Well after two years and 300,000 miles on my 0ld T660, I asked for a new one, and I got one. The interior is much nicer on these ones, I like the design a lot. Without any cabinet doors it gives the sleepers a more spacious feel, and easier access to the closets. However the down side is you don't get any kind of a table like the foldout ones in the older trucks, but it's okay because I got my own.
Well when I was home last month I parked my truck in its usual safe haven and went home, normally I check in on it every day, but this time I went two days without checking and when I went back to check on it I found the driver side window rolled down, the CB ant. missing and the passenger door daylite window shattered, that's the little square window by the feet.
I already knew without looking that obviously my CB and GPS and anything of value would be gone. The person cut off the seal on the outside window and then used the CB ant. to bash in the inside window, since it's double paned. They stole my CB and GPS and all the DVDs and CDs and computer games I had in my shelf. The police came and took the report, but of course there isn't much they can do, the stuff is gone and the thieves would obviously have worn gloves.
They left the CB ant in the cab of the truck, and also they didn't steal my XM radio thank goodness. I went out and bought a new Cobra29 chrome radio at a cost of $90.00 and I took it to a CB shop in Ohio and had it peaked and tuned, connex board and a LED color changing meter light installed for $70.00, which I thought was a good deal, until the CB blew up and started smoking! Hell I couldn't even hook it up it would blow a fuse every time, and the CB shop man said he didn't know what was wrong with it, it must be the wiring in my truck he said.
So later that night I took it to another CB shop along my route in WV and it turns out the first guy had no idea what he was doing, he had everything shorted out, even the meter light! It costs me another 80.00 to have him repair the CB, which was a mess, wires melted and burnt together. He finally got it all working though, and now I've learned a valuable lesson, don't ever leave anything valuable behind when you're away from your truck! Even though I've been fine there all these years, it only takes that ONE time to lose everything.
With the addition of electronic logs to the fleet comes many more relays that need to be done. This may be in part to drivers not being able to change there old ways of taking breaks during the day then using "creative logging" later to make it all fit within the 14 hour rule. I know for me it gets tough especially during the early morning hours because I like to be able to take a nap sometimes but I cant because the 14 hour rule will mean I wont be able to get all the miles done I need to for that day. I was headed out to Denver when I had relay a load in Spiceland, IN that needed to be in Lees Summit, MO and Harrisonville, Mo the next day so I did that and took my break in Harrisonville before making two more deliveries in KS the next day.
The only place for taking a break was this little small cafe off of the US highway there. It was pretty neat to see an old smoky cafe with the farmers all sitting around BS'n and having dinner. It definitely had the southern home style feel to it, and the food was great, I had the catfish. Anyhow after my break was up I made my two deliveries one down by Wichita and the final in Hutchinson and then I took another 10 hour break there and headed to Holcomb, KS where I picked up a load going to PA.
I made it into Ohio but I was going to be about three hours late so this time I needed a relay, so we relayed just north of Columbus and I took his load and spent the night at the house and delivered the next morning in Huron. I then reloaded in Huron for a load going to Memphis, this was on a Friday and the load didn't deliver until Monday, so I again relayed a load and took it up to upstate New York and drove through a driving blizzard and delivered that then went to NJ and picked up a load to Lenexa, KS , which I actually got to deliver, but while waiting to reload back at Lees Summit I got asked to relay a hot load going back to Edison, NJ so I went back to the Petro at Oak Grove and relayed the load and finished my 10 hour break and also had dinner with Trucker Steve and Trucker Adam.
I got that load delivered in NJ on Friday and picked up a load going to Loveland, CO which I relayed in Girard, OH and came home for a few days off. I'll be back on the road Tuesday.
I been thinking about doing this for awhile, it seems now days so many people are in trucking because they feel it's the only job left they can get, and they are miserable and they bitch and moan about there job all day long. Was a time in America where just about everyone was a trucker because they wanted to be, and they loved it!
I certainly have had my moments, it can be a love/hate relationship sometimes. Usually caused by stress or missing the wife back at home. But usually don't last long. I always try to live every day on the road for the fun, and not get to caught up in all the gloom and doom on the CB radio, XM radio truckers, whatever medium a trucker can use to communicate there will inevitably be a certain amount of bitching and complaining, it's just the nature of us.
So anyway I noticed a few months back they opened up the American Trucker Tattoo shop at the AMBest truck stop on I70 in Brazil IN, exit 23, so I made up my mind this is what I want to do to show my love and dedication to this way of life. From now on everyone will be able to tell I am PROUD to be a trucker!
This is my CB radio, a Cobra 29 LTD Black Chrome (not the chrome edition) with an American flag Astatic mic, peaked and tuned with echo board. For the past 2 years I've been using that cheap plastic external speaker you see here, this week I made some new additions to the radio setup by adding a Road Pro chrome external speaker and 2 K40 coil antennas. Both are much more heavy duty than what I was using previously and this had improved my radio performance considerably! It is absolutely amazing. I'm walkin' that dog, and kickin' that possum, now my radio is totally awesome!! whoop whoop!!
How is everyone doing? Been awhile since I've been on here, been pretty busy the freight has really been picking up lately for us. Had my wife with me for a few weeks then dropped her off at the house and went to KS and got a load going back to OH and I picked her up again, so I was only gone about 4 days and we just couldn't stand being apart. Kept her out with me a few more weeks. We dropped the truck off at the terminal in CO for a "B" service, which is oil change and full service. We dropped the truck off on a Friday and we spent the night at her Aunt's house. We had a load going to UT and were supposed to deliver Sunday night then pick up and head to CA.
When we came back to the truck on Saturday they told us our truck had been sent to KW for a bad oil sample, coolant in the oil, and was supposed to be ready to go that day. But KW didn't have the parts and we ended up stuck there until Monday in the motel. This is the 3rd time in three months my truck has been in the shop because of problems with the coolant and every time they have to replace parts in the DPF system because the coolant is going out the exhaust, and with the new emissions control systems it doesn't fair well with coolant. In the old days coolant could shoot out the exhaust and it wouldn't really hurt anything, but not the case now days with all this high tech gadgetry.
So we lost our load to UT and we got out Monday night and headed to KS and picked up a meat load for NJ and I dropped mama off at the house and went on too NJ. Now they tell me I have to go back to KW again and have the "clean power" system taken off my truck. It was a battery operated APU system that KW engineered but it turned out to be a big failure, plagued with so many problems the company just decided to take them all off I suppose. However they didn't have the parts when I was in town so I escaped that for now. I will have to completely clean out my truck and give it to them for a day so they can remove all this junk, on the plus side after they remove that big tank of water from under my bunk, I should have a nice big storage spot now! I'm looking forward to that for sure. LOL
In the electronic logs I have been pretty happy, however it seems to cause some confusion with the DOT officers so I have started keeping paper logs as a back up along with my ELOGS so I can just hand them my logbook and keep it simple for them. Also a few times the sensor has gone out on my ELOGS and I've been left with no records for a period of time. So it's always best to not put your faith in anything high tech, because if DOT wants your logs and you don't have any they are not going to care that your ELOGS are down and you got caught off guard! Just make sure you keep your paper logs matched up exactly with your ELOGS. Don't want the DOT to cross check your paper logs with your ELOGS and find any errors on your paper sheets! LOL
If you hand the DOT paper logs then that is what you're showing as your log book, but they could check it against your ELOGS if they want too, and if your paper logs don't match then it's falsification because that's what you gave them as your logs ya see....
Anyway I ran from McDonough GA out too Denton, TX and back to McDonough and now I'm headed to Memphis for Monday and Tulsa, OK for Tuesday. Spent a little time with Dominick, "Trucker Low Gear" from the local chrome shop here in Jackson , TN today and now I'm just relaxing waisting time on the laptop. LOL Did a good interior cleaning on the truck again today. Mama did a great job when she was on the truck, but it seems so hard to keep it clean for long around here! Ya'll take care and thanks for reading. Please check out www.YTTrucking.com for ALL the YouTube truckers out there! Many of them I'm subbing to now I didn't even know existed.
