Profile For Dave in Tulsa

I've been pulling a flatbed for the past 15 months but this week my agency is sending me to a sod farm. I've never hauled sod and I'm going to be up front with em so they'll know. I'm wondering what to expect. If anyone with sod hauling experience could help me out I'd appreciate it. I'm assuming they have other drivers.

If your wife is on board, that will definitely help. I call home every day and get home (usually) every weekend, although some weekends are shorter than others. Have a plan. Maybe do it for a year, then get something closer to home. I've just passed the 2 year mark and while my wife is also on board, last week she reminded me there's more to life than work. She's right.

Big T

But now the first snow in southern Illinois and I witnessed a Doge Charger spin out behind me. And when I thought it too much snow coming down I get to the 1st off ramp and a big rig is jackknifed just off the off ramp. But seemed to be ok. People think they can drive the same speeds in snow as dry pavement.

Raptor

I'm dealing with the same snow. I finally parked it. I'll see if it improves in the next hour or so. I saw one jack knifed rig already and the visibility and the road conditions stink. So I guess my most unpleasant task this week is being a SW region driver dealing with Illinois ice.

I've noticed every time I've picked up a damaged trailer, had a flat tire, or broke down it's always on Friday when I'm trying to get home. I've also noticed that after the first couple of times, I just learned to roll with it. What else can ya do?

This is good information to know. For trying to stay ahead of wind, what is the recommended course of action? I would imagine as you're trip planning, you'll consider the weather on your route.

Are there any app suggestions for doing this?

I have the Windfinder app on my phone.

When I was in school, we used our landing gear as reference when we did our offset and parallel backs. Try your offset right...we would crank the wheel all the way left and back slowly until we could see about half of our landing gear (the bar that runs across your trailer) in the mirror. That's when we would turn the wheel back right until we were straight. Then we'd straight back until we reached the cone marking the parking spot before we turned the wheel all the way right, again looking for the landing gear, then left and we were straight again. Hopefully you can picture those moves in your head, but that's how I remember it and those marks were pretty reliable. The 90 is different everytime and takes more practice but your instructor should demonstrate how it's done and talk you through it.

I figure 1000 miles for a full tank. Yes, depending on light weight and lack of mountains i could get more. but figuring 1000 miles i will mever get stuck anywhere.

The tanks have a message printed on them "Do not fill above 90% capacity"

Most i ever put in was 150.gallons.

I'll be at around 950, so that is some comfort.

I don't understand why my fuel gauge drops to below 1/4 and when I fill up, I can only hold 120 - 130 gallons. I have 2 120 gallon tanks, so the math tells me that's around 1/2 full or a little less. My company has started planning our fuel stops for us and I'm at about 1/4 left with 190 miles to my fuel stop. I'm also just under 80,000. I'll rely on the gauge and will probably have to stop for a few gallons before I fill up. I guess my question is, how much of that 240 gallons do I get to use?

Raging winds is right. I shut down in Amarillo after driving until I didn't feel safe. I saw 2 trucks on their side on I-27 and heard there were now 6. Also heard the wind gusts were 80 mph.

This is good info. I'm sitting here just outside Albuquerque with an empty trailer. I have 4 hours to drive tomorrow morning ( to south of amarillo) to pick up, and I'm really not sure if it's a good idea or not with 30-40 mph winds in the morning, increasing in the afternoon and gusts of 50+. I'm considering wind direction and trying to justify going ahead, but this is a tough decision.