So after dropping truck off at terminal in San Bernadino i was given a hotel room, okay thinking I would be right back out the next day and on the road. Next morning I call and find out that the truck will need to be looked at and that it wot be for a couple days. I call my DM and she gives the ok to head home.

6days later I'm back in the truck. I received 50.00 for every 24hrs i sat in the shop except for the weekend.

I get the truck and I'm given a load to run local, redlands to perris, walgreens DC. and deliver at 7pm.

Get done there at 1030pm and head to the yard for a drop/hook which goes to Phoenix.

Made the delivery at 6am and hit JB Hunt yard on 55th ave in Phoenix.

Get another load. Drop/hook deliver at 11pm. Allright, so I just woke up and now I have to go back to sleep and deliver late at nightissedoff::zzz:.

Slept and made the delivery. got another load. drop/hook and take to Fontana and make delivery ASAP.

While dropping trailer I get another load... Hook empty trailer and take to Colton Rail yard.

Head there and get loaded with 96drums. Take this load to Mounment Valley UT. While heading up 40 towards flagstaff... :eek2::tears: I start blowing black smoke, loosing a little power. At one point I get a shudder like it wants to shut off. I see a rest area and jump in there. Call Raod service and they tell me to keep going. :bow: I get a name and put it on my log book.
I got to Kayenta, AZ and shut down with a flat bed who is going to the same location. I told him about Arrow and he had heard the same thing from another arrow driver.
In Kayenta, AZ we stayed at a Burger King which has a dirt lot behind it for trucks. They also have a museum about WindTalkers. This city is on the Navajo Nation Rez. I would love to come back up here again and just explore.

Anyway...

Spoke to the customer who told me how to get to the Trading Post and that he would meet me there....:thumbsup: When we met he told me that he would take the flatbed first and then I could walk down the road to his house and see if I could turn around

As soon as the flatbed driver was out of my view he jumped on the radio, Dont come down here it's soft sand! I jogged down the dirt road to see the drives buried about 10in and his steers even worse. The customer was a homeowner and he was going to use this solid oil to make his own asphalt driveway. I helped dig the driver out along with the customer who used a little Kubota tractor to try and pull the flatbed out. We ended up dropping the trailer after the driver had jackknifed it and could not back up any furthur. So after being there 2.5hrs It was my turn but I was gong to try and back down the dirt path. I started to make the turn with the flatbed driver watching my drive tires and distance to the trailer. He stopped me and I jumped out, there was noway I could make the turn. I would have to be offloaded on the street. Flatbed driver thanked me and he took off.

I was finally empty around 3:30pm, we had arrived at 9am. I put in the empty call and received a load to DH to salt lake. I told dispatch no that I was going to Flagstaff. They came back with do this load and we can get you into shop afterwards. Told them no and that was one reason I had quit arrow, I wasn't going to play the do one more load before you go into the shop game.

I DH to Flagstaff freightliner. I went to a hotel and called the next morning. I was given a little bit of the runaround and called JB hunt. They made a call and the truck was brought in and looked at. I spent a total of 3nites in hotel. I now have a brand new Turbo and Exhaust Bellows, whatever that is.

After I came out of shop I DH back to CA was loaded and now have ran up here to Sumner, WA. I dropped this morning and I am back at the Tumwater Pilot at exit 99.
No problems with truck..... so far...:rofl::banghead:

I didn't do to bad.... paid miles was 1572 and my actual was 1668.

I did happen to speak with another JB driver who told me he had been driving about 8 yrs and was home every weekend with 32cents a mile. His faced dropped when I told him I was making 37cents but most of my time has been in the shop.

 

You got it:thumbsup:

Hows everything going this past month..., ... you need to find some of the guys in Phoenix and have them post too. The two guys that I knew jumped before me and are running reefer. One is with JBS, they own Miller Beef. The other is with IWX out of Kingman, AZ.

 

Monument Valley, UT?!?! I looked it up on Google Maps and there is nothing!!

Reminds me of the time with Davis when I had a load of aluminum pipe that went to the "Corn Ranch" 25 miles north of Van Horn, TX. The owner of the ranch is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. He is building a spaceport and spacecraft for his company Blue Origin. It seemed very remote as I parked on Hwy 54 the night before and I could only see a light on top of the assembly building. But, the cell phone reception was great as the ranch had a cellular mobile antenna just for their use.

There are some photos of the facility Here.

Anyhow, Monument Valley, UT had me beat!!

How many miles is on that Freightliner you are driving? I am driving a 2001 Peterbilt 379 with a Cat C-15 and 13 speed. It has 1,045,000 miles on it. A couple months ago it had a in frame rebuild because the head gasket was leaking a little coolant into cylinder 5. Now, it running great.

 

I have 521339 on a 05 freightliner century class s/t. dont know what the difference between a columbia and classic s/t other then my bunk area storage has doors on it rather then nets
Has a Detriot in it.

 

Mostly in the outside apperance. Columbias have the Teardrop shaped Headlights that take a Halogen bulb from the backside in them with a set of Chrome mirrors. The Centurys have the Round headlights with the DRLs/ Turnsignals inboard of that and Body Color mirror covers instead of Chrome. Beyind that they are about the same trucks insind and out.

 

Ahhh... thanks, Yea I saw that. I was going to put brighter bulbs in the columbia since it just looked so dim. I did buy a lens repair kit which helped but not much.

Thinking about doing the same on this century. Lens looks clear but too me it doesnt throw as much lite.

Maybe me just being paranoid since the wreck.

 

Hey dewercs2 it sounds like they are running you when you can run. I'm still doing pretty good with Arrow. Last month was the best this year so far. They almost got me home early for hometime but I had a drive tire blow and it was so powerful it took out the one next to it. This was on the I10 around Tonopah, Az. TA came out with wrong size tires. I said take your time because I didn't want home early because of plans. While waiting Arizona Highway Patrol stops to make sure I'm fine. Asked for my license and I asked if he needed anything else. He asked if I'd mind if he did a level 3. I said no problem. I get paid $25 if no violations. Well I passed. In fact my log was so up to date I had moved down to line 4 when my tires blew. I was surprised when the repair guy finished and said I was good to go and the bill was paid. Total time, 4 hours. I got home Tuesday after delivering Monday in McKittrick, Ca. I dropped my trailer in a storage yard where it is secure and took my truck home. I then went to DMV with the wife to fight them trying to charge us $230 in penalties for for not paying on time. My wife payed online, ontime and had the confirmation number to prove it along with bank records. They admitted they made a mistake:thumbsup: and no more penalty. While waiting my DM calls and said a "she" in Phoenix was begging for me to pick up a load and take it to Phoenix. She promised I'd be home the next day. I told my DM that it wasn't possible and he said he would tell her. Oh well! Then on Thursday my DM called and asked if I was ready to go back on Friday. I said my time doesn't end till Saturday. They showed me starting my hometime the previous Sunday. I told him I didn't deliver till Monday and got home on Tuesday. I think the DM's are really overworked with too many drivers to take care of. I am getting about 2000 miles a week now. I had 2 weeks with 2800 miles. I have 637,000 miles on my 05 Frieghtliner. It developed a shimmy in the steering when getting up to speed on the Interstates. I don't think things have improved for the wait time for repairs in Tulsa so I'll live with it for as long as possible. J.B. Hunt did call me but I told them I'd wait to see how you did. Drive safe.

 

Watch that shimmy. Can you see any wear on anything??? Maybe some shinny metal or something?? Check and make sure you have oil in that hub. If you let go of wheel does it pull to right/left? Check your shock mount bolts. Mine was really lose and the bushing had worn away. You don't want to get pulled in for a level 1 and get shut down for that.... tell your DM your in CA and afraid that you'll get popped maybe they will let you run by a dealer and have them just check it out real fast and then call tulsa and let them know what is wrong. Hopefully they just say fix it and your good to go.

She probably had a return load of pavestone that would have gotten you back home, but not till you had made the delivery. Some of those stores are night receiving only, which really screwed it up for us.

:thumbsupn the level 3. easy 25 bucks...

That was my biggest fear... blowing a tire and sitting for awhile for them to fix. Nice that it took just a short time.

I think the DM knew since they have to look up your number on the computer and it shows your last drop on the bottom of the screen. Nancy showed me some of the screens and how they moved around in there. They can ping your truck by sending a message to get your location or they can go to a different screen and do a look up of your truck. The QC gives a location to about a mile.

 

I was at douglas mesa rd and 163 in Utah about 20miles inside UT border. Delivered to what looked like a 2 bedroom shack. The older man was the owner of property and had real heavy indian accent. real hard to understand, his grandson later came up to me and said his grandpa wanted to take me to have lunch. I declined and shook everyones hands. They were really nice. I didn't understand what they were saying when they were speaking Navajo but did catch a word when they used an english word. Strange to be in USA and know that they are there own nation.

After everyone had left I did get a slight scare. I had turned around and was back in front of the site I had dropped at and this car rolls up. This older man looks up and starts talking but I couldn't hear or understand what he was saying. Then He shouts come here. I popped my door open stuck a leg out and said what can I do for you. He started to ask what I had dropped and was it chemicals, did he have to call the police. Then this guy in the back who had sunglasses on leans out the window and said lets just take him. I saw that he had a 12pk of beer in his lap so I figured OH S*&$. Drunk indians. :drunk::booze::cheers: Lucky the driver said lets go and laughed,
they sped off with the guy in back yelling something....

First time I've been startled like that in awhile.

 

Dang, I did a reset and a half at the Loves there in Van Horn. I wish I would have known about that resturaunt....
Wonder if the Goverment will like him getting into the space race?