First Driveaway Gig

Well folks, after watching the Yahoo Driveaway group for about 2 years I finally stuck my toe in the water and took my first driveaway gig, and I'd have to say it's gone well so far. I'll do the report and throw in some dumb first-timer questions for you veterans to weight in on.

I picked up a new bucket/chipper truck Sunday morning with 81 miles on it in Forest, Va. for delivery to Dayton, Oh on Monday morning. It was a GMC 7500 with 6 speed, no A/C, and no radio. It was hot inVA, WV, and OH on Sunday. Truck drove nicely, but was governed at 2500 RPM's, which would let it do about 67 tops. Would pull down fairly quickly on inclines, which there are a lot of in WV. It seemed to be top heavy, which I guess is understandable with a big boom on top, but I'd like to know if those type trucks are prone to turn over if you'd go around a turn too fast or drop off the edge of the road.

I do have a question from this part of the trip: Where do you post your stickers, etc. if you want to have your side windows rolled down? I toughed it out and just cracked the windows so my stickers would still display on each side. Spent the night at Knights Inn in Xenia, OH Sunday night for $39.99 plus tax. Not great, but I made it out OK. Delivered Monday morning after briefly getting lost and seeing more of south Dayton than I wanted to. Was happy to have my first delivery safely over with. Nice folks where I delivered and they offered to give me a ride wherever I needed to go.

Dispatch had previously told me they would put me in a rental car back home to Va, but they asked if I'd be interested in bringing a truck from Paducah, KY to Chantilly,Va. I said yes, and they put me in a rental car to Paducah, about 360 miles away. I drove there Monday and picked up a new vacuum pumper truck (for cleaning porta-potties). I had to return the rental car to the Paducah airport and the vendor was nice enough to deliver the truck there. So I headed east via Nashville about 5:30 pm. Stayed overnight at Best Western ($39.99 plus tax) on I-40 east of Nashville last night (Monday). I found a coupon in one of the travel books at the visitor centers. I have to be in Roanoke (home) to drive a school bus tomorrow (Wednesday), so dispatch said it was OK for me to bring the truck here and take it to Chantilly on Thursday.

So that's the plan. The vacuum truck is a new Chevy 5500. Run's really great, with automatic, A/C, and radio. No problem going 70+ if/when needed. Only question I had on it was, for some reason, it seemed to want to occasionally fish tale on me. I thought that odd given it didn't seem to be pulling that much of a load, but occasionally it would get to wagging depending on road conditions or wind from other trucks. I had some trouble trying to mount my driveaway tag on the rear so I put in on the front instead. Dispatch said that was OK, but I wonder. Didn't get pulled at any of the weigh stations. Also, the vendor already had a KY temporary tag taped to the lower right on the windshield. Dispatch has since advised me to not have anything taped to the windshield and just lay it on the dash. Comments on that?

So I'm mid-return on my first trip and thought I'd give this report. Let me know if you have comments and/or answers to the questions.