Comments By Joe S. (a.k.a. The Blue Angel)

I also have the same problem with it squirting onto my mirrors. I keep a small window cleaner scrub next to my seat and open my window and clean my mirror. Takes three seconds.

As far is it freezing, put 100% alcohol in your windshield washer fluid. Alcohol does not freeze and should help your problem.

Great idea on the scraper beside the door. And a great idea on the alcohol. I don't have an issue with the fluid freezing. It is the freezing rain collecting on the windshield.

I did ask one of our mechanics about putting alcohol into the washer system. He said, yeah great idea. Go for it...... if you want to pay to replace the whole system.

He said over a period of time, the alcohol eats away the rubber hoses and makes them brittle. It will also pit the plastic jug. So, I have stayed away from that. But thanks for the ideas.

Haven't thought of Rain X. We used to use it when I drove bus. I really didn't care much for it. Yes, it worked great. But it seemed to put a film on the windshield that would distort on coming headlights when it was raining. It made it hard to see on two lane roads. At least for me.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. Joe S (The Blue Angel)

Maybe this isn't a new issue, but I sure could use some help if others have the same issue.

I am driving a 2013 ProStar International. I have talked to different shops in the company and can't get a good answer.

In really cold weather (below 15 degrees) if there is a freezing rain, the right side of my window, right in my view, freezes over and won't melt.

Depending on how bad the freezing rain is, sometimes I have to stop every 3 or 4 miles to let it melt off.

Once I am stopped, it clears up in a few seconds. But the second I start down the road again, I start getting my windshield frozen over.

I have tried putting a fan in the window to help move the air. I have opened my window. The passenger's window. Turned the heat up till I am cooking in my cab. I have turned the heat down till it is just warm.

I have put those things on my wipers to hold them tighter to the windshield. They help with wind, but don't do a thing with freezing rain.

I have used the cold weather washer fluid and it clears it up as long as I keep squirting the liquid on it. But as soon as I stop, it freezes over again.

And that brings me to another issue. The over-spray from my side goes right onto my mirror. It isn't long before my mirror is so covered, I can't see out of it. Is there anything that anyone knows of, that can be put on the mirror or the truck door to keep the over-spray off the mirror?

If anyone has any answers, I would deeply appreciate them.

As I have said, my company shops have been no help.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own.

Joe S (The Blue Angel)

Using the app while you are driving???

Isn't that the same thing as using your cell phone while driving? Isn't that illegal?

And unsafe to boot.

Next time you are driving by a weigh station that is open and you want to let other drivers know, make sure you let the DOT officers see you using your phone while driving.

I can't figure out the reason why you need to warn other drivers of a weigh station being open. If I am caught with a heavy load, not only will I get a ticket that the company won't pay for, I will loose my job. So, I make sure I have a legit load before I get to a weigh station.

Well most times. Sometimes you hit those "hidden" ones before you make it to a scale.

Don't get me wrong. I have all those apps. And yes, I do use them from time to time while I am driving. BUT NEVER when I am near a weigh station or going thru a town.

I use them if there is no place to pull off and I am running really behind and need to know where the next rest area or T/S is. But never when I am around lots of traffic.

My favorite app have become Trucker Path. It still has some issues that they are working on. But it is a darn good one to find a stop or plan a route.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own.

Joe S (The Blue Angel.)

I have tried and tried to find out the answer to this question, but I am coming up empty. I would appreciate help if anyone can.

I have just finished reading the DOT regulation on the 400 lb increase weight allowance. And I understand it as much as any non-lawyer can.

What I am trying to find out however is something I read a few months back about the "battery pack" APU's.

The law is very clear about the APU and the weight allowance. But what I read was a statement from the DOT stating that the battery pack was not an actual APU. It still needed the truck engine to start and run to keep the battries charged. And therfore it was not a true APU and the trucks that had the battery packs did not qualify for the 400 lb weight increase.

The reason I ask this, I was just "forced" to take an over weight load and they quoted the DOT rule to allow the trip.

It was only 420 lbs over. I know I lost some with fuel consumption. But not enough by the time I got to a scale house. Luckly they were all closed.

But 100 lb is as good as 1000 when you cross that scale.

Please help if you can shed any light on this issue.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

For the first 8 months where I am working I went thru dispatchers like crazy. I think 4 in 6 months.

Somewhere my issues, some were not.

I was getting all kinds of terrible loads 150 miles, 200 miles, 500 miles, just anything came my way I got it.

Only one time in those eight months that I ever lose my temper at a dispatcher when he tried to tell me that the computer showed me getting somewhere and I could get it there and I was stuck in rush hour traffic.

I lost my cool and told him to send the computer drive the truck.

Other than that one time I never lost my cool. But I kept getting the bottom of the barrel with loads my paychecks were terrible.

Finally I got a great dispatcher. She fought for all of her drivers. She would get me a 1200 mile load and call me with the details. Make sure I could do it and understood it.

Over 50% of the time, as soon as she would leave and go home, the load planners would pull it off me and give me a 2 or 3 hundred mile load.

I had had enough. I didn't loose my temper, but I did go over their heads to their boss. Things changed. For 2 weeks.

After another month, again I went to a boss. Things changed. For a week.

I finally went to one of the bosses, boss and told him what was going on. He sent me out west, away from the mess.

As long as my new dispatcher has anything to do with it, things are good. But something has happened again. Came off home time two weeks ago.

And for some reason again, I am being kept mostly in the east.

Maybe it is not with all companies, but here where I work, it seems the load Planners control everything. And since we never see them, we are at their mercy.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

If you have met a Canadian driver with that kind of an attitude, he is not true Canadian. LOL

While I hate crossing into and out of Canada, once there, I would much rather drive there than even here in the states.

It is rare in Canada to find the rudeness you find here in the states everywhere.

Keep it safe out here. The life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

There are loads of posts on TT about Celadon. Try going to the search bar and typing the word Celadon and the posts should come up.

I don't know anything about Stevens. So I can't say one way or another.

Just keep looking for the posts you'll find them.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

Nope, not Russian.

Let's just say. He was from a lot closer home.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

There is a difference in making a legal, required U turn vs an illegal U turn.

Try making a delivery to one of the auto plants in Detroit or Warren MI without making a U turn.

Unless you want to travel through tons of city streets, you have to make u turns in Detroit or Warren. That's how the streets are set up.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. The Blue Angel.

Something happened to me about a month ago and I am still trying to get my head wrapped around it.

I overnighted in a Flying J on I 70 east of Denver a few weeks ago. I had already closed my curtains and was watching some TV before bed.

I hear a gentle slap on my drivers door. Nothing serious so I really wasn't concerned. Something like maybe someone tripped and caught themselves on my step.

Then all of the sudden my truck starts rocking. I am thinking what the h....

I get up and pull back my drivers curtain. Here is a guy jumping all over my steps and a flatbed trailer maybe 3 inches from my fender. A cargo container touching my drivers mirror.

He has tried to pull in and didn't have the right angle. Why he pulled in is beyond me. There was tons of room to do a straight line back.

The slap I heard was the binding strap when he pulled past my mirror. Now he couldn't back up and he couldn't go forward.

I asked him how in the world he got into this mess. With a very heavy accent, and I won't say what kind. I don't want to be labled a racist, he said, "I am sorry, I am just learning."

We all have to learn, I am still learning.

I asked him where his trainer was. What he said next is what has me scared or at least very concerned.

He said, "I don't have a trainer, I am teaching myself."

I am sure some of the "Old Timmers" around taught themselves way back when. But those were different times.

Less traffic. Lighter loads. Several differences.

I just scares me to think the driver passing me in that truck might be teaching himself.

I looked the truck over. Plain, older Freightliner. No markings. No markings on the load. Just a red cargo box.

Keep it safe out here. And keep a closer eye on that truck passing you. The Blue Angel.