Moresmoke

BTDT, when I realized I could get around Chicago without a map, figured something needed to change.

Now seriously, it can be a decent career. You just need to make good choices. Like many other jobs, it’s crap starting out and paying your dues. Once you spend 5 years or so with a carrier that provides training, you can make moves to improve your career. Once you have some time in, there are good opportunities that pay hourly and you are not living in a tin can at a truck stop. You just need to figure out what you want to do. Myself, if I were to go back to driving, I would look for a tank or dry bulk trailer to pull. Even if you have to unload yourself, hook up a hose and away it goes.

I was lucky that I learned to drive on the farm and OTR through the school of hard knocks. Didn’t have to spend time “training”. It was too much time on the road for us with a family, but that said, in my current job I travel about 50% of the time anyway. Have a 16 yr old son here that thinks he wants to drive for a living. I’m not discouraging him. There are many worse choices.

Makes a big difference if you are talking about a late model truck or something from the 90’s.

Many more airlines on the newer ones. But generally it is the ptc fittings that leak. Some can be replaced with compression fittings, some cannot.

2 hours ago, Wrknrvr said:

  If I remember correctly they are not DOT approved fittings.

 

  There should be info in the resource guide for such info.

Compression fittings are available in both DOT and non-DOT types.  The DOT compression fittings have longer ferrules and have the internal anti crush sleeve built in.

The Prostar will be cheap.

Properly set up, a TT like you describe should pull just fine behind any 3/4-1 ton SRW. You will need to have a good weight distributing hitch, with sway control. The Reese dual cam is a proven performer as well as the prior mentioned Hensley and ProPride hitches. Down side to the latter two is somewhat more involved hitching, and the price.

I’m one of the oddballs on here that pulls a 26’ TT with an HDT. The trailer I have tows horribly. That said, I have pulled similar sized but better designed trailers that were just fine. My trailer is light enough I have no need for weight distribution on my F350, but absolutely need sway control.  Even going so far as building an adaptation of the Hensley hitch for my needs. This helped, but windy days were still uncomfortable. Unfortunately I live on the prairie, and if I have to wait for no wind to go camping, I might as well sell the trailer.

All that said, I have to believe that a trailer like the Arctic Fox mentioned has a better design than my bottom of the barrel Keystone.

Remnant of White’s short lived romance with Freightliner. Most likely had a Cummins in it. Cat was possible, but not overly common in Whites. It would have to be one of the last White cabovers made to possibly have a series 60 Detroit in it, late 80’s.

Of course who knows what it has for power these days.

One thing I will add ( in case it becomes relevant again), I keep a copy of my Jeep registration in the truck. I have been asked for proof of ownership when crossing the border in the past.

Regular width tubeless truck tires are easy. Wide base are more challenging.

19.5s are @&$:”-$@&.

As a note on the original topic, the pin seizeing the clevis to the slack adjuster will cause the same issue.

I like shifting myself. But sometimes compromises need to be made to gain the blessing of the CFO. So I ended up with an Ishift.  

My take on it is that any rookie can drive it, and anybody driving it looks like a rookie. It is nice in stop and go traffic/lights, but on the open road and even more so in the yard, I would much prefer a manual. I did buy up and install the premium shifter, at least solves the yard issue.

If the plate is still loose or better yet you don’t have it yet, find a shop with a laser table. When I hire parts cut, it typically doesn’t cost much more than the steel costs me.

If it is already part of the bed, take your hole saw and cut a hole through a piece of 3/4 plywood. Clamp the plywood to the plate and you will have a guide to hold the saw in the right spot.

Not supposed to, but it may depending on the primer pump you have. If it is the type of pump that screws in tight when you are done pumping it is not an issue as it will seal itself when tightened. If not, then it will leak continually.

20 hours ago, podwerkz said:

When you put singles on an axle that was not designed to use them, you end up with about 4 inch narrower wheel track. Which slightly reduces stability, especially noticeable on curving roads or in heavy broadside wind conditions.

You might be able to find offset wheels that will make up for this...I have no information on that option.

Just so you know about this up front.

 

The flip side is when you put duals on a wide track axle that came with singles, your truck is now 102 wide.

And unless you have really good fenders, you will have mud on your mirrors.

Myself, I would save up some coin if possible and do it all at once. The ride between the two is very different.

That said, shop the used market. Used wide base rims are basically worth the price of scrap aluminum. At least here in the mid west. I sold a set of 4 last year for what the half used tires were worth, guy got the rims free. Neither him nor I wanted the rims. He said he had a bunch of rims from buying used tires to put on his working truck.

Traveling through MT today and thought I would post an update…

According to the signs along the highway, anyone traveling with a kayak or larger must stop for mandatory watercraft inspection.

Just thought y’all might want to know. Safe travels.

Most of the weigh stations in SD are marked “RVs excluded”, although the fancy light up sign comes on. The weight station on I29 North of Sioux City does not have the exclusion sign, I’ve never pulled in though.

For what it’s worth, my empty one ton triggers the SD signs.

I highly doubt you will have any trouble with ND. The only two weigh stations used regularly are I94 west bound from Fargo, and I29 near Wahpeton. Most of their time is spent on mobile patrols.

I would be more concerned about MN in this area, they are the anything 10000 lbs plus type. For what its worth, I have never pulled in with the RV and they have never responded.

11 hours ago, dennisvr said:

I don't know about Volvos, because I haven't had to work on the trailer lights on my truck.  But I had a fleet of KWs back in the day and they ran a separate circuit for the stop lights for the trailer.  The tractor stop lights worked but no trailer stop lights.  Had to call KW and found they had a 40a inline fuse tucked in a harness behind the alternator, strange place to put a fuse. 

I suggested checking the trailer cord because sometimes you can narrow down which end of the circuit is not working.

Black should be the marker, red the turn/stop. With the power coming from the LCM, you really need to have the bulb connected to get good readings. The power is switched by semi conductors, so you can get some weird readings with no load on the circuit.

Have you checked for power on the trailer cord? The trailer lights are switched by a relay box under the hood by the steering shaft.

1 hour ago, rickeieio said:

4 way, turn and brake are one filament, run/marker is the other.  Either you have a bad ground, or someone's fiddled with your wiring.  I'm betting on the former.  Try running a wire from battery negative to the bulb base.

What he said ^^^^
 

At least on my truck the LCM is very obnoxious and informative if something is not working right. And yes it should reset with a power off. 

Cleaning connections, especially grounds is not a bad thing. Now I am not saying this to cause extra headache, and my Volvo experience is limited, but from my experience with off highway equipment, com system errors are quite often a single controller going bad.

Think of it this way, the canbus is very much like an old party line telephone. What happens is old lady Edna gets liquored up and is ranting gibberish into her phone. Nobody else can do anything on that line because she won’t cut them a break. Now every once in a while she makes a little bit of sense, but nothing useful in context.

My small local bank was happy to write me a loan. Probably not quite the lowest interest rate, but reasonable.

Just had to give the VP a tour after I was done setting it up…

There are two types of fan drive. Clutch and viscous. The clutch style is on/off. The viscous style is variable speed. With a clutch fan, you WILL notice when the fan kicks in. The viscous you may not as it will slowly ramp up.

It is not unusual for modern diesels to run as hot as 220-230F. Don’t overthink this, if it gets too hot, you will know. The dash will look like Christmas. Fluctuation of the temp is normal, especially when it is hot outside.

The transmission temp and A/C also have control of the fan, so it is not just the engine in the mix.

Last week, I was running in mid 90s temps and the fan was regularly cycling. Never paid attention to the temp, just let it do its thing.

The Maxxforce engine that is in many of those cheap prostars nearly bankrupted Navistar, and it did bankrupt several fleets.

If you can find a pro star with a Cummins, that would be an acceptable gamble.

15 hours ago, rickeieio said:

Well, ya know Vern does stretch the "rules" to fit his needs.  Seems to me that 'bout 10-12 years ago, he was told that running just the outside tires would overload his hub bearings on his drives.........

Are the bearing loads equal?  Nope.  Are they within design limits? Apparently.

Bearing design limits.... I know a guy that made his money hauling potatoes, he never had a problem with bearings. He did go through quite a few axle housings though. So I would say there is a fair amount of safety factor in the bearing design.

I have what looks to be the same tires as the Radar under a couple different names. They came with a set of rims I bought to switch away from X-ones.

Traction is fine, haven’t had any issues, I don’t do hard core off road, but do see a fair amount of grass/soft ground uneven terrain.

Fuel mileage did take a big hit from the Xones though. Some of it may be from being in places I can have a heavier foot, but I struggle to be much above 7 mpg with these tires.