RowdyRebel

Still got the box here in my truck...Cobra CDR840. Turn off the G-sensor or rough roads will fill up the 8G card in about a day. Continuous loop recording, so if it "saves" a file it just doesn't overwrite. With the G-sensor turned off, though, you'll have to physically push the button on the camera to get it to save. When it saves, it actually saves 2 files...the current file that is recording, and the file immediately preceding the incident. I have mine set for 3 minute files. The suction cup held the camera for a few weeks...until it didn't. Kept falling off the windshield yesterday and had to reposition it several times before I grabbed a handy-wipe and cleaned both the suction cup and the window where I was trying to stick it. Overall, it seems to be a good cam...I kinda wish it displayed the speed on the image, but then again sometimes you DON'T want that...so it's probably better this way. I had been considering the Garmin with the GPS...but it is $100 more and I never saw it anywhere but online. The local truck stop in Cape had the Cobra.

This is the scary part right here: A deer carcass, child playing or person crossing the street...these "autonomous" trucks will mow 'em down like they aren't even there and the the "driver" (who thought he was doing good sitting there doing whatever while the truck was on auto-pilot) is going to get the blame. And as for the linking up...you'd better trust that front driver pretty good, because anything he crashes into or does, you're in it too. He takes a turn too quickly? You're all on your side or in the ditch. He runs it into the back of stopped traffic? You're not going to avoid it either. Of course same can be said for idiots tailgating one another today...but the difference is you aren't SUPPOSED to be driving that close to the truck ahead of you today. When it becomes "what is expected" because that's the way the trucks are designed, well it just opens the door for wrecks to get a whole lot more spectacular. Instead of 1 idiot using an 80,000 truck as a wrecking ball, put your trust in the wrong "other driver" and he'll use the ENTIRE CONVOY as a wrecking ball. It's going to be ugly, especially when the "experienced hand" is going to be a thing of the past. People aren't going to get the feel for the truck sitting there allowing the truck to drive for them, so when the SHTF and the truck hands control back to the "driver", first they'll have to pull themselves away from whatever else it was they were doing and get their head in the game...where if they had been driving, they'd already have the situational awareness needed to take immediate action. How long is that going to take...3-5 seconds? At 60 mph (88 feet per second) that is 264-440 feet...exceeding the distance the driver SHOULD be able to stop the truck in IF they had been paying attention. Now, they are JUST REALIZING that they should have hit the brakes 400 feet ago, and it's going to take them another 300 feet to get stopped. I sure hope they had 700+ feet to play with. Nothing about these "future trucks" is good for anybody beyond those getting paid to develop them. The carriers adopting these new trucks will pay the insurance companies to cover the claims, and the "drivers" will still receive the blame for the wrecks even though they were told to let the truck drive itself. Meanwhile, the politicians will demand more technology be developed to solve the problems created by technology. PROPERLY training people to drive would go much farther for a lot less money. That's the REAL problem...rookies training newbies and nobody in the truck has a clue, just riding around on a wing and a prayer.

Somebody hollered at me today in Crossville and I didn't catch your name...

I'd hate to be judged by what I drive, because I usually drive my "beater truck" that I overpaid my brother for nearly 10 years ago (he was a broke college kid at the time and needed money, I needed a truck I could park at the company yard for months at a time) and other than welding up a grille with some scrap metal (he had rear-ended somebody and busted out the grille) and buying some square tube to fabricate a new bumper after I ripped the old one off dragging it behind the Mack, I haven't spent a dime on it other than gas and oil. Sure, it's butt ugly, the exhaust is rotted off, and the paint is peeling...but it fires up the first time I hit the key every time and it gets 25 mpg driving it like I stole it. Hell, the thing is 23 years old. Sitting at home in the driveway are 2 other vehicles that still look great...one is 19 years old, and the other is 25 years old. Those are both 4x4s, and only get 9-10 mpg...so unless I need the extra traction, or have something bigger I need to haul, I usually opt for the beater. I don't care what that little truck looks like, as it still does what I need it to.

That's one of the cool things about the Toys for Tots ride in December...cops block the roads and you just ride. Knowing where all of the bikes are going that Sunday, whether heading to or returning home from the ride is pretty slick too because the cops generally won't bother you. I remember one year, met up with a group of guys a few miles before the start of the ride to grab breakfast. Pulled out of the McDonald's and this one guy snaps it up into a wheelie and he's in 3rd gear on one wheel when he goes flying past a cop sitting in a parking lot about 1/2 a block from the restaurant. Cop just shook his head and that was it. Now any other day? I want nothing to do with that city...but if they're going to block traffic and give me a police escort through town? I'm game.

So if you borrowed his car, and parked it under a crane before the crane operator showed up to work. When he arrives, you simply turn your back and allow the crane operator to lift heavy items over zero's car that you had borrowed instead of moving the car or overseeing the operation to ensure the items being lifted were properly rigged. One rather heavy item slips loose, falls, and lands squarely on zero's car. Are you at fault? Technically, no. Are you RESPONSIBLE for the incident? ABSOLUTELY! You, being responsible for the car, should have kept an eye on the process to ensure the safety of zero's car. Crane operator is liable for the damages, but ya still ain't ever gonna borrow MY car.

Zero would've been out the door after the 1st incident. Especially in heavy haul, "minor" incidents can be 6-figure mistakes. A guy prone to making mistakes can put you under pretty quick.

That truck looks like it was MEANT to be the USO transport truck. Grandpa always liked the USO...they would give out free coffee to the troops in WWII, so when he got back made regular donations to them. I think he said it was the Red Cross that charged a nickel or so for a cup of coffee, and he wouldn't give them a dime when he got back...didn't think it was right for a "charitable organization" allegedly supporting the troops in the war effort to be charging the troops fighting the war for coffee like that.

It is a Cobra. Can't remember the model # off the top of my head...840 or something like that. It has the gps receiver to give coordinates and such (surprised it doesn't print the speed on the video), and was only $160 at the local truck stop. And the roads are right across the river in Missouri.

New dash cam works SO much better than what I USED to have to do when I wanted to capture something on video...this one was a few years ago pulling and empty 39' frameless end dump up a different fun road. Digital camera velcroed onto the top of my CB on the dash, with youtube video stabilization to make it watchable...

Hilly, twisty, curvey, and fun...with nobody in my way! Grossing 78K this trip pulling a 53' dry box:

WSM is probably the ONLY reason I like rolling through Crashville. We're pretty lucky around these parts...C106 (KWKZ) broadcasts from Cape with their tower in Charleston...plays "traditional" country. Pretty good mix between new artists that actually play country (Joe Nichols, Josh Turner, SOME Brad Paisley, etc...) and the older stuff (Hank, Willie, Waylon) and a TON of local and lesser known artists that actually play country music. Wednesday nights is bluegrass night for 3 hours. They've still got turntables in the studio for stuff that isn't on CD or in their computer...and can't forget about their million dollar guarantee. For $1 million, they'll play anything you want to hear whether it fits their format or not...

In case you were wondering, I got me a new toy. Hope I never need it, but the idiots are getting pretty thick these days. CYA!

Or the Arkansas game warden who didn't pretrip his vehicle and has no blinker (or other lights?) on his trailer...bet he'd write a ticket for that if the roles were reversed.

Typical "Crashville" driving...pass a big truck, cut across it's nose, and come to a stop in the right lane because you can't quite squeeze into traffic taking the exit you knew you were going to want to take...

Waiting 'til the last minute before pulling out in front of an 80,000 pound truck @ 55 mph? Good thing I saw that one coming or it would've been UGLY!

Class 8 tractor. Teeny tiny trailer. 5-axle combination hauling a toy-sized piece of equipment. My Ford Ranger could handle that. I didn't even know they MADE tandem axle semi trailers that short.

My first job was a camp counselor at a Boy Scout camp. First thing the camp director told us is "You are an employee of the camp. ANYTHING at the camp that needs to be done IS YOUR JOB! I don't care if your job title is 'nature instructor' if we need help at the waterfront with swim checks, THAT is your job! I don't care if you are a 'scoutcraft instructor', if the commissary needs help preparing the food to send out to the units, THAT is your job! If I hear ANYONE utter the words 'that ain't my job', they'll be on the next bus home." It has stuck with me for all these years...I just get the job done. Don't care what my job title is, it needs to be done so let's do it. Too many with the "I'm a driver, not a _________"...or "I don't get paid to do _________" attitude these days.

...which is why I don't have more trucks than I can drive myself. I hold myself to a high standard, and wouldn't expect anything less from an employee. I wouldn't ask an employee to do anything I wouldn't do, and would expect them to do anything I have done. I understand if they haven't yet had the opportunity to learn something...and if that were the case, I'd work with them...but if the reason they don't know something is because they don't care to learn? You're done here. If I bought a second truck, with the "drivers" these days? I doubt I could keep somebody behind the wheel.

The words "You're right" seem to roll off my wife's tongue quite regularly. However, the phrase "I'm wrong" has never crossed her lips.

There is no requirement to actually know anything to get your CDL, as long as you can memorize a list of parts you are supposed to check so you can recite the list and say you're making sure the part isn't "cracked/broken/missing". You don't have to point to them or even know what they look like, as long as you're standing in the general area of where you might be if you actually knew what you were looking for (don't worry, the list tells you where to stand, too). On another board, there's a driver complaining that he got written for 393.47© during a roadside inspection, and argued with the officer that "that isn't even pretrippable". If you are under there checking brake drums & linings for wear and/or cracks, and checking slacks to make sure they are adjusted correctly, how could you miss the fact that one is longer than the other? The officer didn't...and it sucks to be you. Sure, the shop that installed the mis-matched slack is incompetent...but it is your job to catch that sort of crap before you're on the road. Too many people think they know it all...but they haven't a clue just how much they don't know...or how much of what they THINK they know that simply isn't true.

If she's just doing a double-drop, the laziness really isn't that big of a deal moving trailers a few feet in a private lot. Hell, a lot of the yard dog tractors I've seen don't even have a blue line or electric...just the red so they can move it. My problem with her is the fact that she didn't understand WHY the air was "leaking" when she stepped on the brakes, or the fact that she thought her trailer COULD leak air when she steps on the brakes if that line isn't hooked up. Private lot, not a safety concern...and I'd expect the desk jockey at the company to stand behind the driver in that regard. However, the lack of understanding in HOW the system works and the unwillingness to LEARN is where the stupid factor hit high gear...

Is that another bug (PM/"like")? Or is that just the way the interweb works here in little rock?

Did the same thing this time, but instead I was patient and waited instead of clicking the "post" button again...and again...trying to get it to go through. Apparently it made the post, but instead of loading the page I got this:

Interweb seemed to lock up...and when it finally went through, I'd triple posted. Oops.