Truckin’ Tips: Part II

My Comments: Very helpful!

Truckin’ Tips:  Part II

Copyright Sandy Long

 

Here are some good ones.

 

Truckkeeping:

  A child sized broom, found in the toy section of some stores, makes it easy to sweep out your truck if you do not have a vacuum.

  Your rubber mats will really shine if you clean them with spray tire cleaner.

  Furniture polish works great on dashes and vinyl interiors.  It does not attract and hold dust like an oil based polish.

  Put your vents on recirculate once a month…spray an antibacterial spray thickly in your truck and get out and let it run for about 15 minutes to sanitize your vent system and the whole cab.

  Keep the antibacterial spray next to your seat.  Spray your floor boards and pedals every couple of days.

  Keep a small bucket, soft bristled scrub brush, rags and antibacterial cleaning product on the truck.  Most truckstops have tall sinks somewhere that you can get hot water to wash down the interior when you have time.

  Spray window cleaner will clean cloth covered interiors.  I prefer the aerosol foam window cleaner that comes in the can for this.

  Cheap paper towels clean windows better than expensive ones do.

  If you smoke.  Spray the empty ash tray with antibacterial spray and shut it up when you are getting out of the truck.  It will help cut down on the smoke smell and will take it out of the inside of the dash.  Don’t forget to wash the ash tray once in awhile.

 

Personal:

§  Carry spray disinfectant in your shower bag…spray the floor of the shower before you take off your shoes.

§  Spray a little antibacterial spray in your boots or shoes periodically before you go to bed.  Then put in a little antifungal powder before you put them on.

§  No reason to be dirty on the road even if there is no shower available.  Babywipes and fresh clothes will keep you looking good.

§  Carry a couple of towels on the truck.  Some service plazas on the toll roads have free showers but they do not provide towels.  Some truckstops will let you shower for free late night if you have your own towels.

§  Put your jeans under the mattress.  It will keep them creased.

§  Keep a small box of baby wipes by the driver’s seat to wipe your hands after fueling and before getting in the truck to move forward.

§  Try to avoid using pay phones.  You will not get the flu or colds as often.

§  Buy your necessities ie:  Shampoo, deoderant etc. while at home.  These items are expensive in truck stops.

§  Put your shampoo, liquid bath soap, hand lotions(anything in plastic bottles and your tooth paste) in zip up plasic bags.  If you keep your shower bag under the bunk in the winter, the contents will freeze and come out of the bottles.  If you are going over mountains at any time of year, the bottles will pressurize and force the contents out of the bottles.

 

Laundry:        

F Carry some sort of laundry stain remover with you.  If you get grease or oil on your clothes, pretreat the spot when you take your clothes off and put them in your laundry bag.

F Coke in the wash water will help to take out grease spots.

F Grease removing dish soap will help take grease out of clothes.

F A colored pillow case makes a great laundry bag.

F Carry laundry soap and dryer sheets from home, it is cheaper and the type you are used to.  Truckstops usually only carry one or two kinds.

F Make sure that you carry at least a couple of wire hangers.  They come in handy if you need to make some repairs or bend one to reach something fallen between the bunk and the cabinets.

 

Backing up:

ð  If the dock is blocked from view, throw a glove or other non breakable object that you can see down out in front of the left bumper of the dock where you can see it beyond the blockage, to show you your pivot point.

ð  If you are having problems getting straight with the dock, estimate where the left side of the nose of the trailer should be and put something on the ground where you can see it in your mirrors…align the trailer up with the object.

ð  Turn on your marker lights when backing up even in the daytime, it helps you to see where the end of the trailer is and you can soft bump the dock better.

ð  Back up at idle speed.  If you do hit a trailer or truck you will not do as much damage.

ð  If you get frustrated.  Stop, take a deep breath and a sip of water and start again.

ð  If you cannot get it in the dock or in a tight situation.  Don’t be a hero!  Ask someone to watch your blind side or for advice.

ð  A wise driver said, “It don’t matter how long it takes, or how many pull ups ya gotta make…a good back is where ya don’t hit nothin’!”

ð  If you see someone backing in…back off and patiently wait on them to get done. Don’t crowd them.

ð  If you see someone backing in and they are having trouble…get out and watch their blind side for them…it will be your turn to have a bad backing day someday.

 

Miscellaneous:

§  Dish soap on the sliders will make your tandems slide better.

§  Carry an ace bandage on the truck.  You never know when you will sprain a wrist or ankle.

§  Baby wipes will work to clean the truck with in a pinch.

§  Dilute dish soap and put in a spray bottle.  When you know you will be hitting rain, spray the frame, tires and wheels, the rain will clean them for you.

§  Carry a finger splint and medical adhesive tape on the truck.

§  A laminated atlas makes a great table when laid on the steering wheel.

§  Clean your laminated atlas with baby wipes…the aloe helps keep the plastic coating from cracking.

§  Keep some sort of envelope on the truck to keep receipts in.

 

I hope my Truckin’ tips help make your job and life easier.  You will perhaps add to them as you go along down the road.  Share them with your brother and sister drivers, you will more than likely hear some others in return.  Take care and be safe.

 

 

ExpeditersOnline.com  TrailerTruckinTech.com  Street Smarts:  A Guide to a Truck Driver's Personal Safety

Arriving Alive: personal safety, driving and sharing the road with semis tips

Just a Lady Driver blog  Sandy Long's Faire personal website  Sandy Long @ Facebook  TrailerTruckinTech

Life member OOIDA  Women In Trucking Association

 

Truckin’ Tips: Part One

My Comments: Awesome Sandy, thanks for sharing!

Truckin’ Tips: Part One

Copyright Sandy Long

You can learn a lot sitting in a truckstop listening to some ol’ hands talk, or by being observant at any time on the road; fuel stops, loading docks, rest areas and jobsites are a trucker’s classroom, other drivers are the professors.  Through my years on the road I have picked up some tips to make my job easier.

 

Winter

¥  Carry an emergency kit of food and water.  Peanut butter, crackers, canned meat, fruits, vegetables and juice will provide you high energy food to wait out a storm. 

¥  Take a big metal coffee can and punch some holes around the bottom side of it.  Place a couple of emergency candles in it and light them.  Close your sleeper curtains and the candle furnace will keep you from freezing if the truck shuts down.  Make sure you keep a window cracked though.

¥  Place a spare heavy blanket under your bunk mattress.  Bring the sides up against the wall.  It will help stop the cold air coming up from under the bunk. 

¥  Rubbing alcohol will work to keep your air lines from freezing, also a pint in each tank will help keep fuel from jelling if you cannot find fuel additives.

¥  If you are running from temperature extremes, run a bottle of car gas line additive to each tank once every couple of weeks.  Really helps keep water out of the tanks.

¥  Collapsible snow shovels are light and do not take up much space. 

¥  Carry 5#s of salt in your truck to get out of that dock that is icy.

¥  Keep good books, magazines, puzzle books on the truck in the winter in case you get snowed in.

 

Windshields/Mirrors

Ø  Ammonia based window cleaners seem to take bugs off fairly well.  I spray my windshields with the cleaner before I seat the fuel nozzle in the tanks, then let it sit while I get started fueling, then use the truckstop’s fluid and sponge/squeegie to finish cleaning the windows.

Ø  Rubbing alcohol will help thaw ice from mirrors.

Ø  If you use the truckstop’s fluid from the bucket, then make your windshield very wet with it and then let it soak while you do other chores, then go back and scrub the windshields.

Ø  A small piece of wet carpet will take bugs off of windshields, painted surfaces or grills without scratching them.

Ø  A coat of that product that makes rain bead helps ease window washing.

Ø  A 6” squeegie is a slick tool to carry to quickly clean a mirror when it is raining and you have to back up.

 

Trailers

v  Carry a white grease pencil to mark the side walls of the trailer tires in the winter time, this allows you to make sure that the brakes have not frozen up and the tires are turning.

v  Balm for chapped lips that comes in the little squeeze tube makes a great glad hand gasket lubricant…it is small enough to fit in your pocket and won’t leak out.

v  If you own your own dry van trailer and the wooden floor starts leaking through the cracks of the board floor…wash it out completely, let it dry and then coat the floor thickly with marine grade polyurathane .

v  I use the product made to ease stuck bolts to keep my tandem sliders sliding easily.

v  Carry a 1’ long piece of 4x4 in case your tandem brakes won’t hold to slide.

v  If your tandem pins are hard to pull and you are live loading, then try it while the loader is going in and out of the trailer or before you move the trailer…sometimes it is enough bounce to loosen the pins.

v  Go in reverse and hit the brakes..then set the tractor brakes and let the trailer settle…sometimes this will center the tandem pins in the middle of the hole so you can get them pulled.

v  If you are dropping the trailer, pull your 5^th wheel release before you dolly down…MAKE SURE YOU SET THE TRAILER BRAKES AND THE TRACTOR BRAKES BEFORE YOU DO THIS!

 

Flatbeds

¬  Loads of lumber and small pipe walk out of the bundles…Put an extra 2x4 on top of your dunnage in the front of the first stack and the rear of the last stack to raise the front of the front bundle and the rear of the rear bundle.  If you don’t do this, you are hauling lumber, and the boards walk…find a hose and wet them down.  Lumber dries out when going down the road.

¬  When loading long objects like 50’ beam, put two pieces of dunnage on top of each other on the rear of your trailer…this makes up for the hump in the trailer so the beam doesn’t rock. 

¬  A 2x4 under the front and back of an empty container on a flatbed will make securing it easier.

¬  Carpet remnants and packing quilts make excellent padding under your tarps to protect them from tearing. 

¬  Find old mud flaps and hang them behind your chains in the headache rack.  Stops your chains from banging and also protects the headache rack.

¬  If you have an uneven top line to your load, where it dips down, run a piece of rope thru the d-rings and tie it off to the rub rail…then run a bungie or two from the rope to the center beam under the trailer, pull the bungie tight, it will help keep the tarp from flapping too much.

 

A day where you learn something new is not a wasted day.  Most drivers are flattered if you ask them why they do something a certain way and will be glad to explain it to you.  The knowledge you glean from them and by observing how others do things will help make your job easier along the way.

 

Happy Holidays to you and yours from me and mine!  Be safe.

Take Opening w/ Prayer Out of Government Meetings?

Cities and town have opened public meetings with prayers for hundreds of years, but two residents in the town of Greece, N.Y., have sued, saying the prayers that open their town board meetings are unconstitutional. [It seems we must please 2 people in any group rather than the majority]

By Pete Williams and Erin McClam, NBC News

 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, testing the wall between church and state in a sensitive case, wrestled Wednesday with how far government bodies can go in offering prayers at the start of official meetings.

It seemed certain, after courtroom arguments in a case brought by two women from upstate New York, that the justices had no interest in eliminating prayer at government meetings.
Instead, the justices grappled with whether they could come up with limits that allow such prayer without making those who disagree with the message feel coerced into participating, or fear that they may alienate government officials.

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Justice Elena Kagan wondered aloud whether it would be permissible for the Supreme Court to open its sessions by having a minister face the lawyers and “acknowledge the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.”

 

Suppose, the justice said, “the members of the court who had stood responded, ‘Amen,’ made the sign of the cross, and the chief justice then called your case. Would that be permissible?”
Thomas Hungar, a lawyer for the town, said he didn’t think so. But in the case of prayer before a legislative body, court doctrine has found that the country, “from its very foundations and founding,” allows it, he said.

James Lawler Duggan / Reuters

Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition prays outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Two women, one Jewish and one atheist, sued the town of Greece, where meetings of the governing board have opened with a prayer since 1999. Until 2007, when the women complained, the prayer was offered exclusively by Christians.

It is the first case on legislative prayer to come before the court since 1983, when the justices held that the Nebraska Legislature did not violate the Constitution by opening sessions with a prayer from a Presbyterian minister acting as the state-paid chaplain.
The thorny nature of the case was apparent throughout the argument. Some justices wondered what would be an acceptable prayer to appeal to all faiths, and to nonbelievers. Justice Antonin Scalia asked, to laughter in the courtroom: “What about devil-worshippers?”
Chief Justice John Roberts wanted to know: “Who is going to make this determination?”
Scalia drew a distinction between prayers before a legislative session and prayers before a judicial session, as in Kagan’s example.

“They are there as citizens,” Scalia said, speaking of legislators. “And as citizens, they bring to their job all of — all of the predispositions that citizens have. And these people perhaps invoke the deity at meals. They should not be able to invoke it before they undertake a serious governmental task such as enacting laws or ordinances?”

Douglas Laycock, representing the two women, answered that it was fine for them to invoke a deity or have a prayer, and certainly to pray to themselves.

“We’ve said they cannot impose sectarian prayer on the citizenry, and that is very different from what Congress does,” he said. “It is very different from what this court does.”
The Supreme Court opens its sessions with an invocation: “God save the United States and this honorable court.”

In the Nebraska case, three decades ago, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that legislative opening prayers had become “part of the fabric of our society.” The women have argued that their case is different.

In part, they argue that in Greece, the opening prayer amounts to coercion because members of the public are often required to appear before the board for town business — as opposed to passively sitting in on a session of the state Legislature.
Chaplains in Greece, the women said, have spoken of “our Christian faith” and of “us as Christian people.” An Easter prayer at a town meeting referred to spring as a symbol of “the new life of the risen Christ,” they said.

A lower federal court sided with the town, but an appeals court sided with the women.
The town is perfectly free to open public meetings with a prayer or invocation, the appeals court stressed. But under the circumstances — including who is chosen to give the prayers and what they say — “the town’s prayer practice must be viewed as an endorsement of a particular religious viewpoint,” the appeals court wrote.
Organizations on the political right, plus 119 mostly Republican members of the House and Senate, saw the case as a chance for the Supreme Court to clarify a confusing series of rulings on the line between church and state.

 

They are asking the court to adopt a simple, more permissive test — requiring only that the government not force participation in any religion or religious exercise, or create a national religion.
The Justice Department filed a brief supporting the town, citing the history of legislative prayers since the Continental Congress and arguing that such a prayer is permissible if it does not “proselytize or advance any one, or disparage any other, faith or belief.”

Besides the long history, the Justice Department said, the federal courts are not well-suited to “police the content” of legislative prayers.

Erin McClam reported from New York.