big rigs

[folkwufe]

peterbilt

[rpm]

Uno momento por favor... Do not fall into the "Pete" trap. They are highly overrated, especially if you are over 5'7". Every Pete I drove I hated because it tried to hack off my knees with the steering column. They were the most uncomfortable trucks I ever drove. Looked very cool, but uncomfortable as hell. The most comfortable trucks I drove were Volvo and Freightliner.

A lot has changed, especially in the last 5 years. Electronic logs and wireless "tattle-tales" that let dispatch (and the DOT) know where you are and what you're doing 24/7 (no more speeding, sightseeing or side trips to hookup with that gal you know in _____ ). You also have to think about the liability factors. If you get in a wreck 99.9% of the time you will be blamed for the wreck and sued.

Don't get me wrong, trucking can be a lucrative job. You'll just never have the time off to spend it. Go to school, get a degree.

[MiloMorai]

A friend who was an O-O (got out last year) swore by a Pete. He is 6'4" and 250lb. Never heard him complain about hacking his knees off.

[rpm]

Ask him. I still have the dents in my kneecaps.

Petes are kinda like Harleys to truckers. They have a rabid fanbase. The first truck I drove solo in was a butterfly hood '67 Pete with a 238. It was a very sweet truck. I feel the same about old Kenworths.

That doesn't change the fact they aren't the most comfortable. I haven't been inside a unicab model so I really can't speak for what they are like today, only what they were like for the 40 years prior.

[Jackal1]

The trick with a Pete is go with the longnose...like I said. No Roman Nose, no cabover.
A Pete Longnose is the roomiest, most comfortable irde there is out there, bar none.
Quality in a Pete is unsurpassed also.

[NOT]

I have heard the money is good.But, why souldn't I become a trucker?

average pay for OTR truckers is only $32,000 a yr. Not really that good when your only home 1 day a month.




NOT

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Jackal1
The trick with a Pete is go with the longnose...like I said. No Roman Nose, no cabover.
A Pete Longnose is the roomiest, most comfortable irde there is out there, bar none.
Quality in a Pete is unsurpassed also.

I'll put my Volvo 660 up against a long nose Pete for driver comfort and room. The pete has a narrower cab in the driving area and much reduced windshield area compared to the Volvo.

The drivers using the long nose rigs are the ones that like being "billy big rig", putting up lots of lights and extra airhorns to go with all the extra chrome. They pay for it in mileage as the long nose isn't as aerodynamic as the shorter nosed curved front rigs.

The ones who have the absolute largest sleepers are some long nose trucks that have a huge box on the back for a "studio" sleeper berth complete with shower and kitchenette. It makes for a heck of a long truck. The ones I see most are hauling Mayflower vans.

[oy1crazyace]

Originally posted by wes34th
I have heard the money is good.But, why souldn't I become a trucker?

hey man, i work at a warehouse where we load trucks all day, i got lucky and now im in the office, most these truckers seem very unhappy and i have to deal with some dispatchers 2, dispatchers forceing these guys to rush to a place where they just have to sit for 6 hours or more before they are loaded and then get yelled at cuz they are late to the next stop, its no party.

if u want a job with good money become a pilot and fly cargo. im a pilot and a student at SIUC as an aviation major, Now they make good money.
cargo pilots get to see alot, have a reliable schedual, and depending where u end up, you may be home everynight. and the best part is they can end up getting 200+ thousand dollars yearly. trust me this is the way to go. and the best part is if u get a degree u can always go into the bisness end of things and still get good money.
personally this is the way to go. cargo pilots got pretty much the same job except u get to fly and its less demanding and you get more perks!

[Masherbrum]

Originally posted by Meatwad
You only see the hot wimmin if you are driving a Trans-Am.


Now if you were a trucker, your only companion would be a dog named Fred.  



You could go to your local farm co-op, they are usually wanting drivers here and there. All the ones around here are hardly ever gone overnight and they seem to like it (with the exception of one). He delivers our 32% liquid nitrogen and he always whines about how he hates driving the liquid around.

We put in two more 20,000 gal tanks about a month or two ago and we just started using them. He is trying to get them all filled up but lately with all the side dressing going on, be been using that stuff like crazy.

Anyways its fun to get him fired up when he thinks we are about done filling and find out we went through 15,000 gallons since the last time he was there.

Its all in fun though, makes the day more interesting

You with Linde or Airgas?   I get deliveries from Linde, but now with the Buyout.

[Shuffler]

If you heard the pay was good..... you were mislead, which is a common problem in trucking.....

[VWE]

First truck I bought was a 1994 377 Pete with a Cummins N-14 425, the truck was narrow and you had to crawl through a cubby hole to get to the stacked sleeper, I'm 6'5" and it was a tight fit. While the engine wouldn't pull a drunk sleeper leaper off a greased bar stool that engine has the best MPG I ever saw and when it came to the bottom line that's what counted. I ran that truck just over 500,000 miles in 3 years initially thinking I'd be able to get 4 years out of it before trade in, thought it was paid off without warrenty I traded it in for a 1996 Freightliner FLD 12064ST 'condo' which was a stacked bunk sleeper that was integrated with the cab.(think mini RV) I could stand on the bed and still not touch the top of the interior of the truck. Funny thing was, this truck optioned with a Cat 3406 425 and Alcoa alluminum 24.5 all around was about 10k cheaper than the Pete. In the trucking world everything is inter changeable. Engines, transmissions, differentials, gear ratios, suspentions, brakes... really the only thing different is the look that each manufacture has. I got out of trucking at the end of '98, a time when fuel only cost about a dollar a gallon. I'd say I averaged 150,000 to 170,000 miles a year and spent about 30 to 35k a year on fuel. With todays prices 3 times that I cannot imagine how you could make a living as an owner/operator.

[Xargos]

Long nose rigs are great for the highway, but I found them difficult in the city.

[oy1crazyace]

from what i hear, the pay was good, back in the 70's during the smokey and the bandit times, but thats before they deregulated trucking, and from what i hear it all went down hill from there, there are a lot of truckers working over time because they need to feed their family's at home, especially on the west coast.

[rpm]

The pay is still good. New drivers make .28 to .35 cents a mile solo including bonuses. Teams split up to .60 cents a mile including bonus. You have to be careful to read the fine print of any "guaranteed" milage.

It's the cost of living on the road that will eat you up. Unless you set up a kitchen in the truck meals will kill you. It's like trying to live out of Denny's and a 7/11.

It's a lot easier to do now with the big sleepers and all the improvements they have made. There's plenty of appliances made for trucks now including refridgerators, microwaves, broadband connections and satelite tv. There's a reason they call them them "condos".

The job you want to look for is driving regional. It's pretty easy to find if you live east of the Mississippi river. The midwest isn't bad, but try to avoid the "Devil's Triangle" of running Chicago, Atlanta, New York. It will beat you down very quickly.

My favorite was driving the West Coast. I love the mountains and the scenery. The East Coast was more of a grind. Toll roads, toll bridges, bad highway, traffic, bad drivers, tight spaces, low bridges, rude locals, more cops, you name it, the East Coast is a PITA driving a truck unless you live there.

Out west the roads are somewhat better overall and the cops are a bit easier to deal with because the weigh stations are farther apart. There's more space to park and it's friendlier overall to truckers. Don't get me wrong, you can still get your tail in a crack very easy. The mountains are not as steep at those back east, but the grade runs much further. It's a LONG way to the bottom of Cabbage Patch, Truckee, Tehachepe, The Grapevine and Cajone. That's not even including the steep ones off the Interstate if you have to dodge the scales.

If you have any doubt about the dedication of the cops out west, just roll into a California scalehouse with a leaky truck and bad logs. It's an experience you will not soon forget.

As far as comfort and glamour go, watch a few episodes of "Trick My Truck" on CMT. There are far more trucks running down the road in "before" condition than "after".

[VWE]

Tolls, yeah they stink... the GW going north in NY. is 5 bucks an axle... I used to make sure I was in the far right lane and gave em a $100.
They'd have to write down your plate number, run across six lanes of traffic to veryify it was legal, then run back across those 6 lanes to give you your change... oh, don't get me started on tolls...