[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by catalinaflyer

LS Update 12/17
WOW What a week this has been and it's only Wednesday. I got into NC on Monday morning and sropped my loaded trailer, grabbed an empty and went over to the Keen yard to wait for my next load. I got a call from my DM at 10:00 asking if I can go into Canada and I said no problem, she said she would call me right back. She called back about 15 minutes later and told me she had me on a load going from where I was at to Dartmouth, NS but I would need an RGN for it. She said that they were trying to find the closest one and would get back with me shortly. Another hour and she called back to say that they had a driver in Maryland bringing one to me and he was about 350 miles out. (I had a 40 mile DH to get to where the first pick of the load was at) She said to head on up to where I was loading and he would meet me there. I had just dropped the trailer to head out when I get another call and they asked me to do them a favor while I was waiting. There was a driver in South Carolina who's clutch was out and they asked me to bobtail down there, pull him out from under the trailer and bring the load back to where I had just delivered at. 380 mile round trip and I had his load delivered for him and he was able to slip the clutch to Charlotte, NC without a load. I followed him as far as the exit for Peterbilt and figured if it crapped completely at that point they could drag him in with a pickup.

While enroute back to Sanford I get a call from the driver bringing me the RGN to tell me he was dropping it in Clayton so he could head out to get his truck serviced. I said no problem, then he proceeds to tell me that the "R" part of RGN was not R'ing. In other words the neck would not come off the trailer. I called my DM and told her what he had said but I also told her that unless someone had welded the damn thing solid that I was sure there was a way to get it working. We left it at that and I continued back to Sanford, dropped the loaded trailer then bobtailed to Clayton to pick up the RGN. I got there about 9:00pm and hooked onto it then went back over to the truck stop to see if I could red-neck engineer it off the trailer and 15 seconds later I had it in two pieces. The pull spring between the chain and pin is streatched so it takes a bungee cord to release but instead of taking 10 seconds it now takes 15. Guess it may be a little too much work for some people.

On to Tuesday morning. I pulled into the yard in Clayton to pick up the first piece, broke the trailer down, loaded, put the trailer back together, chained and headed back to Sanford to pick up the second piece. Got the machine on in Sanford and pulled around to weigh and I was 2300# over gross. I can hide a few hundred pounds but not 2300. So I call my DM and then waited for a resolution.

The RGN that they brought me was a 80' extendable which is heavier than a standard but according to the customers weights I should have been nut on 80k. Well I guess they don't add accessory weight. Anyhow I got a call back, I was to unload both machines in Sanford, take the RGN to Conyers, GA (Atlanta) drop it, grab a new, lightweight one and go back and reload them. 750 miles round trip overnight last night and finally got finished about noon today. I weighed again and now I was only 73,000. So, either that expandable was 9,000 heavier or the scale operator was off when I weighed the first one. (To give them some credit I was/am running on fumes now)

So here we are 8 days from Cristmas and I'm headed as far away to the northeast from my home as I can get and still be on the North American continent. The up side, It's only Wednesday and I already have 1600 miles in for the week.

Last but not least, I got upgraded this morning so now I'm making more money and hauling bigger loads.

Triple toot Santa as he flies past you up there.