I need a hat, a chain for my wallet & a can of snuff.

Whizzer said:
Be prepared for Graceland. The "mansion" is smaller than you might anticipate. That is, smaller by todays standards of grandiose mansions but for the time Elvis owned it, it was pretty luxurious. It is an interesting place. My Bride and I visited there about 20 years ago and as we walked to the gravesite of Elvis, it took me by surprise as I got choked up. He was such a bright star and used so badly by Colonel Parker. There are few performers who carry such strong emotions to generations even though he has been gone for over 40 years.
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Kinda funny as I'm reading your post sitting only a few miles away from Graceland. I'm delivering here in Memphis right now.

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Whizzer said:
Be prepared for Graceland. The "mansion" is smaller than you might anticipate. That is, smaller by todays standards of grandiose mansions but for the time Elvis owned it, it was pretty luxurious. It is an interesting place. My Bride and I visited there about 20 years ago and as we walked to the gravesite of Elvis, it took me by surprise as I got choked up. He was such a bright star and used so badly by Colonel Parker. There are few performers who carry such strong emotions to generations even though he has been gone for over 40 years.
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Yeah Whizz, we are going with another couple and they specifically asked to detour to Graceland.
We liked the idea and are staying there one night and doing a tour.

We are making compromises along the way with everyone getting to chose a sight to see. One of mine was the Grand Canyon. Staying in Williams and taking the Grand Canyon Railway trip to the south rim. I’ve flown over the canyon but haven’t stood at the edge.
 
Question - I saw a truck bobtailing this morning with the fifth freshly greased. For somebody that swaps trailers alot, how often do you go through grease gun cartridges? And how often/when is the old grease scraped off the fifth and trailer pin area?
 
Magnethead said:
Question - I saw a truck bobtailing this morning with the fifth freshly greased. For somebody that swaps trailers alot, how often do you go through grease gun cartridges? And how often/when is the old grease scraped off the fifth and trailer pin area?
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I'm a company driver so we have service departments that take care of that. My truck is PM'd every four months? During that time they grease the hitch and the sliding rail that it sits on. I'm not sure that the old grease is ever scraped off of the hitch or the pin on the trailer. They use 55 gal drums of grease along with pneumatic grease guns.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I'm a company driver so we have service departments that take care of that. My truck is PM'd every four months? During that time they grease the hitch and the sliding rail that it sits on. I'm not sure that the old grease is ever scraped off of the hitch or the pin on the trailer. They use 55 gal drums of grease along with pneumatic grease guns.
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I meant the fifth plate itself, the flat part. I expected that it would be re-greased with every trailer change. I suppose not?
 
sdj said:
Awe hell naw!

How in the world do you offload anything in that kind of cold. Do they have heated buildings to offload in?
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I'm offloading in Edmonton Wednesday morning. At that location I offload outside. They will start the process by taking samples. They take four samples at a time and send them to their lab. I'm outside while the samples are taken and back in the truck when waiting on results. Once they're ready I stand outside and monitor the offload process until empty. Takes about an hour. About an hour ago I took the trailer to a local tank wash facility to have the trailer steamed. They'll raise the temperature of the product enough that it should offload quickly.

I'm only in Saskatoon because I've run out of time to work this week. I have to sit for 36 hours in Canada for my clock to reset. That will be at midnight Tuesday into Wednesday. I'll get a fresh clock then. My trailer is only a mile from where I'm located. I'll go hook up and drive to Edmonton early Wednesday to deliver at 0800. It's about 5 1/2 hours from here.

Edmonton weather will be a little warmer but not much. A high of zero on Wednesday.

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Picked up my steamed trailer this morning only to find out they broke the dome seal in order to check the product temperature. There are caps up there that are to be removed/replaced in order to do that. They are never supposed to do that. Only the customer or me, in front of the customer are to do that. I'm going to reseal it and the customer has been notified but they're going to have a problem with it.
 
Flatbed driver across from me decided to pull into, rather than back into, his spot last night. Apparently set his trailer brakes. Started to back out of his spot only to realize his brakes are locked up. Frozen I'm sure. Now, he's got me blocked in. Truck to my right, left and rear. I told him to toss his chains under his drive tires to pull ahead back into his spot or rehook at an angle and turn right out of there. He didn't want to listen. So, I'm back in the warmth of my truck drinking coffee. I'm here for another 14 hours anyhow. Hopefully he gets it figured out.

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Wish I had taken pics this morning. Got up early so I could head out at midnight for the final push to Edmonton. Had snow fall overnight. Not sure how much actually fell but it was drifted to the height of my bumper in my parking spot. Cold, strong winds and night driving ahead I gave thought to delaying my drive. Talked to a few drivers at the pumps and decided to go for it. Glad I did. The first 100 or so miles where the worst of it. Much of the interstate was snow covered with tough visibility but it got progressively better as time went on. No traffic, and by'no traffic', I mean none..... Nobody. In my first 300 miles I passed one pickup truck and a single car passed me. That's it. That's really not that unusual in the middle of the night. Anyhow, I'm parked in front of the delivery point now, well ahead of schedule. Oh, and the weather..... Yep, still cold but not nearly as bad as what it will be in a few days around here.
 
Absolutely love photos and stories of difficulties you encounter and, what to me, are unusual circumstances. The broken cover and the idiot that blocked you in being the examples offered.

Just curious, how do they thaw brakes to be operable again when the temps never get above zero?
Do the tires get bumpy after a lengthy run and then sitting after a long period of time?
Inquiring minds want to know. ;)
Thanks for relating your stories. I think you can tell you have a following.
 
Whizzer said:
Absolutely love photos and stories of difficulties you encounter and, what to me, are unusual circumstances. The broken cover and the idiot that blocked you in being the examples offered.

Just curious, how do they thaw brakes to be operable again when the temps never get above zero?
Do the tires get bumpy after a lengthy run and then sitting after a long period of time?
Inquiring minds want to know. ;)
Thanks for relating your stories. I think you can tell you have a following.
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They beat them with a big hammer. No, seriously. It works.

Unless I'm dropping a trailer in a yard somewhere, I never set the brakes inn the winter. The moisture that results from the air compressor running works its way through the brake system causing it to freeze up overnight. You're supposed to drain three moisture through low sitting valves on the air cylinders. He obviously didn't.

My tires are seldom sitting still. No, they're not bumpy. Most of the trailers I pull have an air suspension. They ride smooth.
 
Whizzer said:
Absolutely love photos and stories of difficulties you encounter and, what to me, are unusual circumstances. The broken cover and the idiot that blocked you in being the examples offered.

Just curious, how do they thaw brakes to be operable again when the temps never get above zero?
Do the tires get bumpy after a lengthy run and then sitting after a long period of time?
Inquiring minds want to know. ;)
Thanks for relating your stories. I think you can tell you have a following.
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Trailer brakes are similar to rear car drum brakes except the inside is open and not covered like car brakes. Sometimes the trailer you pick up when you are doing a drop and hook have frozen brakes. They make a brake line anti freeze you can pour in the air lines to try to unfreeze the brakes, sometimes it works, if not, you have to crawl under the trailer with a hammer and wail away at the brake shoes until they release.
 
Welp, the customer has a problem with the broken seal. Mobil told them that they need to send samples to an outside lab for analysis. They need to make sure the load isn't contaminated.

What this means to me..... They are not going to offload me today. They took samples to send to the lab. They then resealed the trailer. Results available in 1-2 days. I hope it's 1. Once they have results, they'll reschedule. If they can get them today, I'll offload at 0600 tomorrow ahead of their first appointment. Otherwise, I'm looking at Friday. It gets real bad if it's not Friday. They only take deliveries M-F.

I really wanted to get the heck outta here today. It's getting ready to get real cold here. That presents another issue. My product is currently at 95 degrees in an insulated trailer. It'll definitely be good for tomorrow. Not sure about Friday. May have to have the load steamed again.

In the meantime I'm parked at another truck stop on the east side of Edmonton. I'll be getting paid by the hour until they take delivery.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Picked up my steamed trailer this morning only to find out they broke the dome seal in order to check the product temperature. There are caps up there that are to be removed/replaced in order to do that. They are never supposed to do that. Only the customer or me, in front of the customer are to do that. I'm going to reseal it and the customer has been notified but they're going to have a problem with it.
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Just wondering if the customer accepted the delivery after that seal was broken (if it you cant answer to protect the customer I can understand an appreciate that too).

I used to work for a pharmaceutical manufacturing outfit years ago and I know we would have instantly rejected it. I remember in one occassion a vender simply put the wrong lot number on a full truck load of 400 lb drums
and we could not accept it.

The owner of the company actually flew down from Indiana to South Carolina simply to re-label them with the correct labels before we would recieve them.
The details can be insane.
 
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Greg said:
Just wondering if the customer accepted the delivery after that seal was broken (if it you cant answer to protect the customer I can understand an appreciate that too).

I used to work for a pharmaceutical manufacturing outfit years ago and I know we would have instantly rejected it. I remember in one occassion a vender simply put the wrong lot number on a full truck load of 400 lb drums
and we could not accept it.

The owner of the company actually flew down from Indiana to South Carolina simply to re-label them with the correct labels before we would recieve them.
The details can be insane.
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They haven't accepted it yet. If the results of the off-site laboratory match the COA, Certificate of Analysis, then they will accept it. I have a copy of the COA. For this product, 16 separate tests are performed. All results must match exactly. If they don't, I'll be hauling this back home for someone else to deal with.
 
I remember on one occasion in the mid 1990s a truck backed up to our dock to unload a shipment. But I didnt recognize any of the material.

So we looked at the paperwork and he was suppossed to have delivered to our sister plant in Greenvillle NC, about 8 hours away from where he was at our Greenville SC plant.

I bet he had a good time explaining that one to dispatch.
 
Lab results came back good. Going to offload this morning and get the heck outta here. -21 here at the customers location. Trucks idling @ just over 100 degrees. That hardly produces heat in the cab. It'll be fine once I get rolling today.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Lab results came back good. Going to offload this morning and get the heck outta here. -21 here at the customers location. Trucks idling @ just over 100 degrees. That hardly produces heat in the cab. It'll be fine once I get rolling today.
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Do you have an auxiliary electric heater in bunk area?
 
Finally got offloaded and immediately headed back towards the states. Only drove 7 hours today and it's no warmer here than what I just left. Headed to Chicago over the next couple days. Will be there Saturday.
 
I don't envy you with the weather forecast of driving blizzard conditions in the mid-west. My best friend lives at Saranac Lake, NY, and this week temps have been below zero and high of 9 degrees. I shudder when reading that but he arrived back in Florida to temps in the low fifties and highs in the sixties and he's happy to be back at the ripe old age of 88. Cold affects us differently as we age. Have no idea how people survive everyday living in cold conditions like the ones you experience in Canada.
Just glad to know you are headed back this way and safe. :lilangel:
 
Stopped in Minot, ND to have my fuel filters replaced. They're starting to get pretty plugged up. They took me right into a bay but it looks like they don't have my filters in stock. They are running out to grab them now. Hope to get this done quick. Still have 5 1/2 hrs left to drive today.
 
Made it to Alexandria, MN today. Chicago tomorrow. Sunday I'll be heading back to Edmonton. Deliver Wednesday morning.

Finally hit temps over zero today. Almost feels like a heat wave. It's 1 degree here right now. What a difference that makes in an idling engine. At -21 this morning my engine could only get to 100 degrees. Now, it's at 138. Won't need an extra cover tonight.
 
Whizzer said:
Do the tires get bumpy after a lengthy run and then sitting after a long period of time?
Inquiring minds want to know. ;)
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dpkimmel2001 said:
My tires are seldom sitting still. No, they're not bumpy. Most of the trailers I pull have an air suspension. They ride smooth.
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I could be wrong - what I infer from Whizzer's question is this:

The tires warm up going down the highway. When they stop for the night and cool down, do they get flat-spotted the next morning until they warm up on the road?

I doubt 10 pounds make a difference, if the tires even move 10 degrees at those temps. But I know on our truck, we'd set the tires at 68-70 pounds in the morning when we left the house and they'd be at 80-82psi after 4-5 hours of driving. We'd use the heat gun to check for bearing and brake heat, and to make sure the tires weren't overheating.
 
One of the numerous problems I have is explaining things to others. Seems because I know what I want to ask is short on necessary information because I "assume" the person asked the question can read the inner most regions of my limited mind. Ergo, thanks Magnet. You did it better than I could. ;)
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Made it to Alexandria, MN today. Chicago tomorrow. Sunday I'll be heading back to Edmonton. Deliver Wednesday morning.

Finally hit temps over zero today. Almost feels like a heat wave. It's 1 degree here right now. What a difference that makes in an idling engine. At -21 this morning my engine could only get to 100 degrees. Now, it's at 138. Won't need an extra cover tonight.
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Chicago's temperatures were a little below freezing this morning (Saturday) but will drop to below zero tomorrow (Sunday).

If I didn't know better I might think that you brought that cold air with you. :cool:
 
pjmolo said:
Chicago's temperatures were a little below freezing this morning (Saturday) but will drop to below zero tomorrow (Sunday).

If I didn't know better I might think that you brought that cold air with you. :cool:
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Yeah, I probably did. In Chicago now. Don't worry, I'll be heading outta here early in the am back into the deep freeze. Maybe it'll follow?
 
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