I'll probably go prostar eventually thanks everybody. Yes im concerned about weight but honestly... i HATE hauling coils and if the moneys close i go for lighter loads. Pays off in the end (fuel, wear on truck, time).
I love the idea of at 780 or even 70 but ive heard repeatedly maintenance costs are high and hard to come by. And i like the prostars a lot. I like 387's a LOT. But they dont turn worth a crap and split axles are already horrible at that. And its not worth the extra money for the peterbilt name if i'm not getting a cat engine to boot. I'll look for a 13 speed prostar with an apu when the time comes.
Money: I cleared 1250 or so on this settlement. Last settlement i cleared 350ish (700 mile trip to delaware). I havent had tiem to delve into the math there.. i was thinking i should have cleared a lot more but i think i have 2 weeks of payments tied up in there (no truck payment first 3 and some other things but everythign else is in there). And this week was screwed because of the bullsh** unloading the iowa run. Two days to unload 11 plastic containers.. bs. Anyway the money is actually fine.
This week: hell. I plan on delivering monday both stops then picking up or worst case pick up in the morning. And this load is "hot". they told me they were running out and neeeded it badly if i could make it. First stop they take forever. Cant make second in time so ill deliver in the morning. They take hours. My dispatcher actually finds me a load (i had been looking at) that requires more dunnage than i have so im forced to go to lowes and drop 80 bucks on pretreated lumber (all they had that would work). Hour away from pickup they cancel the load (GRRR). I look for more cant find anything really. Windshield is cracked and I WILL run out of the 70 soon and wont get much back for days. I call dispatch and tell them screw it im going home ($ 100 fuel wasted going to pick up load. $100 more to go home).
Key breaks off in lock at home (seriously frieghtliner.. seriously??????). $80. Call companies glass guys they say cant get a windshield til tomorrow yada yada. I call frieghtliner they ask when i want to pick it up... i pick it up and call my best friend who installs glass. He asks me for 60 to do it. we sit in front of the house with a beer and put it in. I pay him 100 bucks. He's my buddy and im not hurting.
Get a call about doing a load from asheville to middletown ohio hauling plastic pipe. I heard about this load and watned to check into it. Show up.. 2 or 3 hour weight (bad timing). I leave and go get new glasses made. Come back and apparently they were shocked i left *shrug*. The guys loading were awesome. If i ever do this load again im taking them pizza or oranges. oranges used to be my trademark. Problem with this load is it's short.. 384 miles. Upside.. i can load in the morning and go home.. or wake up at noon and go pick it up.. etc. downside is its 384 miles. 2-3 hours to load (including waiting). 2-3 hour unload. Upside no tarping (smoke tarp only) and pipe is TOP heavy wow. Heres the bad part. Got a call from alabama offered me a load to pa. Said it paid good and they kept bidding it up. I had committed to the agent that id call her back when windshield was fixed to assure here id do the asheville load so i said no. Called her and .. she'd given it away (not sure if im upset or not i did take a while). I think shes trying to get me to compete for them. Wont happen.
Checked the boards HOLY CR** the load from sc to pa paid about 3 per mile. And theres a run back. I could have made a grand clear running it up and say 6-800 running back (thats Gross profit - fuel/maint). @#$#@$.
I see the load is still on the board along with about 5 nearly identical runs paying a little less. I wait til morning and start calling.. noone is answering their bloody phones.. how do agents make money??? I get a call one of the drivers dropped on the pipe load. I can take it and go.. or wait for the pa runs which may be taken (the others paid good not Awesome). I decided to take the pipe run since neither agent was answering their phone.
I wish to god i hadnt.
When im loading i realise i have ot do soemthign with this big heavy timber. I say screw it and give most of it to the loader. It's too heavy to deal with and id have to mount it weird along the flatbed frame. I make a bulkhead out of 2 and give the rest away. Deliver to lowes dc in ohio and .. theres a bunch of dry 6x6 hardwood dunnage therer. SCORE (i still prefer 3x3). Karma baybee. The dock guy and i bull**** forever while unloading. Coulda been out much faster but gotta enjoy life while u can. Lowes dc wasnt bad at all and no rolling tarps etc was awesome. I get a coil load to pick up from ak steel in middletown. First time chaining a coil other than "class". I get in.. have to buy a hardhat from them (thank god ive searched for one for 2 weeks). Get inside and.. no frickin edge protectors. I checked my truck for all but that and assumed they were buried under the giant mass of rubber and lumber in the side box (i have never had time other than hometime to do a proper inventory and to heck with htat). I sigh write it off to murphys law, shake hands and say bye. The dock guys were awesome and helpful. I get outside and do the trucker whine to another trucker who.. gives me 4 edge protectors. I give him a couple plastic edge guards to make up for it pull back in and am good to go (they require 2 chains to roll out). I get in and load. These binders have never seen a drop of wd 40 and its cold as crap . UGH. I get it chained and pull out. they hand me basically my original paperwork. I chain , strap and tarp, get to security and they want the tag off the coil. They handed me a tag the first time which i gvve back. i dont have one this time. Not sure if i lost it (doubt it but possible) or they didnt hand it to me. ARGH. Guard is an ass. I go back in talk to them. the guy inside is nice but a rule guy.. makes me untarp/strap/chain. Removes roll calls his supervisor to see if they can get this fixed. Yes it was ap ita but it's his job i have no problem.. not his fault its' mine. Supervisor comes down gets me a new roll etc. The guy tells me to just do my thing inside since noone else is coming and i completely strap/tarp/chain inside. MUCH quicker as first time i was freezing and blind. Still im DEAD and covered in sweat and suit and hurting when im done. Total load time 8 hours. I will never go back to ak steel period. theres nothing wrong with the company or the dock guys. But it was a bad experience and exactly why i avoided that. Also i dont mind tarping but i HATE binders. My "avoid coils" rule along with my "avoid aluminum" rule was reinforced strongly.
In the end i get home the next day at 3:30 and spend all day with my niece then party all night with my friends who i feed so many shots i had my own personal bartender
(THIS is why i truck people.. friends and family).
My "end of first period" impressions:
CRST's maintenance REALLY pisses me off. $500 out of this settlement. thats frickin ridiculous. I could buy a second truck as backup for that. And a SWEET truck.
This truck is sortof getting better. Once it warms up 50 miles or so it seems to get some staying power. It NEVER has "pulling" power (torque). If i drive 62 i do 25mph up every 2% grade. If i do 65 i can haul 44 up a 3 or 4% grade and usually never drop below 55. Honestly though weight seems irrelevant to the truck it doesnt really haul differently regardless of weight. That coil pulled as easy as the pipe. I think they have ti turned down.. except on cruise. I use the cruise almost solely as accelerator most of the time now. You can hear the turbo kick in with it. The turbo doesnt kick in with the pedal. I need to have that checked sometime.
My driver marker light is out . Was going to replace it on my way home but its my run home, it's daylight, and im not sure which bulb to buy. Ill take it apart tomorrow when i deliver 60 miles from home and pick one up at a truck stop. also rear marker got cracked (?????????????????). Picked up a cheap one at the truck stop. I'll replace it at the same time . It still lights its just cosmetic.
Duct taped the crap out of this tarp. Anyone have better solutions? Id try black helicopter tape but dont know where you can buy it.
I'm going to try to grab some long runs early. Id LIKe to get a 600 mile run in tomorrow and get it on this settlement so ill have a check. right now i think i paid for the truck thursday and friday. (no truck payment til next week). If i can run 600 -900 to deliver tuesday i'll be good to go. Im not stressing regardless. Id LIKE to run up to iowa but that's hit and miss on loads out. Id like to run farther west maybe to east texas but REALLY wary of getting freight that isnt pocket change out of texas. Ive seriously seen full loads that pay .80cpm out of texas with no fsc. And indiana load would be good to hit a maint facility (rockport) but they LOVE them some steel/aluminum up there and i have no desire for that nor for sitting a day. I want the oil changed, the passenger seat replaced and for them to check on the computer settings and compression . I need more power flat out.
Summary: money is fine here.. you can make as much as you want. Maintenance plan is utter bull****. Its bs im paying 500 for maintenance and so far have had to pay 200 for a windshield, 80 for a key (bent when i got it and all freightshaker keys do this crap.. the replacement i got Is steel. the freightshaker original is garbage pot metal.. i know metal). 50 for an airline that they might reimburse or not (havent thought of faxing it in when i was near one). I can run the asheville to oh twice a week and something back and clear maybe 650 if im lucky with anything i can do on friday as a bonus. For a lazy trucker this woudl be a dream. Id be home late tuesday night. Leave home at noonish to pick up wednesday. Only drive around 400 a day. Be back home thursday night sometime (expecially if i could get an earlier unload at lowes dc. noon sucks).I think for now ill grab the longest highest profit load i can for mondays then spend the week working my way back home. that way you get the truck paid for quick and the rest of the week i decide between home and money. If i want a $500 week and to relax and go home early i can do that or i can run my butt off.
THIS IS DIFFERENT!! I dont mind being out!! it's weird! i think of my truck as my home. Ive NEVER done that. I ahted being out!! I dont now.. because >I< decide when and what i do. It makes all the difference on the planet people omg. this is exaclty what i thought it was. When i go o/o i WILL be leasing to crst (after i look closer at their settlements).
Now to equip my truck. I need more edge protectors(chainthrough!). Also: tv. mobile sattelite. A new fridge/microwave/inverter. Im thinking of trying the deep cycle battery idea instead of a generator or apu. I really only need one for a couple hours to fall asleep too. I need more storeage of EVERY kind. This is NOt a 387. The standard truck cabinets are idiotic. But in truckign once someone does something thats the way everyone does it for a decade *sigh*. When i buy my truck the upper bunk is toast and handbuilt cabinets are going in as are both side cabinets. I'll replace the driver side with a good sized fridge. Ill have one built or build one for the passenger side. Going to walmart tonight to pick up an lcd tv and either antenna or stuff to make one. Also the stuff to make a laptop mount. I can make these in my sleep. Im thinking a Lot of industrial velcro for now to mount the tv. I really want to find some good advice on in cab cooking. also im getting one of the coffee pots with the thermos pot those are awesome in a truck. Forget all this dc stuff it's crap and just dumbly designed by people who have theories about living in a truck. going to take my $$$ electric skillet when i can spare money for a 2500 watt inverter (1000 is plenty but heck iwant extra). Stopping at a harbor freight asap to pick up a cheap cordless to strapwind.
So far i like this and the company. ONLY downsides are maintenance plan bs, i hate coils, i want to burn this annoying lumber tarp, and my engine belongs in a camry.
Thanks for all the advice guys keep in coming please you guys are the only reason i could make this work.
