[Racer X 69]

Sometimes it is not a career for the faint of heart.

Driving over the road trucks is a unique way to earn a living. Long hours, all alone, mile after mile, 100,000 to 150,000 miles a year solo, double that for teams.

Long, boring milès, day after day. Leave Seattle on Monday, be in Miami by Thursday, head to LA and deliver on Monday, be back in Seattle Wednesday.

Take a day or two, and head out again, to New York, again by Thursday, drop to Ravenswood, WV, grab a 40,000lb load of aluminium slabs and deliver in Seattle Monday morning.

Add in the varying weather and road conditions throughout the year, traffic in every large metropolitan area, idiot self absorbed 4 wheelers who have no clue that an 80,000lb truck wins most every time, revenue rangers and creeper cops, and yes, not something for just anyone.

I enjoyed the work, probably because I viewed it as an endless road trip. Whenever I had slack time on the road I went exploring. Sometimes bobtailing around, sometimes on the 10 speed mountain bike I carried. And I enjoyed meeting most of the people I met along the way too.

And I lucked out and landed with a good carrier that paid well (flat bed work pays the best and oversize even more) and had good equipment, and I made very good money.

Not sure if I want to do it again, the regulations have gone crazy, everyone is on e-logs now, the trucks aren't as cool as they used to be, and most carriers don't have trucks with manual gearboxes now.

[lesmore49]

Driving over the road trucks is a unique way to earn a living. Long hours, all alone, mile after mile, 100,000 to 150,000 miles a year solo, double that for teams.

Long, boring milès, day after day. Leave Seattle on Monday, be in Miami by Thursday, head to LA and deliver on Monday, be back in Seattle Wednesday.

Take a day or two, and head out again, to New York, again by Thursday, drop to Ravenswood, WV, grab a 40,000lb load of aluminium slabs and deliver in Seattle Monday morning.

Add in the varying weather and road conditions throughout the year, traffic in every large metropolitan area, idiot self absorbed 4 wheelers who have no clue that an 80,000lb truck wins most every time, revenue rangers and creeper cops, and yes, not something for just anyone.

I enjoyed the work, probably because I viewed it as an endless road trip. Whenever I had slack time on the road I went exploring. Sometimes bobtailing around, sometimes on the 10 speed mountain bike I carried. And I enjoyed meeting most of the people I met along the way too.

And I lucked out and landed with a good carrier that paid well (flat bed work pays the best and oversize even more) and had good equipment, and I made very good money.

Not sure if I want to do it again, the regulations have gone crazy, everyone is on e-logs now, the trucks aren't as cool as they used to be, and most carriers don't have trucks with manual gearboxes now.

A cousin of mine was a long haul trucker. He was based up here, lived in a cottage (cabin ) on a lake, a few miles from the US border....not far from Minot, N.D. He was an interesting guy, about 4 years older than me. He had a varied working life, but spent the last 15 years or so driving a highway tractor trailer throughout Western Canada, U.S. Midwest , Western US and West Coast, both US/Canada.

Unfortunately he died young at about 60. Not on the road, just through illness. I remember the last time we had a good visit. It was at his cottage at the lake he lived at, about 5 years before he passed on.

I recall him saying to me, that while he enjoyed long distance trucking, it was a job for a younger man . He was in his mid 50's at the time, and not in the greatest health.

He enjoyed his life. He had his house by a lake, a '79 Chevy El Camino he was working on, an outboard boat. He parked his company truck at his property by the lake. Can't recall the model, but he generally drove Volvo trucks.

[StiffLegged]

My grandfather was a carpenter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was involved with building and repairing boxcars, passenger coaches, etc. He worked for the CPR from about 1906 to about 1956 at the CPR. His war years during WW1 from 1915 to 1919 excepted, as he was a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in France.

I still have some of his carpentry tools, that he used doing carpentry work on railway cars. The tools were mostly of American, Canadian and British manufacture. He seemed to like Stanley Tools.

. He painted the handles a particularly unusual shade of maroon, so they would be readily identifiable as his tools at the shop. .

Sensible man, probably learned to do that from experience! I had a great-great-uncle, a long retired stonemason when I was born, who told of the new man who joined a squad of stonemasons on a job and tools started to go missing. Things got to the point where the foreman decided it was time for the Big Circle: everyone’s tools were put in a pile while the masons sat around it and tools were passed around the circle one by one. As each man recognised his mark on a tool he put it on the ground in front of him. All done, the men took their tools and went back to work - except the newcomer who now had none...

[Racer X 69]

Sensible man, probably learned to do that from experience! I had a great-great-uncle, a long retired stonemason when I was born, who told of the new man who joined a squad of stonemasons on a job and tools started to go missing. Things got to the point where the foreman decided it was time for the Big Circle: everyone’s tools were put in a pile while the masons sat around it and tools were passed around the circle one by one. As each man recognised his mark on a tool he put it on the ground in front of him. All done, the men took their tools and went back to work - except the newcomer who now had none...

How much longer was the newcomer allowed to be part of the crew?

I’m thinking the other masons would have built him into a wall, ala The Cask Of Amontillado.

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Last edited by Racer X 69; 01-15-2021 at 05:11 AM.

[robtcorl]

I have to go in today for another echocardiogram due to my cancer drug possibly harming my heart.
It's rather uncomfortable, but by no means unbearable. Worst part is lying there with my arthritic neck giving me pain.
A bit of snow predicted, so I might have to use the 4WD on the Explorer.

I've been feeling pretty well, tired of covid restrictions and winter. I used to somewhat enjoy winter, not so much nowadays.
Mrs Bob and I qualify for the vaccine starting Monday due to our age, but finding a source will be problematic.

[tim60]

MrsTim and I will be eligible for the vaccine in a while when our age bracket comes up. They are starting with the oldest and working down, with certain other priority groups served early too.

We look enviously at countries like Taiwan and Australia where people have been fairly free all along because of hitting hard at the start and imposing supervised quarantine on all people entering the country.

[lesmore49]

Sensible man, probably learned to do that from experience! I had a great-great-uncle, a long retired stonemason when I was born, who told of the new man who joined a squad of stonemasons on a job and tools started to go missing. Things got to the point where the foreman decided it was time for the Big Circle: everyone’s tools were put in a pile while the masons sat around it and tools were passed around the circle one by one. As each man recognised his mark on a tool he put it on the ground in front of him. All done, the men took their tools and went back to work - except the newcomer who now had none...

I'm sure my grandfather did learn about marking his tools, through experience. Over the years I've etched my tools with my initials, for the same reason as my GF and your great uncle.

[CharLac]

It already has been.

Meh...more to come hopefully

[CharLac]

I have to go in today for another echocardiogram due to my cancer drug possibly harming my heart.
It's rather uncomfortable, but by no means unbearable. Worst part is lying there with my arthritic neck giving me pain.
A bit of snow predicted, so I might have to use the 4WD on the Explorer.

I've been feeling pretty well, tired of covid restrictions and winter. I used to somewhat enjoy winter, not so much nowadays.
Mrs Bob and I qualify for the vaccine starting Monday due to our age, but finding a source will be problematic.

On a similar note, I went in for a thyroid biopsy a few weeks ago. Got a call yesterday; all clear! Whew.

[CharLac]

On the winter driving topic, back in 2002/2003 I drove back and forth between Ottawa and Stamford CT for 13 months; a lovely 8 hour journey under the best conditions. I was working in CT and my family was in Ottawa. Anyway, more that once I encountered horrific blizzard conditions between the Canadian border and Syracuse NY; lake effect snow. Luckily I was driving a 1991 BMW 325 with Nokian Hakkapeliittas on all four corners. My Forester would have been a better vehicle with the AWD (it has Nokians as well), but still, that car was a fantastic snow car for a 2wd RWD.

[lesmore49]

On the winter driving topic, back in 2002/2003 I drove back and forth between Ottawa and Stamford CT for 13 months; a lovely 8 hour journey under the best conditions. I was working in CT and my family was in Ottawa. Anyway, more that once I encountered horrific blizzard conditions between the Canadian border and Syracuse NY; lake effect snow. Luckily I was driving a 1991 BMW 325 with Nokian Hakkapeliittas on all four corners. My Forester would have been a better vehicle with the AWD (it has Nokians as well), but still, that car was a fantastic snow car for a 2wd RWD.

I have heard that the Nokian Hakkapeliittas are perhaps the best winter snow/ice tire you can get and if not at the very top...very close to it.

On our 2015 Impala (V6) we had Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady tires. They are not all season, but they are all year tires and have the severe snow service stamp on the sidewall.

What is the mountain snowflake symbol on a tire | TireBuyer.com

I wouldn't put these all weather tires in the same class as Hakkapelittas, bit I was pleasantly surprised at how well they worked on snow, ice, even prairie gumbo and being all year with winter certification....I kept them on all year. Much better than the tires the car came with, equipped from the factory.

I recall making a run from Alberta to Manitoba one winter and getting caught in an ice storm in Saskatchewan. With our previous all season tires we would of been sailing off the road, I'm sure, but driving with caution and moderation over this less than ideal surface, I was impressed with the solid grip...they provided. They were also good in snow too.

[robtcorl]

The echo went well, had a cute little Asian gal doing the test.
Won't know the results until I see my oncologist next month.

The snow came late this afternoon, enough to make the yard, deck, etc, white but no road problems so far.

[MarkJerling]

Some 11 years back my family and I were on a month long holiday to South Africa. One morning, we were deep in the sparsely populated countryside en route to go a visit a friend who had moved to said sparsely populated countryside after we had left South Africa some 20 years ago.

A little unsure on whether we were on the right rural road I pulled in at a dusty hamlet and walked into the "general store". Behind the counter was a stunning young woman and I, naturally, pulled my gut in and marched over to the counter at my full 6'2" height. Greeted her politely and enquired about whether we were on the right road.

She replied that we were, and proceeded to give further directions, all in Afrikaans, and with liberal sprinklings of the honorific, "oom", which is Afrikaans for "uncle". I felt older than I had in years and told Annie, when I got to the car. I think it was a good few miles before she stopped laughing.

[Racer X 69]

I broke a titanium allen wrench today.

Titanium.

As strong as steel, at half the weight.

[mkgd1]

I broke a titanium allen wrench today.

Titanium.

As strong as steel, at half the weight.

I bet you broke Tonka toys as a kid