I meant it was gonna take us 8-9 hours to get there. Didn't acually driver until 6am this morning.
Wife just accepted a load to California. 1500 miles. I'll keep you guys posted along the way!
Nervous newbie
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
I meant it was gonna take us 8-9 hours to get there. Didn't acually driver until 6am this morning.
Wife just accepted a load to California. 1500 miles. I'll keep you guys posted along the way!
We have picked up and are now on the road. Prolly the smoothest pick up so far. The wife is getting pretty good with the bill of ladings and most of the people we've met are super nice. Couple pieces of info not in any order:
Not sure if I had posted about our weight yet. I got a weigh ticket when we went to loves a few days back before our first load. I can't remember the specifics right now but some good pieces of info, your steer axle has a limit and your drive axle has a limit, your vehicle itself as a whole has a limit too. This is no different than a typical car or truck (prolly more so a truck (1/2 ton pickups towing their 10,000lb rv's come to mind). For our truck the total vehicle weight is 33000lbs if I remember right. Front axle limit is 12,000lbs. Now, with full fuel tanks our front axle is already over weight (12,060lbs). This for me means all freight gets loaded right over the drive wheels if not a hair behind. I keep one of our load bars up right about as far forward as I want them to load it.
As far as weigh stations go. Our ez pass has lights on it for weigh stations. Red, yellow, and green. A few miles before a weigh station you will normally have signs on the interstate that say "follow in cab signals" or something like that. You must be in the right lane. If it beeps and the light is green, you don't have to stop (going to assume you have to pull in for red and yellow).
So far :
- 1st load 2000lbs over rear drive axle - green lights the whole way
- 2nd load 1980lbs over the rear axle - green light on one, the other station had no automated prompts and a sign that said everyone needed to stop. We pull off and signs said to slowly roll through and follow traffic signals. Ours stayed green, so we went through.
- This load is only 180lbs. I don't anticipate an issue.
Another key piece of information, our truck has rear stabilizer jacks. I didn't lower them our first load, and I wasn't able to watch them load us. Figured with 2000lbs it wasn't NEEDED... until we delivered and I watched them unload us. I didn't take into account the 3000lb+ forklift that would be loading the truck along with the actual weight of the freight. The back of our truck sank and bobbed around like you wouldn't believe. Jacks get deployed from now on. First two loads were done with dock doors. This one they did on the street with a forklift.
Not sure if I had posted about our weight yet. I got a weigh ticket when we went to loves a few days back before our first load. I can't remember the specifics right now but some good pieces of info, your steer axle has a limit and your drive axle has a limit, your vehicle itself as a whole has a limit too. This is no different than a typical car or truck (prolly more so a truck (1/2 ton pickups towing their 10,000lb rv's come to mind). For our truck the total vehicle weight is 33000lbs if I remember right. Front axle limit is 12,000lbs. Now, with full fuel tanks our front axle is already over weight (12,060lbs). This for me means all freight gets loaded right over the drive wheels if not a hair behind. I keep one of our load bars up right about as far forward as I want them to load it.
As far as weigh stations go. Our ez pass has lights on it for weigh stations. Red, yellow, and green. A few miles before a weigh station you will normally have signs on the interstate that say "follow in cab signals" or something like that. You must be in the right lane. If it beeps and the light is green, you don't have to stop (going to assume you have to pull in for red and yellow).
So far :
- 1st load 2000lbs over rear drive axle - green lights the whole way
- 2nd load 1980lbs over the rear axle - green light on one, the other station had no automated prompts and a sign that said everyone needed to stop. We pull off and signs said to slowly roll through and follow traffic signals. Ours stayed green, so we went through.
- This load is only 180lbs. I don't anticipate an issue.
Another key piece of information, our truck has rear stabilizer jacks. I didn't lower them our first load, and I wasn't able to watch them load us. Figured with 2000lbs it wasn't NEEDED... until we delivered and I watched them unload us. I didn't take into account the 3000lb+ forklift that would be loading the truck along with the actual weight of the freight. The back of our truck sank and bobbed around like you wouldn't believe. Jacks get deployed from now on. First two loads were done with dock doors. This one they did on the street with a forklift.
Keep in mind that when you put your dollies legs, or Jacks down before you are loaded, the weight of the load may make it difficult or impossible to crank them up again.
Keep a close eye and leave a bit of play between the Jacks and the ground to allow for raising them after you are loaded.
You can deflate your air bags to make the process easier as well.
Deflate bags, lower gear, load, inflate bags, raise gear.
Not really necessary on super light loads, obviously.
Hope this helps.
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Keep a close eye and leave a bit of play between the Jacks and the ground to allow for raising them after you are loaded.
You can deflate your air bags to make the process easier as well.
Deflate bags, lower gear, load, inflate bags, raise gear.
Not really necessary on super light loads, obviously.
Hope this helps.
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Deffinatly helps. How much would you say is "getting heavy". Obviously a very specific question but there has got to be a number for when you should prolly turn down the load. In my mind, if a 3000lb load comes along I might think about it for a bit but logically thinking I'm going to assume my limit for comfort is gonna be around 5,000lbs. We only have one drive axle. Front axle weight is what would concern me the most with heavier loads.
Edit:: my weigh tag is a little iffy. They seemed to think I had a trailer, so my tag has a trailer weight. I just added the rear axle weight to the trailer weight and took that as my drive axle weight. It's very light. Total is around 25,000lbs
Random thoughts, front tires felt a little warm. Our game google, people say temp varies depending on ambient temp. From what I can gather under 150 degrees your ok. Gonna have to get a temp gun. Also says never check pressure when warm. Pressure will not be accurate and prolly read higher.
Link for reference:
Understanding truck tires and air pressure
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This is probably the most valuable piece of information i personally can provide. For the love of God, VERIFY YOUR ENGINE BRAKE FUNCTION BEFORE YOU DRIVE ANYWHERE!!! I know what an engine brake is and how to use one, or at least that's what I thought. I looked at all switches in the truck when we got it and googled the ones I was unfamiliar with. One of these switches says "engine brk" it has a high, medium, and low setting. Pretty self explanatory right? Hit that switch when you want it on, got it. WRONG. that switch would be exactly what it says. Your high, medium, and low settings.
Figuring out where the actual "on" switch is a whole different story. And let me tell you, hunting for the
er while doing 65 down the %5 (which isn't even that bad) grade in a panic is NOT the way to seduce your wife. Im not getting laid for months after that ordeal. The answer? It's on the steering wheel.
She does however have the pumping the brakes method down and went to it naturally.
1,000 miles to go..
Figuring out where the actual "on" switch is a whole different story. And let me tell you, hunting for the
er while doing 65 down the %5 (which isn't even that bad) grade in a panic is NOT the way to seduce your wife. Im not getting laid for months after that ordeal. The answer? It's on the steering wheel. She does however have the pumping the brakes method down and went to it naturally.
1,000 miles to go..
Another slightly irritating day. We're about 350 miles away from our delivery. Don't need to be there till 9:00am so we're still way ahead of schedule. It seems that the last 600 miles have been uphill, then downhill, then repeat. Right around 5% grades. Not a huge deal but more taxing than normal. I had to pull off for a few hrs early this morning to take a nap. Kept seeing signs that said "tire chains required when lights are flashing" thankfully the light have been off. But that sparked a few questions, ultimately leading to the answer "you need to have a set of chains with you, or you will be fined"... awesome. Pulled off at a t/a and got chains. Hope to God I don't need them. Can't imagine I would, but I guess it's possible? Expeditors obviously paid for them, but sleep schedule is suffering since we're still adjusting. I've only been able to sleep 2hrs since this load started. I'm not falling asleep or anything but I'm very irritable.
Looks like they're pulling people over for safety checks. Hopefully we'll skate through undetected. Gonna try to nap in the mean time.
Looks like they're pulling people over for safety checks. Hopefully we'll skate through undetected. Gonna try to nap in the mean time.
I know nothing of snow chains except for what I've read. 1: You gotta of them. 2: Learn and practice how to install and remove Before needing them. (Something to do when you're sitting around doing nothing else, like writing that book.) 3: Gonna have to install while wearing gloves, it will be yucky outside.
Thanks for the insight about the ON switch. I could see us learning that the hard way also. Now I'll always remember it - I like to get laid.
Thanks for the insight about the ON switch. I could see us learning that the hard way also. Now I'll always remember it - I like to get laid.
Delivered. Gps took us to the wrong address. Ended up being about a half hour away. So that was late. We had accepted a small load (30 miles) locally before we actually got here. That will prolly suck. Don't pick up till 10pm. This will be my last adventure to California. There are zero places to park. First Walmart said no parking, was gonna stay there anyway but the crackheads wandering around made me reconsider. Another Walmart also said no parking but the lot next door is empty from an out of business store. There are other stores in this little "strip mall" and there are plenty of no parking signs. We stayed here last night and there is still another truck from last night. Gonna try to stay here till pickup. I'm tired, and there is literally no where else to go.
Tell you guys something. Don't take it the wrong way. I hear in your posts that you don't like Mississippi for some reason, then something else about Texas, now you don't like California and it is the last... In this business you want to do what others are not willing or able. There are places that I don't like going, but I go anywhere for the right price. And usually where people don't want to go I get better money to go there.
I know you are new, but just keep this in mind.
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I know you are new, but just keep this in mind.
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I agree with you. Chances are I might not like anywhere we go. For awhile anyway. Not sure when I became so high maintenance but I hope it fades. I think it will die down when the comfort level goes up. Guess I just don't like a place until I see something worse, like right now, Mississippi doesn't seem so bad. Lmao.
We like them all! Somehow, no matter where we go, our favorite Magician gets us out. Even if it takes a long paid DH to pick
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Exactly. If I re read this entire thread I would walk away with the thought "man, this dude is a baby" but I want to be as transparent as possible with my emotions because I'm sure I'm not the only emotional dude. Lol. Just want any new people that read this to understand that the stress is very real at times. I plan for this thread to eventually be pages and pages long and get to the point where every post is exciting and I can vent about how happy I am that I chose this career, and people will see that it didn't all start with unicorns farting rainbows. They will see that it wasn't easy, and they will see that if they put in the work and keep at it. It could potentially be a dream job
Chernandez
Active Expediter
Your open, honest posts are exactly what make this thread worthy of following for us Newbies...keep it up and thank you!
Something exciting every day!
We were able to relax and watch tv all the way up until about 8pm (Eastern time). Pick up was at 9. Go to start the truck. Click... click.. yep. Battery is dead. SOMEONE (wife) did not put the apu in stand by. She turned on the heat the other day which resulted in white smoke coming out of an exhaust vent. Wasn't sure if that was normal or not so she turned it off. (When you turn it off you need to put it back in stand by so it can kick on when your batteries get low and charge them up). She did not put it in stand by. So I'm like crap. Now we have to call someone. Sat for a minute to gather my thoughts. Then a small ray of hope... our batteries don't have the juice to start the truck, however, maybe they have the juice to fire up the apu. Turn it on and after some sputtering and stumbling it let's out a loud VROOM. Awesome. Now we wait for a few minutes to get a charge on the batteries and then the moment of truth (when you turn the truck key to "on" the apu kicks off automatically, there was a small fear that if the truck didn't start, the apu might not fire back up either), SUCCESS! We were good to go. Got to the pickup location (fed ex air port of some kind) and our load is still on the plane. So we're parked out front (thank god they have space on a very large shoulder) waiting for a phone call from them saying they are ready.
We were able to relax and watch tv all the way up until about 8pm (Eastern time). Pick up was at 9. Go to start the truck. Click... click.. yep. Battery is dead. SOMEONE (wife) did not put the apu in stand by. She turned on the heat the other day which resulted in white smoke coming out of an exhaust vent. Wasn't sure if that was normal or not so she turned it off. (When you turn it off you need to put it back in stand by so it can kick on when your batteries get low and charge them up). She did not put it in stand by. So I'm like crap. Now we have to call someone. Sat for a minute to gather my thoughts. Then a small ray of hope... our batteries don't have the juice to start the truck, however, maybe they have the juice to fire up the apu. Turn it on and after some sputtering and stumbling it let's out a loud VROOM. Awesome. Now we wait for a few minutes to get a charge on the batteries and then the moment of truth (when you turn the truck key to "on" the apu kicks off automatically, there was a small fear that if the truck didn't start, the apu might not fire back up either), SUCCESS! We were good to go. Got to the pickup location (fed ex air port of some kind) and our load is still on the plane. So we're parked out front (thank god they have space on a very large shoulder) waiting for a phone call from them saying they are ready.
Please know I'm NOT laughing at you, but with you. LOL
I'm so glad that you are sharing these experiences, especially with honesty and humor. Because when we do the same things I'll know I should have known better. Of course I won't remember beforehand, it will be after. SMH
As always, stay safe.
I'm so glad that you are sharing these experiences, especially with honesty and humor. Because when we do the same things I'll know I should have known better. Of course I won't remember beforehand, it will be after. SMH
As always, stay safe.
Even if you were. It comes with the territory. Sometimes all you can do is laugh. Delivery went ok. Pulled into the wrong entrance, had to back out and go to the correct one. Once we got to the correct one the security guard was kinda rude but no biggie. Drove 60 miles to a loves and actually got a spot. Time for rest
