New Truck Driver Ride-a-Long

Sall good Chickie ;)

Day 11: Start rolling at 0705 after fueling up. Had to wait for the guy in front of us to pull out.  Only 13m to our drop off where we'll pick up a big load then doing 2 live unloads tomorrow within 3.5h of each other before dropping the empty trailer and heading home. I get some more practice coupling and uncoupling. The gooseneck on the trailer we picked up was fighting me. It wouldn't pull out into high gear, I just kept yanking and yanking until it finally released.  As we did the walk around, my uncle noticed that the recap on the trailer tire on the passenger side was looking like it was about to come off; he said that we might have a blow out today.  Here's hoping!  I want to be able to experience what it would feel like and observe how you're supposed to react when it happens.

We have to return to the flying j we were just at to weigh, apparently the scales here don't work.  First time seeing how these scales work!  We pull into the scales, he talks to the attendant through the speaker, then parks in a legal spot. We go inside and get the print out to find out that the trailer weight is 34450 lbs.  He tells me that we're overweight on that axle by 450 lbs and mentions that to redistribute the weight, we have to adjust the tandems.  He said that each hole is 250 lbs, so to redistribute enough weight towards the drive tires, we have to move the tandems at least 2 holes, he goes by 3 just to be safe, then asks me which way we have to move.  We're in the 9th hole from the front right now, so I believe that we need to be in the 6th hole from the front.  He agrees, and instructs me to release the pins so he can back up to set them in the correct place.  I got to learn about tandems today! Got a long boring drive ahead of us towards our stopping point in Knoxville TN.

Unholychaos wrote:

We're in the 9th hole from the front right now, so I believe that we need to be in the 6th hole from the front.

You probably meant the other way around, sliding from the 9 hole to 6 puts additional weight on the tandems. Moving to the 11 hole will shift some weight off the tandems and onto the tractor drives. I do like reading your thread, interesting perspective.

Good luck.

No, we did slide into the 6th hole. There was about 400 and some odd lbs over on the tractor axle so we slid back.

Day 12: Final day on the road!  It really doesn't feel like its been nearly 2 weeks!  All today will consist of will be heading to our first live unload not even 1m away for a supposed 30m unload then a 94m drive to Ringgold GA for another unload, then dropping the empty trailer in Cleveland TN 31m away until we can finally bobtail home 146m to Clarksville GA. Aftet about an hour of waiting to be accepted and unloading, we roll onto I-75 south towards Ringgold.

5m from our destination, we hit Chattanooga TN rush hour at 0745.  At least it was moving at a decent rate.  We get to our live unload in Ringgold at 0805, should be another half hour or so here.  After 30m, we undock, slide the tandems all the way forward, and start rolling towards Cleveland TN 31m to drop this empty.  I get my final opportunity to drop a trailer at 0930.  It was a tight squeeze between our trailer and the one next to us, I had to stand perpendicular to the trailer rather than parallel, but it could've been worse, he tells me. 147m bobtailing home to Clarksville GA.

Its been a fun 2 weeks! I learned alot! Got some decent practice coupling/uncoupling, pre trip inspections, working the tandems, observing how to drive in various road conditions from heavy rain to mountain grades and heavy traffic, getting lost, parking issues, scaling, and the overall lifestyle.  Although there were a few uncomfortable nights where the APU wasnt working so top bunk was sweltering, but it was an experience I'll have to deal with sooner or later.  I feel like I'm ready to start classes, I'm not as overwhelmed as I previously was, although getting behind the wheel for the first time is going to be nerve racking, but after experiencing all of this, I think I'll do just fine.

Bobtail:

"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Unholychaos wrote:

No, we did slide into the 6th hole. There was about 400 and some odd lbs over on the tractor axle so we slid back.

Ok, then your post about having too much weight on the trailer (tandems) was in actuality too much weight on the tractor drives.

Ringgold Ga? That's my hood :P

A lot of my family lives there or in East Ridge. I lived there for a short time when I was a kid.

I just now saw this post. Sorry for the delay. There are a couple of Walmarts around. I'm pretty sure the one in Ft. Oglethorpe is trucker friendly.