Simple Redneck Pleasures

What can be more fun than going to the dump? Well, I'll tell you the answer. It's going to the dump in an eighteen wheeler! Now if you've never gone to a trash dump when the weather isn't so good you don't really know about the simple pleasures of slipping and sliding all over the place in your vehicle. They generally pack the roads in the dump with clay so they will hold up to the traffic, but that also makes them very slippery (and fun, in a redneck sort of way) when it's wet. I delivered a trash load to a very large trash dump in Amsterdam OH yesterday where they have had quite a bit of snow lately. Well, the melting snow and slush wed together with the clay roads made it interesting to say the least!

First off let me show you what these trash loads look like. This is a load of trash from Stratford Bailing in Stratford CT. This is called construction debris and it is bailed up tightly and enclosed in these huge green bags. What you are looking at here is about 48,000 pounds of trash. It doesn't smell too great but it's not near as bad as the trash loads I some times pick up in West Babylon, that is more like household trash. Here's what it looks like loaded and ready to roll across the five states it takes to get it to Amsterdam. Isn't that a crazy way to make a living? I went through five states today just trying to get my job done.

There's nothing like going mudding in an eighteen wheeler! You can lock in your extra drive axle and you aren't just in four wheel drive, you're in eight wheel drive! Oh, I'm being silly, this is some serious driving, and I saw more that one truck end up in the ditch. Some of the trucks had to be pushed, with a bull-dozer, up the hill to the dumping site, but you'll be glad to know that I made it under my own power. Here's a photo of the site. If you can see the equipment up on the side of the hill that is where we had to get so we could get unloaded.

I forgot to tell you about the seagulls, or maybe they should be called dump gulls that are at both the place where they bail the trash and at the dumping site. I guess these are gulls that have an aversion to fresh seafood or something, or else they are too lazy to make their living at the sea - I don't know, but they are always hanging about gathering bits of food from the trash that is being processed. I always throw them a few crackers from the cab of my truck. I don't know why, I guess I feel kind of sorry for the dumb birds, surely some little fishes from the sea would taste better than these cast off wastes from the rest of the world. Birds and people act strangely at times, sometimes life causes us to settle for so little when there is an abundance available.

As I was headed over to Amsterdam and coming through the Susquehana Valley and then through the Alleghany mountains I was wishing my daughter or wife could be here with me to enjoy the beautiful scenes along the way. Here's a photo of a mountain pass I went through. I don't like to take photos while driving, but I went ahead and snapped a quick one here.

After I got this load delivered I found out I'm headed right back to Connecticut with a sheetrock load. I'm going to have to go get my truck and my tarps washed because I don't think the people getting this sheetrock expected it to already have the mud applied to it before they hang it on the wall! Here's what my truck looked like after I got this ordeal over with.

All in a day's work. Fun, fun! I guess somewhere deep inside I'm just a little bit of a Redneck!

Awesome pics!

Years ago I worked in a construction landfill (as opposed to household garbage) and it was an adventure on rainy days for sure! We had all of the giant equipment - dozers, hoes, compactors, etc - and we had to push trucks up the hill sometimes also.

There was a steel mill down the road and I used to haul loads of stone-like leftovers from the steel-making process called slag. I would dump them on the road so the trucks could get traction. Worked great most of the time but sometimes the mud would get so deep in places the slag would just push into the soil and the trucks would get stuck.

Always an adventure!

Old School,

I am back on the road again.

I will find you this time!

Awesome pictures. Question. How and where do you go to get your trucks and tarps washed?

Old School, I know what you went thru, half of my company's business is hauling trash from the city transfer stations to the dump. we're smaller that MBI but do the same thing. our big aluminum trailers are called tippers or tuna cans. I have'nt drove those runs or been to the dumps myself. seen pictures where the drivers back on to a platform and un hook, pull up 2 feet and the platform tips the whole trailer high into the air to empty. It's a war zone out there, bull dozers pushing the trucks, whole rigs falling over sideways off the temporary road up the side of the hill. 3 foot pot holes, even with using the interlock every thing gets broke, suspensions, axles, diffs and cross members. I'm 65 years young and tired of dealing with all the carnage, thats why I'm transferring from mechanic to full time driver with the oil well Fracking Tankers . Turbo Dan

Daniel, I'll be watching my mirrors for you sneaking up on me!

Troy, you get your truck washed at a "Truck Wash". They are located all across the country, usually in close proximity to Truck Stops, or Oil Field work areas. Sometimes they are tucked away in surprisingly out of the way locations, but after you've been doing this a while you kind of learn where they are. If you drive a refrigerated truck you really learn the locations because you have to get your trailer washed out fairly often.

Turbo Dan, that is exactly how they unload us at this location. We back our trailer in to the "tipper" and unhook from it and then pull up just about a foot (just enough to clear the tipper when it raises up) then they "tip" the front end of the trailer up high enough for the bales of trash to start sliding off of the trailer.

Question, how do u properly lift up and lock self steer axles on a steel hauler? It's my first day on Monday driving a trailer like that and don't want to seem like a moron. I know u can lock the wheels up from the the trailer but don't know how.

Any pointers would go a long way in giving me some confidence in Monday.

Thanx with any advice possible.

Andrew- you may want to start your own thread with your question. May get a faster answer instead of resurrecting a 2 year old thread.

Nah, lifting that axle should be as difficult as flipping a switch.

Andrew- you may want to start your own thread with your question. May get a faster answer instead of resurrecting a 2 year old thread.

I'm glad he bumped it though. I hadn't seen any of these pics! :)