Check, check.

Just a quick check in, still in the land of the living and until lately I have been quite busy. In the last two weeks we have been through fire and flood with tropical cyclone Rusty and fire on the outskirts of Perth.

Cyclone Rusty promised a lot and thankfully, for us down south of the state, didn’t really deliver. I had a few extra days off in Perth and then went out on a Carnarvon express run only to get mildy inconvenienced by a bush fire on the way home. Luckily I was coming back to Perth with only one trailer and was able to hit the back roads and dodge around the affected area.

Put the truck into the workshop today to get a leaking hub seal replaced and am scheduled to head out to Port Hedland tomorrow night with three trailers. After that I am hoping to get back into my usual routine of three trips in twelve days and every second weekend at home.

Prior to that I have been having a bad run with tyres. A string of punctures then several blowouts and even one wheel I couldn’t get loose from the hub (ended getting around it by jacking up the axle and chaining the axle up). I actually badly sprained my ankle when the wheel brace slipped from a wheel nut and I landed with all my weight on the side of my foot. Stung just a bit! I’m still limping about over two weeks later. That was when I decided to buy myself a rechargeable rattle gun (impact wrench). I had been trying to talk myself into laying out the cash for nearly two years now but good ones are pretty damned expensive. 

I ended up getting a Milwaukee 3/4 inch 18 volt rechargeable impact wrench with two 4 amp batteries and they threw in a bonus 1.5 amp battery along with a carry bag/cap/stubby holders.

 

I’ve used it twice now and it will undo fully torqued ten stud wheel nuts. I wasn’t  expecting that – I thought I would have to at least partially loosen the wheel nuts before the Milwaukee would turn them. Perhaps to prolong the life of this expensive bit of gear I might be better off using the wheel brace to do the initial hard work instead of hammering away for five to ten seconds before the wheel nut slowly begins to turn for the first half to full rotation.

All in all, I am suitably impressed with the Milwaukee so far and can foresee it being a very handy tool to have with me in the truck while I’m away on the road.

Cheers, Mike.

Video – The Telfer Road

Just finished editing some video I shot with my GoPro HeroHD2 camera on a recent run to Telfer up near Marble Bar in the Pilbara.

Here’s another quick clip I filmed on my iPhone 4S on the Nifty road, a few hours further east.

Go here to see the rest of my video’s on YouTube.

Cheers, Mike.

Mammoet”s New Star

These pictures were snapped with my iPhone at AV Trucks in Guildford, Perth, Western Australia. To the best of my knowledge, this is the story : The truck had just been driven from Brisbane to Perth for delivery to Mammoet’s. It has been specially built to do one job, after which the truck will no longer be required. The job is to move something large and heavy from Port Hedland to Yandi minesite in the Pilbara. The “something” will be carried on a platform and propelled by a “pusher” and a “puller” truck (front and back) and travel at 45km/h.

Roadworks

Was on the last leg of the trip home when I got held up by some bitumen resurfacing work near Dalwallinu.
Can’t sat I really knew there was anything wrong with that particular stretch of road. Two kilometers down the road you have to slow down to avoid suffering internal injuries as you get thrown violently around the cab.

Shell Truckstops Suck!

I have mentioned this before in my Twitter/Plurk feeds and in my podcast, but, I thought I would be safe just having a shower at a Shell Truckstop last night. I forgot to take into account the Coles (parent company) mission statement : “Cheap and Nasty”.
Shell Truckstops used to be fairly competitive with other truckstops in Western Australia. A truck driver could get fuel, a meal, a shower and a small “truckies lounge/area” was set aside with a tv so you could catch up on the news or the weather and kill some time.
When Coles (as in Coles Supermarkets) bought the retail outlets from Shell a few years ago they stripped out the kitchens, the truckies areas and the tv’s and modelled the whole operation on their supermarkets. In essence, in an effort to maximise profits, they removed everything a truck driver thousands of kilometers from home relies on. Service declined, the only food was hot pies or sandwiches made in another state and frozen until put out for sale. Without exception, every Shell I have visited has got dirtier, more rundown and more depressing since the Coles buyout.
To top it off, last night I couldn’t even get a simple shower from the Port Hedland Shell Truckstop because they didn’t even have running hot water. I’m curious to see if the maintenance budget contains enough funds to fix/replace the water heater or if this is part of the long term plan to cut the expenses and increase the profit margin for Coles.
Coles, you suck! It’s BP, Caltex, Ampol or the bloody water hole down the road for me in future.

Mike.

Hurry Up And Wait

I am currently sitting in a yard in the Karratha Light Industrial Area (LIA) waiting to unload. I left Perth yesterday with a 39t concrete block on the float that is destined to be used in the construction of the new LNG wharf at Dampier.
After an uneventful trip up here I am stuck while the mechanic works on the crane that will be used to unload me. Last trip up here (about 5 days ago) they had the same trouble with the crane and I fully expected it to be fixed for this trip. The crane runs for a short time before shutting down – unfortunately it doesn’t run long enough to complete the lift and let me get out of the way.
Luckily I’m not in a rush this afternoon. I have to be in Port Hedland (200km north) tomorrow morning to reload used conveyer belt to take back to Perth, so as long as they get me unloaded today I will be happy.
Might have a sleep though ; )

Cheers, Mike.

Off We Go (Again)

Map of the next few days’ travelling :

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