No I'm not dead......................yet

I know its been a month of sundays since I rambled but its been crazy. We've moved, work has been abnormally busy and I'm adding a third truck as well as a second escort. I think the three people that read this have all but given up on me. I don't have the face time with my computer than many of you do working in an office or being close to home. I am always behind the wheel. If its not the KW its the Dodge service truck if not that the Dodge escort truck(I luv a Dodge with a Cummins diesel). I figured up the other day counting all my miles in all the vehicles I drive about 120K miles a year, with about 175 nights in the truck or a hotel. Thats normal for the average over the road trucker but not for specialized wierdos like me. I would really like to buy a new laptop computer and try to keep in touch a little better. I REALLY want a new Panasonic Toughbook but the unit I want is like 3 grand WHEW. Thats hard to swallow. By my calculations I worked my 40 hours by wed. night. The big cranes have really been moving alot, and it will only get better. So much of our freight is energy realted, and for now thats great. This week I hauled the largest rough terrain crane made(to my knowledge) a Grove 9130E http://www.manitowoccranegroup.com/MCG_GRO/Products/EN/RT9130E.asp

Check that out, is pretty cool it how big gets done with an RT(rough terrain). There a cranes that are way bigger than that but they break down into dozens of legal truck loads. That machine in the easiest configuration still weighs 111k lbs with two loads of fall off that weigh 43k and 20k lbs. I love big cranes, everything about them. I have some cool pics of me hauling a 250 ton cralwer I'll post soon.

Hopefully having the third truck will give me some time to keep this current. When the weather gets better I'll wash the trucks and trailers and post pics so you'll know me when you see me. Unfortunately we don't make it as far south as Cabo(sorry K) luv ya! Toodle-oo.

Support our Troops

The point of this blog is not to spark political debate. It is to remind all of us of the sacrifices our troops and their families are making. In a weird sequence of events, last night I watched "We were soldiers" One day after Veterans day. One thing Lt. General Moore (the movie was based on his book and experience in Vietnam) said in the interview was hate war, don't hate the American soldier. Support of our troops has nothing to do with the party we belong to or the religion we choose to practice. We are free to choose and debate because of their sacrifice. Instead of condemning war, ask a soldier why they chose to join the military. They are there because they want to be. Don't hold the failures of our elected leaders against the troops following orders. Its more than a job for them its an adventure. BTW were moving. Not far just a little further north and east. Toodle-oo.

One more thing

Anyone seen the VW comercial with Slash? WAY COOL MAN!!! I am a huge GNR fan although I think Axel (sp?) is a freak. Great commercial, Slash can wail. I love rock and roll. Guns and f***in Roses baby!!!

Forgive my lack of updates

I know its been a while since I updated but most of my goings on would be boring. I've hauled a few loads since the last blog and bought a few more pieces of iron. The local crane company I haul for has pretty much made me their house carrier. That means every load is offered to me first. They are really good about working with my schedule as I am only a two truck operation. Since last time I have gotten the first escort vehicle up and running. D, a.k.a. Studhorse, my partner in crime hooked me up with his mom to escort us. She obtained her OK certification, we set the Tahoe up to escort and away she went. If I knew how handy it would be to have my own escort I would have done it a long time ago. With the Tahoe set up and working that left me without wheels other than the work truck and the Pony. While nobody needs a really good excuse to buy a new vehicle, I now had personal and business reasons to do so. No brainer, right? I have always loved the Dodge with the Cummins diesel in it. I have had two and driven many. I looked at the quad cab and planned on a 3/4 ton 4x4 quad cab diesel. That was until I sat in the back seat of a MEGA Cab. Holly backseat batman. You could host a dance party in there. Its huge. I was totally sold. Now I had to find the right color and options. In the decision process I had ruled out 4x4 because of the miles I anticipate putting on escorting, the maintenance and the fuel mileage. After some looking I found a truck in town that was almost a perfect match with the KW phantom gray. Well, two hours of haggling and a few signatures later I was the proud new owner of a 2006 Dodge 2500 MEGA Cab diesel. But wait there's more. In my quest for a trailer I had been really deterred by the lack of good used trailers and the price tag of new ones $300k plus. Patience paid off because today I bought a 1996 Trail King TK120 hydraulic neck 2+2+2. Its 10' wide and the trailer has trunion suspension which is really stable and really strong which is a must for big rough terrain cranes because they are wide and very top heavy. Soooo in 48 hours with very little effort I spent about 172k bucks. More than my house. You gotta spend it to make it. Its scary but spending money doesn't bother me. As long as its business and will create cashflow. Otherwise its dead weight. We don't want that. Oh another thing having just signed the papers not three hours earlier I got a call about a load from CA to GA that would pay somewhere around 35k. Not a bad way to make the first few payments huh? I guess I've rambled on enough for now. It probably takes the three readers I have days to digest all this senseless rambling. I hope all is well. Toodle-oo.

Just because you can..........

I had an awesome post going but I lost it so I'll try to recreate it. SOB that pisses me off. I was ranting about how trashy the people in my profession are. They use their job as an excuse. Just wander through your local truckstop. I am in Houston now at the F.J. I just went in to get something to eat before I head back to my trailer. These places are like going to a fair. Its like having every state and a few Canadian provinces at your fair. As I walked out I saw a feller wearing a shirt that said, and I quote "Born to fish". It was kind of brownish, I'm sure it was white three days ago when his trip started, and it had a hole big enough for a marlin to swim through. My thought was, has he not stopped anywhere with a shower? If you were to ask him the reasons they would satisfy the un-educated traveler. To me however they would be bull. The funny thing is many drivers and companies wonder why their industry has such a bad image. How many drivers beside me would you take a hug from at any given moment? Sometimes I think you would even turn me away. There is no excuse for this lack of self-respect. I refuse to call myself a "truckdriver". As a way to kill two birds with one stone I will ask my loyal readers (you know who all three of you are) to come up with a new catchy name for my profession. The second bird is I will actually find out how many people read this selfish crap. Man the first post was sooo much better this one blows. Well since my computer is about to set my pants on fire I will call this good. Toodle-oo, don't drive drunk, don't do anything I wouldn't do, but if you must please name it after me. :-)
P.S. I know my grammar and punctuation is not perfect. Thats probably because I spent the mojarity of my senior year of english in the hall. My brain often goes fater than my finger, I struggle to get it down let alone to Mrs. Barlow's standards. Don't judge me I'm just a truckdriver :-) Pretty good huh?

People who Don't mind their business

There is an older lady that works in the office at BD where I am leased to. She is a nosy know it all who always has a better story than you. More often than not she makes herself look like an idiot. Actually a f----n idiot. One of the local drivers and I have an ongoing argument that has no point other than it gives us something to scream and holler about. We both know that we're just funnin. Last Thursday it got particularly intense. He made the mistake of telling her how wound up we got. She almost RAN to the owner of the company like a tattle tale at school to tell her how offended K. (the local hand) was. Before verifying the story S. (owner) comes to me and chews my ear. Not for a minute, but 10 minutes. She even went as far to compare me to her EX husband. Needless to say my blood pressure was so high it had white caps. All of this because a person who wasn't even there thought somebody else's feelings were hurt. AAAAGGGGHHHH when did this country get so worried about hurting feelings. That's life!! I have plenty to do worrying about my own stuff let alone somebody else's. I have yet to decide if and how to approach the old bag. I'd like to knock her teeth down her throat but I think I can get even in my own way. As many know my rep as a prankster and hell raiser is not honorary, I've earned it. Any suggestions will be considered. If your comment contains forgive or live and let live go to the ACLU or ASPCA or NAACP blog and leave it there, this is THE ROUTE. We don't give hugs and sing Kumbaya, we kick a-- and take names when we need to. Toodle-oo. Sounds kind of like Ted Nugent huh!

Busy Week

For a week that was supposed to be short and slow it got busy quick. I ended up taking a load to Longview, TX for ACE and ran back and moved a 70 ton RT crane for SME. Next week I'm loading for Michigan, then over to Sturgeon Bay, WI from there to Mobile, AL and then back home. Should take 10 days or so. I might get to ride the boat across Lake Michigan from MI to WI. Pretty cool, they charge by the length, I'm curious how much that will be. I have been struggling with a business decision. To service a new customer I need to invest in a larger trailer. I would go from eight axles to thirteen. That's the cool part, the not so cool part is the 340k bucks it takes to buy the trailer. Tough decision. But hey its only money the worst case scenario is you can't pay for it and you sell it. When I'm in WI I'll get to see my buddy PRB. He was here it Tulsa in May and broke his ankle. This load from WI to AL will be his first since his injury. I'm afraid he will be disappointed with his recovery and want to quit truckin. I hope he doesn't, the industry will loose a great heavy haul driver. Well, I've been running a loader all day, I'm gonna shower up. Tomorrow I'm gonna do some water skiing and maybe some footin. Toodle-oo.

Load Description

What makes this load harder, better or whatever is the weight and size. The average semi tractor and trailer can weigh up to 80 thousand pounds. They are 13' 6" high, 8' 6" wide and 75' long. In that picture I was 108' long, 16' 10" high, 15' 10" wide and 189K lbs gross weight. That's why they pay me the big bucks. If you look at the van trailer in the background you can get an idea of the size difference. Toodle-oo.