My Upcoming Adventure

Glad to read you were invited back on the concert tour. Also great to read you were upgraded from a Volvo.

Hahaha! I'm guessing I would prefer whatever I started in, until I had enough time in others to compare, but I liked it. They also made me turn in my flipflops with my keys.

The biggest thing you will likely figure out is it doesn’t turn as well as the Volvo did. We had a white Volvo for a couple years. They aren’t all that bad.

PJ, I've heard the turning radius is worse, now I get to see how it compares. Aside from a few things, like its lack of climbing ability, I really liked my Volvo. They said this truck isn't necessarily permanent, especially since they want Volvos on tour because of the APUs , our FLs have Opti-Idle, I'm going to try to get back in one after this gig.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

The climbing ability could be a couple different issues. If it has a dd13 it won’t climb for beans. Also depends on the gearing.

I haven’t driven anything newer than a 15 year model so I don’t know how bad the manufacturers have screwed up performance.

Be careful during your new truck learning curve!!

The climbing ability could be a couple different issues. If it has a dd13 it won’t climb for beans. Also depends on the gearing.

I haven’t driven anything newer than a 15 year model so I don’t know how bad the manufacturers have screwed up performance.

Be careful during your new truck learning curve!!

It's a 19 Volvo VNL760 and I believe it has a Volvo D13 (12.8L) engine with their 12-speed I-Shift. If this FL's motor could go in there with a few of its other features I'd love it!

I will be careful, I'm getting a bit more used to it each day.

I am currently in Newark, NJ, not too far from Bruce's upcoming delivery.

Two nights ago we loaded in at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn. We got there in the middle of the night and convoyed our seven trucks in, and it was easier than expected, aside from having to block busy streets for far too long. We each took our turn driving into the elevator to go to a lower level dock area. Pull onto a turntable and get spun around to face our dock. Four trucks stayed, and two others and I had to go to the staging yard along the water. Other then a great view of Lady Liberty, it wasn't pleasant. No facilities and no shuttles to the venue for food. A huge perk of being on tour is we get to enjoy catering at the venues. So instead I walked around Red Hook and hopped a bus to another area and got to see some of Brooklyn.

Our drive back to the venue was very trafficky (I think over an hour for what should have been a couple miles but became 8.8 miles - a lot of stopped traffic) and we had to detour as we couldn't fit down the street we used before due to cars parked on both sides to the intersection. But we got loaded out and made our way to Jersey for tonight's show. It was a blind 45 into the docks but all I have to do is follow the lead driver's instructions over the CB. I'm typing this up as I finish breakfast and I'll update as it goes along.

The particular Freightliner they gave you has a 15 liter Detroit. Your mind will be blow first time through the mountains. Stay safe brother!

Mad respect for you. I avoid the northeast like the plague. Absolutely no desire to run up there, and definitely no nyc.

“Turn on your magic beam

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream.”

Seems like the Sandman is the perfect name for your concert tour gig. I watched a very interesting video on YouTube about the Brad Paisley tour from the truck driving perspective. Lot of work and pressure. Precision timing was so important. Your gig is a really cool job. So different from my boring reefer job.

Tell Madonna I said hello.