10,000 miles and 100% Deadhead in Drive-Away

Drive-Away Transport

Hey, Jim From.  You have been telling Joe that you are getting withdrawals.  I haven’t been posting to this blog site.  Let me take you down memory lane 😀

From May 18, 2014 to June 16, 2014 Jim From, Joe, and I had to move 45 daycab trucks and 6 flatbed trailers from Tracy, California to auction in Las Vegas, Nevada.  That was the longest month in my LIFE!

Two old men and one old broad got the job done in plenty of time for the “Detail Crew” at the auction site to get all the trucks washed, vacuumed, cleaned and spiffed up with Armor All.

I don’t remember where we started, I think in Oklahoma.  We had to deadhead, which means we had to travel about 1,500 miles just to get to the location in Tracy, California.  Once there and hooked up we drove to Las Vegas, Nevada to deliver then deadhead all the way back to Tracy for the next loads.

For your viewing pleasure, I have created a video as a reminder of that month that seemed to have been 10 years. 😀

 

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Trip #3 of Tracy, California to Las Vegas, Nevada.

When this trip ends we will have delivered 15 trucks to the auction lot. For all the work, sweat, and miles of bumpy roads we have only just put a dent in the line up of trucks to be moved.

This trip I am moving a flatbed trailer along with a truck. It has been many – many – years since I backed under a trailer. All I can say for myself is I did a pretty lousy job of it. Missed the entire 5th wheel with the king pin at first. It took me several tries to get it right.

Driving on the highway and looking at my mirrors is an unusual sight for me to see the trailer back there.

We all three stopped at the Love’s Travel Center in Santa Nella, California to get the lug nuts torqued. Some tires had been replaced on these trucks and had not had the lug nuts checked after the recommended 50 mile drive.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with truck wheels I will give you a small dissertation on the way of truck wheels. Pictured below is a rear axle wheel. You will see a small round area in the center of the wheel which has nuts. That is the axle hub. The lug nuts are behind that along the rear wall of the tire rim.

The tire specialist had a tool that is nearly as long as an average person is tall. That is the “torque wrench”.

A socket and extension bar is placed on the nut. The long handle has a break midway up the shaft that applies 475 foot pounds of pressure on the nut to tighten it up to specifications. Both of my front wheels had a couple nuts that were fairly loose and required some extra pumping action to get the proper torque.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to have a set of wheels come loose. I was following Joe a few years back when I watched a set of his rear wheels take off along the shoulder of the road. A few bounces and the tires and wheels separated. One wheel went hurtling through the ditch and up the other side on the right rolling down a side road then launch itself over a fence and get list amid a bunch of pipe. The other wheel took off to the left, after separating from the other wheel. That one went barreling through the median, up onto the busy highway just missing an oncoming tractor trailer, then off over a fence and lost to the trees and weeds.

Let’s just say it is one memory that has been burned in my brain.

Hope you will be enjoying your day today. I need a shower and something to eat.

Leslie

McAllen, Texas and USA Logistics trucks

Trucks and trailers are going to auction in Fort Worth, Texas.

Some of the trucks are parked three rows deep while there are two rows deep of trailers.

USA Logistics Carriers had to close their doors. According to a person getting the trucks in reasonable running shape, there are 26 banks involved in the sale of these trucks and trailers.

Everything is going to auction in an effort to pay off the bank notes. This company – USA Logistics – quit the maintenance program on their trucks long ago. There are so many issues the “Ready” staff have to deal with. Dead batteries are one of the problems. Tires have to be replaced on some of these trucks just to make the nearly 500 mile trip to the auction site. Water leaks from hoses jerked out of the APU things that heat and cool the trucks while stopped for the night and shut down. Instrument clusters either don’t work because of electrical problems or are missing all together because of having been scavenged for parts. Glad I don’t have that job.

These poor trucks are in really sad shape. Sadder than that are the jobs lost. Mechanics, office workers, drivers. So many people have had to find work elsewhere in this time of an economic crunch.

Joe has gotten back into the swing of working. Thursday was a busy and strenuous day for him. We are taking three trucks. Joe two with the trailer and my one bobtail. It would be too much for Joe to do my boom as well as his trailer and I don’t need him giving himself added reasons to do harm.

Midway through hooking up Joe’s trailer the neck strap of his work apron broke off. My Mr. Fix-It took care of it in the hotel room.

When the needle was difficult to get through the fabric he used his idea of a thimble 😀

Once the apron was fixed, Joe’s trucks hooked up, and out the security gate we drove all day long with stops for fuel.

Bad eating day. Breakfast was a Subway 6″ club on Honey Oat bread. We split a foot long at 9:30 am. Lunch was a convenience cup of cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, and jicama chunks at 1 pm. Dinner was at 10:30 pm at Posados Cafe for some yummy tamales and beans.

Dinner was after we unhooked at Texas Motor Speedway at the auction site. Then drive about 25 miles to the hotel where we both flopped in exhaustion.

This morning I walked 1-1/4 miles around the three hotel properties here in Burleson, Texas. Took me 27 minutes to walk that mile. Lynn, you should feel like an Olympic athlete by now. Three miles in the time it took me to go one!

Joe…you should have seen him GO! He walked to the hotel office to check out. His knees were hurting pretty bad. On the way out of the office he carried two small cups of orange juice. One for the MiraLax and one for just because. Hurting knees and two cups of orange juice in hand my Joe walked around the hotel for a lap total of 1/2 a mile. I’m so proud of him!!

Everyone have an awesome day.

Leslie