First Week Solo

😬

Bill, you are starting to be like my trainer. He gets antsy to get rolling again after a day of shutdown.

Bill,

Thanks for sharing your story.

My record for tempting fate on the fuel gauge is 140 miles after the warning light came on. And even then I could only get 165 gallons in the tank.

Hi there Chief Brody!

Tempting gate indeed. I think there's more in those tanks than we think when they get below 1/4. But I don't want to find out the hard way. 😆

Bill,

Thanks for sharing your story.

My record for tempting fate on the fuel gauge is 140 miles after the warning light came on. And even then I could only get 165 gallons in the tank.

Freighliner parts are on National backorder. Great news though. Veriha found me a fleet Volvo only 97 miles from my house. This morning, my wife drove me to Wheeling WV to puck it up from the Volvo dealer. Bad news though, it had a suspension air leak on roadside air bag. Bad enough to make it DOT OOS. Good news, the dealer jumped right on fixing it after a call from our maintenance department. They had it repaired in about 30 minutes. I did one more leak test for good measure. Then, calibrated the breaks. Off I went. She's puring like a kitten. Feels good to be back on the road. But, I had to shut down a little early because in reality my clock started 3 hours earlier being as I was in my car with my wife driving. I don't want to push to hard just yet.

A bit of rest and an early start tomorrow. 😴

Safe travels everyone.

Freighliner parts are on National backorder. Great news though. Veriha found me a fleet Volvo only 97 miles from my house. This morning, my wife drove me to Wheeling WV to pick it up from the Volvo dealer. Bad news though, it had a suspension air leak on roadside air bag. Bad enough to make it DOT OOS. Good news, the dealer jumped right on fixing it after a call from our maintenance department. They had it repaired in about 30 minutes. I did one more leak test for good measure. Then, calibrated the brakes. Off I went. She's purring like a kitten. Feels good to be back on the road. But, I had to shut down a little early because in reality my clock started 3 hours earlier being as I was in my car with my wife driving. I don't want to push to hard just yet.

A bit of rest and an early start tomorrow. 😴

Safe travels everyone.

So great to hear, Bill !

Apparently, your company has some clout with the shop people, eh?!? :) Always great to hear! (Did you, or they, calibrate the brakes?) I had to re read that; got it now! IMHO, A purring putty tat of a truck is always a GREAT thing! Pix and her name, forthcoming, we hope!

I'm so excited for ya. I remember when 'I' was that 'wife person,' trying to find something wrong with Tom's truck to keep him home a bit longer, hahaha! Now, sadly (or not?) I know better!

Awesome, man.

~ Anne ~

ps: Hope this finds you well rested!

I’Ve noticed that the two fuel tanks need to equalize after filling to get an accurate gauge reading. Sometimes right after filling up the fuel gauge still shows being down between 3/4 and Full. After a few minutes the gauge will come up to Full.

I don’t know if it behaves similarly when in the low fuel red zone. We’ve been in the red zone twice coming into fuel stops.

The red zone starts at 1/8 capacity, so 25 gals or less (our truck has two 100 gals tanks). At 8 mpg that is a max range of 200 miles to empty.

I wouldn’t risk it not knowing how the fuel gauge is calibrated.

It's not a good idea to run with low fuel.

1) All the sludge and other junk is at bottom of the tank where the pickup is located.

2) A lower amount of fuel takes less time to gell during cold months.

3) What happens if you are stranded somewhere for a lengthy period with only 20 gallons? Think accidents or weather shutdowns.

4) Suppose your fuel stop has no power, or is closed, or they are out of fuel?

Thanks Anne.

Ya. The truck was in the shop for a couple of months. My thoughts were, this shouldn't be out of service. It should be ready to go. I could gear the air leak over the engine humming. I did a leak test anyway, figuring it wouldn't pass, and it didn't. It lost 10 psi in a out 30 seconds.

Anyway, they were good.about getting eight on.

Speaking of rest. I'm shutting down for my 10 hours, or slightly more after 550 mules today and terrible sleep yesterday.

Be good. Talk soon .

Freighliner parts are on National backorder. Great news though. Veriha found me a fleet Volvo only 97 miles from my house. This morning, my wife drove me to Wheeling WV to pick it up from the Volvo dealer. Bad news though, it had a suspension air leak on roadside air bag. Bad enough to make it DOT OOS. Good news, the dealer jumped right on fixing it after a call from our maintenance department. They had it repaired in about 30 minutes. I did one more leak test for good measure. Then, calibrated the brakes. Off I went. She's purring like a kitten. Feels good to be back on the road. But, I had to shut down a little early because in reality my clock started 3 hours earlier being as I was in my car with my wife driving. I don't want to push to hard just yet.

A bit of rest and an early start tomorrow. 😴

Safe travels everyone.

So great to hear, Bill !

Apparently, your company has some clout with the shop people, eh?!? :) Always great to hear! (Did you, or they, calibrate the brakes?) I had to re read that; got it now! IMHO, A purring putty tat of a truck is always a GREAT thing! Pix and her name, forthcoming, we hope!

I'm so excited for ya. I remember when 'I' was that 'wife person,' trying to find something wrong with Tom's truck to keep him home a bit longer, hahaha! Now, sadly (or not?) I know better!

Awesome, man.

~ Anne ~

ps: Hope this finds you well rested!

It's not a good idea to run with low fuel.

1) All the sludge and other junk is at bottom of the tank where the pickup is located.

2) A lower amount of fuel takes less time to gell during cold months.

3) What happens if you are stranded somewhere for a lengthy period with only 20 gallons? Think accidents or weather shutdowns.

4) Suppose your fuel stop has no power, or is closed, or they are out of fuel?

Yes sir PackRat, all valid points. As I was saying. I've only gone bow 1/4 tank once or twice in my povs during my lifetime. I'm new, trying to hit all the fuel stops as planned. Since then, I've pulled over for a splash to get me to the next stop without chewing of my fingernails waiting for the next exit. They're very supportive of us that way.

Thanks Anne.

Ya. The truck was in the shop for a couple of months. My thoughts were, this shouldn't be out of service. It should be ready to go. I could gear the air leak over the engine humming. I did a leak test anyway, figuring it wouldn't pass, and it didn't. It lost 10 psi in a out 30 seconds.

Anyway, they were good.about getting eight on.

Speaking of rest. I'm shutting down for my 10 hours, or slightly more after 550 mules today and terrible sleep yesterday.

Be good. Talk soon .

Freighliner parts are on National backorder. Great news though. Veriha found me a fleet Volvo only 97 miles from my house. This morning, my wife drove me to Wheeling WV to pick it up from the Volvo dealer. Bad news though, it had a suspension air leak on roadside air bag. Bad enough to make it DOT OOS. Good news, the dealer jumped right on fixing it after a call from our maintenance department. They had it repaired in about 30 minutes. I did one more leak test for good measure. Then, calibrated the brakes. Off I went. She's purring like a kitten. Feels good to be back on the road. But, I had to shut down a little early because in reality my clock started 3 hours earlier being as I was in my car with my wife driving. I don't want to push to hard just yet.

A bit of rest and an early start tomorrow. 😴

Safe travels everyone.

So great to hear, Bill !

Apparently, your company has some clout with the shop people, eh?!? :) Always great to hear! (Did you, or they, calibrate the brakes?) I had to re read that; got it now! IMHO, A purring putty tat of a truck is always a GREAT thing! Pix and her name, forthcoming, we hope!

I'm so excited for ya. I remember when 'I' was that 'wife person,' trying to find something wrong with Tom's truck to keep him home a bit longer, hahaha! Now, sadly (or not?) I know better!

Awesome, man.

~ Anne ~

ps: Hope this finds you well rested!

It's not a good idea to run with low fuel.

1) All the sludge and other junk is at bottom of the tank where the pickup is located.

2) A lower amount of fuel takes less time to gell during cold months.

3) What happens if you are stranded somewhere for a lengthy period with only 20 gallons? Think accidents or weather shutdowns.

4) Suppose your fuel stop has no power, or is closed, or they are out of fuel?

Well. Another week in the bank. I wish I had it in me to post everything that went on this week. Another strange week. More GPS fails. Me trying to outsmart my gps and the gps was right, that time. lol. But, we got it done. I feel better just mapping it out; writing down my routes, fuel stops and customer/consignee instructions, then letting it roll. Much less stressful for me. I'm getting good loads but I need to get faster in and out of the yards and with my trip planning.

This week my safety score placed me 4th in the company overall. If it wasn't for that hard breaking incident, I probably make it to 2nd, it's that tight in the top 5. I know we here safety first, all the time. But, as a rookie, it really is my priority. I know the efficiency will come with experience and patience.

Moving on. I've come to prefer the Volvo over my freightliner. As luck would have it today Veriha notified me I can stay in the Volvo. :-) I was speechless. Well, almost. I told the them I've named the truck and there's no going back. Her name is Roxie. She smart, pretty, strong-willed, and stubborn. At least that's what the urban dictionary says.Roxie Lol.

They are recovering my freightliner after I transfer all of my things out of it on Monday.

So, next week Roxie and I have a fresh start to a full week starting with a 475 mile load.

I think this will close out "my first week solo" thread. All for now. Be safe out there.