Talkin' Truck - Part II - Good Ole Number 6

On January 16th, we were seated in our sixth truck in just over 14 months. You'd think by now our company would have realized we're hard on these things, but they keep giving us more.

Our move from the first to the second truck doesn't really count. Number One was an '07 Volvo that Beth had been driving with her partner for six months and then by herself for another three months before I joined her. It had nearly 300,000 miles on it when I arrived, so in November 2008, after our first week together, they gave us a brand new vehicle. They like teams to drive the newer equipment because we can literally run the truck 22 hours a day when we're very busy, and they want us in the trucks that are still under warranty. (Hmmmm, maybe there's more to it than that.)

Truck Number Two was an '09 Freightliner Cascadia (Condo Class), and had eight miles on it when we got it. It didn't have quite as much room in it as the Volvo, but it was brand new, had some cool new bells and whistles, and a bit more power. We were pretty comfortable in it and in just over three months we put 45,000 miles on it. Then, in late February of '09, in southern Virginia in the middle of the night, Beth smacked a deer - maybe two - we're not entirely sure. The hit caved in the radiator, and by the time we got out to look at the damage, all of the fluids had run out onto the ground. Fortunately we were only a couple of miles from a major truck stop, so we limped in. They put us up in a motel in Kingsville, TN, for two days before deciding it was going to take a couple of weeks to fix the truck. So, instead of making us wait for the repair, they gave us truck Number Three.

Number Three was an '09 "Pete," as Peterbilts are known in the industry. The Pete already had 47,000 miles on it and it was one noisy truck - very powerful, but very noisy. Between the engine noise filtering into the cab, and the shrill whistle that was produced from the driver's side mirror at speeds above about 50mph, the machine was not nearly as much fun to drive, and it was also a step down in terms of interior room and storage space. It took me almost a week before I figured out where the whistle was coming from, and another couple of days to figure out that putting a strip of Scotch Tape all the way around the outside of the mirror would solve the problem. If I hadn't found and cured the whistle, it surely would have rendered us mentally unstable. 

We had that truck for about three and a half months when the company decided it was going to use the '09 Petes for their lease program - which was fine with us because two days before we moved into a new truck the air conditioning went out in the Pete in southern Georgia, and we were already looking for a place to get it fixed. Timing is everything. So they took it away from us in mid-June after about 55,000 miles, and gave us Number Four.

Number Four was an '09 International with 28 miles on it when we started. It too was another step down in interior space and storage, but it was a nice compromise on the engine. It wasn't quite as powerful as the Pete, but had more guts than the others. I liked the truck a lot; it was perhaps my favorite so far. Beth, however, perfers the trucks with more space. It was pretty user-friendly, like the Cascadias, and it also had curtains that went around the inside front of the tractor (see photo above) by the side windows and windshield, which provided a great deal more private room when they were closed. And, it had a driver's seat that swiveled to face the passenger seat. So, when we would get stuck overnight somewhere, we could get pretty comfortable.


Unfortunately for the International, one night in June last year, while Beth was backing into a parking spot at a truck stop in upstate NY, we were viciously and deliberately attacked by a four foot high yellow cement pole. It was merciless; no pity, no heart, no soul. And, once again, they decided it was going to take a couple of weeks to fix the truck. Soooo, we rented a car and drove home.  At the end of home time, we were sent to pick up Number Five in New Jersey.

Number Five was another '09 Cascadia. It already had just over 150,000 miles, and was something of a mis-adventure from the very beginning. We picked it up at a Freightliner service place in New Jersey, drove it over to where our old truck was and moved from Number Four into Number five in the body shop of a Mack/Frieghtliner/Volvo repair place. Then, they asked us to do a "truck recovery." That happens when somebody leaves a truck out in the middle of nowhere and just quits (or maybe dies or wins the lottery or something), and they ask a team to split up for a couple of days to bring the truck back to a terminal. So, I jumped into good ole Number Five and Beth drove the recovered truck (an '08 Pete that had seen better days) for two days until we connected again at Springfield, Ohio.


My first night in Number Five was also my first night solo - a weird experience onto itself. They sent me to a suburb of Baltimore to a Seagrams facility. So far so good. I picked up a trailer loaded with over forty-thousand pounds of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, which is something like 5,000 gallons. I figured if I hijacked my own truck, I (along with several dozen of my closest friends) could stay stupid drunk for the next 62 years. However, as I was getting ready to leave the place, I realized I had locked the only key to my new tractor inside - on a Friday night at 11 o'clock. My guess is that I cost the company about $150 dollars that night just to get back into my vehicle. 

It went downhill from there. That truck never seem to fit us very well, and it had some issues. The steering wheel was crooked, and the windshield had been replaced badly at some point. The cupboard doors didn't work right, the gas gauge worked when it felt like it, and it too managed to find a deer in its headlights in southern Oregon, only this time with me driving. There were three deer on the road; two of them got away. The hit took a chunk out of the grill, badly damage the whole right side of the bumper and snapped the right side hood lock. After we picked up a crack in the windshield in a completely unrelated incident, the tractor was looking pretty "ghetto." When we finally got out of the truck for the last time two weeks ago, I think both Beth and I and the truck breathed a sigh of relief.


You know, I never really bonded with that truck. 

So, now we are into Good Ole Number 6. An '09 Cascadia (again), with only a couple of minor issues. So far we like this truck a lot - much like the first Cascadia we had. We've had it now just over a week, and it's in the shop getting a few minor things done while we have a couple of days off. Six trucks in just over 14 months, that's a little over 2 months per truck. The guy that trained me had been with the company just over 5 years and he was on his second truck.

There's a pattern here somewhere - I'm just not quite sure how to read it. One of these days we'll actually get to keep a truck long enough for it to get old. It's bound to happen - I just keep thinking about what that great philosopher, Yogi Berra, had to say ...  "Things that can't possibly go on forever usually don't."