website news :

March 7, 2009 - The live dash cam will be returning, but not in the previous capacity. More information to follow.
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March 7 , 2009 - Blogger will be shutting down their ability to update our site using their blog software and sending it via their FTP tools. This basically means we can use blogger but we have to use their hosting... which defeats the purpose of having our own domain.. So, over the next few weeks I will be working on migrating the site back to Greymatter, which will be used as our primary blogging software again. I have considered wordpress but after looking at the files I don't have time to learn PHP, so this is the easiest. Blogger will continue to be used until May 1, 2010, when blogger intends to shut down FTP access. Further info to follow.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
subject: Taylor, MI

Home time always makes me a little bit sad to head back out onto the road. On the one hand we absolutely love our jobs, but who wouldn't miss the daily hot showers without rubber shoes, home cooked meals, and a bed that didn't jostle you around and threaten to roll you out of it if you weren't strapped in?


We spent Friday evening mostly relaxing. Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took the bikes out. Mom and dad each have one so mom rode with dad and Daryl and I rode together on mom's.











We had the best time! We got to ride down to Lake St. Clair where we got to see the Edsel Ford House, which is now a museum: http://www.fordhouse.org/ . We didn't get the opportunity to go inside but the outside was still pretty neat. We also drooled over some of the other 'Michigan Elite' houses in the Grosse Pointe Shores area.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent relaxing, enjoying mom and dads company, taking time to cook for everyone, and watching our dog become a complete traitor. He took to dad like white on rice and by the end of the weekend would barely look at Daryl and I...he's going to be sad to go too.

We received a phone call at about 2300 local on Monday night, asking if we wanted to "start the week out right" with a load that we would have to pick up at 0300 Tuesday morning. Which would mean we basically lost a day off...hmmm, how 'bout NO! Not to mention that was in 4 hours...we hadn't been to bed yet, and we didn't have a ride back with both mom and dad having work.

Dad was nice enough to take us back to the terminal at about 0900 local so we could go on the board and then waited around to take us to the grocery store so we wouldn't have to take the truck. Boy was that nice!

I shoo'd him and Daryl off to go look at the man-tronics while I raced around to get our food stuffs real quick. Daryl decided we had mourned the breakage of our last TV long enough and it was time to put old feelings aside and replace it...who am I to argue with that?

We received a load just as we were leaving and raced back to the truck to check the Qualcomm. We discovered we were going to be on our way to Fremont, Indiana. Woo hoo! Can you feel my excitement?

We are crossing our fingers that we can manage to run a few weeks incident and drama free...we'll see what happens, but fear of passing out will definitely keep me from holding my breath!

posted by Mary at 12:29
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Thursday, August 6, 2009
subject: Nashville, TX

Well, it was supposed to go to Dallas...

After taking the time to grab some groceries at Walmart, I headed off to bed, leaving Daryl to amuse himself until our pick up at 0400 local. I woke just inside Cincinnati and did my 'girl stuff' while Daryl found a quick place to stop and trade.

My day started out like any other...the weather was pretty nice. It has been raining pretty much non-stop in the part of the country for the last month. The air was muggy, the sky was overcast, and due to incessant rain and prolonged construction the roads were in crappy shape.

We were fairly heavy so the pretty rolling hills required down shifting and engine braking to negotiate. I was coming to the top of one such hill, the engine humming, my hazards flashing, when I saw a large sized pot hole on the right side of the road. I had cars passing me on my left (they get impatient when we have to climb hills) and the shoulder was barely large enough for a compact car. I slowed down even more and used the evasive maneuvering I learned in both CDL school and Boot Camp to negotiate around the pot hole but couldn't keep the trailer from hitting it.

As the trailer tires hopped out of the pot hole the trailer began to do a shimmying fishtale dance. The trailer tires refused to catch a good grip on the road where road debris and gravel was strewn about. I finally managed to gain control and get the truck safely out of traffic and onto the shoulder. Heart pounding and hands shaking, I immediately got out on the passenger side to check the trailer, the tires, and the truck in general.

The trailer obtained no damage and looked fine, I checked the air pressure of all the trailer tires and was relieved they were all normal. Further inspection of the trailer tires answered my questions as to why the tires couldn't find purchase on the gravelly shoulder, they were nearly worn smooth! As Daryl had picked the trailer up in the middle of a pitch black yard with trailers packed like sardines, he must have missed this, very easy to do.

I continued my inspection up the side of the trailer and to the tractor. Once I reached the steer tires I realized I had a problem. The outside 1/2 inch of thread on the lug nuts had been scraped...turns out I was so worried about keeping on coming traffic out of the line of my wayward trailer, I scraped the tip of the lugnuts on the bottom of the guard rail on my trip to the practically non-existant shoulder. I cursed myself for not executing a 'perfect' dismount from the highway, checked the front steer tires for any other damage and pressure and, finding nothing amiss, climbed back into the truck. I took a moment to take a few deep breathes and pulled us back onto the interstate, heading for the exit about 2 miles away where we could do a more thorough inspection and check the working condition of the tractor enroute.

I immediately noticed the steering wheel was turned a quarter turn to the left, but we were driving straight. Thinking I must have messed up the alignment when the lugnuts scraped the guardrail, I made a mental note to check all those components as well.

We pulled into an empty parking lot accross the Pilot truck stop and pulled the hood. Daryl and I both did a full pre-trip inspection and, barring the ends of the lugnuts and the tilt of the steering wheel, found nothing else wrong. For good measure he took the truck in a few circles around the parking lot to see how it felt to him and, confirming my diagnosis, we set off.

Once getting back on the interstate, I called our safety department and reported the incident. Giving them all the details from the pothole to the inspection and test drive. I told them we were clearly going to need an alignment and a front end inspection by an actual mechanic just to make sure there was no damage. We agreed the problem could probably wait until we delivered our load that night in Dallas since we did not visually see anything wrong with the front end.

Poor Daryl went back to bed and I carefully kept driving. I stopped at a rest area a about on hour later to double check the tires and front end and found no problems. As I pulled out of the rest area I started noticing the truck was pulling...but not just a regular pull. It would pull one way and then give the other...really wierd! I slowed down as going over 55 seemed to aggravate it and decided that in 10 minutes when I was out of downtown Nashville, I was going to contact our West Memphis terminal (where we were going to be refueling in about 2 hours) and see about relaying the load. Something wasn't right and I was getting more scared by the minute by the way the truck was handling! It was just getting hard to control and steer. I came around the last big curve and merging in Nashville and the world blew up!

There was a loud exploding sound and the steering wheel jerked in my hands. Luckily I had already had a death grip on it by the way it was handling. I reached down and flipped on our hazards, I blasted the air horn and checked my mirrors while I started coasting from the middle lane to the right shoulder.

I immediately turned to the side and stuck my head between my knees, taking deep breaths and trying to calm my racing heart. I thanked the multiple drivers that came over the CB with comments ranging from "Holy Shit! Great job Con-way! Good job controlling it!" and "Are you okay!". To my thanks I received several "Your a woman!" Like I didn't know this....I stuck my head out the passenger window to see that our passenger side steer tire was completely blown and shredded. Controlling a 75,000 lbs vehicle going 55 miles per hour when a steer tire blows and you lose almost all control of your steering is pretty difficult. We inspected the tire a little more and found it was so violent when it blew it broke the plastic cowlings that were both in front and behind the tires and caused the white paint on the outside of the truck to be scraped or rubbed off.





I picked up the phone and called our fleet manager which resulted in my bursting i nto tear as soon as she answered...very tough of me!

She transferred me to road service, where I explained that I thought we needed a tow. They corrected me that all we needed was a new tire and they would get someone out as soon as possible. As Daryl had already put out our triangles (he wasn't getting much sleep), I called our FM back to relay the road service information. I apologized for blubbering and she said it was okay, she had the same reaction after her nerves were frazzled and she was frustrated.

There was nothing left to do but wait, so, on the side of the interstate in down town Nashville, we watched TV on our new satellite and waited for help.

When help arrived about an hour and a half later, we got out of the truck to examine the tire and watch the Michelan Man (I love that) change it. He had us pop the hood and then called Daryl over (as he's the man and must obviously have a better understanding than I) to look at something on the drivers side. Daryl called me over and when I peered over his shoulder I had to swallow hard twice and take a deep breath to calm the sinking feeling I felt in my gut. The driver side tire was also completely bald, but only on the left half! The other half of the tire was still in its original new tread and glory as we had only had them put on a month before.



Seeing as how I had just checked the tires an hour and a half before the blow and the tread had been fine, I knew what this meant and immediately got on the phone with road service to let them know that we needed that tire changed as well and needed to get to Freightliner pronto. I waited on hold for them to answer while the tire guy explained to Daryl that the driver side tire would have blown out in a matter of seconds or minutes as well...I turned away and walked down the other side of the truck a bit, not really wanting to hear how much worse the blow out could have been or to envision what the hell I would have done if both our steer tires had blown at once!

The other line of the phone finally came alive as a road service person answered and I tried to explain the situation to him. He said the other tire should be replaced if thats what needed to be done but that we were not allowed to go to Freightliner...."I'm sorry, come again?"

According to a note posted on our screen by someone he didn't know, we didn't have time to go to Freightliner and it would have to wait until we made it to Dallas...another 650 miles away...I asked him if he was kidding and then reiterated that our brand new tires had rubbed and melted themselves raw and bald within 2 hours of driving and that we needed to get into Freightliner for an alignment and inspection and was told, "Well, an alignment problem isn't going to cause that. You probably just hit something in the road." I swear my vision started to go red. So let me get this straight....because I'm a female who is obviously rattled and doesn't know the first thing about trucks or tires...she must be shaken up and over reacting...

I explained to Daryl what was said and called our dispatch department back while he goggled at me. Our FM was out so I asked the first poor person to answer the phone who the person was that had put this note on our screen. I was told he was a customer service rep...uhuh...I politely asked if he was a mechanic and there was silence..."I just want to make sure" I said "he isn't a mechanic or a Freightliner front end suspension and tire specialist, is he?"..."Um, no...he used to be a driver, but no." "Right!" I said and hung up. I told Daryl that we would accept our suicide mission but that I was going to stop and check the tires every hour to hour and a half and if I noticed more balding or problems we were parking it, no ifs ands or buts! He agreed and decided it was probably best for him to try and get some more sleep.

An hour and 15 minutes later I was getting ready to pull into a rest area that was about 4 more miles away when it happened!

There was a thud and the truck shimmied as a repetative "bump pa bump pa bump pa" came from somewhere around the driver side. I repeated the same process as earlier, hitting my hazards and coasting to the side of the road. Daryl flung open the sleeper curtain with a, "Are you kidding me!" But I didn't really hear him amid my own curses and ranting about, "not listening to the woman...she doesn't know what she's talking about!" Sure enough we had lost a good sized portion of the tread cap on the driver side steer, exposing the inner wall...basically meaning the tire was about to blow! I checked the passenger tire and it too was already showing signs of wear and melting along the inside edge.





I immediately called road service again while Daryl sent our FM messages on our Qualcomm. I was told by road service they were checking the closest truck shop for a tire....are you kidding me right now! We need a damn tow all the way back to Nashville! I wasn't about to drive that truck any further and told the gentleman on the phone, "If I have to handle another blown steer or emergency in the middle of the freeway today I'm gonna lose it!", then pushed the phone at Daryl to handle it when he put me on hold to call the closest truck shop about a tire...no one listens to the girl!

We decided to limp the truck the last mile and a half to the exit ahead where we could await help and not be on the interstate. I drove us at 8 mph on the shoulder while Daryl talked to road service. After he explained to them the exact same thing I had...the tires were just replaced...75 miles and they are both already in bad shape....we can't drive it any further without causing damage...we need a tow to the closest Freightliner, which is in Nashville...the guy was shocked...oh my goodness thats scary, you guys need a tow!

I smacked myself in the head a couple of times out of frustration and concentrated on getting us safely to the parking lot at the next exit. Two hours later the tow truck arrived and, with instructions to relay our load at the Nashville Freightliner, we watched as he hooked up our big baby and prepared to drag her the 75 miles back to town.





As he was hooking the tow truck to the frame of our truck, he pointed out that our tie rodwas drastically bowed. Sure enough, some time since our mutual pre-trip right after the incident, the steering arm had drastically bent itself causing the tires to bow in, which was most likely the cause of the severe tire wear that lead to the blow outs.




About 60 miles into our trip back our driver (who had religiously been checking his mirrors) let out a screech and starting coasting to the shoulder...what now! I looked over his shoulder in the mirror to see rolling plumes of smoke coming out from underneath our truck! We all pile ouf of the tow truck and race toward the Cascadia. We were greeted with choking smoke and the smell of burning oil. 20 minutes of inspecting the truck couldn't answer what the heck was going on but the tow driver decided to disconnect the axle so the drive tires were freely spinning, thinking an oil leak from being tilted up had dripped onto the transmission, then moving at a high speed the heat had made the oil start to burn.

We finally made it to Freightliner in one piece and left the truck in the capable hands of the mechanics with a laundry list of things to do which now included an air leak due to the hot oil spilling out.

A hotel room was obviously on the agenda as the Freightliner was closed from midnight to 7am. We took the provided shuttle, checked in about 2100 our time and enjoyed an evening of TV and sleep.

posted by Mary at 08:21
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