The Truckers Lair

Well so far my pete is starting every morning after being in the shop one more time to try and resolve the starting issues.  (spent over 2k so far) I’m still in northern Alberta hauling steel rig mats.  Looks like I’ll be here awhile as I may be hauling them back to where they came from when done with them.  Still no snow yet although it has been colder and looks like it may be any day now.  Been lucky with sun shine and no rain to speak of which is a good thing as the place is going to be a mud hole when or if it does rain before freeze up.   Hopefully I’ll get to go back to Vancouver Island to turn on the heat in my trailer before winter sets in or I may have to rely on a good friend once again to do this for me.  Sitting in Whitecourt Alberta right now typing this.  Small towns in Alberta are strange as there is never any place to eat after 10 pm like there is in BC.  Unfortunately, I very seldom arrive before 10 pm so I am eating a lot of junk food. Never have time during the day, although I may force the issue so I don’t end up starving to death.  Will cost me a trip however and that’s not good.  Can’t make any money by loosing trips to other lease operators on the same job.  Talk to you later.

Well the other morning at 4:30 I awoke to minus 3 degree temperatures and decided to fire up the tractor to get a little heat going in the cab.  Much to my dismay my old nemisis reared its ugly head and the engine wouldn’t turn over.  Must of turned the key on and off over a hundred times until my thumb became raw, but it wouldn’t kick in.  The same symptoms as before, the dash lights all were bright and the heater fan was working great but no starter action not even a click.  To top it off my air had disappeared from the air tanks and I eventually had to get another tractor to air me up and then disconnect from the trailer and pull start the tractor.  It fired right up of course when pulled so I delivered my load of steel rig matts and then headed for Edmonton to Peterbilt to get this fixed once and for all.  So far, I’ve spent just over $1800 to try and fix this issue so you can imagine my frustration.  With winter fast approaching and more work in northern Alberta for a couple of weeks or more, I don’t want to be found one morning a frozen corpse in my sleeper.  Not to mention the lost revenue from missing a trip or two while the thing gets resolved.  I’m starting to lean towards looking at the new Volvos in a year and a half when I will be buying something new as I’ve heard nothing but good reviews from other drivers.  I’m definately not impressed with Peterbilt thus far. Talk to you later.

Wow! what a day I had today trying to back up a super b with no previous experience to my credit.  The instructions to get to the job were very poor and twice I went down the wrong road and had to back up with a full load of steel rig matts on both trailers.  The first time took me over forty five minutes to back up five hundred feet to the turn off that I missed.  I almost had a jammer I was so stressed.  The second time I found the site alright, but had to turn around to get unloaded.  Somewhere in the turn I tore off the power cord to the trailer and broke the glad hand off the trailer.  After I replaced the glad hand and got unloaded, I headed into town and purchased a new power cord for forty six bucks.  I then headed back to Nisku to load again.  This time I did alright backing up in the yard as I realized that I must turn the wheel slowly and in small increments to be effective.  Once you over compensate, you need a lot of room for the tractor to get control of the rear trailer (for me anyways).  Will have to talk to a couple of trucker buddies to get some more insight in backing these babies up.  Thank god I only have to do this for five more days then it’s back to my fifty three foot step deck (yeah!!). Making awesome money though hauling these steel rig matts.

So far the starter has been working flawlessly, knock wood. Sometimes you get lucky huh.  Haven’t seen any accidents today on the roads so I guess everyone is taking it easy for a change.  Talk to you later.

Well I’m still very busy which is a good thing and am having troubles getting to internet access on a regular basis.  Anyways, finally got the starter issues sorted out.  It seems that the last time Peterbilt worked on my starter the mechanic inadvertantly left a wire off of the positive post (which I somehow couldn’t see) and didn’t replace the relay like he was supposed too. 

Seen an accident yesterday on the Kamloops hill where a super b hauling empty pop bottles rear ended a parked belly dump trailer with all the emergency triangles in place.  Lots of damage to the super b.  As I’m writing this at the Road King truck stop in Edmonton, there is an accident behind me on the overpass where a gravel truck and pup ran the red light and a tractor trailer turned into him pushing him into the ditch on the other side.  Man why is everyone always in a hurry these days?  No wonder we keep getting new rules and regs tossed at us with all the idiots out there making the rest of us look bad.  Hopefully all changes will weed out the bad drivers, but I kind of doubt it.

I’m off to Whitecourt, AB to get some super b experience hauling rig matts to the oil patch for two weeks.  Never hauled a super b before so I will be learning lots I’m sure.  Pretty easy gig or so I’ve been told hauling these matts as they’re not going to be a heavy load.  They just want the extra space apparently.  Talk to you soon.

Been so busy I haven’t had time to write although a lot of things have happened since my last post.  I’ve completed a number of trips hauling different loads to different places mostly from Edmonton to the Lower Mainland with a detour to the new floating bridge in Kelowna where my starter started acting up after only three months since I replaced it….sigh.  The morning began with the starter not even clicking when I turned the key.  The lights and all guages etc were strong so I knew the batteries were good.  I kept turning the key on and off for about fifteen minutes until it finally started to turn over but wouldn’t start.  I turned the key to the off position and tried again, voila it started on the first turn.  Go figure… I didn’t shut it off again until I arrived in Aldergrove where my yard is.  All weekend it started fine until Sunday when I tried to go and it turned over like the batteries were dead even though I knew they weren’t.  Then it did nothing even after trying to turn it on and off for more then twenty minutes.  Finally I unhooked from the trailer and used my 4×4 to pull it out from under the trailer.  I then grabbed the security guard and placed him in my 4×4 to pull start me.  The tractor started immediately and I headed out on the road for Edmonton.  Of course I won’t shut it off again until I can get it to the shop to be repaired next week.

I am going to have to buy a digital camera to take some pics for this blog as last Friday there was an accident in the lower mainland by 192 street overpass on the freeway (west bound) where a chicken truck rolled over (11:00 am) and chickens were running everywhere.  Traffic was backed up for miles and when I came back this way around 3:00 pm it was still backed up.  Just what everyone needed to start the long weekend.  Bye for now.

After spending a couple of days with my family on Vancouver Island, it was off to Edmonton to deliver some lumberwrap, rolls of plastic and a neck for a low bed.  The drive went good and I made it in one day without having to spend the night anywhere in between.  After dropping off the three different loads to their respective owners, I picked up three wooden crates of oilfield equipment to deliver back to Richmond, B.C.  On the way back there was an accident on the west lane of hwy 16 which I circumvented by taking a round about detour.  Once on my way again I saw a travel trailer upside down in the grass median with the suv behind a tow truck eastbound.  Traffic was backed up for both incidents.  Slept in Valemount behind the Shell station.  Two tractors hooked to vans had parrallel parked instead of the normal way which ruined it for anyone else hoping to catch some winks.  Makes you wonder what was going on inside their heads.  I just left early to avoid blocking them in (should have anyways I guess, oh well…) Got to pick up some more pipe tomorrow from North Vancouver and then off to Edmonton once again. See you….

Well I started out loading styrofoam for delivery in the lower mainland and was rerouted to drop it off in the yard and had to stay overnight in Edmonton after picking up another trailer.  The next morning it was back to pick up another load of styrofoam to be delivered in Nanaimo, B.C. which was a good thing as I live on Vancouver Island and this allowed me to go home for a couple of days to see my family and then pick up a couple of v-8 diesels to take back to Langley, B.C. on Sunday.  Although it rained all day on Thursday and Friday so I didn’t get to seal the roof of my home, but that’s how it goes sometimes. 

The ferry traffic was ridiculous and the wait was two sailings.  The reservation system is really hard to judge while on the road as something as simple as an accident can make you miss your reservation so it’s like throwing darts at a dart board sometimes.  Wish they’d do something to allow commercial truckers preference over tourists in the reservation format.  Talk to you soon.

I picked up a load of 24″x.750″x60′ pipe and headed to Nisku, Alberta.  The drive was a good one and I made it in 12.5 hours.  Lots of wildlife in Jasper National Park to contend with, but heh thats to be expected in that zone.  Its the tourists that seem to forget all reason or logic when they stop in the middle of the road to view instead of pulling off to the side that drives you nuts.  When you lay on your air horn, you get fingered or looked at like you’re the one with the problem…go figure.  I guess it will take a death to change the rules of the road inside the park…too bad really.  I’m off to Fort Saskatchewan to pick up a load of styrofoam to deliver to Aldergrove, B.C.  Talk to you soon.

Hello everyone, please be patient if you’ve found this blog before I’ve completed it as I’m always on the road and work on it when I can find the time.  Shouldn’t be too much longer as I work on it a bit every day or second day anyways.