Fun & games! - My second week as a new C+E driver

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi guys & gals,

Well, here I am. I have now completed two whole weeks in my new job as a C+E driver and I’m still alive and the truck is still working! :smiley:

It’s been a very interesting two weeks as well. As some of you might know if you read my first thread I was pulled over by VOSA last week and had the trailer prohibited from use on the road until it got sorted the day after. Well, this week was also very testing but in a totally different way!!

At the beginning of the week I was sent to deliver a fork lift and mini digger to a quarry up in Dumfries. Following a few deliveries and collections during the day in Nottingham, Barnsley & Sheffield, I found myself parked up in a layby about a mile from the quarry at around 6pm. I decided to get up at 7am the next morning and timed my arrival at the quarry for 8am. I arrived on the site just before 8am and found that the truck couldn’t get up the lane into it as it was too steep and my truck doesn’t have the best traction anyway. I then walked up into the quarry and the chap I was supposed to meet there told me to just stay in entrance to the quarry and they will come down to collect the equipment from me there. They also had a forklift and small digger for me to collect as well. So, the swap was done and I made my way off to the next quarry to deliver the equipment they passed on to me. This next quarry was in Northumberland.

I arrived at the entrance to the quarry (which was just a normal farm gate with sheep in the fields either side of the lane). If it wasn’t for the sign stating that this was an entrance to a quarry and all people entering should be aware of all site rules etc then I would have thought it was just a normal gate for farmers to gain access to their fields/livestock. My SatNav was also telling me this was the correct road to that post code and before I set off, the chap who am delivering for told me that your SatNav will take you right there as the post code is correct. So, I opened the gate and drove in. Then I closed the gate behind me and continued up the lane to the next gate. I had to do this about three times in order to stop the farmers sheep from escaping! :smiley: As I was getting nearer to the top of the lane it started to get steeper and finally my truck was no longer able to continue. You can see the evidence of where my truck was struggling…

I then decided to back up to one side of the lane in order to allow any other vehicles to get by and for me to open my back door/ramp and unload the equipment. I would then see if the truck would make it up the hill empty. As you can see, the lane wasn’t very wide and had very large rocks on both sides as well…

The way I had reversed back over to the one side of the lane meant that there was now a large rock behind the rear wheel of my tractor unit, so I couldn’t reverse back anymore, only go forward. :angry:

Well, despite unloading the forklift and the digger, the truck still refused to budge! :unamused:

At this point, the two chaps who I was delivering for turned up and told me that I had actually gone in the wrong entrance! :open_mouth: Apparently, this lane led up to a different quarry to theirs, and their entrance was about 750 yards further up the road! Now they tell me!! :unamused:

Anyway, one of the chaps then decided he would use the digger to try and move the rock that was stopping me from reversing back down the lane, and this was the result…

That now makes two of us stuck! :blush: At this point I telephoned my colleague the mechanic who instructed me to raise the axle on the trailer and tractor then try moving again. So, after doing that, I’m happy to say it worked and I was now getting better traction. Not brilliant, but certainly better traction than I was getting before. So, I drove all the way up into this ‘other’ quarry, turned the truck around and came back down, only to find that the two chaps were gone! :open_mouth:

I then decided to reload the forklift and go deliver that to the correct quarry. After reloading it, I was making my way back down the hill to the road when the two chaps arrived. They had gone off to the local farmer and asked him to use his tractor to pull the digger out of the field. So, I waited for the farmer to drag the digger out, got it reloaded onto my trailer and I set off to the correct quarry just up the road.

I couldn’t believe it when I started to go up the small lane to the correct quarry, as it was far worse than the lane I got stuck on before… :open_mouth:

I found that when the truck got through the gates, it started to go up the hill but decided it needed to change gear and that’s when it would slow down and stop. I must have tried about 7 or 8 times without any luck. Each time I had to reverse back down the slippery slope through those gates in order to try again. I think if my truck was manual I could have done it, but this auto of mine wasn’t playing ball.

We then decided to unload the forklift and digger again, so I could try getting up the hill empty. This also failed! :unamused: At this point I phoned my colleague again, and at first he just said, “Oh dear! I don’t know!!” :frowning: But he then suggested I put the two ramps I had in my trailer down in front of the neck of the trailer where it steps up above the 5th wheel, drive the forklift up onto the neck of the trailer and hopefully the extra weight from it above my tractor units wheels will be enough to get up the hill. Thankfully, this worked! :smiley:

After those deliveries at the quarries were made, I was well behind schedule now and had to park up outside my next place of collection in Durham in order to collect the next morning, whereas I was supposed to be there about lunchtime the day before! :confused:

So as you can see, it isn’t all plain sailing when you finally get your first C+E job and you must expect some problems. But I must say, it’s all good experience and apart from those few problems giving me a right headache I am still really enjoying the job. :smiley:

I am off up to Aberdeen on Monday, so I wonder what next week has in store for me… :unamused:

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Nice one, steep learning curve (pun intended) :wink: :stuck_out_tongue: for you but you’re doing it. One point, all auto boxes have a manual option which may have helped for the entrance through the gate to the correct quarry. Stick it in manual, select a gear, get going and just keep it going without changing gear until you’re up the slope.

3

Nice one mate, good to see your enjoying it.

Wonder how many set backs I will have once I find a job and start :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Excellent post there. Looks like you are getting stuck in :wink:

Definitely a steep learning curve :slight_smile:

Plenty more puns about keeping on track but thought I’d stop while I was ahead :wink:

Keep up the good work.

Keep the diaries coming too. It’s good to see for the newbies what is expected.

5

great little write up as usual lja, i look forward to these… :smiley:

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Just another thought. As well as raising the axle try dropping the air suspension as well, it helps get as much weight as possible onto the drive axle. you can also raise the air suspension on the trailer which will again put some more weight forward but it’s always going to be a problem in a a step-frame with an empty neck.

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Ah, thanks guys! :smiley:

Yeah, I am having fun despite some of the obstacles put in my way. :unamused: It isn’t exactly hard work as such, so I am not complaining, just getting on with it the best I can.

Coffeeholic, my truck does indeed have manual setting but only goes up to 2nd gear and that would struggle to get her upto 5 mile an hour! :laughing: The problem I had was when it was almost at the top of the slope. It was at that point it wanted to change gear and no matter how much I tried to hold off on the gas to keep it in the gear it was already in, it kept trying to change. Oh well, I should be ok in the future…as long as I have a forklift handy!! :stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

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Coffeeholic:
Just another thought. As well as raising the axle try dropping the air suspension as well, it helps get as much weight as possible onto the drive axle. you can also raise the air suspension on the trailer which will again put some more weight forward but it’s always going to be a problem in a a step-frame with an empty neck.

Oops. Looks like we were writing replies at the same time there mate! :smiley:

Yeah, to be honest though, if I find I am going to any quarry in the future, from now on I will automatically load the first piece of equipment straight onto the neck which will hopefully save me a lot of time struggling to get into the place.

9

Nice write up mate, i had a large number of drops like that last summer, remote reservoirs and treatment works , doing builders merchants deliveries and getting duff info on where the drop actually was and also walking them through beforehand so as not to get stuck even with diff locks on, had to be dragged out of a steep wet muddy field with a farmers fastrack on one occasion. :smiley:

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roadrunner:
Nice write up mate, i had a large number of drops like that last summer, remote reservoirs and treatment works , doing builders merchants deliveries and getting duff info on where the drop actually was and also walking them through beforehand so as not to get stuck even with diff locks on, had to be dragged out of a steep wet muddy field with a farmers fastrack on one occasion. :smiley:

Thanks mate. I tell ya summat though, it certainly ain’t a boring job, eh? :smiley:

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LJA:

roadrunner:
Nice write up mate, i had a large number of drops like that last summer, remote reservoirs and treatment works , doing builders merchants deliveries and getting duff info on where the drop actually was and also walking them through beforehand so as not to get stuck even with diff locks on, had to be dragged out of a steep wet muddy field with a farmers fastrack on one occasion. :smiley:

Thanks mate. I tell ya summat though, it certainly ain’t a boring job, eh? :smiley:

It certainly wasn’t boring,tested to the max on some days, just like you will be on that job,sharpen up the navigation skills and maneuvering an artic in conditons like that is a completely different ball game as the plant haulage guys will testify, keep up the good work and keep the updates coming there an interesting read.

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That trailer looks like it’s about to collapse under it’s own weight lol!

Great write up mate :slight_smile: P.S I think you should take a little moped with you and strap it in the trailer for zooming up and down all these little roads to make sure it’s the correct place haha. :laughing:

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Well mate you are certainly having some adventures keeps it interesting eh , love the diarys of your week keep em coming and have a good un next week :smiley:

jen x

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Well done LJA brill write up, allready lookin forward to the next installment :smiley: :smiley:

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roadrunner:
It certainly wasn’t boring,tested to the max on some days, just like you will be on that job,sharpen up the navigation skills and maneuvering an artic in conditons like that is a completely different ball game as the plant haulage guys will testify, keep up the good work and keep the updates coming there an interesting read.

Thanks mate! :sunglasses:

Sam Millar:
That trailer looks like it’s about to collapse under it’s own weight lol!

LOL! :smiley: I feel like that myself sometimes! :open_mouth:

Sam Millar:
Great write up mate :slight_smile: P.S I think you should take a little moped with you and strap it in the trailer for zooming up and down all these little roads to make sure it’s the correct place haha. :laughing:

Thanks Sam! And what a great idea! Hmmm… :unamused:

Jennie:
Well mate you are certainly having some adventures keeps it interesting eh , love the diarys of your week keep em coming and have a good un next week :smiley:

jen x

Thanks Jen! I will indeed do another weekly digest of my adventure, but I’m sure you guys/gals don’t wanna hear about it if it’s just the usual day to day stuff, so I will only do so if I have an interesting week (or day!) :laughing:

bandit12:
Well done LJA brill write up, allready lookin forward to the next installment :smiley: :smiley:

Thanks mate! :sunglasses:

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Coffeeholic:
Just another thought. As well as raising the axle try dropping the air suspension as well, it helps get as much weight as possible onto the drive axle. you can also raise the air suspension on the trailer which will again put some more weight forward but it’s always going to be a problem in a a step-frame with an empty neck.

Just alittle add on from that, dont reverse if you’ve dumped the air from the axle because you’ve a pretty good chance of ripping the mud guards off.

As my own rule of thumb if im offroad i always try and leave the truck pointing down a slight hill when i get out because if it sinks into the mud abit whilst offloading, atleast if your on a slight slope you can let the handbrake off and it will roll forward on its own.

Have you been shown the diff lock?

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Saaamon:
As my own rule of thumb if im offroad i always try and leave the truck pointing down a slight hill when i get out because if it sinks into the mud abit whilst offloading, atleast if your on a slight slope you can let the handbrake off and it will roll forward on its own.?

That wasn’t possible as I was heading up hill all the way until I couldn’t go any further! :confused:

Saaamon:
Have you been shown the diff lock?

There ain’t one on my truck! :cry: Well if there is, I couldn’t find it and neither could any of my colleagues or the mechanic!! :open_mouth:

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cracking write up mate, sounds like the sort of job i want, i love being out in the sticks, i cut my teeth driving in london to building sites and starbucks, so would much rather get out of the citys, once monday roles in i will get onto the job search, fire up the bike armed with cv’s and hit the haulage firms , you have a good one mate :smiley: and keep them coming, its better than watching telly :sunglasses:

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LJA:
Ah, thanks guys! :smiley:

Yeah, I am having fun despite some of the obstacles put in my way. :unamused: It isn’t exactly hard work as such, so I am not complaining, just getting on with it the best I can.

Coffeeholic, my truck does indeed have manual setting but only goes up to 2nd gear and that would struggle to get her upto 5 mile an hour! :laughing: The problem I had was when it was almost at the top of the slope. It was at that point it wanted to change gear and no matter how much I tried to hold off on the gas to keep it in the gear it was already in, it kept trying to change. Oh well, I should be ok in the future…as long as I have a forklift handy!! :stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

That sounds like the ‘crawler’ setting on the gear selector ‘knob’ (DM), might be different or disengaged on your truck but on my MAN you are able to knock into manual underneath the right hand side of the wheel and drive as normal in manual, certainly helps when trying to take a road barrel up some of the hills around here!

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think the diff on a man was a circle switch with 2 wheels going to left or right could be wrong i am in and out opencast sites alot get stuck regualarly some real hard to find places :smiling_imp: