Profile For Brian

I'll be interested all of these especially the one on the postal service. Are any of these ebook Rainy? Or on kindle rather.

That was a heck of a journey Grumpy. Or should i say driver. Now for the real fun.

I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer taped to the bottom of the gear shifter. I swear i go through one ever 2 weeks.

That was a very interesting read Rainy. Thanks for sharing that.

Brett makes a great point on parts.

Most of Prime is FL and they have a wide selection of parts in stock. Petes,Volvo, and International need to go to the dealers more often because of it. Lease op friends all want a Volvo but say the parts costs more.

It also comes down to fuel economy. FL are lighter than Petes Volvo and International, so Prime puts most company drivers of full size in FL and the lease ops get the others. they figure the lease ops can pay more for fuel rather than the company. I have friends who leased several FL in the past and now have a Pete. He says he spends 10% more on fuel with the Pete and he is going back to the FL.

However, drivers want what they want when living OTR. I see men in the parking lots arguing over 1 brand new Pete when there are 40 other trucks there. They never drove a Pete and have no idea if they will like it, but almost all the new male drivers i meet want a Pete. Therefore companies wont order trucks that are uncomfortable or difficult to drive. I was told a year ago, Prime was getting away from the Internationals. But then the trans and engine changed, so now Prime is amping up the ordering with another 800 coming in the next couple of.months.

My friend owns a Volvo and she says it drives like a cloud. She never mastered a manual so when her hubby suggested the auto she jumped for it. She swears she will never drive anything but a Volvo again. But, it is heavier therefore she spends more in fuel. I took it out for a quick spin and it feels a lot like my International. However she does pay a lot more in fuel than my boyfriend does for his auto FL.

Weight is another issue. The FL are lighter, even the full size are lighter than the others. that means more freight weight in the trailer and possibly more money for the load. This is also why they get better fuel economy. It is another reason why they are "freight shakers" and so bouncey and rocked by wind. Some shippers get charged a flat rate for a load, whether 1000 pounds or 44k, so using heavier trucks for lightee loads may not cost that much.

So parts, fuel economy, weight, driver favorites, and dealership deals.

I have driven 2012, 2015, 2016 FLs, a 2015 Pete, and a 2017, 2020 International.

Because I dont have to pay for fuel etc, My favorite by far is the 2020 International. The FL seems so flimsy and weak in comparison. Ten mph wind will rock you and they creaked a lot when turning or in wind. The Pete and Internationals felt a lot more solid but can be dangerous in the wond because you dont feel it until its in the 30mph range.

I drove a Pete for a few weeks in training and it was difficult for me. The hood mirrors were so low I couldnt see them and I would pull myself up by the steering wheel to get a peak. The seats were higher too, and even on the lowest setting, i could hardly reach the pedals. Every time I hit a bump, the seat went up and down and my foot went on and off the pedals creating a stop go, stop go effect. The manual shifter was more boxy than the FL which made shifting for a newbie easier. It did have a "blindside" warning sensor which i liked if someone was on your right and you turned your blinker on.

At first when i saw the international i thought it had less cabinets and wasted open space. My under the bunk space is completely taken up by the ThermoKing APU. I am guessing that is a Rigmaster vs TK issue not a truck issue. It has features like power locks that activate when you put it in drive. There seems to be better lighting, and even the mattresses are better for the students. However, after driving it for a few months, I didnt want to turn in my 2017, despite the issue it had. So now i have a new one and Yay! luxury, power, and it actually drives!!! lol

i hope this helps

I'm still on paper (pre eld engine) but this was great info I also had no idea and will be a great reference for when i do end back up on elogs. I don't think all companies are on the page with this rule. The smaller ones at least. Great info Bill.

Haha gorilla tape, bungee cords, and zip ties not much that combo can't fix.

Duct tape. It fixes everything!

I would think as long as it's secure and not flapping in the wind about to tear off you should be okay.

I was thinking the same. Pulling for ya Packrat.

Thoughts are with you Packrat.

Couple questions for you Juicebox. What has been your average length of haul? How many stops are you doing per load or really all depends? Thus far what would you say is the hardest part for you? And I'm assuming most (if not all) of your loading/ unloading is being done during the day?

Especially when you get into the Indiana Illinois border going Northbound. Trucks are in that lane for continuous miles. In particular he got me Northbound right pass the Ogden exit mile marker 27. I see him there everyday usually sitting there or in the tollbooth area with a customer. Always wondered what he was looking for in particular. Well now we know.

Thanks OS. And Big Tabsoulety learned my lesson. Something I never want to experience again. For me I wasn't loaded to the door. About over 3/4 full. But I VASTLY underestimated how ever pallets of milk are. I thought 1500 pounds top. But they are over 2000 pounds. Depending on if its half gallons or full. Half being heavier. Also something else I didn't take into account is the customer has trailers set for strictly hauls and other for route that the dsd companies use. Most of the time I pull the haul trailers but route will get from time to some. And those trailers have a big side lift that will pop out for the side door. I scaled myself with a similar trailer empty and came out at 41.5. Is that about what everyone else weighs?

And Bruce just embarrassed I allowed it to happen. No matter the variables. Not knowing the exact weight of something is not what DOT or the owner want to here. And also being in the lane I was in. Had I not gotten in there possible none of this would of happened. Although there were trucks to the front and back I stuck out.

I initially wasn't going to post this but I decided too so any greenhorn or member considering a career can learn from it. Learn from the collosal mistake I committed. Hopefully I don't get beat up too much over it since I've done plenty of that since it happened days ago. Extremely upset and embarrassed with myself for letting such an avoidable incident happen. Personal accountability is harped alot on TT. Well here goes.

It's something that's harped on plenty by trainers, the company, drilled into your head, made a part of your everyday routine. And that is properly scaling your load. But for me I decided to get complacent just once and it costed my dearly. I grabbed my load. Saw it was heavier than usual, but factored in what I THOUGHT the tractor, trailer, and fuel etc weighed in addition to the load and thought I was fine. I also never pass any scales. So I thought.

To shorten this up I was on my way back to the yard. 10 miles out. Watch a DOT officer as I pass him. And than watch him get behind me. Pull over give him my logs and license. Than tells me to pull into the toll booth and proceed to the very far side of the lot where a scale was. Scaled pulled a u turn in the lot. Watch him on his hands and knees under the trailer. He checked every inch. Truck and logs were fine. Not the load.

Attitude is everything when interacting with DOT. I kept a polite, positive attitude the entire time. And towards the very end he leveled with me and we had a brief but productive conversation.

Lastly, the part I really do not want to mention but will. It is said sometimes that there is more to the story. Well I asked the officer why did you pull me over exactly? Random? I certainly wasn't speeding. The response was I was in the second to left lane (4 lane highway) and I honestly was in it long. He also mentioned that my bright blue trailer caused me to stick right out too him.

Lessons:. Never, ever assume you know what you weigh. Scale and scale asap. If you are over no matter the warehouse workers attitude you get that product off and scale again.

In the end me and the company are fine. It's also something that will never happen again. So to any newbie who is not maybe be as careful. Eventually you will be caught. And ignorance is never an excuse.

You beat me too it Brett. I was also going to mention that amazing story. Who would of thought Diamond Dallas Page would be changeing lives like he did for that man with yoga. Inspiring indeed.

This should be the law I'm every state. I see it often vehicles not moving over. Especially down stretches like 294 and often wonder if they either don't care or they are ignorant to the fact it's law.

Since all of my comments are on hold, I'm not going to attempt to comment on how I feel the conversation has gone so far. But I'll say this, Hobo the "lick sack" comment was didn't help you're argument. Nobody was going to say "o, your right" in response to that.

As far as Rainy's analogy I had no issue with it, I understood it. But i can kind of see where a veteran could take it differently as you did. You're new to the forum. But I can assure you as a veteran myself, Rainy meant no ILL will towards the military. So has actually done alot for the military and as she mentioned had a armed forces member as a significant other. That is quite a sacrifice the military is going to be more near and dear to her heart than your average civilian. So in the end understand, like Grumpy was trying to explain, by her analogys like "combat zone" she didn't mean truck drivers are driving through war zones.

Maybe also double check tires when you get your tractor back to back sure those didn't suffer too much damage. I believe we had a driver who had the same issue and ended up blowing his super single tire.

Well I really showed my "behind" on that one lol for some reason I thought you were referring to trailer that's what I get for rushing through post when I read them. What's the update now?

Only my tractor haha

Yeah it was my tractor and not the trailer. Yeah,I still had problems after getting the brake chamber replaced but the shop here at TA in mocksville North Carolina, said the brakes were a little tight.

I'm leaving out in an hour and a half, so I really it fixed the problems. Because I'm already like a day behind!

I had second thoughts after I mentioned slack adjusters that is could of been a brake chamber. I've never blown one on a trailer... Only my tractor haha. But had basically the same symptoms your were describing.

Yeah I'd agree that was probably the culprit.