01/09-11/-08
The past couple of days have been busy, busy, and busy. I finally got the truck and trailer completely outfitted with all my equipment, signed the lease, got my permits and received my first load.
Montana is not the greatest of places to load out of and right now everything is loading out of Butte and headed to Langeloth, PA. My cut, including FSC and after Davis takes theirs is only $2,606 to the truck. That equals out to $1.40 a mile. Not the best, but it will position me in a better rate freight area.
My initial assessment of the truck under a load is just so-so. I say this because I was not that impressed with how she pulled the hills and how the Jake worked coming down the other side. It reminds me a lot of the truck I had with the C-13 CAT. Maybe I just got a little spoiled with the Cummins. In either case I reserve the right to change my opinion at any time. :wink:
Anyways, I guess not working for about 4 weeks took a toll on me because after loading in Butte, and hitting the road, I was flat out tuckered. I only made it as far as Laurel, MT before shutting it down for the night :sad: . One thing that was nice though, I bought (in addition to the lightweight lumber tarps) a 2 piece steel/utility tarps set. They are just like the lumbers (with flaps), except they have a 5’ drop vise 8’. This made tarping a breeze over using that heavy 1 piece tarp I had with Davis. It used to take me about 2 hrs of strapping & tarping only, today it took me 1 ½ hrs and that is from the time I rolled into the plant until I rolled out.