seeing all these weighbridges is it just the driver that would get done or like here is ticket sent to owner as well and are they " bad boy" fines…
Fantastic post, many thanks.
Thanks for a really good read.
I too am intrigued by the impact of breaking down on your pay. From what I can see, you did a rough 10,000km round trip. At 0.36c per mile that leaves you with $3600. Take $2500 for the repairs you are left with $1100. Don’t know what fuel prices are in the US but for 10,000km it must have left you out of pocket. An amazing experience for two weeks, but thats pretty harsh! I think i’d have lost my cool with the guy who blew your inverter for $247!
Good post mate, a lot of time has gone into that - thanks.
Loved the pics of Bonnieville Salt Flats - very iconic. Just a word on the motor, mirrors on the bonnet ,sorry hood 
look a bit weird - but work well 
you mean you left north lincolnshire for that ■■? 
.exellent read, thanks for posting
Absolutely brilliant read that. Thoroughly enjoyable with some fantastic photo’s. 
quality read !! my step brother lives in des moines jugging by the rain i wont be going over visiting!!!
Thats got to be the best diary post on this forum… You must have spent ages putting that all together!
quality pics and good work
I second that emotion
for me personally, if i was 25 years younger and life had been different, this would of been my ideal job.
very very jealous !! great post my friend
Just finished working my way through that.Informative,entertaining and good photos.Thanks
Really, really enjoyed that. After a rubbish day, it’s cheered me up!
Brilliant stuff mate.
Hi Robinhood
That was a cracking post, it makes the M62 seem boring.
I see you come from North Lincolnshire, my own county, you never know but we might have met sometime .Would you mind if I PM,ed you to find out?
Cheers Bassman
The more southerly route from NY to LA going through Denver and Grand Junction Colorado into Utah,which is the way I went when I did a coast to coast run by road during the 1980’s seems a bit less barren than going through Wyoming.I thought Colorado was one of the best States in the US for scenery it reminded me a lot of Austria and Swiss in places.
WOW !! That was great
■■■■ fine stuff there.
First of all, thanks to every one who commented and enjoyed reading the diary. I had a lot of fun taking the photos, writing the diary and reading your responses. That made it all worth while.
HeavyOwl:
How much did it cost you in fuel, there and back?
You really did get a massive bill twice for breaking down. What was your total expenses?
Never been "wowed!"before on this forum. They They should make this a sticky
Glad you liked it. I’m not sure about the total cost of fuel as we just pay on our fuel card and I dont keep any record. Thankfully I’m just a company driver so it doesn’t concern me like it would an owner driver.
cliffystephens:
sat reading this at 5.30 on a monday morning ■■? think i need to get out more… hire a car go sightseeing love it .it does seem that when things go wrong out there (breakdown) it can be a bit of a nightmare .notice some roads there in san fran about as patched as we have here in south wales …very enjoyable might even look at it again…
The roads in the US can be absolutely diabolical. I’m trying to think of roads that compare in Europe and I’m having to go back to the mid 90s as a kid with my dad going down some rural roads in the former East Germany to even come close.
Fatboy slimslow:
Some do gooding ■■■■■ will be along shortly,probably a vostapo lover
ooh hand held camera,
Glad you enjoyed it. If I’d of being in the UK doing this I’m sure there would have been lots of criticism for being unprofessional and reckless with my camera etc.
Juddian:
Brilliant, well photographed and well written, enjoyed that a lot.The breakdwn you suffered rings bells i’m sure for many here, lack of good old school mechanical diagnostics saw a huge bill when all that was needed was a replacement alternator diode pack.
Spoiled and costed what would otherwise have been a decent trip.
The work and time away wouldn’t suit all of us, certainly wouldn’t me but for those who enjoy the life moving to Canada and living your lifestyle must be a great experience.
Hope you do some more like this, thankyou.
PS…thought i’d nabbed a virus the length of time it took to download, worth every second though…
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Comments like these certainly make it all worth while.
I do really enjoy the job on the whole but the being away is really tough at times and as I’m getting married in August I’m going to have to be more sensible soon and get a job where I’m at least home on weekends. We’ll see, time will tell on that one.
jayseabea:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but is it your own truck? Who takes the loss over the repairs? If it’s you the trip must have been a complete waste of time.
Great diary and well written. I hadn’t realised Bonneville Salt Flats had a major road running through it.
I’m a company driver so none of this should worry me, but still, I dont like to see bills like that no matter who is paying. My truck is a bit of an anomaly as its a weekly rental, not a long term lease or such like and because of that the Freightliner dealer who my company rent it from take care of things like this, unless of course damage is caused by me. It costs my company more to rent the truck than it would to buy it or long term lease it. They got it a year ago when I knocked on their door for a job and because I like it so much and aren’t interested in driving some of the other crap they run, they’ve kept it on for me. With all this expense lately though, I cant help but think its days are numbered, either my company will send it back or the Freightliner dealer will decide they’re not making money on it and pull the plug.
Gremlinc82:
Cracking read, real feel good stuff. Superb pics aswell !! Where next?
Thank you very much. I’ll find out either Tuesday or Wednesday where I’m heading next all being well. Could be any where but I doubt it’ll be anything as adventurous as this California trip.
cliffystephens:
seeing all these weighbridges is it just the driver that would get done or like here is ticket sent to owner as well and are they " bad boy" fines…
Depends what you get caught for. If you’re over your gross weight then its usually the company that gets the fine. If its axle weights and you’re within your gross weight, its deemed to be driver error for not sliding the axles to the correct place. If its log book violations then its the driver but for just about everything the company will get points on their safety rating even if they dont receive the fine.
rob22888:
Thanks for a really good read.I too am intrigued by the impact of breaking down on your pay. From what I can see, you did a rough 10,000km round trip. At 0.36c per mile that leaves you with $3600. Take $2500 for the repairs you are left with $1100. Don’t know what fuel prices are in the US but for 10,000km it must have left you out of pocket. An amazing experience for two weeks, but thats pretty harsh! I think i’d have lost my cool with the guy who blew your inverter for $247!
I’m a company driver so those repairs were paid for, in this case, by the renter of the truck which is the local Freightliner dealer. It was all arranged over the phone and I just received a copy of the bill to hand in. Had my company being responsible for the cost its fair to say that little or no profit would have been made from that trip. I’m annoyed about the inverter though, the guy who blew it up tried blaming the inverter for frying the batteries (which he later said were fine) because it was shortening out…yet it only blew up when he put 17v in to my batteries and he blew the headlight bulbs at the same time. Any way, I’ve had to buy a new one for $300 and it remains to be seen who will be paying for it. Probably me, this is North America after all and everything is the drivers fault.
Saaamon:
Thats got to be the best diary post on this forum… You must have spent ages putting that all together!
It took several hours and it would have been done earlier but for some reason when I first tried to post it, I got a 404 error and then got blocked from trucknet and couldn’t open the website. It turns out I had some words in there that must have triggered that. I had parked in a town in Nevada that was full of ladies of the night, which is entirely legal there but the use of the word that describes their profession and the name of the building they work in triggered something on the forum to kick me off. I managed to narrow it down to that paragraph and once deleted it would allow me to post. Not before getting blocked though and having to use my mobile dongle that had a different IP address. I’ve since changed my home computers IP address as 24 hours later I was still blocked. The best of it was I didn’t write anything dodgy, just an account of what I saw in that town, nothing more.
Glad you liked the diary!
Bassman:
Hi Robinhood
That was a cracking post, it makes the M62 seem boring.
I see you come from North Lincolnshire, my own county, you never know but we might have met sometime .Would you mind if I PM,ed you to find out?Cheers Bassman
No problem at all, feel free.
Nice one, they take some time to do don’t they? When I was doing my blog on the firm’s website it was taking up nearly all my home time.
Look forward to the next one, no excuses now, that was top notch mate
Fantastic write up and picture diary of your adventure 
Really enjoyed that well done and thanks for sharing 
Now this is trucking!! Thanks for posting