I didn't want a new truck this way!

[jmowreader]

Long story short: on Thursday morning, I pulled over to the side of the road. When I tried to pull back onto the roadway, the truck rolled backward, the back corner of the tractor poked its way out into the lane. I put out triangles. Later I got out and checked them. While I was doing that, someone in another semi hit the corner of the tractor going 60mph and bent the living shit out of the frame.

Fortunately I was 200 feet away from it when it happened. As the guy roared past in my lane, I thought to myself, "this is not happening."

My dispatcher is finding me another truck right now.

[kimi]

1. Well that was too darn close

Glad you're alright.

[Haole Girl]

2. Wow, be careful out there!

Was this in Texas? Did I know warn you about drivers in Texas?! ;-)

[jmowreader]

3. This was in Wisconsin

Get your map and find the I-90/I-94 junction. Between the eastern and western ends of that interchange--it's a couple miles long--is, on the westbound side, a 1.5-mile-long straight stretch. A half-mile from the western end of the stretch is where I was when I got hit.

I tell ya what, if you want to gain a LOT of new friends REAL quick, go out in a truck that quits running then gets totaled. I got calls from operations, breakdown, accident hotline, safety department, risk management...so far I haven't gotten one from the CEO but I'm sure that's coming. I've been saying this truck was going to die for a while now. The first question they all have is, of course, "are you all right? Are you sure you're all right?" Well yeah, if you're standing well away from the truck you're going to be at least physically all right. Mentally is another story. I'm still sitting here in shock thinking "how in hell could this have happened?" Our equipment is white. It sticks out like a sore thumb. I walked 500 feet away from it--this happened at 2:45am--and could read every word on the trailer by the light of the moon. The insurance adjuster can't figure out how it happened. The cops can't figure it out. The truck was passed by at least fifty other trucks.

I'm really kinda glad this happened this way--I figured one of five things was going to happen when the truck finally quit for good. I figured I'd either throw a rod while crossing a railroad track and have to run for my life; I'd break down in the path of oncoming traffic and die in the collision; someone would ass-end the trailer and we'd lose a load (we have cargo insurance but try to explain to a customer their load is gone); I'd break down in a bad neighborhood and get murdered; or I'd freeze to death in the cab. Instead, I got ass-ended in the tractor while I was out of it. The crash isn't going to cost us much because we can part out the truck--it's got a decent Cummins ISX block that can be overhauled, it's got good fuel tanks, good front end, actually quite a few serviceable parts. (The mattress is another story. It is in perfect shape but there's about an eighth of an inch of foam between the ticking and the springs. They should put this mattress in Charles Manson's cell.) I got picked up before I could really get cold-soaked. The company got me a bus ticket home until Monday, when I get out of here to go get another truck. They are taking really good care of me.

[Haole Girl]

4. Considering the other options...

I guess what happened isn't as bad. But, still!
:scared:

Hope your new truck is in much better condition

and has a much more comfortable mattress!! :hug:

[Mopar151]

5. That's why the make "glider kits"

Tell your bosses you should have an APU (like RigMaster) - even WalMart spec them onto their trucks - saves about a gallon of fuel per hour of idle time. See if you can find a "memory foam" sleeper mattress. Even an "egg crate" mattress topper will help.

[jmowreader]

8. If it's a NEW truck, I don't have to tell him that

We are buying a lot of new trucks these days, and when they show up in one of the either three or four yards that receive new trucks (not sure if our Louisiana yard receives new trucks; I know our two Arkansas yards and our Ohio yard do) it is automatically fitted with a ThermoKing TriPac APU--which is the one you want because it works best. And we're trading in all the really old trucks. I figure that once all the 9400i's are out of the system, and they get all the new trucks fitted with APUs, they'll start putting them on the ProStars and Kenworths they bought in 2007 and early 2008 before we embraced APUs. By this time next year, our fleet should have them on all the trucks. Hopefully someone will make Spartanburg get rid of all their bad mattresses--guys who get trucks from West Memphis and Vandalia get really good mattresses. 'Course, Spartanburg has an excuse--the only reason they ever have a truck to issue is it blew up in the Carolinas and got towed there. (This happened to the one I had--the factory engine died and they put the engine out of a wreck in it.)

As for Walmart...they run a first-class trucking operation. They've got maintenance shops at all their distribution centers. They've got APUs on EVERY truck they have, including the old beaters they're about ready to get rid of. I would say Walmart is one of the best fleets in America, if not THE best. Parts don't fall off their rigs.

[Mopar151]

10. If that's the way they work, go cat go!

Walmart may be rotten bastards - but they are long term cheap. It's all about cost per mile - and fiascos like you just went through ain't cheap.

[hippywife]

6. Thank goodness you're okay.

People have no idea what a dangerous job that can be and is. If they did, they'd give those rigs the room they require.

Stay safe out there! :hi:

[Tobin S.]

7. I'm glad you are ok

That's why I always move over for vehicles on the shoulder if I can safely do so. People have been killed in accidents like the one you just had.

[jmowreader]

9. If it would have happened a couple minutes earlier, that's a possibility

I was laying on the bunk in my sleeper watching a movie. I decided to get out to check the triangles; a lot of trucks had gone past, and I thought maybe one would get blown over. While I was out doing this, the truck got hit.

It is at this time that an evangelical would tell me, "God was watching out for you; he told you to get out of the truck right then." If so, why didn't God tell the other driver to move into the left lane?

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. What was the problem that put you on the shoulder in the first place?

I'm sorry if I've missed the explanation about what's happening with the truck you are driving, but what was it that caused you to pull over? Is it having fuel problems?

You are a very lucky person, as you mentioned above, having been in the sleeper only moments before it's a damned good thing you weren't in there when your truck got whacked.

Here's hoping they give you a brand new unit. Nothing like that new truck smell!

[jmowreader]

13. The transmission went out

This truck has, or more specifically HAD, an Eaton UltraShift automatic transmission in it. I pulled over to read my Qualcomm. Normally that's no big deal: pull over, stop, read the message, crank the wheel hard left, step on the gas and release the brake. The truck will go down the road. Unfortunately, this time the clutch refused to engage and the truck rolled backwards; with the wheel cranked to the left the back of the tractor went left--right into the right-hand lane.

Unless the truck won't work, pulling over at night is less dangerous than going through an intersection during the day; you can see headlights in your mirror from quite a ways away.

And yes, I really want a new truck. I will accept a used International ProStar or Kenworth T660 but I think I'd have a real problem, at least mentally, with getting another one of what I had--there would always be the "this truck's three years old at least, what is going to break now?" thing going on.

[Kali]

12. Holee sheep shit!

Wow :wow: :scared:

has you heart slowed down yet?