"B_R_E_A_K___O_N_E_-_N_I_N_E_!"... Calling all Truckers!

[CodeTRUCKER]

I am interested in seeing how many other DCer's are full-time truck drivers.  Also, for the rest of you that have not driven a BIG TRUCK, you might wish to take this opportunity to have any questions you may have addressed.

[CodeTRUCKER]

Come on, do not be shy. "Trucker" is as respectable as "Doctor."

[mouser]

For anyone that hasn't guessed it yet, Calvin used to be known as Farmsteader before his change of profession prompted a change of nickname on the forum.

[CodeTRUCKER]

That's right I am indeed the former "Farmsteader."  <gasp, ooo, ahhh>  and I am sooooo happy to be back! 

[tinjaw]

That's right I am indeed the former "Farmsteader."  <gasp, ooo, ahhh>  and I am sooooo happy to be back! 

Hey! I know you.

[CodeTRUCKER]

Thank you, Sire.  I, too, know you.  The infamous "Metallic Mandible."

[lanux128]

For anyone that hasn't guessed it yet, Calvin used to be known as Farmsteader before his change of profession prompted a change of nickname on the forum.

ah! no wonder you sound so familiar, not to mention the large number of posts already under your belt for a new member. i should have clicked on the "posts" link.. anyway, welcome aboard, again.. Farmsteader i mean CodeTRUCKER.

[Ralf Maximus]

Also, for the rest of you that have not driven a BIG TRUCK, you might wish to take this opportunity to have any questions you may have addressed.

Is it true truckers can drink 93 octane and urinate diesel, can strip down and reassemble their rigs blind-folded, and have the entire US road atlas memorized?

Actually, I'd like to hear some amusing/scary/interesting trucker anecdotes.  Of the "you wouldn't believe the things I've seen" variety.

Got any?

[CWuestefeld]

I once drove a rig.

It was back in college, when I worked at the Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream factory (sometime when I'm not hijacking someone else's thread, I'll tell the story of the time I was buried knee-deep in pistachio ice cream). One of the jobs I held there was loading the outgoing trucks. We needed to get a now-full trailer out of the way to make room for the next one to fill. Which gets me to the time I drove an 18-wheeler.

The boss asked another worker to move the truck. I asked if I can come along. When we got to the truck, I asked the other guy if I could try moving it, and he said OK. He showed me how the shifter works, and off we went, clear over to the other side of the parking lot. I drove that truck a good hundred yards, but I don't think I ever got out of 1st gear, or turned the steering wheel at all.

BTW, what's the right terminology: rig, truck, 18-wheeler, etc.?

[BigJim]

BTW, what's the right terminology: rig, truck, 18-wheeler, etc.?

They all work. Try to avoid the likes of "killer trucks" and such, though.
As for the hundred yards ... you gotta start somewhere! 
("A trip of a thousand miles ..." and all that)

[JennyB]

Actually, I'd like to hear some amusing/scary/interesting trucker anecdotes.  Of the "you wouldn't believe the things I've seen" variety.

Got any?

IANA trucker, but back in the late 70's I used to work in a travelling circus here in Ireland. A lot of one-day shows in small towns and pulling out of muddy fields at four in the morning to drive 20 or 30 miles to the next tober. 

Mostly I rode in an ex-WW2 Scammel artillery tractor that drew the Big Top. It had no heater and no windows, and it drank from a drum of red diesel in the cab. If you unscrewed the cap when it was running you could actually see the level going down. It was so slow on the hills that one driver used to put a brick on the throttle and get out and walk. 

[BigJim]

What a fun mix of interesting people around this place!

(Jenny !  Red Diesel??? For shame on you circus peoples!) 

[tinjaw]

You know Tinjaw! He's done e v e r y t h i n g. 

When I was in the army I was with the 1st MI Bn. We were a corps asset in Wiesbaden. The unit did radio signal interception and was stationed at the only US Army Air Base because we had airplanes that flew our antennas around. Our radio equipment was in  four semi-trailers and was powered by two semi-trailers loaded with generators. I was rated to drive the M915 bobtail by myself and w/trailer as a student driver. I didn't do it often. I usually drove a Deuce & 1/2 or a 5-ton (the old style).

Oh, and I didn't call break one nine because the military doesn't use CB. But I did call CQ.

[BigJim]

But I did call CQ.

  de k5baa/ve1  -k-

[JennyB]

(Jenny !  Red Diesel??? For shame on you circus peoples!) 

Well, I was just a josser, so I didn't like to ask, but might the Scammells have been classed as tractors, since they did not use it for anything else?

Another tale from that time: only the old hands knew how to get from one tober to the next, so the tentmaster would set out first and put down grass sods at each junction to show the way. I was with a new driver and we ended up on a dead-end road in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't reverse out because we had a drawbar trailer behind, so the only thing to do was to open a gate into a field and make a big turn.

The field wasn't quite big enough..    So I had to go and find the farmer and explain our position.

Did I mention the six lions in the trailer?  

[tomos]

Another tale from that time: only the old hands knew how to get from one tober to the next

what's a tober Jenny? havent heard that one before
village?
pit stop/overnight-stop?

EDIT forgot to ask, did ye get out of the field then???

[JennyB]

what's a tober Jenny? havent heard that one before
village?
pit stop/overnight-stop?

A tober is where the big top is pitched. It might be a playing field, a car park, or just the corner of a field.  A josser is anyone not circus-born.

EDIT forgot to ask, did ye get out of the field then???

With a bit of help from the farmer's little grey Fergie