One of those days

[alex g]

[Bullheaded]

LOL. Kinda like the time I was running through a freezing rain and snow storm and pulled onto the plate with my truck and pony and looked at the display and it was reading 69,000 KG (152118 pounds). Legal is 63,500. The officer comes walking out with a big smile and I said "ya, I know." LOL

He was cool....he knew what was going on. I said I'd shovel the snow off, but you'd have to call a plow for your parking lot. LOL

[RowdyRebel]

Back when my truck was still new-to-me, I was having issues with barrel nuts breaking and I hadn't figured out why. Before leaving the shipper, I did a quick walk-around and everything looked good. Tight on time (and close...but legal...on weight) I knew I had to run the big road & get past the scales before fueling. I pulled onto the scale and sat there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the green light. It came on, and I was gone...to jump off at the next exit & grab some fuel. While fueling, I did another walk-around...and found 8 broken barrel nuts on a drive wheel...FACING their window!😱

Dodged a bullet. BIG time.

Anyway, finished fueling & drove across the street to a TA (closest shop) to rectify the situation.

I later figured out my problem. The ad for my truck had said "aluminum wheels", but when I got there to buy it, it turned out to be "aluminum outside wheels". I didn't realize there were different barrel nuts, and I'm assuming they didn't either. I'm guessing my truck HAD 10 aluminum wheels when they got it in, and they had another truck with aluminum steers & steel drives...and they figured they'd make more by selling 2 trucks with aluminum outside wheels with steel inners. The barrel nuts were for aluminum inner & outers, and wouldn't properly secure the steel inners...leading to vibrations & broken barrel nuts. Once I replaced them with the proper barrel nuts, I never broke another barrel nut.

I don't even want to think about the treatment I would've received had they noticed that 8/10 barrel nuts on 1 wheel were broken.🤦‍♂️ Also extremely thankful I needed fuel & caught the problem beforeit became a catastrophe.

[alex g]

55 minutes ago, RowdyRebel said:

Back when my truck was still new-to-me, I was having issues with barrel nuts breaking and I hadn't figured out why. Before leaving the shipper, I did a quick walk-around and everything looked good. Tight on time (and close...but legal...on weight) I knew I had to run the big road & get past the scales before fueling. I pulled onto the scale and sat there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the green light. It came on, and I was gone...to jump off at the next exit & grab some fuel. While fueling, I did another walk-around...and found 8 broken barrel nuts on a drive wheel...FACING their window!😱

Dodged a bullet. BIG time.

Anyway, finished fueling & drove across the street to a TA (closest shop) to rectify the situation.

I later figured out my problem. The ad for my truck had said "aluminum wheels", but when I got there to buy it, it turned out to be "aluminum outside wheels". I didn't realize there were different barrel nuts, and I'm assuming they didn't either. I'm guessing my truck HAD 10 aluminum wheels when they got it in, and they had another truck with aluminum steers & steel drives...and they figured they'd make more by selling 2 trucks with aluminum outside wheels with steel inners. The barrel nuts were for aluminum inner & outers, and wouldn't properly secure the steel inners...leading to vibrations & broken barrel nuts. Once I replaced them with the proper barrel nuts, I never broke another barrel nut.

I don't even want to think about the treatment I would've received had they noticed that 8/10 barrel nuts on 1 wheel were broken.🤦‍♂️ Also extremely thankful I needed fuel & caught the problem beforeit became a catastrophe.

Good catch I also didn't realize they were different from steel to aluminum and had them come loose. Never broke any but learned a valuable lesson 

[mowerman]

I was 2000 over on my drive axle couple years ago and made it right through still can’t figure out that one except sometimes strange things happen glad you made it through bud that could’ve been expensive mobile mechanics are certainly not cheap... bob

[tjc transport]

a couple months ago the troopers set outside an industrial park where all the animals were running dirt in for stocking for a winter project. just so happens to be an asphalt plant at the end of the road. 

troopers were there banging the dirt trucks because the guys were getting paid by the ton, and were averaging 100,000 lbs plus. and most of the trucks should not have been on the road due to major defects. 

anyway, i was coming out of the asphalt plant, and one of the troopers pulled me in cause they were slow, and he thought i was coming out of the dirt site. 

after checking my load ticket, he asked me if i minded him scaling me, and doing a quick inspection. 

i told him "not at all, and i would be disappointed in you if you did not".

well, i was 100 lbs over on the steer axle, and he found a very slight air leak on the trans.

i asked him if i could redistribute the weight. he said ahhh yea i guess so. so i picked the dump body up 5 foot and set it back down. told him there, that should be good.

he looked at the scales, and the front axle was now 100 lbs light.

 

with that i got a "get out of here smartass." 

i shook his hand, told him to be safe, and took off.   😁

[alex g]

1 hour ago, tjc transport said:

a couple months ago the troopers set outside an industrial park where all the animals were running dirt in for stocking for a winter project. just so happens to be an asphalt plant at the end of the road. 

troopers were there banging the dirt trucks because the guys were getting paid by the ton, and were averaging 100,000 lbs plus. and most of the trucks should not have been on the road due to major defects. 

anyway, i was coming out of the asphalt plant, and one of the troopers pulled me in cause they were slow, and he thought i was coming out of the dirt site. 

after checking my load ticket, he asked me if i minded him scaling me, and doing a quick inspection. 

i told him "not at all, and i would be disappointed in you if you did not".

well, i was 100 lbs over on the steer axle, and he found a very slight air leak on the trans.

i asked him if i could redistribute the weight. he said ahhh yea i guess so. so i picked the dump body up 5 foot and set it back down. told him there, that should be good.

he looked at the scales, and the front axle was now 100 lbs light.

 

with that i got a "get out of here smartass." 

i shook his hand, told him to be safe, and took off.   😁

Attitude goes a long way 👍

[mowerman]

ive heard a lot of fellas through the years,,say most of the time,guys write thier own tickets...im sure most of you have heard that.i know myself,i have gotten way more warnings that write ups....bob..

[hicrop10]

I got pulled over by dot years back.I had our lowboy 4 axle tractor 4 axle trailer.Had a Ts-24 on( that a twin engine scraper).Grossing out around 150,000.The officers walked around look at everything and left me go,said the truck and trailer were clean looking no oil leaking any where.They just checked my permit and I was off.

[RowdyRebel]

Over the years I've found going out of my way to make their job easier never buys me an ounce of good favor, so I quit trying. I'll be professional, but if they don't ask for something I don't offer it up, and even if they DO ask, if the regs say I'm not required to have something I'll say I don't have it. There's a big green book that gives us the rules we have to play by. Your job is to know the rules & how to bend them in your favor. Their job is to catch you breaking the rules. I've found a lot of the time they don't know the rules...they find something they THINK looks wrong, and they have to look it up to verify. They won't tell you about the exceptions and exemptions you may have available to you that say what you're doing is OK. In my experience, they don't know about them and will only look them up if YOU cite them as a reason for doing what they think you shouldn't be doing.

[mowerman]

Do you know rowdy think sometimes you’re just not going to make them happy no matter what you do sometimes they don’t like the way you look or they might have issues at home fighting with their wife behind on their bills teenage kids At home giving them  a hard time they come in to work in a bad mood and where does that leave you ha ha... bob

[tjc transport]

6 hours ago, mowerman said:

Do you know rowdy think sometimes you’re just not going to make them happy no matter what you do sometimes they don’t like the way you look or they might have issues at home fighting with their wife behind on their bills teenage kids At home giving them  a hard time they come in to work in a bad mood and where does that leave you ha ha... bob

yup, had that too.ha done that was in a bad mood. i pulled out a good 1/4 mile in front of him. 

no lights on, no siren.

little did i know he was doing over 80 mph in a 50 zone. 

i got a failure to yield ticket in the mail a week later. 

[mowerman]

There you go perfect example I work with a guy that used to be an owner operator and he said when he had his own truck stuff like that used to happen to him all the time...  I did get a ticket in Las Vegas one time that I didn’t deserve only time I can remember where I got a bum deal for doing absolutely nothing wrong...It was one of those sting operations they were grabbing everybody.. bob

[RowdyRebel]

I had a car pull out in front of me leaving town. I'm barely back up to speed (car pulling away) when we meet a statey going to other way. He flips around & lights me up. 2-lane road, no shoulder...but 1-1/2 miles up the road is a big gravel lot at an intersection...so I puton my 4-ways to indicate "I see you back there and will be stopping", reduce my speed (in case he wanted around me to get the car...I know...not likely), and proceeded up to the safe place to stop. He wrote me for 62 in a 55. I asked about the car speeding off & easily pulling away from me ahead of me. He said "I had him clocked at 57". On what planet does THAT make sense? He then proceeded to tell me they've had a lot of complaints about 'you coal haulers speeding in & out of the mine' just on the other side of the town I had just come through. Didn't matter to him that I hadn't hauled a load of coal in over a week, or that I had never in my life been to that particular mine. I was pulling a dump wagon, and it wouldn't look good FOR HIM if he let me off with a warning (for what...NOT speeding?)...so he wrote me a ticket

Yeah, F you too, buddy. Last time I try & do y'all any favors.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. I cross the Chester bridge loaded pretty heavy (but legal) and they're sitting right there at the IL welcome center. I had a line of cars behind me as I started up the hill into town, so when I saw the state cop hit his lights & start to pass, I slowed to make sure he could get around before oncoming traffic got too close. He pulled in behind me...so I stopped. Right there in the middle of the road (zero shoulder...rock wall to my right) on this little 2-lane hill with a long line of cars behind me & oncoming traffic now also having to stop coming down the hill because he's out of his car dealing with me.

Wanna F with me? I'll F with you right back. Have a nice day.😂