Feeder Morning From HELL.....
Warning wall of text ahead.....
On Thursday the majority of our runs sat due to the snow storm. Walking into the building Friday morning I notice the yard really isn't plowed at all and there is about 8 inches of snow covering everything. There are a couple of tracks leading out of the outbound phones but for the most part it looks like I'll be one of the first ones out of the yard.
I walk into dispatch and am told my run is a go however out of the three runs that mirror mine I'm the only one going. Also my tractor is MIA which is strange since just about all of our tractors are in the yard. I'm given a set of keys to a single screw and make my way out to the yard. I have a "Winter Survival Kit" in my assigned tractor but this one is missing everything...no chains, no extra washer fluid, no extra light cord or supplies etc...after about 20 minutes though I manage to round up what I need.
For some reason they have parked half of the tractors nose in and tight togethor so to get out you have to back straight up then once clear of the tractor next to you crank it hard to swing it to clear the row behind you. No problem usually but with 8 inches of snow around the tractor and packed ice behind the tractor it won't be easy to get out.
30 minutes later after having to chain up just to get out of the parking space I pull up my outbound load in IVIS and lo and behold I'm pulling doubles today - 95% of the time I take a 53' and bring back doubles.
I make my way over to the dolly patch and it's all snowed in just like the rest of the yard. There are no "fresh" clean dollies as nothing ran Thursday so everything is completely covered. After digging out and pretripping a dolly it still took me almost 30 minutes to get it out even with chains on my tractor. With no weight on the drive tires the tractor is no match for the snow.
I find my trailers and decide that it will be easier to spot the dolly if I move the back trailer to a spot in the yard where the snow has been packed down a little. Pulling a dolly out of the snow is one thing but trying to back one up in over half a foot of snow is quite another. I find a spot and drop my dolly.
There are shifter tracks in front of my rear trailer so I should be able to hook up without too much of a problem. Just to be safe though I raise the trailer enough to compensate for my tractor being up on the snow. What I didn't notice was that the yard must have been plowed a little right when it first starting snowing because fifteen feet in front of the trailer was a little berm of plowed snow.
First attempt hooking up is no good as directly underneath the trailer pin is solid ice. I can get under the trailer but dont have enough traction to get the fifth wheel to lock in. I pull back out and jack the trailer up a little more to exactly match the fifth wheel height. I go to pull forward to get a little bit of a running start and now my tractor wont go over the little berm in front of it. I cant get under the trailer or go forward. I try rocking back and forth....still no good. There are 53s on both sides of me so I have to be careful about getting it sideways. I try putting two more chains on each tire but that doesn't work either.
Time to call the shop.
"You're stuck where?"
"Bay 35"
(Giggles in the background.)
"We'll be right there."
(Even more giggles in the background)
By this time there is a backhoe clearing snow from the yard. I ask him to clear the snow from my front trailer and as soon as I'm towed out the snow from my rear.
Shop shows up with chains and a package car and they pull me free. Backhoe clears my trailers, I build my set, all is good and I'm ready to roll over two hours past my scheduled departure time...........or so I thought!
I'm stopped at the outbound phones with my flashers, trailer air, handbrake, and tractor brake on. I put my seal controls in the outbound box and I check the time on my dash. Right then the dash ABS light comes on and my dash flashers stop flashing and stay solid. WTF?
I turn off the flashers and try just left and just right turn signal. Both stay solid, no flash. I hit the service brake a few times ABS stays on. I release the handrake and the flashers start flashing....along with the trailer ABS lights flashing in sync with the flashers! WTH is going on?
I get out to check all the cords and the ABS box on the dolly is continually clicking. Not the clickity click, clickity click that happens when you first plug it in but a constant click click click. Something is definitely FUBAR on the dolly. Everything works fine on front trailer/tractor if the dolly is disconnected. Doesn't matter if rear trailer is hooked in or not. If the dolly is plugged it everything goes haywire.
Off to the shop I go. Now to get into our shop you have to go up a slight incline.....you guessed it ladies and gentleman...I get stuck trying to get into the shop.
Same shop guys who pulled me out earlier get their package car and push me up the incline and into the garage.
The diagnosis of my equipment is that for some reason the dolly has developed a short in it's electrical system and it's not something that can be fixed on the spot.
The solution is to run a line from the front trailer directly to the rear trailer bypassing the dolly. The dolly will still have brakes but no lights or ABS and the rear trailer lights and signals will work like normal.
Unfortunately this really wasn't an option as I go through three different weigh stations and my meet guy goes through a really strict weigh station. The consensus is that swapping out the dolly is the best move.
So......back to the yard I go to break my set down and swap out dollies. Hopefully the dolly patch will be cleaned out now so I can save some time and Hero Hook my new dolly.
Who am I kidding?
Dolly patch and dollies are still covered in snow.
I break my set down and red tag the broken dolly. Again it takes me almost 30 minutes to dig out and pretrip another dolly.
I rebuild my set. Double check everything one last time and hit Leave in IVIS four hours late!
One bright spot of leaving so late was that all of the roads were clear at that point and it was smooth sailing to my meet point and back.
At 13 hours and 58 minutes I hit Inbound and called it a day. That's cutting it close!
