Comments By Michael

Black mountain is a 6%. I was putting a lot of emphasis on the mountains being I got comfortable on a 8% grade. First time down it was around 78k, the second time down it I was at 79,998 and if I would have used my head I would not have been in the situation I was in. That was 15 years ago and I have no problem remembering that night. I second guessed myself on the gearing that night and instead of going one lower thought i'll be fine, 30 seconds in and I was not fine. I just consider myself very lucky to still be here.

It's just a stupid mistake on my part, because I lost respect for the down grade and wound up second guessing myself.

I don't know what I am talking about here, but it would be worth a shot with the industry and new warehouses being built you might be able to land a yard jockey job just shuttling the trailers around at the warehouses.

But, I don't know anything about that and don't know if they consider that running local either.

Just remember when your in the truck stop sitting at the bar eating or drinking coffee and you happen to slip with gas, just make sure you can fit it into gassing on it and all will be well. lol

The way I understood it was he only needs 10k miles, and wants to stay local till he hits 5k, leaving him only 5k more miles to go. If they team one sleeps other drives he will hit the remaining 5k if they both cover 1k miles a day allowing him to go solo.

I don't mean for this to come across as being smart or anything, but really if this is your first time and your wanting to go solo don't rush it because if they do a team drive thats only 5 days or less of OTR for you. You got to experience over heating the brakes, what mountain was that if you don't mind my asking? Yea,I'm being a care bear right now lol, but on a serious note, we'll just assume it was a 6% grade you smoked them on and only had 40k in the wagon. You go solo and hit the this mountain that is 9% you have 45k in the wagon and the speed limit is 25 mph with hair pin curves in it, that is a real mountain out east btw. How will you go down it? Next you have your calculating, where your going to shut down for the night, will you make it there before it gets full, or you have a multi stop load/unload, how much time can you give each before it jeopardizes the rest of the stops and my favorite they send you a preplan with a deadhead of 250 miles and 4 hours to get there and delivers 455 miles away that night. I'm not picking just letting you know when first starting and you miss an apt time they might let the first one slide, the second you will probably notice fewer miles.

I don't know anything about Celadon and yes your missing out on a lot, when 350 miles turns into 620 miles there is more involved. Also want to throw in it is always nice to have someone on board when doing the Mountains especially if there is snow, ice and chains involved, but I am just going off of what you posted.

Thank you for the replies, I had been looking on youtube as well and couldn't find anything showing what technique was used they just always appeared with the tarp already in place laying in front of them.

I am finally going after my dream of pullin flat bed and not dry van or reefer and had the enjoyment of talking with one who was telling me about how heavy the tarps can be and basically starting giving directions of how to tarp the load, folding corners and such. This went on for about three hours and also gave me a load securement book and suggested another. To my surprise when asking about weight distribution and mentioned 34k on the drives and was informed that you better check your trailer axles because your over? So how do you distribute the weight with a spread axle trailer? Secondly, when it comes to lifting the lumber tarps, I have been reading and hearing there is a proper technique that makes lifting those heavy things a piece of cake.

Lol, don't know about the rest of you all, but I always liked driving in my undies and I guess if my truck has a camera in it and it's rollin when I come out of the bunk oh well