crystal structure of the sugar is like a magnet to rugs. My truck is filthy on the outside, the windows are dirty, I have monkey butt and I think I have PMS.

The wind was blowing pretty good coming back over 17 a little while ago. I really don't know how to gage how much wind is too much. The speed limit was 75 and I caught up to a van real quick and he was doing 55 so I figured maybe that was a clue so I stayed with him. Does going slower lessen your chances of being blown off the road. Do I have to worry about that pulling a flatbed?

I pulled out of the parking lot after delivering my load and saw this blue haired 3 foot 110 year old woman coming down a side street to the stop sign and my 6th sense kicked in. She didn't even stop and went right across the road into the next. I stopped pretty quick and she went in front of me with 6" to spare. I would have hit the air horn but figured that would have killed her. Probably Aunt Bee on her way to Andy's house.

I have one more delivery but I'm out of hours and tired. I'm about 50 miles from the customer site and sitting at American something truck stop in Flagstaff. Just had a crapola catfish lunch, stale bread, mush for vegetables and watered down mashed potatoes.

Saw 3 Elk on the side of the road. Thought they were taking a nap then realized they were dead. They must have been together when crossing the highway.

Time to update my truck on the load boards for tomorrow and see if I can get closer to home.

They did a study and determined that at 100 mph a car only has something like 4 lbs of pressure on the roadway,like 1 lb for each wheel,so yes speed does have some effect on stability from wind.

I don't think anyone including myself can give a definitive answer on when too much wind is too much it is a feel thing,whenever I can't stay in my own lane I get off.I have only stopped once and that was during a tornado warning in Arkansas :o

She still is! :D :D

Hey Steve,

next time your in flagstaff go to the Little america TS and go to the hotel and eat. It is usually very good and prices are reasonable.

We have never had to stop for wind....yet, but it sure does a number on fuel mileage!! :shock:

tootie

That's were I am right now and that's where I planned to go but I guess the store has a little place too and I just ordered not realizing it wasn't the restaurant in the hotel.

So, can I assume that's a signal to slow down or stop when your being pushed out of your lane?

The other post was was locked because enough was enough. People seem to have issues with understanding that the name-calling and sniping has gone way beyond old. At the point I shut it down, there were SEVERAL current posters creating alternate 1-post wonder accounts to continue the cyber-slapfest.

As a reminder, this happened a couple years ago and those that played the game, no longer are part of CAD. It is a violation of T.O.S., is easily traceable, and very unoriginal. :roll: If I had the time or the inclination to go back through almost 30 pages of posts looking for more IP matches and such, I'd end up banning a few regulars, I would wager.

So, be content to start it over here. If it gets out of hand again, it'll get shut down and IP checks will be run to see who will be kicked out of the sandbox.

So, get along! :P

Either that or when you couldn't force a needle up you know where with a hammer! :lol:

I rolled into Show Low Arizona yesterday pretty early to drop my load of plastic pipe off and was 3 hours early.As I was about to turn into the side street there was a nice 24 hour Walmart Superstore there, what luck, I was out of just about everything. $280 dollars later I was at the customer site unpacking everything and putting it away. I put in Gladiator DVD for the millionth time and lay on the bed watching it till they open. They unload me and are a bunch of real characters. Retired Army and Navy guys arguing the best way for me to turn around and pull out. I let them tell me what to do as this is making there day. I think I did need the help anyways. I get turned around and headed out and flip my arm up and hell, Damn Navy know it alls. I leave them both laughing.

So, back on the road headed about 100 miles to the nearest major highway. It's daylight now and had no idea what I missed coming in. I mean the desert was flat and went on for as far as the eye could see. One drawback to driving some at night. I get about 80 miles and pull over to take a snooze and think about what I'm going to do. I need to get home soon so I figure I will drive from like 3 in the morning till noon time. I'll figure out where I'll be by noon and post my truck as available and keep doing that and dead head all the way home if I have to.

I wake up from my nap and the phone rings from TMC the flatbed company. They see I was in Show Low and have a load going from the copper mine in Morenci AZ which is in the opposite direction than I'm going. In fact, it's 100 miles the other side of Show Low that I just left. The load is going to Norwich CT which is pretty close to NH so this makes my day.

I turn around after having coffee of course and head back through Show Low. The guy at TMC was pretty adamant about giving me instructions on how to get there. I go on to Google and they don't even list the roads I'm going to take once I get close. I have to take a non direct route because some of the roads are so rural they can't handle trucks. I don't know why though.

I go through Show Low and start heading into no-mans land. I mean, I'm OUT THERE!!! I look down and have a 1/4 tank and that makes me nervous. I come across a small station and this is the last I'm going to see for some time. It's run by Apache Indians and I pull up to the pump with my door open making sure I'm going to clear the little roof with my pipes and I do. I'm there for like 45 minutes just filling up one tank because it's meant for a car and not a truck. I have to do it $100 at a time because that's the stations limit.

On my way and the scenery is great. I'm going through heavy forest on a nice 2 lane road. I can see ahead it looks like the woods are on fire and they are. It's the forest service cutting down all the little stuff on each side of the road for maybe 100 feet and putting it into a pile and burning it. I'm assuming that's to stop a fire from really getting going from someone throwing a butt out the window or some hing.

This is way cool now. Real log homes and little ranches. Not a tourist attraction. These are the real things people live in and work. Something Hollywood would rent to do a movie.

I'm starting to go up now and the trees are disappearing and the range is opening up. HOLY MACKEREL, it's like the Grand Canyon. I can't say enough, it was breath taking. It didn't matter which direction I pointed my camera the views were unbelievable. The road is getting real curvy with hair pin corners, switchbacks and one 7% grade after another, up and down, left and right. If they made a commercial about being a truck driver, this is the road they would film it on. I kept pulling over onto many of the places on the sides and was just awestruck. A few drivers going by asked on the CB if I was OK. I said I couldn't help it, it's just amazing. I mean, I'm standing 1 foot away from a 4,000 foot drop to the bottom. No railing, no signs, this is the way it is out here.

Once again, I remembered what Rocky what's his name said and had both feet on the floor with my Jakes on full and in 5th gear going 35mph down the grades. I'm sure this will be a treat on the way out loaded but I don't think I have to come back the same way. There are no runaway ramps, they don't need them. You pretty much drive off the cliff so your not obstructing the road, problem solved. I tell ya though, driving through those windy roads was great. I was doing maybe 35 and turning the steering wheel 3/4 turns back and forth. I felt like Speed Racer without the monkey on my back.

Oh yea, almost forgot. Arizona state prison is out here in the middle of the desert and it's HUGE. Great place for it. There's no way your going to walk out.

So it finally starts to level out after 100 miles of this and I'm coming into good size little town nestled in the middle of nowhere. I'm starving and what do I see in front of me to the right but a KFC which I love. I'm at a light and in front of me is a gas station and I see 2 big trucks parked to the right so I shoot forward across the lights only thinking of KFC and realize I can't make the turn into the station. Those trucks entered down the road. Now I'm on a dead end and I'm lucky there was a great place to pull off to the side and that's where I spent the night after my KFC of course. It worked out because I'm going to have to back up into the street and I could not have done that yesterday because of the traffic. Not a lot but I would have caused a problem.

It's 1am here and plenty of time to have coffee, make out an invoice for my last job, download porn and read the forum. lol Here are some pics.


http://www.btiserver.com/steve/Dsc00599.jpg
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http://www.btiserver.com/steve/Dsc00607.jpg
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wow, what an awesome place. looks like a nice drive 8)

Yup, probably the best ride I've taken to date. I've done about 100 miles already and in a small town grocery store parking lot having coffee and checking the map. There's only 1 road into where I'm going. My GPS tried to give me a better route that it said would knock off 1/2 an hour. When it told me turn it was a dirt road into the desert!!!

All the truckers that pass you at night out here say something like clear all the way, no cows or whatever spotted.

I have broadband access at them moment with 3MB download in this little hick town. I guess out here cell and Internet coverage are a very important lifeline to the outside. Pretty cool.

I've been out for maybe 5 weeks now and will be glad to get home and take a week or 2 off. I'll probably haul a few 500 mile or less loads in during that time but plan to come back home after.

I think an important thing to grasp if your going to do what I'm doing is that you MUST be prepared to head out for at least 3 weeks at a time and go wherever you can get a load to. If your planning on being home every night or weekend, forget it unless your hooked up pretty good with shippers which I only have two at the moment.

I've worked with a lot of good brokers so far but chances are I will never hear from them again. You have to be in the right place at the right time for them to have a load for you. The TMC rep sounded like he could keep me busy with flatbed loads, we'll see.

I love Arizona, cool pics!

Made it here in one piece. What a last 10 miles. The road ends here at the copper mine and it's HUGE!!! I had to take a right off the access road onto a dirt road that went around a sharp U-Turn then straight down to the bottom. I could see all the workers coming up the mine mountain over the side maybe 3,000 feet below. I was in first gear with my foot on the brake shaking. I'm sure any of the other truckers would have blown by me!!! lol There's another TMC driver here ahead of me waiting since yesterday. The lady at the guard shack said they have to harvest more copper. I guess only the real good stuff goes back East she said so they have to refine it more and it's not ready yet. Don't care. I'm on my way home with this load.

Be carefull coming down out of that place, you will be around 44K

The customer in Norwich Ct is open 24 hours a day, they take it anytime 8)

Just curious PM me the rate, I'll check back and see if its the same I got.

Copper
 

Steve,

Have you had to think about safeguarding high dollar loads yet ? I read somewhere, (Flatbed Fred ?) that it's a good idea to keep your copper load tarped to keep out prying eyes and don't talk about the load while enroute.

Copper is right at $2.60 per lb on the market. What would that make your load worth in the black market scrap metal trade ?

Would this be considered high dollar freight and warrant increased security awareness ?

Maniac: What are your comments on this ?

NFRay

Its a no tarp load, and I have $100,000 in cargo liability, if THEY accept my insurance then the load is worth less than that otherwise they would want more insurance.

As far as protecting it, if "they" want it I won't stop em. :)

Steveoh :P

Hey man. Glad to hear that you're enjoying the driving. Thanks for the interesting writings. So you're at the copper mine. Is that near Marana,AZ? I picked up a load of copper sheets at the mine south of Marana. Sounds like the way you're going. The mine was out in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden,I turned,and there it was. That was some of the most beautiful country that I have seen. Out there in Arizona,both northern,and southern. The drive down from Flagtown to Phoenix in I-17 is pretty too. Drive it in the daytime,so you can see everything. Thanks for the posts.

Great photos. Arizona has some beautiful country. Now get someplace with a truck wash and get that truck polished up. :D

With that kind of weight he will most likely smoke is brakes the whole way down.

Show Low is on the Devil's Highway

I didn't have a problem nor did I have a problem in Colorado with 40k going over the mountain passes and grades more than 7%. You need to read Rocky's writeup on how to come down a mountain. My feet are on the floor in the proper gear and the jake on all the way down.

I agree but it was absolutely breathtaking.

I finally got into the mine about 9am after sitting for hours. I had to watch a safety film and do all sorts of paper work since it was my first time going in. I go down and pull behind 3 other flatbeds and wait to get loaded. They are pretty quick. A TMC driver behind me comes up to talk a bit. He's a trainer and was heading out with this load to pick up a new student. I didn't have a hardhat and he gave me a brand new one and said TMC supplies them for free. I went to pull out $20 bucks but he wouldn't take it. We talked for a while and was a little surprised I just went out on my own. Like GMAN, he was polite and said nothing. He checked how I secured stuff and said I did good.

I left there and right away down a hill to the little town. Where are my brakes? Oh yea, 44k will do that, push a little harder. The truck rides so much nicer with a load. It's amazing how just 10 little squares of copper can weigh so much. They guy from TMC did say not to leave your truck and trailer unattended overnight as this is a hot commodity to steal.

Out onto the open road after a few hills then straight flat sailing. Went through a small town right before the scales that looked like a scene out of a Mexican movie plot. Run down stores, closed up businesses and stores that looked like they were lucky if they sold $5.00 worth of stuff a week. Lots of places to drink though!!!

Pull into the scales and the girl behind he counter just looked at my load and waved me on without stopping.

Truck is running great but I can really feel the weight. Need to bring the tach up before shifting though or you lose a lot of momentum. My truck and trailer are just covered with dirt and oil all over the place. They must have put something on the road or I was following someone. Not sure where it came from.

I'm shut down early today. I'm filthy, no clean clothes to wear so I'm at the Pilot on 70 I think doing laundry and going to take a shower. I went into Arby's and dropped 3 things of ketchup and my coke on the floor. It went everywhere including all my clothes, face and hair. I need a maid right now!

No-It actually is Called the Devils Highway-It used to be Route 666

Uh Steve... I have done this a tad longer than you have. Also I live and run here in the West sooooooo I kinda have an idea of how to run over and down passes and grades including some 9%ers. :roll: :roll:

Well then, your all set like me, just wanted to make sure.

:shock: Look at that guys Fro. :shock: What's his name again?
Lets paint some mountains here, a little tree there, look... isn't that nice.
Good job, I know you can do it.. When I was younger and came home in the middle of the night, after going out for a few, that guy would be painting on TV all the time. It was like the twilight zone.

On another note Steve. You said you were thinking about some short loads around home. I do a good amount of work here in New England. I do mostly 150 mile loads and less. They pay very good if you pick the right ones. You can rent a Van trailer and stay around your area as long as you like. When your ready, just return the trailer and hit the road again. Just an idea for you. I say rent a van because there is so many Van loads available.

Ok Sid, thanks. I'll keep that in mind although for the moment I'm really enjoying cruising around and it should only get better when spring and summer get here. I don't think I'm ready for NY or any of the other big cities yet. That Boston run I did was enough for me right now. I'll stick to the boonies, I love it out here.

10/4 8)

That would be 2.5. Give me a harder one! :D

NO dipshit :P ...he was tellin' you it was ten till four...that's what that means!!! His clock must just be a little fast!!!! j/k (you know I luv ya Steve!)

Intellectuals get on my nerves. :roll:

Inte...what!!!!!