Saturday, May 5, 2012

Left Effingham, Illinois a half hour before sun up.  Followed a real pretty thunderstorm for a while.  Lots of lightening.  I finally caught up to it in Paducah, Kentucky.  Drove out of it after a little bit then after a while it cleared up nicely.  Stopped once all day and that was at the Alabama Welcome Center on I-65 to use "the facilities".  491 miles today.  Stopped for the rest of the weekend at the Flying J truck stop in Birmingham, Alabama.  Deliver Monday morning not too far from here.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Left Council Bluffs, IA very early this morning and drove to Bettendorf, Iowa and loaded a John Deere 644 Wheel Loader.  It is going to Trussville, Alabama.  Had a problem reattaching the trailer so it took forever!! to get out of there. 

Finally got on the road and drove down to Effingham, Illinois to the TA truck stop for the night.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Got on the road a half hour before sun up and drove to the Iowa 80 truck stop.  Picked up some extra supplies of some of the stuff that gets used a lot that I can't find at any other truck stops.  Also the fluorescent lights in the bunk were shot and I desperately needed to replace them.  Then drove to Council Bluffs, Iowa and delivered the excavator.  Stopped for the night at the TA truck stop that was 4 blocks from where I delivered. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Got a very good nights sleep last night.  Woke up still a bit stiff and sore but a whole lot better than last night.  Got on the road at sun up.  Harrisburg curfew was from 7:30 am to 9 am and sun up was at 6:06 am.  That gave me about an hour and a half to get through Harrisburg.  Smooth sailing all day.  Great day to be on the road.  Drove pretty much all day non stop.  Ran out of hours so I stopped for the night at a truck stop in Grovertown, Indiana.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Went over to the shop to see if they had worked on my trailer yesterday evening.  Nope.  It was still sitting in the yard.  New crew in there today.  The boss was back.  He had me hook up to it and bring it into one of the bays.  Four guys started right in on it.  They also did an inspection too.  Found a bunch of stuff wrong with it.  While two guys worked on replacing the bad, and broken wood on the back deck another replaced the two bad tires.  Another was underneath inspecting.  He found that the front axle driver's side breaks were low and needed replacing.  Also found a wheel seal blown on that side.  That was a real dangerous one.  Could have left me stranded.  On the passenger's side, front axle, the breaks were not even working!  New pads on it and never been used!!  The guy that replaced the two bad tires found another tire that was bad too and replaced it.  Then he took the wheels off the front axle and replaced the breaks and wheel seal.  The guy underneath greased it and worked on the break that wasn't working.  When all that was done they started to replace the wood on the bottom deck.  When they took the old wood off they found several very serious frame defects.  The boss was summoned and he looked at them and placed the trailer out of service indefinitely.  So I ended up getting a different trailer.  Fortunately it was a lot newer.  The broken one was a 1993 model.  The one I got to replace it is a 2010 model.  Much better shape!!  It is longer than the other one too.  Pulled the broken trailer out to the yard and dropped it.  Hooked up to my new trailer and swapped all my stuff over to it.  It was now after lunch time. 

Headed over to pick up my next load - the one I was supposed to pick up yesterday.  Loaded a Hyundai 290 Excavator.  My gross weight with this is 110,840 pounds and I am 10 feet, 6 inches wide.  It's a biggie.  It is going to Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

 

By the time I finished I didn't have enough time to beat the Harrisburg curfew so I went back to the Petro truck stop in Carlisle, PA for the night.  By the time I got there I felt like I was run over by my truck.  My back was aching as well as everything else!  Took a long hot shower, that helped.  Then went to bed very early!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Got started real early this morning and delivered the wheel loader first thing in North Syracuse, NY.  Then drove down to the "home office" in Carlisle, PA.  Needed to get a little work done on the trailer.  Most important was that it needed two rear tires replaced.  Also needed to get some work done on the truck.  I needed two new shocks in the rear and a new rear tire.  Dropped the trailer off at the shop.  They said that they couldn't get to it until second shift.  I went to the tire shop and got a real deal on a tire.  I replaced the bad tire with a used one that was almost a perfect match.  So instead of spending about $900.00 on tires I only spent $125.00.   Then I went and got the shocks replaced.  I can feel the difference.  Spent the night at the Petro truck stop.  Hope my trailer is ready in the morning so I can pick up my next load.  Fortunately it is only about 2 miles down the street from here.