RowdyRebel

Last time I weighed myself, it was on a truck scale...

One of the fleets with trucks leased to the carrier I'm with has a lot of Mack trucks...one in particular has a kitty cat under the hood. The motor that was in the truck was plum wore out, and they had the Cat sitting around in the shop ready to go...so they swapped it in. Minimized the downtime, and a Cat under the hood is better than tryin' ta run down the road fully loaded with anyone else's wore out motor.

Just make sure ya gots the marshmellows handy Heck, I was gonna grease my truck yesterday....but it was raining on & off most of the day. So, I figured I'd do it today before I went up to the yard to drop & hook trailers and drop off last week's paperwork, but it's still wet & threatening rain...maybe it'll clear up in a bit... I got a big'ol stack of wood from tree limbs that have been blown down by storms this past winter...gonna get around ta burnin' it one of these days, too. I think there's a family of bunny's living in there now, though...dog spends a lot of time sniffin' at it an' peein' on it. If I time it right, I might get dinner too

danged skippy it is

I been listening to them firecrackers goin' off in the neighborhood all day.... ...then they stopped... ...and a short while later, sirens... ...fire truck and an ambulance... ...kinda funny, since fireworks (much like everything else "fun") are illegal here. Luckily the state line ain't too far away I got me a pretty good stash of stuff...ain't shot none off this year though...savin' 'em for later

As long as it ain't the guy down at the mortuary askin' yer pants & shirt size, I guess it can't be too bad a thing...if'n they got uniforms, they need ta know what size ta gitcha

http://www.aa1car.com/library/tire_expire.htm http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4988518&page=1 http://www.uslaw.com/library/Personal_Inju...php?item=166414 http://en.allexperts.com/q/Tires-2359/2009...ire-Failure.htm I'm not saying those other factors aren't important too...which is why I DON'T run recaps currently. The only way recaps will find their way onto my truck is if cases, which I bought new and which I wore out the original tread so that I KNOW they have been properly inflated and haven't run over anything to damage them....those cases can be recapped by the manufacturer and I'll run 'em. I've only had my own truck for a little over a year, though, so haven't had it long enough to wear out the new tires I bought in December. When I do wear them out, I'll probably buy another set of new tires and have these capped for the next time I need tires...because I KNOW these cases are good and are not very old. ..but once a case is 6 years old, I'm not capping it again. If someone else wants to tear their equipment up running other people's cases and older tires, that's their choice. The stuff that gets tore up when a tire comes apart is way too expensive for me to run junk tires.

I don't care who ya are....THAT'S funny

Free tires are good...to a point. How long were they sitting in the barn? How old are they? About 7 to 8 years after a tire is manufactured, it's likelihood of catastrophic failure begins to increase. Even if they are stored inside, the rubber deteriorates. I wouldn't trust those tires on MY truck...but then again, my truck is what pays the bills for me. For a hobby truck, they'll probably be alright...I'd just be cautious on any high-speed or long-distance trips you may take on those tires. Sure, they appear to be "free" now....but remember: NOTHING is ever really free. How much will a service truck cost if it fails out on the road? How much collateral damage will have to be repaired? All part of the cost of those "free" tires.

CCW is besides the point. All I am seeing is that you have to abide by whatever laws are in place pertaining to transporting the type of firearm in question. I have not seen any differentiation between "private" vehicles and "commercial" vehicles in regards to what is legal and what is illegal. For example, if you can carry a loaded pistol in the cab of your pickup truck without any permits (as in Missouri if you are over 21) then it would be legal to do the same in a semi truck. You would only need a carry permit in a state which required them. In other states, as Illinois, you would have to have it unloaded and encased (if you are a resident with a FOID) and inaccessible or broken down in addition to being unloaded and encased if you are NOT an Illinois resident. In an open carry state which allows long guns to be loaded in the gun rack in the back window of a pickup, it ought be legal to do so in a semi too.

I know in Illinois, there is no regulation regarding transportation of ammo. As long as the firearm is unloaded and fully enclosed in a case, it doesn't matter where the ammo is. The magazine can be loaded and in the case WITH the gun, so long as the magazine is not loaded and IN the gun. That is providing you are an Illinois resident with a FOID card. If you are from out of state, the firearm must be either broken down or inaccessible. In my pickup, I slide the shotgun into a soft case and put it in the gun rack in the back window. The magazine tube is empty, as is the chamber...but the carriers on the stock and receiver have the rounds in them. I don't see why it wouldn't be legal to do the same in the semi. Customer property is another story though...in states where legislation has passed to allow firearms to be stored in vehicles, I doubt the shippers or receivers would have a leg to stand on if they said anything to you about the gun...as long as it stayed secured in the truck. Unfortunately, Illinois is NOT one of those states. I've looked, but I have never seen any regs prohibiting firearms in commercial vehicles. Seems to me that would fall under the recent Heller decision, as the Congress is prohibited from infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms...and an agency borne out of a congressional act...acting upon authority given to it by the Congress...would be bound to the same limitations as the Congress itself.

I've noticed whenever I'm driving in my pickup truck that people drive way nicer around me...don't cut me off...don't tailgate...etc. How far from the house do ya think I'd get before the DOT would be wantin' ta have a little chat with me? I've never seen any regs that would prohibit being armed....just gotta abide by state laws. Only problem I could foresee is the individual shippers and receivers who do not want firearms on their property...

An armed society is a polite society

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus...&SpecSess=0 sent to the governor on 6/16...haven't heard if he's signed it or vetoed it or if he just plans to sit on it for a while...

Ya do know why they call 'em Mopar, don'tcha? 'cuz when they first started racin' 'em, all the drivers in them Dodges kept gettin' passed by everybody else and was screamin' "DANGIT!!! I NEED MO' PAR!!!"

I would be one of those who never paid attention. I never cracked a book in the fall semester (parents would bring my stuff down...I rode my motorcycle...they'd buy my books for the semester before they'd head back home). I never even BOUGHT a spring semester book. WOULD have graduated in 4 had I not found motorcycle riding to be more important than attending class my last semester...ended up having to re-take 2 classes. One because I didn't turn in a pass/fail paper in time...the other because I had a borderline grade but didn't realize it and the "optional" final dropped me below passing. Live 'n learn, I guess. The next go-around, I reprinted the same danged paper I had typed 2 years earlier and turned it in on time...and in the other class, I was nowhere to be found on "optional" finals day. Never studied a day in my life...and I don't intend to start anytime soon. Even passed all the written CDL tests on the first go-around. Most of it is just common sense anyway.

Like I said, though...make sure the truck you buy is the truck you want to drive. Only way to know that for sure is to drive a few out in the real world and compare spec's so you can narrow your search down to what will work for you. The only thing I compromised on was the wheelbase of the truck...it had the engine, transmission, rear gears, tire size, year, make, and model that I had figured I wanted based on what I liked/disliked about trucks I had previously driven....and it was a rare low-mileage find (it was an '01 with 260K miles) in pretty good shape overall....so that was one compromise I was willing to make. If you've never actually hauled anything on the road in a a truck, you are either allowing someone else to tell you what you want, or you are just guessing at what you think would work. If you are going to allow someone else to spec' your truck, you may as well let them pay for it too so you can figure out if you are happy with their specs before you are stuck with a payment. In my search, I had more than one salesman ask me if I "really needed" that gearing...or that transmission...or that engine...or that make/model/year...or that tire size...or that suspension. They were trying to talk me out of finding what I knew I wanted, and talk me into buying what they had on their lot that they were trying to get rid of. You have to know WHAT you want before you can know to ASK for it...and you have to know WHY you want it that way before you can convince the salesman that your specs are non-negotiable. ...and remember, what looks good on paper doesn't always work out in real life. It doesn't matter if it's an architect designing an elaborate building, a financial genius crunching numbers, or a truck buyer spec'ing a truck. I know you are itching to be your own boss, but I would HIGHLY recommend spending at least a couple years behind the wheel of someone ELSE'S truck to gain the real-world knowledge that only comes through experience.

Unfortunately, "book smart" only gets you so far. If you want to own your own truck, you are either going to have to know how to work on it yourself or pay someone else to work on it for you. Have you taken a class for that? When you are starting out, the only "human resources" you will be managing will be you and...ummm....you. Can you tolerate working for yourself? I can honestly say that I'm the worst boss I've ever worked for. Heck, I made myself drive a truck with no AC all last summer because fuel was too danged expensive...having AC would have only encouraged idling on those hot summer days while waiting to get loaded or unloaded instead of shutting the truck off, getting my lawn chair, and finding a spot under a shade tree. Besides, there were much more pressing issues during that first year, and I wanted to make sure I could pay for anything that came up. Here it is a year later...the AC STILL isn't fixed....and it's heating up yet again. Fuel is SLIGHTLY cheaper...for now...but my chances of getting the boss man to fix the AC are still not looking very good. He pays me on salary...said it was easier for him to have the bank auto-pay a set amount each week rather than figuring out a percentage of the work I did. The bad part about that is that the boss man knows exactly what my personal bills are and set my salary only slightly above that. Most weeks, I don't even average $10/hour when you factor in that he expects me to maintain and repair the truck on top of just driving the derned thing. When sitting behind the wheel of a truck, all of that business software you know how to use won't mean much at all. I've been using Works (free with most of the computer's I've ever bought...excel and word cost money) to set up a simple spreadsheet to track my loads and pay on those loads, miles, and fuel usage. Beyond that and some sort of mapping software (I use DeLorme Street Atlas USA) to help locate where it is you are heading and pick the most efficient route to get there, you really don't even need a computer. You could keep the same info in a notebook (although end-of-month and end-of-quarter tallies would take longer) and a map book to do the same thing....that's how they USED to do it before computers. Still gotta have the map book to make sure the route you WANT to take is actually a truck route though...and it shows where the chicken houses are so you can avoid them if you need to as well...extra fuel burned running extra miles is always cheaper than an overweight fine when you roll across scales you should have known you were going to come across. Sure, it's best to run legal...but that doesn't always happen. Honestly, most of what I know I learned on the job...not in any classroom. I've been driving one sized vehicle or another since I turned 18. Delivered flowers for many years during summers and when I was home on break from college. Taught people how to ride motorcycles as an MSF instructor for a few years too. Drove wreckers for a while...then got my CDL and drove a dry van for a couple years. Went back to college to finish up my degree (my last semester, I had decided it was more important to go out riding my motorcycle than it was to go to class....oops) and drove a school bus for the semester. Pulled a dry-bulk tank regionally for the OTHER company in this area for a few months until a gig hauling logs came my way. That was fun...LOVED it...probably learned more on that job than I did in all the others combined...in maintaining the trucks, dodging scales, and most importantly DRIVING the truck! When you can take a semi down a 2-track, 1-lane dirt road off into the woods, get turned around, and get out, you can take a truck just about anywhere. Besides that, it sort of had something to do with my Forestry degree I made the mistake of being expendable, though, and one day the boss was pi$$ed and looking to take it out on someone. Truck boss stood up for me, though...told the company owner "Don't ever ask me to hire another driver....finally found a good one and you're making me fire him" and within 6 months, the truck boss had quit. Anyway, started flat bedding....first company didn't last too long before they tried leaving me sitting in Laredo on a weekend I told them when they hired me that I needed to be home. I ride the Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade in Chicago the first Sunday every December...and my mom postpones the family's Thanksgiving Dinner until the day before the ride when she knows I'll be there. I gave 'em their truck, rented a car, and went home. Started with another flatbed outfit a week later....stuck with them a year until I applied at Beelman. Got hired on in the tank division, and after a year there I knew I had found a good place...started looking for my own truck. It was something I had known I wanted to do for a while...just wanted to find a company to lease onto first so that I knew I'd be treated well and could make decent money. I had been talking to as many O/O's leased to them as I could....finding out as much as possible about how they are paid, how they are treated, etc. so that I'd have a pretty good idea what I would be getting myself into. Almost another year went by before I FINALLY found the truck I ended up with, and I leased back on with them just as I had planned to. Truck had a wet-kit, but since I had been on tank and knew the revenue I'd be making (dumps was an unknown), I decided to have a PTO mounted for the blower and the wet kit removed. I did, however, have the foresight to have a second PTO mounted up on the 6-bolt side of the transmission (easier to do with a Mack than any other transmission) so that I could mount up the hydraulic pump myself if I needed it. Tanks slowed down, and I re-installed the wet kit and got it working. Moved to dumps so I could keep working, and as the ONLY truck in Beelman's fleet that is set up to do both dump AND tank, I've been called upon several times now to cover loads....usually decent paying ones...when they need a load covered. Any trailer they have I am set up to pull...even the RGN's (I put a return line on when I installed my wet kit.) Most of what you'll need to know you will learn on-the-job. That and a little foresight and a LOT of common sense and you might make it out here. I'm still learning. Heck, a guy could be out here for 50 years and STILL not know everything there is to know about trucking. A college education and $1.25 might buy you a cup of coffee at the truck stop. I'd suggest getting your feet wet as a company driver first. Sure, it looks fun and exciting, but this job ain't for everyone. I hope you can be successful. Heck, I wish EVERYONE could be successful, but that just isn't reality. If trucking isn't what you are cut out for, would you rather find out as a company driver where you can turn in the keys and walk away to do something else? Or as a truck owner with a banker calling you looking for a payment as the repo man is outside hooking to your rig? You are young. You are engaged. Now is the time you should be thinking about ensuring for your future family's security...not taking unnecessary financial risks. Get a truck repo'd and then try buying a house...ain't gonna happen. If things had turned out differently with my own g/f and she had moved up here 4 years ago instead of starting school, I doubt I'd be a truck owner today. We're engaged now too...something that happened AFTER I had the truck and was working and making money with it. I'll have had it a year and a half before she gets up here and even thinks about picking a date...and hopefully I'll still have it. Things have gotten EXTREMELY tight....mostly because of all of the maintenance stuff (tires, brakes, etc.) that I knew needed doing but was putting off while it was busy last summer. All that's done now, so HOPEFULLY my accounts will stop declining in balance and start climbing upward again. With any luck, I'll have a little cushion built up again before she gets here. Don't get me wrong, I don't want you to give up on your dreams....just know what you are getting yourself into BEFORE you jump into it. If you dive off the high dive BEFORE you check the pool to make sure there's any water in it (and HOPEFULLY checking the temperature of that water), you could be heading for disaster....or at least a very rude awakening. If you want to own a truck as more than just a hobby...if you want to make a career out of owning and driving a truck....start out driving someone ELSE'S truck to get an idea on what all is involved. Drive it like it is yours...keep track of fuel, miles, loads, maintenance, etc. If you work on a percentage of gross, it's easy enough to figure what 100% of the gross was and then figure the percentage they pay O/O's (if the company has any). Keep track of EVERYTHING related to that truck....tires...brakes...etc. It also doesn't hurt to pay attention to how each truck you drive is set up. What make/model is it? What engine is under the hood? What transmission does it have? What rear axle gear ratios are in it? What size tires does it have? With that information, you can start comparing....comfort....convenience....ergonomics....driveability....can it pull a load up a hill....does it get stuck more than it ought to....reliability issues....etc. From there, you'll have an idea on what kind of truck you will want to buy....which make/model did you like driving the best? Which engine/transmission/rear gears worked the best for what you intend to do with the truck? For example, if you are going to run mostly light-weight freight OTR, running a lot of highway miles without too many hills, you can go with a higher rear end gear (3.08-3.55) to keep engine RPM's down while cruising on the highway for better fuel mileage....but if you are pulling a lot of 80,000 loads locally or up and down a lot of hills, you may want to run lower rear gears (3.90-4.35). If you are doing strictly local work with a lot of off road, you will want even lower gears than that. Keep in mind tire size affects the way it pulls too. A truck with 11R24.5 tires and 4.17 rear gears like my truck will pull just the same turning the same RPM's at any speed as a truck with LP24.5's or 11R22.5's (same rolling diameter...just a different rim size) and 3.95 rears....which will pull the same turning the same RPM's at any speed as a truck with LP22.5's and 3.73 rear gears. Basically, you have to make sure the truck you are buying is set up for what you want to do with it....but leave enough options open in case your situation changes you can adapt to keep your truck working and making money for you. Like I started off saying....there's a LOT you need to learn before buying a truck that you just won't learn in school. You gotta get out here in the real world and experience some of these things to find what YOU like and what YOU don't like. From a driver's perspective, what works for me may not work for you...and a truck set up the way you want it is going to help you out big time. I don't mind driving a truck that pi$$es me off, as long as I'm not the one paying for it....IF I'm treated well by the people who ARE paying for it. If I'm making the payments on a truck, though, I want to be 100% happy with the way it drives and the way it pulls, because let's face it...I'm a real SOB to work for . You won't know how to set it up for yourself, though, until you've actually driven a few and compared your likes & dislikes about each one. OK...that was a long and rambling response to what I've been reading. Again, I don't want to discourage you from chasing your dreams....just want you to know what you are getting into BEFORE it's too late. Buying my own truck was my goal, and I'm happy I did it. Sure it increased my stress levels...put a bit of a strain on the finances this past winter...but overall it's been a good experience. I hope you have a good experience too when you get around to buying your own truck. You just need to understand that your chances of having a good experience will be greatly increased if you know what you are getting yourself into LONG before you make that purchase, so that you limit the number of "unexpected surprises" that come your way.

You probably don't want to buy a truck right now. Prices are good...a buyers market as a LOT of truckers are losing their trucks....but rates suck, which is WHY those truckers are losing their trucks and WHY there are so many trucks on the market for so little money. Being limited to only intrastate, you'll have that much more difficulty keeping paying freight on your truck and your truck rolling down the road. Heck, maybe even get a job driving a mixer 'til you turn 21...or possibly check out jobs driving wreckers too. With wreckers, they may start you out in light duty stuff, but if you prove yourself competent and you have a CDL, you can probably get them to start training you into the heavy duty wreckers. At least that way when you are trying to get on with an OTR company and the recruiter asks you if you have any T/T experience, you can ask them if the T/T's you've pulled behind your wrecker count. After all, once you can successfully navigate your way around in a 400" wheel base wrecker, towing a 275" wheel base tractor, hooked to a 53' trailer without tearing anything up, driving the 275" wheelbase tractor pulling the 53' trailer is a piece of cake.

Don't worry...I no longer give a FF what the Chicago Tribune prints...grandma sent me a clipping about the armadillos being seen in "Franklin County, deep in Southern Illinois." I called my grandma to give her a hard time about it too...and told her Franklin County wasn't "DEEP" in Southern Illinois...that it was barely far enough South to be considered Southern Illinois....sort of a northern border county. It's still over an hours drive north from my house. I've often wondered how many cities there are that claim to be the "Capitol of Southern Illinois" too...I know Belleville and Carbondale both make the claim. Although still South of 64, Belleville is too far north. Carbondale is a danged college town...during the school year, you have more people from Chicago than anywhere else living there, so how can that be the capitol? Heck, Carbondale ain't even the county seat...that's over in Murphysboro. I don't know why I get riled up about stoopid crap like that....and I understand why anyone would want to try to claim Southern Illinois as their home....basically anywhere other than Chicago really isn't all that bad....the farther away both geographically and politically, the better.

In 30+ years of professional driving this retired Teamster never busted an axle or drive shaft or laid one over. Had a couple broken springs and a freak failure of a Roadranger range section due to air problems in -80 wind chills. I considered it a matter of pride to bring the truck home every day in at least as good a condition as I received it. For my troubles I was often berated by supervisors who told me I didn't push the truck hard enough... My grandpa was a teamster in the Chicago area driving 10-wheeler dumps. He took pride in his ride too...started out driving the older, beat up trucks that nobody else wanted because he hadn't "done his time" to get any seniority....but then he'd take the time to make those old trucks shine and they'd usually end up looking better than some of the other guy's "new" trucks. Not everyone cares about the equipment they drive if they aren't the ones footing the bill. The drivers who DO seem to be few and far between.

How does a 1/4 differ from a frameless? I usually pull a frameless and have wormed my way out when I was empty...but if you get stuck on your way in you are SOL unless you can be pulled. Sometimes if you aren't careful, the weight of the trailer will sink that back axle into the ground as you dump so that you can't pull forward....gotta lower the bed to push the truck forward, set the tractor brakes, and let the hydraulics pull the trailer back in towards the truck to get it out of the hole and finish dumping. There was one time, however, I raised the bed up to dump off, and it wouldn't push the truck forward when I went to let it down...I had to get pulled forward out of the holes the drives & steers had sunk into. That particular job wasn't much fun for anyone though....friggin idiots on the bulldozers didn't know how to stay out of your way while you were heading in to where they wanted you to dump....and once you stopped, you were stuck.

I would guess most of them are probably union (teamsters) with nearly-impossible-to-fire-a-driver contracts, who are driving someone else's truck that they don't have to worry about tearing up. If they bust an axle, drive shaft, transmission, engine, suspension, frame, lay it over, etc., it won't cost them a penny and they'll have another truck to tear up while they wait for the other one to get fixed. Even the non-union company drivers that I work with are harder on their equipment than I am. Then again, when they break something, it isn't money out of their pocket....or at least they don't see it as such.

Oh yeah...I keep forgetting to mention....South Roxana, IL is NOT "Southern Illinois". Heck, it's NORTH of St. Louis! If I drive north for 2 hours, I'm STILL not far enough north to reach South Roxana. North of I64 is Central Illinois. There. I said it.

I've always liked Mack trucks...but I'm also a die hard Ford man too. If I couldn't have a Mack, an old Ford would be my next choice. the one I looked at had a 475 Cat w/jake 13 speed trans, and 3.55 rears w/ 11R24.5 rubber. jake, headlights, tail lights, turn signals, windshield wipers, etc...none of that worked. Drove nice...engine had plenty of power and pulled real well on the test drive....but I would have had to figure out why nothing with a dash switch worked. Only lights that DID work were the brake lights...once they were put back on the truck. Only had 400K miles...missing an interior door panel....dent on a fuel tank...and some holes in the rear of the cab where it looked like something was mounted & then ripped off again... The payments would have been the same as I'm paying now///but it would have been paid off in half the time. As soon as my Mack is paid off, I may be looking for another one of these to pick up cheap as more of a project truck to build on while I keep working the Mack... ...or not. Never know.