Where is Mike? Where is he going? Don't ask him, he's probably lost.

Mike

Well-Known Member
Might as well copy the post from the Texas weather thread to get this started.......

Everything was totally dry this morning. Went inside the truck stop, came back out and ate some breakfast, still completely dry.
Released my brakes and the windshield immediately started getting wet. Nothing bad though, just frozen windshield wipers, then it stopped about the time I got to Roanoke.

All good over here to Dallas, drop and hook turned into a live load, I guess because I was early.

As I sit here, the crap is starting to fall at an increasing rate of speed. Lovely. It should be ice here, and a few inches of snow as I head up through Oklahoma (heading to Ochelata walmart DC). From there, over to Jenks, and back down the same way I came, through the same crap, to Temple Texas (yes, another walmart DC).

I usually check the weather before looking at loads, but figured it was only November, and I was going to Texas. What could happen? LOL.
 
More than likely, going to just bounce around in Texas for the remainder of the week while I wait for the rest of the family to arrive here for Thanksgiving.

Probably go show them the schools I went to here in town while we are here, so they can get an idea of where they may be going to school soon.
 
Could be worse......you could be going to El Paso:D

I almost did, haven't been there in a while, used to go that direction all the time when I lived in the DFW area. Had a load out of Tulsa going there, but just the wrong day and time for me to go that way.
 
I was lookin for a load to Phoenix and called this broker up who had one to load Sat and while talking to the broker she starts in with this you gotta be there at this time of day to be loaded and you gotta be in Phoenix first thing Monday morning, OH and its gotta be tarped, and you gotta call me when your loaded and you gotta call twice on Sunday,:stare1: after I got a chance to say something I ask....have you checked the weather? Yes and you gotta be in Phoenix Monday morning...........Well hot loads usually pay more, I said.........But this is all I have in this load........Well you best get your own truck cause I dont gotta take your load.
Her whole attitude was just all wrong. I bet if I had taken that load and called her Sunday morning from San Antonio she would have :explode:. LOL
 
Was gonna make it the entire 375 miles today to Temple, but as I was driving my Mom's house just south of Fort Worth, I smelled Supper cooking. Didn't make it any farther. At least I got within 90 miles of finishing the job!

Got three loads to do from Temple, TX starting tomorrow, ending up back in Jenks to grab yet another load going back to Temple, then back up to Mom's house again for Thanksgiving.
 
Was gonna make it the entire 375 miles today to Temple, but as I was driving my Mom's house just south of Fort Worth, I smelled Supper cooking. Didn't make it any farther. At least I got within 90 miles of finishing the job!

Got three loads to do from Temple, TX starting tomorrow, ending up back in Jenks to grab yet another load going back to Temple, then back up to Mom's house again for Thanksgiving.
Care to elaborate?
 
Pauls valley, OK. Inventaspot at the Loves, waiting to drop trailer in the morning.

Truck stops fill up way too early.
 
Front row at the Flying J in Aurora Colorado. I don't like this place, but it is only a half mile from where I unload in the morning, so I will tolerate it. Picking up a loaded trailer in Denver in the morning after unloading in Aurora, and getting out of town as quickly as possible before this next cold front sits in. Supposed to start snowing here tomorrow evening and into Wednesday or so. Talking about lows around 4 degrees, so time for me to leave :)
 
peaked outside my truck windshield an hour or so ago, and noticed that the dust was really blowing around. Looked outside again a few minutes ago, and it isn't dust. The ground has changed from brown to white. I love my job.......
 
Sitting at the shipper in Roanoke, TX. (I gotta start avoiding this city).

Came in to drop a trailer, pick up a loaded one, and leave. Short 150 mile trip to Paris,TX to drop that trailer and go grab another really short load. (basically hauling short loads to my house because I am too cheap to deadhead :))

I get here, no trailer loaded, so they are going to load mine. Back in, drop trailer, and go park and wait. And wait. and wait. Trailer loaded, hook up, walk around, and trailer tire is flat. Freaking flat.

So, send a message to emergency maintenance. Wait 5 minutes (I am impatient with breakdowns), and call. Give them my exact address. hour or so later, they call me back and tell me they have contacted a company to take care of my tire. An hour later......they call me to tell me this.

About 45 minutes later, tire company calls me to get all the information I already gave to emergency maintenance. (I hate repeating myself). They tell me they will have somebody out to assist me in about 90 minutes.

There has to be 100,000 tire shops within a few minutes of where I am. There is a reason it's called the "metroplex".

There is another tire guy here fixing a tire on a dropped trailer. I asked if we could just pay him to stick a tire on this one while he is here. (he has plenty on his truck). Nope, gotta wait for the guy that will be here sometime this afternoon. The common sense in this industry just amazes me.

Guessing I will be done just in time to deal with rush hour DFW traffic, all of whom will be scared to death of the wet roads they are driving on, thinking they might be frozen at 40 degrees.
 
Was it off the rim, destroyed, ... or just no air in it?

I usually carry an air hose, plug kit (for car tires) core remover & spare cores. I deal with most tire issues myself unless they go boom.

BTW plugs made for car tires will work. I know you put more than 3x the pressure in a truck tire but they'll work. I don't know for how long, but one time I picked up a loaded trailer in Sioux City bound for M***achusetts that was flat, but held up by it's twin sister. I pulled it off the shipper's lot, scaled it & parked on concrete & checked it out. It had a lag bolt in it. About 1/4" thread diameter with what looked like about a 5/16" hex head on it. I pulled it out with pliers by un-screwing it. Not only was it a truck tire, but it was a big hole.

Just for the hell of it I plugged it with a plug kit made for cars because I've never seen one made for truck tires. I was just hoping it would make it home because I can get it fixed on my 34 hr break. We'd just switched to e-logs & that was my load home for 3/4 of a weekend. I didn't think it would hold at all though so I really thought I was wasting time.

I aired it up to 30, then 50, .. still not leaking so I ran it up to 105 & it wasn't leaking & didn't blow the plug out. So I went ahead & put it in the wind. Checked it about 10 miles up the road (first rest area on I-29 south) and it was ok. I spit on it to see if there would be bubbles from air leaking out & there wasn't. Somewhere around Des Moines I checked it again. Still good.

When I was getting ready to leave home to continue east it was still showing 105 psi on the gauge so I just ran it to Mass. I had 32,000 on that axle set too. LOL. Got empty, reloaded for Iowa. Got to Iowa, tire still good. I was planning on just dropping it at a shipper & taking a load home but they wanted that trailer at the yard cuz it was due for service. So I dropped it in the yard, still holding air & I wrote a shop ticket for it saying the tire had a car plug in it but it's held up for about 2500 miles, loaded. :D
 
Thats why I love having control of the same trailer week after week after week, owning at to bad of a deal either.;)

Because if I owned the trailer, the tire magically wouldn't have gone flat? LOL.

Apparently, I picked up something in the road on the way to the shipper this morning. Didn't notice it being flat when I backed into the dock either, and I guess I knocked it off the rim with the ice pushing against it at the dock while it was being loaded or something. Only way I could figure it magically popped off the rim while sitting at the dock being loaded.

It's got a brand new, state of the art fancy recap on it now though, and I left it in Paris, TX.

Was going to pick up my load tonight in Valliant OK, but crossed the border, got passed the weigh station on 271, and decided to pull into the truck stop/casino and call it a night. The load can sit there until morning. Then it is off to Russellville Arkansas to get unloaded and then home.

May go to Wisconsin this weekend, can't decide.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Top