Two Big Ones and a Tweety Bird
This latest set of trips found me tugging around two of the largest trucks I've driven followed by one of the smallest.
Monday, February 26, 2007
This trip started with a rental pickup at the Roanoke airport for a drive to Charlotte, NC. There, another Spirit Miller driver picked me up to take me to his home where he had staged a boom truck he brought from Birmingham, AL. Got to hear all the normal griping these drivers seem to love to do, how dispatch screws them over, what a piece of junk the truck is, etc., etc. I was very enthralled by the time I got to his ho
use and saw the mamouth boom truck I was to take to Plains, PA. It was a Kenworth T800, the first of those I'd driven, with a 125' boom on it, also I believe the largest I've hauled.
After getting used to the normal scraping I do on those Eaton Fuller hi-lo trannys, I was heading north. The path took me by home, so since it was close to quiting time, I staged the truck at the nearby truck stop and had my wife pick me up for home. It was good to get at least one night this week at home.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Headed on up I-81 to Plains, PA, a trip of about 300 miles. I arrived at the Altec plant there at about 2:30 PM. Dispatch had me lined up for a rental car from the local airport to Millford, CT, where I was to pick up a truck destined for Columbus, OH. It took about an hour for the cab to come to take me to the airport. And just as I had signed for my car, dispatch called to say the plans had changed. I was to go to Millbury, MA (that seems like a lot of Mills), and pick up a truck for Frederick, MD. So, I re-routed and headed out. I spent the night just outside of Waterbury, CT which left me about 1.5 hours drive (not counting traffic accidents in Hartford, CT).
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
I got to the Altec plant in Millford about noon, and they brought out the biggest crane truck I've driven - an
IHC Paystar 5000 with a super-duper hi/lo-lo transmission. It had considerably more buttons than I've seen before, but it turned out if I just stuck with the buttons I knew, it did OK. The last three IHC's I've driven have been mostly new and all have had various problems. This one was losing some air, had a noisy power steering, thumping in the steering, and was occasionally thinking about overheating. Plenty to think about in addition to its 13'6" height.
Speaking of height, as I was buzzing around with all the traffic, overpasses, and mess through Hartford, I looked up and there was a bridge with a sign saying 13'7" (gee! a whole inch to spare), which I was about to either immediately head under or hit. So I did what most good professional drivers do - I ducked - hoping I wouldn't hear crane grinding on bridge or me going through the windshield. Neither happened, but I took extra notice of all future bridges - and there are a lot of them in PA.
Made it to the Jonestown, PA area, just above Harrisburg for the night.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
It's March already? Where did the winter go?
Up early and on to Frederick, MD. I was anxious to get this big behemoth off my shoulders and hopeful that dispatch would be heading me further south towards home. Weather was approaching the northern states.
Got to Frederick about 9:30 AM, where I deposited this truck, gladly, and was put in a nice tweety-bird yell
ow Ford F550 small boom truck destined for Bowling Green, VA (getting closer to home). Plus, dispatch already had a rental car from Fredericksburg, VA lined up for me to get home. So I was a happy camper. It was a real relief to be out of the giant trucks and driving something this small even if I did have to drive around Washington, DC.
I made it to Bowling Green about 12:30, then Hertz agreed to pick me up. Got my rental car after waiting about an hour for the driver to come and I was on my way home. The Hertz driver expressed a lot of interest in becoming a driveaway driver, so I gave him the sale pitch.
Happy to be through another trip. They always seem to keep me tense, but big trucks especially so. I'm planning to outfit my 1994 Saturn as a tow car for my next trip. That should bring some new excitement into the driveaway deal.
Monday, February 26, 2007
This trip started with a rental pickup at the Roanoke airport for a drive to Charlotte, NC. There, another Spirit Miller driver picked me up to take me to his home where he had staged a boom truck he brought from Birmingham, AL. Got to hear all the normal griping these drivers seem to love to do, how dispatch screws them over, what a piece of junk the truck is, etc., etc. I was very enthralled by the time I got to his ho
use and saw the mamouth boom truck I was to take to Plains, PA. It was a Kenworth T800, the first of those I'd driven, with a 125' boom on it, also I believe the largest I've hauled.After getting used to the normal scraping I do on those Eaton Fuller hi-lo trannys, I was heading north. The path took me by home, so since it was close to quiting time, I staged the truck at the nearby truck stop and had my wife pick me up for home. It was good to get at least one night this week at home.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Headed on up I-81 to Plains, PA, a trip of about 300 miles. I arrived at the Altec plant there at about 2:30 PM. Dispatch had me lined up for a rental car from the local airport to Millford, CT, where I was to pick up a truck destined for Columbus, OH. It took about an hour for the cab to come to take me to the airport. And just as I had signed for my car, dispatch called to say the plans had changed. I was to go to Millbury, MA (that seems like a lot of Mills), and pick up a truck for Frederick, MD. So, I re-routed and headed out. I spent the night just outside of Waterbury, CT which left me about 1.5 hours drive (not counting traffic accidents in Hartford, CT).
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
I got to the Altec plant in Millford about noon, and they brought out the biggest crane truck I've driven - an
IHC Paystar 5000 with a super-duper hi/lo-lo transmission. It had considerably more buttons than I've seen before, but it turned out if I just stuck with the buttons I knew, it did OK. The last three IHC's I've driven have been mostly new and all have had various problems. This one was losing some air, had a noisy power steering, thumping in the steering, and was occasionally thinking about overheating. Plenty to think about in addition to its 13'6" height.Speaking of height, as I was buzzing around with all the traffic, overpasses, and mess through Hartford, I looked up and there was a bridge with a sign saying 13'7" (gee! a whole inch to spare), which I was about to either immediately head under or hit. So I did what most good professional drivers do - I ducked - hoping I wouldn't hear crane grinding on bridge or me going through the windshield. Neither happened, but I took extra notice of all future bridges - and there are a lot of them in PA.
Made it to the Jonestown, PA area, just above Harrisburg for the night.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
It's March already? Where did the winter go?
Up early and on to Frederick, MD. I was anxious to get this big behemoth off my shoulders and hopeful that dispatch would be heading me further south towards home. Weather was approaching the northern states.
Got to Frederick about 9:30 AM, where I deposited this truck, gladly, and was put in a nice tweety-bird yell
ow Ford F550 small boom truck destined for Bowling Green, VA (getting closer to home). Plus, dispatch already had a rental car from Fredericksburg, VA lined up for me to get home. So I was a happy camper. It was a real relief to be out of the giant trucks and driving something this small even if I did have to drive around Washington, DC.I made it to Bowling Green about 12:30, then Hertz agreed to pick me up. Got my rental car after waiting about an hour for the driver to come and I was on my way home. The Hertz driver expressed a lot of interest in becoming a driveaway driver, so I gave him the sale pitch.
Happy to be through another trip. They always seem to keep me tense, but big trucks especially so. I'm planning to outfit my 1994 Saturn as a tow car for my next trip. That should bring some new excitement into the driveaway deal.
posted by Harry | 2:48 PM
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