I've been hearing thats a problem lately. Glad you were on top of it 😆

 

Getting up at midnight out the door by 1am and not back in the door till 3 or 4pm is killing me.
I get my work orders between 5pm & 7pm I try closer to 5 this way I can get a little shut eye.
Most nights I don't have dinner, a slice of meat & Cheese when making my breakfast and lunch to take with me to work.
Only 3 more years of this if I can last that long and I get to retire..
Dave ----

 

Wow that makes for a long day, and day after day in turn makes for a long week. And week after week I can understand you feeling burned out. I'm assuming this continues through the winter?

 

she said yes yall.

 

Mary Christmas everyone

Yes it will, kind of starts in Oct with tobacco and chicken farms and now with home heating / cooking.
Our Governor has lifted the HOS (hours of service) till mid night 2 - 28 - 2022 so we can run as many hours of driving with in the state as a driver feels safe doing. This is for gas only not cement that I also pull, so have to keep eye on my hours and what I am pulling.
DOT says we can only drive 11 hours with in a 14 hour day and need to take a 30 min. brake with in the first 8 hours.
Take it to soon and you need to take a 2nd brake, so every 8 hours of work(driving or not / on the clock time) a brake for 30 mins.

Dispatch will always push you to the limits to get the loads covered.
Dispatch sent an email out Friday after noon that if we did not get loads for Saturday (xmas) or Sunday we would hear from them on Sunday evening for Monday loads.

I got to tell you the pipe line we load at in at in Apex has been pretty busy so far with a wait time of 5 to 15 mins. before you can load, they have 6 lanes to load. The longest I have had to wait in the past is 3 hours before I could load.
That is because they have what is called a "red light" where they run low on gas and they shut down till they get some more and start back up again.
It takes about 1 hour to load a truck and 1 hour to refill the local tanks to load the next set of 6 trucks and after all that you need to make your runs.

So far this year I have not had a "red light" but one of our drives said he had one the other day.
Maybe its because I start so early and there are only 4 or 5 of us loading at that time?

I hear they are sending driver out west next week, think to CO?, for a month. I am happy I cant leave the state LOL
Dave ----

 

Congratulations!!

 

Dave I saw you yesterday, we passed by on 210 on our way to have Christmas dinner at my sister in law's in Holly Springs. You had the red & white F100 pulled up to the shop with the hood open so I know you were tinkering with something. I don't know if you had any problem, but where we live power went out for a little while. As windy as it was, they said a tree blew down on a power line. We are doing Christmas with our kids and grandkids today (Sunday) as we couldn't make the schedule work with all 3 for Christmas day.

 

Yeah the winds been nuts last 2 nights. Christmas eve/day i was out in the middle of the night pulling tarps off the wood for the shed because the winds were popping the tie down lines and flinging the cinderblock anchors around like they were nothing. Was afraid they were gonna go through a window if i didnt since it was all on the back deck.

 

I saw some people have siding come off the sides of their houses yesterday. Kinda crazy

 

Dont know how I missed this Congratulations
Dave ----

 

I was a little shocked how windy it was as the news I dont think said anything about it.
No we did not lose power, it may have flicked once or twice but that it.

Being I did not have to work, was not too tired and my son was around to help me I was plotting the timing curve on the motor as I have been fighting a bad pinging problem. I have been running around with the vacuum advance disconnected as it would ping even worst with it hooked up.

I was also checking where the oil leak was coming from. Used a can of brake clean on the top front of the motor.
Took the paint off but did a good job cleaning it. Found the top of the timing cover gasket is leaking and the bolts are tight.

I ordered the gasket set, dist. springs and a vacuum advance unit for the truck. I think the advance unit is for a light weight car and why I got one for the truck.
All should be in Wend. was thinking I could do the gasket next weekend then remembered the show Saturday. Have to see if I can start it Friday and have it done for the show or start it after the show and finish up Sunday. We will see.
Once the leak is fixed I can de-grease the under side of the truck as it is a mess!

I can then change the oil & filter, air filter & breather, PVC, and gas filters as some of it has been in since the trucks been on the road, 17,000 miles so far in 2 years.

I then need to pull the dist. out so I can pull it apart and change out the mechanical advance springs, timing is coming in too early at 1500 RPM need it up to 1700 or little more. Change out the vacuum can and install the dist. for more timing curve plotting & testing.

A project is never done!
Dave ----

 

Good thing you got to it before any damage was done.

I have not gone anywhere other than around the block this morning for a road test to the parts store and everything looked normal here.
Dave ----

 

That's a very ambitious list to tackle! I'm not very familiar with the 300-I6, what all needs to come off to replace the timing cover gasket? Water pump, fan, all brackets for alternator & AC, etc?

I know it's still too far out to expect an accurate forecast, but currently it is saying Saturday will be 77 degrees and raining. If the rain forecast goes away I will definitely be ready to go to MoJo's. I will send an email to see if I can get some of the other guys interested as well.

 

ty ty we make each other happy.

 

The book has you draining and pulling the radiator but I am not sure the water pump is on the timing cover but I also have not looked that close at it yet.

I did get the parts yesterday and was looking to maybe start the job when I got home from work but the day turned to crap when the first drop in Oxford could not hold the load so the sent me to the second drop in Weldon with it..
thing is paperwork dose not match anything now so that has to go to the office for them to straighten out..
And I still have to dothe Oxford load yet..
Started all this at 1am and pumping off the first load now in Weldon.
Dave ----