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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 11, 2022 23:47:46 GMT
Texas Trucking Trip
Day One of Seven
From my back porch to here = 102 Miles
Driving a 2000 Volvo VN #106
Double-bunk Stand-up Cab
13-speed and a Big Series 60 Detroit
I will never drive a Volvo again; JUNK; they are built more like a little toodle-around car for little couch-potato boys than a working man's truck.
If all someone has for me to drive is a Volvo, I will just stay at the house; a man's got to draw the line somewhere.
Crossville Hardwoods
656 Interstate Drive
Crossville, Tennessee
Located on the North side of Interstate Drive
A division of Somerset Wood Products(which is actually located in Burnside)
As viewed from the North-West side.
I snapped these photos hanging out the open door of the Volvo.
The big forklift is a Taylor; I don't know which model, but it's a hoss.
The day I was here, it was scorching hot and heinously humid.
I was driving a piece of crap Volvo that had power windows that would not work.
The air-conditioner compressor had been squealing all the way down here; and, while I was loading and tarping in the broiling sun, it set up a horrendous screeching.
It was still cooling like an iceberg; however, it screeched it's last screech in the middle of Nashville, locked up and slung the belts, and I spent the next six days on Texas blacktop in a Dutch Oven.
All by my lonesome self, it took me seven hours to tarp and strap the load of high-dollar kiln-dried dressed hardwood.
They will not give you your paperwork until they have inspected your tarping and strapping work and it looks to suit them.
I asked the forklift operator guy, who also inspected my work, whether I took longer than most and he said that actually I was quicker than most.
He also said he had loaded the Volvo I was driving over thirty times and never twice with the same driver; I told him to get in there and drive the thing a couple hundred miles and he would understand why, and not to expect to ever see me in it again either --- and I still had six more days ahead of me; and, although screeching like all the devils in hell, the air-conditioner was still working at that moment.
Next stop = Frank Paxton Lumber in San Antonio, Texas, 1,051 Miles.
Cumberland County
Crossville, Tennessee
Wednesday_30-July-2014      
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Post by jackscrap on Jun 12, 2022 1:24:36 GMT
So it's been over seven years, have you ever had to endure another trip in a Volvo?
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Post by BuckSkin on Jun 12, 2022 8:39:54 GMT
So it's been over seven years, have you ever had to endure another trip in a Volvo?
Human nature is funny though; when people discover that you are not going to do something, they will whine and nag and try their best to cajole you into doing it; I guess it's like a challenge to them; if they like a challenge, let them drive the Volvo and leave me out of it.
It is sad though to see what all brands of trucks are doing to save money and to make them more appealing to the flip-flop wearing crowd that is all companies can get to drive their junk these days.
My biggest gripe is moving the dimmer switch from the floor to on the turn-signal switch --- what a joke; I can drive a million miles with my boot sitting over a floor-mounted dimmer and immediately brighten and dim the lights without even having to think about it; not so when the dimmer is on the steering column --- that forces me to keep my left arm in a very uncomfortable position, forever ready to fiddle with that flimsy lever or button that feels like it may break off in my hands every time I flip it.
Instead of big round genuine glass sealed-beam headlights that shine out there like a locomotive, they have those dinghy yellowed politically correct environmentally friendly aerodynamic component headlights that you have to hold a match up to them to see whether they are on.
Then, those "aerodynamic" mirrors that make you guess just what you are seeing.
Now, they put those little wimpy passenger car wiper blades on them --- streak - smear - streak - smear.
Instead of big metal toggle switches, they have wimpy plastic rocker switches that come apart about the third time you use them.
Instead of a steering wheel as big as a wagon wheel, they have something that would be more appropriate in a Hyundai.
Get-you-killed anti-lock brakes ? --- I mean Get Real --- brakes are far too important to allow some mushy "is this thing going to stop" mess to control them.
And then, they fill the cab with computer screens and "safety devices" that monitor ones every move, sending data to headquarters in real time, forcing one to be called up on the carpet after every trip and answer to every infraction.
and then they use that word "Team"; "come join our Team" ; I have seen how this "Team" business works = I do all the real work and the candy-coat team takes all the credit.
And they wonder why they can't get anyone to drive.
I never "apply" for a driving job --- I am not going on a begging mission to be treated like a moron --- I interview the job and ask my own questions and, if the answers don't suit me, I stay at the house. |
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Post by jackscrap on Jun 12, 2022 11:22:22 GMT
Almost sorry I asked....but now that you have listed the issues, it’s understandable why you should stick to your guns.
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Post by whippet on Jun 12, 2022 15:18:56 GMT
I could not understand why you hated Volvo so much. I had several cars over the years - wouldn't touch any other make. Lorry drivers favoured them most, too. I was sure Volvo had sold out. So I have just done a search. And, sure enough, they had. No wonder that since 2010, Volvo went downhill fast . . . . . They were bought by a Chinese company. I need say no more.  |
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Post by BuckSkin on Jul 6, 2022 3:57:23 GMT
Texas Trucking Trip - Day Three of SevenFrank Paxton Lumber
San Antonio - Bexar County - Texas
Established 1914
Friday_01-August-2014
The kiln-dried dressed hardwood lumber that I delivered to here came from Crossville Hardwoods in Tennessee.
Just over the fence is Beitel Creek and the same very busy Union Pacific RxR line that passes by the Pilot in New Braunfels.
Next stop = Pilot in New Braunfels, Texas
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Post by VickiD on Jul 6, 2022 4:18:23 GMT
BuckSkin, you paint a scary picture of the trucks that are hauling goods out on our highways. Makes me a tad nervous about being on the roads with them (actually more nervous...I was already a little bit nervous!). There are many businesses that should not be taking shortcuts in their processes and truck/car manufacturing is a major example of that! By the way, I like the photos you shared. ~Vicki
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Post by BuckSkin on Jul 6, 2022 4:58:26 GMT
By the way, I like the photos you shared. Thanks for the compliment; I appreciate it. With a few lessons, I bet you would make an excellent truck driver. |
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Post by hmca on Jul 6, 2022 13:31:46 GMT
So this had been a thread that I had passed over. Reading BuckSkin's post above in "Recent Posts" I got curious as to what I might have missed. Thanks for sharing this BuckSkin. Trucks on the New Jersey Turnpike are not something I am comfortable with.....no matter if I am driving or my husband is.
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Post by whippet on Jul 6, 2022 13:56:20 GMT
BuckSkin, you paint a scary picture of the trucks that are hauling goods out on our highways. Makes me a tad nervous about being on the roads with them (actually more nervous...I was already a little bit nervous!). My brother's son in law, who is an HGV driver, told my brother to never stay driving behind an HGV vehicle. It is safer to be in front, as too many of those people are - eating, drinking, reading, on a mobile etc. Therefore their attention is not where it should be, and too many accidents are the result. @ BuckSkin. I had the chance to become one of the first HGV class 1 driving instructors. (But that is another story). |
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Post by Lillias on Jul 6, 2022 14:26:59 GMT
That's certainly not a rosy picture you paint BuckSkin. I don't envy truckers one bit and it's a shame as we as a society rely on them so much. |
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Post by VickiD on Jul 6, 2022 14:54:27 GMT
My brother's son in law, who is an HGV driver, told my brother to never stay driving behind an HGV vehicle. It is safer to be in front, as too many of those people are - eating, drinking, reading, on a mobile etc. Therefore their attention is not where it should be, and too many accidents are the result. , thanks for the great advice! I'll pass it along to my husband, who is the one who does most of our highway driving. |
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Post by BuckSkin on Jul 6, 2022 16:51:51 GMT
I have to ask --- what is an "HGV driver" ?
I have to say this --- there used to be real men in those trucks; and, for the most part, they had real trucks to drive.
Once they did away with the length laws so trucks could have a long nose and therefore got rid of the cab-overs, for about thirty years, there were some really good trucks on the road.
Then, they started all of this greeny-weenie aerodynamic plastic crap and loaded them with monitors and computers and that is when they lost all of the men and had to start begging for drivers.
To add insult to injury, big chain-gangs, Pilot mostly, have bought every truck-stop on the road, done away with the good restaurants, and replaced them with Arby's and Subways.
These places never have enough parking --- the law forces you to shut-down and sleep, yet the cops will wake you up, write you a ticket, and run you off from anywhere one might try to take a nap.
Most of the places one might be going to load/unload, instead of allowing trucks to come in in the night and sleep there until opening time, they have gates and cables across all the drives, forcing one to get their rest somewhere else and then relocate in the morning.
That is one thing I like about hauling cattle === stockyards have huge parking lots; they are lit up and wide open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year; and, once you get unloaded, they don't care one bit if you park out of the way and sleep for a week --- nobody will bother you and nobody will run you off --- and, the trucks are all independently owned = no aerodynamics; no monitors; no computers; and NO automatic transmissions.
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Post by Lillias on Jul 6, 2022 18:22:22 GMT
I have to ask --- what is an "HGV driver" ? Heavy Goods Vehicle BuckSkin. |
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