Subsim Truckers

[Mr Quatro]

@ Neal ... can you put up a sticky on where you are and if you are okay without the rest of us responding to your OP.

I just for one would like to know your okay and I don't have a mobile phone and I don't even know what a txt message is and I don't want to.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

You ice road truckers have all the fun, Swamprat.

I don't 'do' that. IRTrucking is in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. There is no joy in whooville running in the winter on snow covered roads, not in Canada or in the U.S. I've done both.
I'm in Ontario right where I intend to stay.

[Aktungbby]

Picking up paper loads in Duluth MN in the dead of winter is no joy either- the fifth wheel is brutal to disconnect; we used cardboard and two bungees for our 'winter front'. We also kept a small propane torch to heat the ball joint at the shifter base which had a tendency to freeze up if going down the road without needing to shift for a period of time. The shift stick would immobilze and getting into neutral was a problem. The foot warmer heater core under the driver seat was worthless on a Freightliner. The temps with wind chill in the Dakotas and Montana were -40 F. And of course, in the days before cell phones, you didn't pull into a neon lit bar parking lot in the winter evening...that turned out to be a ice fishing bar on a plowed portion of a lake! and the paper-loaded 18 wheeler was nearly totally under the surface; both drivers made it out but the lead guy was in the sleeper in his skivvies. The photo of it went viral as the rear cargo doors were just above the surface with the company logo "You too can own a truck like This" still visible! Pulling into Chicago with canned goods in Blizzards with O'hare International closed was always a doozy too; especially when running north empty on ice to pick up a return load at Green Bay Paper and then around to the Mackinac Bridge just avoid Chicago's east-bound mess to Philly PA with the load.

[Wolferz]

I guess I was lucky that the outfit I drove for was a real stickler for safety. So much so that we weren't allowed to drive in Colorado or in any inclement winter weather. During orientation at the terminal after hiring on they showed us a video that was shot by a husband and wife team while they were bobtailing northward on I-81 in a snowstorm. They were both laughing at the cars spinning out on the snow covered highway. That is until the scenery in the windshield began to spin and the camera hit the floorboard. They spun into the median and got promptly fired afterwards. Then these two mental heavyweights tried to sue for their jobs back and used the video tape as evidence. The judge did not rule in their favor. One of the exit signs they passed was for the berg at the top of the mountain above my home. They should have exited there and parked until the weather cleared up. PENNDOT is really good at clearing the roadways around here so their delay would have been short lived.

[swamprat69er]

My idiot dispatcher at B***n got me a load going back to Winnipeg, MB out of Mississauga, ON and told me to take 4 days off on the way. (I live about 4 hours North of Mississauga.) On the third day he called me at home and told me I had three days to get the load to Winnipeg. I was tracking a major snow storm on the 'puter and figured I could go around it by staying in Canada. Dispatch ordered me to take it through the states because it was faster....This snow storm was packing 60mph winds out of the north west and he wants me to run through the U.P of Michigan on S.R.2 across Swissconsin and Minnesota to Fargo, ND and then north on I-29 through Pembina and into Winnipeg.

Well I had 12,000 lbs in a full trailer and did what I was told. Part way across Swissconsin the wind was blowing so hard that my trailer was on the other side of the road. That is when I uttered those famous last words, 'the heck with this' [only a little stronger] and I found a safe place to park and wait it out. The load got to Winnipeg a day late, too bad so sad. The receiver saw it my way when I explained that his load could have been scattered all over Hwy 2 in Wisconsin instead. I told him better late than never.

The safety department at b***n was always safety, safety, log book legal and all that. The dispatcher was always go, go ,go and never you mind the log book. It is not snowing in his office in Winnipeg so in his mind it was not snowing anywhere in the real world.

We did not see eye to eye.

[Aktungbby]

That was the only rule we did have! NO BOBTAILING unless in the yard hooking up or repairs! Most of the new hires were just out of driving school; fortunately, I had been a big city UPS delivery and Union bob-tail driver so I had some 'astute combat' training prior to going to the interstate rigs. I only became a lead driver when mine 'jumped truck' and someone had to drive it 1500 miles back to the Fort Scott depot.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

That was the only rule we did have! NO BOBTAILING unless in the yard hooking up or repairs! Most of the new hires were just out of driving school; fortunately, I had been a big city UPS delivery and Union bob-tail driver so I had some 'astute combat' training prior to going to the interstate rigs. I only became a lead driver when mine 'jumped truck' and someone had to drive it 1500 miles back to the Fort Scott depot.

It was a good experience for you. It builds character.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

@ Neal ... can you put up a sticky on where you are and if you are okay without the rest of us responding to your OP.

I just for one would like to know your okay and I don't have a mobile phone and I don't even know what a txt message is and I don't want to.

Well, don't worry, I'll be ok. I'm back in Texas for now, waiting for my next assignment. But I did pass through Little Rock the day of the tornadoes! I didn't see anything but rain, though.

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Well, don't worry, I'll be ok. I'm back in Texas for now

Yee Haw! BBQ time!

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I'll be ok. I'm back in Texas for now, waiting for my next assignment. But I did pass through Little Rock the day of the tornadoes! I didn't see anything but rain, though.

May be time for an avatar change good buddy! El Zorro & Tornado!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by swamprat69er

Yee Haw! BBQ time!

Rgr that...the best BBQ I ever tasted was at Neals ranchero

[Onkel Neal]

Oh boy, two days to go,those pics made me HUNGRY!

[Jimbuna]

Tis just a pity the pictures were taken post meal and not showing your Dads beef or your Moms banana dessert......bloody lovely

[Aktungbby]

I see one guy in a Vikings shirt! Any Hamm's!(to yer brew B true! even in Texas!)

By Neal Stevens: the refreshments are on AktungBBY!

[BrucePartington]

I think this is appropriate.

I wonder if Neal was the driver.

http://www.livetrucking.com/truck-bl...er-like-a-pro/