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 I-40 in Arizona Welcome to the Trucker's Lounge. Post pictures and stories and erotic fanfiction and whatever else. Find the problem with this steer tire:  Louisiana roads can eat a bag of dicks. This happened on the ramp from I-12 E to I-10 E. I was going 40 and snapped the levelling rod for the air suspension.  THAT'S NOT SNOW  I-80 in Utah near "the sculpture" that blurry black spot to the left is an SUV buried to the frame in salt. I count 16 sets of tandems on this heavy hauler, 8 in front 8 in back, spotted at a Pilot in western Iowa.  Sorry about the bug splatter.
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Aug 10, 2013 03:58
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 06:31 |
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Haha I drive by that Ron Paul sign all the time. That and the "is it legal?" sign eastbound always make me go a little 
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Aug 10, 2013 07:01
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I broke this and also this  and this too  and one of these  and this broke as well  All because of "roads" like this. i make no appologies for bug bits.  I hit a baby deer with this, but it didn't break it, just covered it in baby deer goo and bent it a little. i cleaned the baby deer goo off to inspect it and it's all good. 
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Aug 10, 2013 08:53
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Story time! So I work for a small local air freight company in Portland, OR. I was told this story the other day, happened pretty recently. We work pretty closely with these two other companies, lets just call them Company A and Company B. They'e both freight forwarding companies. So, Company B wants to borrow Company A's big forklift to handle some heavy freight. This particular forklift has no parking brake. Company A takes it over to Company B in a 53' van, secured with a good half dozen load bars. It makes it there fine, doesn't murder anyone crashing out of the truck. Company B finishes whatever project they needed it for and decide to send it back to Company A in another trailer, also loaded with some freight bound for them. But, they decided with the two brain cells they had to rub together, that shipping a 5 ton wheeled machine in a trailer should be secured with a single e-track strap. During the short 8 mile journey, the forklift tore the strap out of the mounts, re-arranged the freight like a steamroller organizing china, and did everything possible to gently caress the trailer up, ending with a 20 foot long gash down the side of it. Company A refused the entire trailer naturally, and Company B is buying them a new trailer. I need to stop working with paintchip eating retards.
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Aug 12, 2013 04:33
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Must be something with loading forklifts. We had almost the same thing a couple months ago. The guys figured since there was so much other stuff on the trailer, they could get away with just putting chocks on the forklift wheels. The driver made it a whole 15 miles before someone flagged him down to let him know a couple forks were sticking out the rear doors. "You're IT, right? I slipped and broke my Qualcomm. Can you fix it?"
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Aug 12, 2013 14:06
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NinjaPablo posted:"You're IT, right? I slipped and broke my Qualcomm. Can you fix it?" It's fine, just turn it off and on
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Aug 13, 2013 03:39
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VOR LOC posted:Haha I drive by that Ron Paul sign all the time. That and the "is it legal?" sign eastbound always make me go a little All along the I-70 in the corn fields. Soooo many Jesus is Coming signs.
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Aug 13, 2013 03:57
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Dangit, I forgot to mention that the TV options here in the lounge are NCSI, Weather Channel, and Fox News. Sideways fire at the Sinclair refinery in Wyoming, I suck at framing photos.  Amish in southern Iowa.  Mt Shasta, I'm probably 20 or more miles away. 
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Aug 16, 2013 04:10
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 Cockburn Ranges, Aus  Well at least the water made the corrugations slightly better. On a related note, I love air actuated diff locks!
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Aug 22, 2013 13:33
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Kontour posted:
Is that a new Actros?
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Aug 22, 2013 13:36
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Mooseykins posted:Is that a new Actros? Nah, Axor. 2012 model, 40000km on the clock. Drives great, although we'll find out how useful they are when things start breaking out bush. I'm still not used to not having a physical oil dip stick. Kontour fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 13:39
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Kontour posted:Nah, Axor. 2012 model, 40000km on the clock. Drives great, although we'll find out how useful they are when things start breaking out bush. I'm still not used to not having a physical oil dip stick. Ah cool. I remember someone saying the Axor had a badly-designed interior or cab, but having been in a couple i couldn't see anything wrong with it. That said, i'm 5'10" and 147lb, so not many things are uncomfortable for me. What setup is it? 12-litre 6x4? Most of our Axors here are medium-duty 4x2s with either day cabs or small sleepers for short haul stuff like supermarkets. Mooseykins fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 14:02
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Mooseykins posted:Ah cool. I remember someone saying the Axor had a badly-designed interior or cab, but having been in a couple i couldn't see anything wrong with it. That said, i'm 5'10" and 147lb, so not many things are uncomfortable for me. It's the 7.2l 4x4, ostensibly because it just slides in under the weight limits for road closures, plus all wheel drive and diff locks all round. I kinda wish we'd gone for the 6x4 though because we seem to be having issues with the rear duals from the amount of weight we put on them coupled with the roads we drive on, although it could be a tire issue too. The day I never have to deal with another rock fractured radial will be a nice day indeed. It's only a day cab, and I don't have too many issues with it, not having a footrest or any space next to the clutch and not being able to point the centre air con ducts at anything useful are annoying, as are the comically over sized indicator stems. The biggest issue seems to be the location of the gear stick. I'm 6'1" and although its not uncomfortable, it just doesn't feel like its in the right place, its also a magnet for resting your elbow/forearm on. That said, if after driving it for 40000km and only having those issues, I feel like I'm doing well. I got in a little canter the other day, and the loving steering wheel wasn't even in the centre of the driving position.
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Aug 22, 2013 14:29
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IHatePancakes posted:Story time! I'd bet money your company works with mine in some capacity. Tonight's adventure: lift gate decided to lower itself at speed on I-5. Call up ops, "oh yeah it did that last night too" and forward me to the driver who jury rigged it before. We run down his list but his temporary fix no longer works. Surely at this point they would ring up an after hours mobile mechanic to get their main line hauler moving, yes? Nnnnahhhhhh. They decided to send down the same driver I was just talking to, and hope he can perform his duct tape feng shuei on it again. He's 2 hours away not counting his actual route stops. If he can't fix it they have to call a mechanic ANYWAY and we wasted 2 hours. (This will be the outcome) Bonus: we've been reporting the glitchy lift gate switch for literal months, but they wouldn't fix it since the inside switch still worked fine. UNTIL NOW. At least it shat right by a 24 hour diner. 
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Aug 23, 2013 09:56
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Kontour posted:It's the 7.2l 4x4, ostensibly because it just slides in under the weight limits for road closures, plus all wheel drive and diff locks all round. I kinda wish we'd gone for the 6x4 though because we seem to be having issues with the rear duals from the amount of weight we put on them coupled with the roads we drive on, although it could be a tire issue too. The day I never have to deal with another rock fractured radial will be a nice day indeed. That was the main reason we upgraded our little 4x2 DAF to a 4x6 within a year of buying it. The more central you get the more axles and the more powered axles you want. I have to applaud you though, I've been on a few trips around the central north Queensland area (Cloncurry, Longreach, Mt Isa etc), and I grew up in trucks with my dad in Central NSW, and I don't think I've ever seen a European truck once the bitumen stopped. EDIT: And to repost from the last thread, this is how we do things in Australia. This is a triple road train (in blue) unloaded some stock onto a B-Double (in red)  This is the bosses T908 setup as an A-B Quad, the largest legal combination that can be run on the roads without a permit, but only way out west where there's basically nothing but desert.  This is my dad's T404 B-double that I sometimes take out for a run on weekends. She's a million km's old, but the old C15 will still pull past everything else up the hills.  Rudager fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 12:19
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Works bought a fleet of MAN TGM 15.290 4x4's to turn into fire vehicles/gang trucks and then a pair of TGM 33.440 6x6's to use as Bulk Water Carriers. The 6x6'are loving unstoppable- we've got them set up with tip trays too and with 16t in the tray the thing dragged itself through nearly 3' deep mud and water without issue. Im also convinced that the ZF 12 speed Manualmatic gearboxes in them are powered by voodoo- RARELY do you need to intervene because its stuffed up a gear.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:12
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Rudager posted:I have to applaud you though, I've been on a few trips around the central north Queensland area (Cloncurry, Longreach, Mt Isa etc), and I grew up in trucks with my dad in Central NSW, and I don't think I've ever seen a European truck once the bitumen stopped. As I said, we'll see how it goes once we get a few more k's on her and things start breaking. Unfortunately euro ratings and such mean that the days of relatively simple, non computer controlled trucks are getting harder and harder to come by, and when you're out bush it's not exactly easy to find an "Authorized(tm) Mercedes(tm) Technician(tm)" to pull codes and the like. Add that to the fact that no one really designs their trucks for Australian conditions and it's a bit of a crapshoot when trying to buy new vehicles. When we used to run Izuzu 750s and 800s we practically had to beg them to let us have the code numbers and descriptions so we could pull them on the road and even then Code 45: "Mass Air Sensor Voltage" isn't exactly a whole lot to go on. That said, Izuzu are pretty rad and because they reckon that we work their trucks the hardest of almost any of their customers, they'd send Japanese engineers out with us every few years for a ride around, and they'd outfit the truck they were in with accelerometers and the like to get a feel for exactly how we were abusing them. I've never seen anyone get quite so excited about corrugations as those blokes. Also this happened outside of Timber Creek last year, blowout on the mover and the driver didn't get to the red bottle fast enough: 
Kontour fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 16:39
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Kontour posted:As I said, we'll see how it goes once we get a few more k's on her and things start breaking. Unfortunately euro ratings and such mean that the days of relatively simple, non computer controlled trucks are getting harder and harder to come by, and when you're out bush it's not exactly easy to find an "Authorized(tm) Mercedes(tm) Technician(tm)" to pull codes and the like. Add that to the fact that no one really designs their trucks for Australian conditions and it's a bit of a crapshoot when trying to buy new vehicles. Haha, true that. that little old T404SAR up there may look like a tired old girl, but if she breaks in some farmers paddock on a Sunday afternoon, it's easy enough to try and figure out yourself if you've got half a mind for it. Nowdays it's all twin turbo ACERTS and cooled EGR's making everything hard. If nothing else, someone needs to add about 3-5L on engine capacity for road train specced trucks, but I suppose it's such a niche market in the grand world scheme of things for Cummins/Cat/Detroit. I can't remember what a triple train can max out at since we don't really run them, but an A-B triple (like the AB Quad above, but minus one of the short trailers) can top out at 104.5t (230,000 pounds and change for everyone else) and a 600hp ISX is working hard for it. Rudager fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 09:53
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Rudager posted:Haha, true that. I'm pretty sure my 435 would just fall over and cry. I moved almost 100K before with a old 400, and it just didn't like it much. Thanks IKEA!
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Aug 24, 2013 20:43
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[quote="Kontour" post="418683944"l Cockburn Ranges, Aus Well at least the water made the corrugations slightly better. On a related note, I love air actuated diff locks! [/quote] That's a pretty nice Highway, mate. 
Powershift fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Aug 25, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 22:24
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Javid posted:I'd bet money your company works with mine in some capacity. I'm with Action Courier(though hopefully not much longer. HATE it here.), ring any bells?
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Aug 25, 2013 05:56
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Not offhand, but gently caress knows, I don't deal with the Portland end ever.
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Aug 25, 2013 07:43
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InterceptorV8 posted:I'm pretty sure my 435 would just fall over and cry. I moved almost 100K before with a old 400, and it just didn't like it much. Thanks IKEA! Well I mean, if you get a truck that's going to be doing JUST road train work, then you get the diffs geared up a bit since they're limited to 90km/h (which is around 55mph?) anyway, but still. A 600hp C15/ISX Sig (I don't think anyone seriously runs Detroits in Australia) is doing OK on 64.5t B-Double work, but in my opinion, there should be another step above that for bigger work.
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Aug 25, 2013 11:23
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In Canada a turnpike double is limited to 100kph and certain highways. A super b at 63, 500kg can go anywhere at whatever the speed limit is. It's not abnormal to see a loaded super b doing 120kph.
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Aug 25, 2013 18:07
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Here's a short video off the road. Admittedly most of the time I do boring stuff but this was particularly steep (except it doesn't quite show in movement). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boV2ViF8Lf0
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Aug 25, 2013 19:50
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DonVincenzo posted:Here's a short video off the road. Admittedly most of the time I do boring stuff but this was particularly steep (except it doesn't quite show in movement). I ran into a hill like that, then it rained and i had to be pulled up by a cat. It was a pain in the dick because there was a sharp 90 right as the hill started to level out, so with the truck turned and the trailer still on the hard slope, it completely unloaded the right hand side of the truck and lead to tire spinnage. In the center of this picture you can see where it was repeatedly getting dug out. Once it rained and turned to mud all hell broke loose.  Some days you just can't complain about the view from the ol' office.  Edit: This is what fluid movement can do. Spun some tires on flat ground, on pavement, loaded. 
Powershift fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Aug 26, 2013 |
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Aug 26, 2013 03:27
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Powershift posted:Some days you just can't complain about the view from the ol' office. You  are  quite  right  and then  some  Right sorry for the image dump but it appears in the 3 years I've been doing this sometimes
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Aug 26, 2013 19:17
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DonVincenzo posted:Right sorry for the image dump but it appears in the 3 years I've been doing this sometimes This may not look like much, but it's actually the Mighty Mississippi near Bmedji MN where it's a slow swampy creek.  The file name on my computer is coltrane.jpg  SCIENCE   This grade is in the middle of nowhere Utah, check out the smaller sign to the side. Not visible in this photo: beautiful desolation.  Wyoming.jpg please note I'm not driving and trying to take a picture in that mess, I'm in the jumpseat. 
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Aug 27, 2013 04:32
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CannonFodder posted:Wyoming.jpg please note I'm not driving and trying to take a picture in that mess, I'm in the jumpseat. That's a pretty nice picture of a perfectly usable highway   I only work in alberta, but the roads and views are varied enough. http://imgur.com/a/G1EGM#5
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Aug 27, 2013 06:30
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How to correctly drive to Burning Man. 1. Put )°( at least 27 times on your car, truck, RV or Magical loving Pony. 2. Make sure your art isn't tied down in any fashion. Art is meant to be shared, and it's totally awesome to share it with everybody else on the interstate. 3. Make sure you let everybody around you know you are going "home" 4. Stopping on the interstate to take pictures of the Truckee River is a great loving idea. 4a. Make sure you DON'T put your flashers on when you park in the travel lane on the interstate. 5. DON'T get off the interstate to take a piss on the offramp, just stop on the interstate and pop a squat right there. 5a. DO get mad when the trucker uses his or her airhorn and makes you fall over into your piss puddle. 6. Make sure you use the small mouthed bottles as your piss bottles in case you don't do #5 so the truckers don't get blamed. 7. Don't check and make sure any or all of your lights are working before you take off. Adjusting your headlights is also frowned on, because it's great to signal aircraft at BRC with your headlights.
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Aug 27, 2013 09:00
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InterceptorV8 posted:5a. DO get mad when the trucker uses his or her airhorn and makes you fall over into your piss puddle. Ahahahahahaha! Seriously, people just stop in a lane? Not on the hard shoulder? Even on the most desolate of interstates in the US that seems like the dumbest of ideas.
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Aug 27, 2013 09:28
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bolind posted:Ahahahahahaha! http://goo.gl/maps/r2aqS Not much of a shoulder in some spots. The on/off ramps have wide shoulders because truckers plowed all the poo poo around them, but no, they don't want to stop there, they want to stop here, and what you get is someone going from the fast lane across the slow lane and onto the shoulder without turn signals. Because they are always in the fast lane.
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Aug 27, 2013 19:29
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InterceptorV8 posted:http://goo.gl/maps/r2aqS One of my friends was pissed after running over a generator and random debris that was left randomly in the middle of the highway by a burner. I wonder how many RV/Vans/Meth labs will be left abandoned on the shoudlers of nevada highways when this is all over. Big K of Justice fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Aug 27, 2013 20:33
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InterceptorV8 posted:4. Stopping on the interstate to take pictures of the Truckee River is a great loving idea. Saw a few Burners doing a variant on #4 along 28 near Sand Harbor on their excursion to see Tahoe, along with one doing #5 at the lookout above Incline on 431. Sadly, my buddy's pickup lacks an airhorn to invoke 5a. At least they only come around here once a year.
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Aug 27, 2013 20:47
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OZC posted:Saw a few Burners doing a variant on #4 along 28 near Sand Harbor on their excursion to see Tahoe, along with one doing #5 at the lookout above Incline on 431. Sadly, my buddy's pickup lacks an airhorn to invoke 5a. At least they only come around here once a year. Can you even loving breathe up there? Smoke is heavy all the way to Boise and all the way over to Battle Mountain. Geared Hub posted:One of my friends was pissed after running over a generator and random debris that was left randomly in the middle of the highway by a burner. I'm hoping to scare up a 19-21 foot standard trailer this year from it! From the Walmart I was at last night, there is going to be quite a bit of MOOP left over from people. Ran into a bunch of really rude Japanese people heading out there buying out the camping supplies.
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Aug 27, 2013 21:00
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InterceptorV8 posted:Can you even loving breathe up there? It's horrible up here right now. I've got every window in my office sealed up and it's still smoky inside. It seemed to clear up a bit over the weekend, but it went right back to being poo poo yesterday. I'm hoping the winds change and clear it out before I go to the Rib Cook-Off on Thursday but I'm not optimistic. That was the funniest thing of seeing people coming up here to get a look at the lake though, because aside from looking down into Incline and a hazy glimpse of Crystal Bay, you can't see anything worth a drat in the basin right now from the lookout, and the view certainly isn't any better anywhere else around the lake.
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Aug 27, 2013 22:11
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 I saw this while driving through Pennsylvania during that big freak snowstorm in late October 2011. I've never seen so many cars that ran off the side of the road or onto the median. At one point some guy in an SUV got stuck in the direct center of the extremely wide grass median, probably 40-50 feet from the actual road itself. No idea how he managed that one.
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Aug 28, 2013 17:34
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CannonFodder posted:SCIENCE 565 outisde of Huntsville, right? That was my commute to class for a year or so before I moved to the northeast. Surprisingly cool place, you know, given its location.
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Aug 28, 2013 17:47
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Synonamess Botch posted:565 outisde of Huntsville, right? That was my commute to class for a year or so before I moved to the northeast. Surprisingly cool place, you know, given its location.
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Aug 28, 2013 23:58
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 06:31 |
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So one of the drivers at work today was making fun of how every North American Youtube trucker has a 10 speed. Is that a common thing up there? Here in the downunder it's an 18 speed Eaton, 14 speed Synchro box in the Euro's, or an Auto for the really big guys who just want something anyone can drive, but the far majority of trucks on our roads are 18's. I'm sure there's a 10 speed or two out there, but I don't know anyone that's ever seen one.
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Aug 29, 2013 11:36
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