Flatbed Variety

Here's a new one for me (ok, pretty much everything is new for me). Dozer tracks, Illinois to Denver and California.

Those may not look like much but there is some weight in that load. The guys that install these make it look easy but I have also seen some that struggle with them. Anyone notice how he protected that precious yellow paint that will scrape off in the first 5 seconds of operation?

Those may not look like much but there is some weight in that load. The guys that install these make it look easy but I have also seen some that struggle with them. Anyone notice how he protected that precious yellow paint that will scrape off in the first 5 seconds of operation?

They weigh about 6500 each. I'd love to see them installed. And yes, Cat is very particular about arriving with all the yellow paint intact. If I was paying for them, I'd want all the paint looking nice too. Gives it that "new dozer" look that makes all the other guys envious, kind of like how I felt when I saw a guy in a brand new Western Star a while back.

We have to move a complete crushing plant in the next few weeks. I will try and get some photos of all the equipment before we start moving it all. About 30-40 loads in all.

This is the first load from today.... Short trailer for a short trip.... Really it was the last RGN left in the yard.. LOL

Then I changed trailers (I do that alot) and went and got preloaded for tomorrow.

A plain old load of lumber I took from Modesto to SoCal:

The loads this week haven't been unusual, but I did get to take my first trip over Donner Pass and the Grapevine. Tomorrow is my first trip on I 70 through the Rockies in a big truck. Gonna be a lot of fun toiling up those hills with a heavy load of steel.

We have to move a complete crushing plant in the next few weeks. I will try and get some photos of all the equipment before we start moving it all. About 30-40 loads in all.

Nice! Yeah keep the pictures comin. I love em.

The loads this week haven't been unusual, but I did get to take my first trip over Donner Pass and the Grapevine. Tomorrow is my first trip on I 70 through the Rockies in a big truck. Gonna be a lot of fun toiling up those hills with a heavy load of steel.

Wow. The trucking Gods must have taken notice of you and said, "Hey, why don't we go ahead and expose Bud to all of the largest mountain passes in the country in one week. He's ready for it!"

Dude, this is what appealed to me about this particular job. The way it is set up it takes a lot of the frustrating things that flat-bedders deal with out of the equation. I have very little wait time. All my loads are pre-loaded, I drop my current trailer, and pick up the loaded one. I still am responsible for securing and tarping it, but it is inside a building and I'm not dealing with the elements as much. Also about fifty percent of the time I am pulling a "Connestoga" type trailer which eliminates the tarping procedures. In fact in the month of January I never tarped a single load!

If they don't have a back haul load for us, they don't leave us sitting and waiting on a load. They will dead head us right back to the plant in Louisiana. I've deadheaded as much as fifteen hundred miles just because they need me back to grab another pre-loaded trailer. They also have a very generous quarterly bonus program which has several metrics that go into calculating that bonus pay, but your fuel mileage is one of those measurements. And as often as they are deadheading us back, we are getting some great mileage which produces some killer bonus checks.

Old school if you don't mind me asking who is it that you work for?