The Valve Adjustment

Trucks break down when they aren't cared for.  One of the yearly mandatory services that you must perform on a truck is the overhead valve adjustment.  This isn't as difficult as you may think.  Over 20 years ago I started adjusting valves on Chevy engines and to this day these diesel engines are practically the same.

There are a few differences.  On the 350 Chevy engine, all you do is remove the valve cover, run the engine at idle and release the valves until they start clacking, then tighten them down a 1/2 turn.

My engine is a 60 series Detroit Diesel and all you have to do is remove the valve cover with the engine off, turn the crank shaft to top dead center for each set of valves and then set the intake with a feeler gauge followed by the exhaust valves.  Tighten the valves with the lock nut and they are adjusted.  Then just clean the valve cover, replace the valve cover gasket and then install the valve cover.

Most shops charge $500.00 for this service, but a good shop will include a blow-by test and a dyno of the engine, plus checking the charge air cooler for leaks.  Sometimes you can catch the shop when they are having a sale, but if you don't have time, and you have a spare valve cover gasket laying around, you can do it yourself.  It really isn't that difficult.

Tire Patch

This is a picture of a tire on my trailer.  Notice the white dirt on the tread.  This is a very simple way of detecting where the tire touches the road.  This tire is getting the maximum tread on the road, which is what I want.  This is called the tire patch.  The more inflated these wide base tires are, the smaller the tire patch and the less traction you get. 

With a smaller tire patch you also get more miles per gallon because there is less rolling resistance, but the tire will wear out faster and it is very unsafe in wet or slippery conditions.

In the absence of white dirt, many things can be used.  You can even use chalk by drawing a line across the tire in several places and seeing where the chalk has been worn away after driving around the parking lot. 

The tire patch will change depending on how much weight you have on your trailer.  There are several ways to manage your tires.  Tire pressure is the number one reason for tire failure.  In addition to that, tire punctures are one of the main reasons for decreased tire pressure.  A great place to acquire tire punctures is the shoulder of the highway where debris accumulates over time. 

Tires are relatively important so knowing the most you can about how they play a roll literally, can help you greatly improve your bottom line.

Keeping Track

Here is a mobile platform which is capable of lifting thousands of pounds up to 40 feet high.  It broke down so they needed it moved elsewhere to be fixed.  

This tracked vehicle is controlled by a handheld wired control and is completely self contained with an engine and hydraulics.

 This is a direct tie down method which only yields 1/2 Working Load limit as the chain goes from the trailer through the tie down point back to the same side of the trailer.  Four 5/16" chains were used yielding 9400 lbs. of total tie down force.  The chains' main purpose is prevent sideways,forward, or backward movement.  Alone, they weren't enough to legally secure the vehicle so straps were used in addition to the chains, but I had put the camera away at that point so they aren't pictured here.

 The snap binders were used although ratchet binders would have been better here.  The snap binder ended up resting against the trailer rub rail.  4 inches of overhanging securement devices is allowed legally.  The snap binder was secured with a small twist link chain that has a spring clip attached to it. 

 The chains are supposed to be wrapped around the stake pockets instead of hooked directly to the trailer, but since this was a prototype trailer, the manufacturer neglected to share this information with me and after doing this load I learned the correct way to attach the chains.  Thanks to MacGyver for sharing this knowledge with me.  

It never fails that no matter how much you think you know, you never stop learning and things never stop changing.  Combine this with the technology that is being invented every day, and you have a busy time ahead of you trying to keep up.  

Coils

Coils are some of the toughest types of freight to haul because of their concentrated weight in one small area on the trailer.  They pack a punch if they get loose.  There are many stories of these coils rolling through truck cabs and through vehicles after their chains and straps loosen up.  The trailer pictured here has small blocks called "turtles" that slide from front to rear and from side to side on the trailer.  Just one of these blocks can support the entire weight of the trailer. 

In addition to the chains there are also straps going over the coil.  The chains have been known to be damaged by the coils and the coils have been damaged by the chains so there is a metal chain protector in between the chains and the coil.  The chain protector has little humps on it to keep the chain centered on the protector.  These protectors were always made of steel, but there have been some made of steel and then covered in tough rubber to give both protection to the chain and to the freight.

Pictured here are snap binders which are my preferred type of binder.  The don't rust, are easy to use, and if secured properly, will last the entire trip without having to be tightened again.  Since these chains are going from one side of the trailer back to the same side, they are only getting half of the working load limit.  The straps go from one side to the other so they are getting the full working load limit.

There are three basic ways to load a coil:  Eye to the sky (the style seen on the coils to the front of the trailer), shotgun (the style of the coil towards the rear of the trailer), and suicide (where the coil is loaded so that the eye in the center of the coil is facing the sides of the trailer).  The two ways depicted here are the preferred loading styles for coils and the safest being eye to the sky.  The coils that are loaded eye to the sky style are secured using straps with strap protectors and these coils are also heavily wrapped in plastic so it is unlikely that the straps would be cut in a sudden stop.  Chains are the best method for securing all types of coils and a coil would never be secured in either eye to the sky style or suicide style without chains.

The eye to the sky or suicide coils have coil racks, dunnage (4X4 lumber) and rubber pieces between the coil and the trailer.  This gives the coil a cradle to sit in to minimize movement of the coil.  Because the coils have so much weight in such a small area, they can damage a trailer very easily.  Many flatbed trailers have a marking on the frame rail specifying where the placement of one single coil ,that is the maximum weight the trailer can handle, will sit safely.  In the case of this trailer, the maximum load for the trailer is 60,000 lbs. and there are coils that weigh that much.  I wouldn't be able to haul a coil that heavy, but if you were set up to haul one that heavy, you would want to make sure that the coil was situated perfectly.  Not only do you need to worry about the securement of the coil to prevent it from falling off the trailer in the event of an accident, but you need to make sure that the coil doesn't damage the trailer.

These coils were tarped and protected from the elements to arrive safe and sound thousands of miles away.  The metal was used in a factory to eventually become car parts. 

The Drive

When you are your own boss, you have to crack the whip on yourself.  This is a big difference from being an employee.  Since you have the freedom to work when you want to, you have to keep the wheels turning.  No one cares if you do or not because in the end it is you who will fail if you don’t stay at it.

Too many times I hear about drivers who can’t make it out here or who have lost everything and after being through some of the trials and tribulations that I have experienced in trucking, I only imagine that whatever they went through must have been worse than my problems.  What I imagine actually happens to most people in trucking is a point at which you are exhausted, dirty, lonely, poor, and then hit with a large repair bill backed up with no work and a family at home who isn’t happy that their breadwinner is gone all the time while the roof is leaking and the kids are in trouble in school.

The stress that the driver feels is enormous in these situations, but as a former mentor once told me, “the hard road is the right road”.  I know that the hard road is a huge pain in the ass, but as long as there is light at the end of the tunnel, you have to keep going down the tunnel.  Even if it stinks and is painful.  Too many times the load will require extra work that you weren’t told about or what the customer wants is unrealistic and will result in damage to your equipment costing you money and precious time.

You have to keep your eyes on the prize and proceed to your goal.  In previous posts I have mentioned that having realistic goals is important, they serve a purpose when the times get tough, because you have to keep heading towards the goal.  You might get knocked down.  You might get the crap kicked out of you, but you have to keep moving.  You can take a break and recuperate from time to time and you can use some of the money you have earned to treat your loved ones to a good time, but you are responsible for the business and only you will make it succeed. 

When you have developed a system that works for you and consistently has you making money and keeping it (and these jobs are out here by the thousands), you will find a way to lessen your exposure to pitfalls and start to regulate your work and down time.  The tough thing is walking away from a very relaxing time off with friends and family only to get behind the wheel and hit the road again.  It can help sometimes when you are fully caught up on your rest and relaxation and are ready to hit the road.  This is when you know that you are in the right place. 

As long as the wheels are turning and freight is on the deck for a decent rate, things are going well.  Most of us owners are driving, eating, sleeping, loading, unloading, fueling, cleaning, or doing maintenance.  Then add to that a wife, kids, mortgage, house maintenance, and health care, and you have yourself a full life with little time for yourself.  As long as you keep pressing on towards your goals, you are the most likely to succeed.  It isn’t a guarantee, but it is the right road to take.

Keep Your Eye On Your Own Pocket

I like to see the fancy custom trucks on the road with the paint jobs that match the trailer frame and the truck frame along with custom stainless steel and chrome.  I like to hear stories about the people in the business that are doing well and there are plenty of those stories out there if you know where to look.  What I don’t like is to try to look into other people’s pockets.

You will never really know what another person has unless you are an accountant or a banker and then you only know what you are being told to a certain degree.  Just because the truck is fancy and brand new, doesn't mean that they are doing well.  It means that they somehow or another acquired it with special financing, or a special deal with a bank, or maybe, just maybe, they are fortunate enough to own it outright because of their situation, but it doesn't mean that they are doing great in trucking.

On the other hand, if the truck is a piece of junk it doesn't mean that they are doing poorly either.  This is true everywhere, not just trucking.  However, when you are deciding on which path to take with your business, you have to look at your environment and decide which route to take for a better future.  In doing so, you have to talk to other drivers and look at where the country or business is headed.  For instance, when Burlington Northern Railroad was taken over by Berkshire Hathaway, they turned a failing business model around with their multi-million dollar war chest.  Berkshire Hathaway raised overpasses nationally that trains went under and were able to double the amount of freight capacity for the rail so that the ports could start putting everything on the rail instead of trucks.

At the same time, the Green Port initiative was started in California to reduce air pollutants.  Combine these two factors and you have a scenario which put many truckers out of business because they were dependent on the port for their livelihoods.

It is all relative.  So when you look around at the environment and see who and what is doing well or not doing so well, you can get a better picture of where to take your business.  And you need to know what business is going to work for you.  Just because someone is making money moving one type of freight, doesn't mean that they will do well moving something else and just because they have a nice truck doesn't mean that if you were in their shoes, with your financial situation, that you would be able to do the same thing that they are doing.

All you can do is make your business work for you and keep your eyes away from other people’s pocketbooks.  Craft a business model that makes you profitable based on what you have access to and go from there.  If you don’t have access to the best freight around, then get access to what you can and see if you can make money doing it.  Then build from there. 

Read The Pump

While fueling at a Love's truck stop in Joseph City, AZ I happened to see this warning label near the pump.

Looking closer I see the label states:  if you are fueling a vehicle with 3 or more axles, you will be faced with a minimum $1000.00 fine if you use this pump.  My truck has 3 axles.  

After seeing this, I snapped a couple of pictures and walked by all of the truck island fuel pumps to notice the same sticker on every fuel pump.  After asking the fuel desk attendant about the sticker and seeing their confused look, I talked to a manager.  He explained to me that the maintenance guy put the wrong stickers on the pumps.  On ALL of the pumps.  Wow!  I could understand a couple of pumps, but ALL of them?  I should hand him some stickers that say "Free fuel on Wednesdays".  I wonder if anyone has called the phone number at the bottom of the pump.  Needless to say, I fueled without paying the fine.