Hauling Pipe - Nightmare!

Well, I hauled pipe today.  1 load.  1 stinkin' load about 4 miles.  Let's begin with what went down.  I got to the Snyder yard at 7:30am.  It was about 18 degress, so I put on my insulated overalls.  With a good jacket, I was good to go.  I let my truck warm up for about 20 minutes and then went to a fenced lot where we keep our trailers.  I was in truck #31, an old 1993 Freightliner.  I backed under one of our flatbeds we use for hauling pipe and it has no brakes.  How do I know that?  When I got latched under it, it wouldn't stop moving with my truck.  So, after some fun trying to get out from under that trailer, I get the other pipe hauling trailer we have.  It's brakes were locked up!!  Well, I figure I could do some work & get them going again, that would be safer than running around without trailer brakes, right? 



Our trailers for hauling pipe look just like this, only they're red.  The stakes are permanent & much taller and heavier duty than these. 

I used a 9/16" wrench and finally got the brakes backed off.  (Side note - 9/16" is like a universal size for most EVERYTHING in trucking.  Mud flap bolts, brake adjustment bolts, you name it!  I guess someone was using their head on the design team.  HIGH FIVE for that guy!!) 


High Five for that!

I noticed that mud was caked all over everything under there.  I knocked a bunch of it off & saw that all my grease zerts were dry.  So I put about an entire tube of grease just on my 8 grease zerts just to get my slack adjusters moving freely.  They should move using your hand with the brakes set.  It as 9:00AM and I hadn't gotten anywhere.  The boss was nowhere to be found and not answering his cell phone.  I backed the brakes off & went to the pipe yard without any trailer brakes.  Trust me, it was slow going!!


Looks complicated, but it's very simple.  Adjusting bolt is where you tighten or loosen your brakes.  The grease zerts are just above the T on the word Adjusting and to the left of the A on the same word. 

I got to the pipe yard around 9:30AM.  It must have been burrito break time because everyone was sitting around with their feet up on the desk at the Kinder Morgan pipe yard munching on breakfast burritos and drinking soda or coffee.  I signed in, got told where to stage my truck and waited.  I waited.  I waited.  45 minutes later, the loaders finally came out from burrito break and loaded a truck that came in behind me.  I was a tad upset, but what can you do.  They came over and overloaded me with a mixed load.  I took 250 joints of pipe and probably weighed around 90,000 lbs gross.  That's 10,000 more than what is legal, 6,000 more even if I had an overweight permit on that truck.  I strapped it down and eased back to the office to sign out. 


Breakfast Burrito time at Kinder Morgan. 



Pulling my hair out today!!

When I got to the yard 4 miles away about 15 minutes later,  (I drove SLOW!!!  Remember, no trailer brakes!) I unstrapped my load.  There was mass confusion as to where the load was to be unloaded at.  The pipe racks, the scrap yard?  The fenced lot?  It was 11:00AM and the boss was still not around and still not answering his cell phone.  So, I parked it and called him from the office.  He picked up and gave me my directions.  After unloading, he showed up & told me to park the truck and the other drivers were going to pick up the rest of the pipe he had bought out there.  THANK GOODNESS!!!  I was tired of dealing with problem trailers and nobody know what was going on. 


Better fix those problems or this is what could happen! 

After telling him about the trailers with massive brake problems, he bacame unglued.  Please don't ever make Mrs. Hnizdo so mad she come unglued.  He started slamming truck doors, cursing, kicking dirt, yelling.  That's usually why I don't ever tell him about truck repairs/problems.  If I can fix it myself, I fix it and don't bother telling him.  He just gets upset.  I worked with his other drivers trying to get the brakes fixed and they wouldn't fix.  I had to explain the problem about 4 times.  Finally, at 1:00PM, we all gave up.  They hauled the pipe this afternoon on trailers that had no brakes & vowed they would be at the repair shop this evening getting fixed.  I think it just needs new air chambers.  No big deal, but it's been neglected for a very long time. 

So, the moral?  If something needs fixed, fix it right away.  Don't let it go for a long time.  It just becomes a bigger problem down the road and could even become unsafe if let go for a long time.  That goes for a variety of problems.  

On a happier note:  February 8 is Mrs. Walker's Birthday!!  Lindsey & I went to get her a cake.  Vanilla with buttercream frosting.  Not her absolute favorite, but she was good with it!  I turned Lindsey loose in Wal-Mart to pick out some things for her mommy's birthday.  Keep in mind, she's 19 months old (a little more than a year and a half).  She got mommy a salsa bowl, beef jerkey stick, a box of oatmeal, and a bag of cough drops.  I wrapped them and she opened them with Lindsey.  Lindsey got all excited and we all had fun with it.  I got Mrs. Walker some earrings and a CD she had wanted. 


Funny random cake picture.

I hope you guys had a better day than I did!!  --Mr. Walker