Hi everyone, Long time truck driver, new to trailer license but not new to trailers, (read between the lines on that one) So I’m 39YO 3 teenage boys and a lil granddaughter to my collection. Been in trucks for over 20 years now (class 4 for kiwis) been doing a bit with trailers too (class 5 in kiwi land) only the last 13 years or so, but this year I got the actual bit on my license that says I can drive class 5 on the road legally too. So big steps,,,,,,,, kind of.. Early years were mostly fixed weight (permitted overweight/overheight or over width) class 4 like water drilling rigs ect and some lil **** support truck to take our supplies out each day. Best was 44ton on a single steer, tri drive western star at 4.6m high. The others had their over dimensions too, but not much in comparison to that, each had their own bridges, railways or roads that were not permitted in the permit. After that I went agricultural contracting for a while and learned a bit more about class 5 driving. Obviously only while being transported in one myself or moving one around farm type environments . Went back to water drilling for a few years, then I think any brains I had left must have got lost, because I went back to agricultural contracting, and worst of all, I still love it…….. My wife has once again designated herself as a silage widow, (even though she does get to see me from autumn through to early spring) well….. most days in that time…. . [those that know the trade will know what I mean] Anyway the new Ag contracting job keeps me on all year rather than just seasonal (like my previous employer in this industry), so I went through the process of getting my class 5 so I can deliver feed throughout our non baling season…. Must say it’s nice to drive the t+t past a cop and not have the heart skip a beat and be checking my mirrors constantly for the next 10 minutes. I must say, come next spring, I’ll probably miss the tube wrapping, as that was my main crust before being a class 5 driver, but I guess I’m at the age now where I should be happy taking bales to an up and coming wrapper and teaching them too, but it’s an interesting step for me, and a strange pill to swallow. Anyhow. My main reason for joining this forum is due to my new position as a class 5 driver, and I will have some questions that I’ll post in the appropriate places when I find those. Just wanted to say hi to all and introduce myself before anything else. Keep it deep and travel safe my friends.
Welcome to HEF always-learning !
Greetings and I will say that pictures of your processes are always welcome. Folks just figure whatever they do is so mundane that nobody would be interested, but this is far from the case. I see those tubes and would like to see how that machine works, for example. My example that I wish I could have documented was the girder launcher to get big precast concrete girders across a river. I can describe it but a few pictures would have been handy!
Welcome from Canada! We are located about an hours drive north of the old Kelowna Western Star plant, remember a school tour there in the early 1980’s. Close family friend was one of the first hired when the plant opened...
Welcome. 39 year old granddad. Good deal. Congratulations on the big family
Welcome to the HEF. Great introduction. I see you are from NZ. That’s awesome. Sticking with new member protocol , I need to ask a few questions: In the USA, we have much infrastructure built for the transport industry, such as large truck stops where diesel, burritos, new cowboy boots, flip flops and Willie Nelson CDs can be purchased. Ladies often stroll through the parking lot and they are available for short-term friendship. We call them “ friends of the road”. Sometimes, when we can’t stop, we pee in Gatorade bottles and drive them out the window. We call those, “ trucker bombs”. Does the NZ trucking industry share any cultural similarities ?
Welcome to the Forums Always Learning! Glad to have you. Had a good friend in Costa Rica that was a Kiwi. He shipped in a leg of lamb for Christmas dinner that was without a doubt the best lamb I've had.
Kiwi helicopter pilots were highly regarded in the steep glacier country out of Stewart BC, they used Hughes 500d’s to longline diamond drill rigs onto drill pads we built into the mountain side.…a real pleasure to work with!
Wow, thanks everyone for your welcoming replies, I must say that this is definitely one of the most friendly responses to even an introduction that I’ve had from any type of forum I’ve joined since literally forever. I will have a look now and see if I can quote and reply individually to each of you, as I think that you all deserve it, and it keeps the different replies separate and individual as they should be… If I can’t make that happen then I’ll do a long post replying to you all but mentioned separately. Thanks again everyone, stay safe out there, remember the most dangerous kilometre or mile of a trip is the next one.
Thank you my friend, short and sweet but you were first.
Thanks skyking1, I will dig out some pics and show you how some of what I see as “day to day stuff” works, you’re quite right, I see what I do as so normal now, yet others that are highly experienced in other fields may have no idea how the heck a load of bales becomes a tube wrap. And there was a time when I didn’t know either. I call myself “always learning” because no matter what, we can all learn something from someone, even if it’s how not to do something. Your work on bridges for example is something I’ve never been involved in, but I love big stuff and am always keen to see what others may consider to be “another day at the office.”
Hi there in Canada, I hope you’re starting to defrost over there just as our autumn is starting, although our winter is nowhere near as complaint-worthy as you guys n gals endure each year, I’m grumpy in a frost, so I don’t think Canada is for me haha. The western start I had (drove not owned) was about a 1997 with around 560hp cat engine (from memory) rigid 4 axle truck, and drill rigs are top heavy to start with, as here in nz we have to have a casing hammer in the mast too, we can’t drill open hole like 90% of the world due to our free running river gravel. So 10-12ton mast plus a 4.5ton casing hammer box in there right at the top of a 4.6m high load on air bags,,, (max height without permit in nz is 4.3m now, including lashings) certainly made it fun for me to Lear how to drive road ranger at the tender age of 19, but that thing was ex road train from Australia with gross combined mass in f 90ton, and would still pull 130kph up a gentle incline before I would feel a little squiggly in my pants and slow down, especially being single steer.. Thanks again for your reply
Hi there. Thank you for the welcoming in my friend. I was 19 for a few weeks still when my eldest was born, so I always knew I wouldn’t be too old before becoming a grandad, I was actually 36 when my lil grandy was born, , but she’s a delight, and way smarter than me n my boys (no t that they’re slugs, she’s just next level), normally see her every second weekend, I love being called poppa Jr, as my dad was already poppa, and the lucky wee girl has so many grandparents and great grandparents (due to separations ect), that we were running out of titles to choose from, plus my last name is McDonald so poppa Jr as a like a **** take on burger kings whoppa Jr. I love irony.
Hi there coaldust. Thank you, and do try to lay most things relevant out to start with and fill the blanks from there. As for the protocol questions, I’d have to get down on my knees and take one for the team on this one, as NZ definitely does not have the same level of infrastructure built for the trucking industry. We don’t go without, so to speak, but for 1 we would be well off grid if we were to trace for more than 2 hours without passing at least a couple of fuel options and they normally sell food, nothing as cool as burritos but can normally manage some average pastry meat pie at most times of the day/night or a mcds or kfc are often less than 1.5 hours apart. New cowboy boots would be a specialty shop, probably less designed for quick truck stops, and flip flops, or JANDLES, as we call them would be a standard stop at “the warehouse” or perhaps a k-mart equivalent for you guys, non of which would have a truck and trailer park any less than 10 minutes walk to the door. Unfortunately I couldn’t even tell ya where to could get a willie Nelson cd or any cd for that matter, I don’t even think we can buy automotive stereos with cd players these days, all Bluetooth and usb plug, but between me and Apple Music, we are always jamming some cool tunes on the road. As for friends of the road, that’s a negative sorry thunderbird, They legalised that stuff in cities a few years ago now so that’s more for town hoppers in the licensed premises, Our country is probably too small to justify a market for it for truckies, as even line haulers would be home every second day and the lady in charge would smell a rat lol. As for trucker bombs, they can double my wage if they want, but they’ll never tell me I don’t have time to stop and relieve myself, generally line it up with every 2 hours so I can “check my load” and have a quick ciggy too, (I don’t owner drive, so vehicles are no smoking zones) If it’s in a built up area, ya just make it look like you’re checking tire pressure while watering the gutter. Some things we do have is tinfoil /aluminium foil wrapped food heated on the truck exhaust manifold, Drive from the highest peaks to the seaside in less than a days drive, Train track crossings that still don’t have lights, Truckers (mostly) all help each other (letting you out in traffic or still able to stop and ask if you need help) Areas of no cell or radio coverage (I carry a personal satellite messaging device with SOS capabilities (gps located connected to emergency response coordinators)
Thanks mate. Yeah you can’t beat our lamb mate best thing you can do is get it directly from a mate. Don’t believe the international rumours about kiwis and sheep, that was mostly Australians that did that, and some real Deep South kiwis, but power by numbers australia made up a story and we got the blame, plus our Deep South kiwis are weird (even to the rest of us) And most of the rest of us normally only ever do to lambs we know are being exported.
One thing about kiwis mate,,, we will get it done, Give us a task, and if you don’t hear from us, it means it’s going well, we will call when it’s done or if something unexpected and out of our pay/decision grade crops up. Otherwise we will just deal with it and make the task a memory. One things for sure, unless you’ve worked with us before,,, never follow a kiwi, it’s not that we are mad enough to be considered suicidal, but mad enough to max the limits and following us blindly could be considered suicidal. If you know what we’re about to do, then follow close and do as we do, if it’s your first rodeo, then we may not be your best as a first leader/chaperone.
Right, I think I got everyone’s replies out. I humbly apologise if I missed anyone. Can anyone recommend the most suitable sub forum to ask question about, load binders, load restraints, tie downs, strops, ratchets, load anchors or any other name they may be know as in different countries. My question is specifically for bales of feed (grass, lucerne, straw, hay, baled silage) ect, so multiple individual units all needing to fall into the correct weight range for the restraints used. I know our law and what’s required, but there may be some experienced operators out there than can save me a strop or 2 per load, by way of load sharing with the restraints. Which over the course of a week, saves me a lot of throws and roll ups.
My daughter hiked the TA out there in 2019 and she carried one of those. Surprisingly, while she did lose coverage often, she was able to communicate with us most times through WhatsAp. Using regular texting feature of the phone did not work too well.
Peter informed me of the how shall I say "distaste" Kiwis had for Aussies. He passed away several years ago, I really miss him. As far as load restraints I would post it in the Equipment Moving Forum as it covers moving all sorts of stuff.
So you're saying that it's done, just not the ones you're going to eat. Tha kinda follows a saying we have here. "Don't **** where you eat." Seems like you guys are ok with it, if someone else is eating it. Sick bastards! Glad you're here
Very accurate, most of the time, as long as you’re still moving, you will get standard cell coverage off and on in some places, but if you happen to be stopped in one of those bad spots, then there will be good chance that a lot less than bugger all folks are about to head past you and check if you need a hand, Eg I had a delivery last week, 2hrs 40 mins from base yard. Full signal till 2hrs 5 minutes, no signal from there till arrival and it was marginal signal, when I left there, I made a boo boo, turned the wrong way and my unit lost traction at the bottom of a gully while trying to head up a rough gravel hill, I tilted the hoist, diff locks in, tcs off and multiple backups down the hill to try again, but no cigar, Nearest house was empty, jumped on the sat device, txt the man id just delivered to, and he came and pushed me up the hill so I could turn round and go back where I should have gone. (I brought him a box of beer with my next delivery) We can do a 3.5 hour trip to the West Coast, signal is patchy on the way, but a busy road by day if you need help, very quiet road at night and not many will stop at night, although probably only an hour of driving in a row with no signal, that’s a lot longer when you’re stopped.
Wouldn’t say we have a distaste for them,,, more just banter as far as I’m concerned, but the clowns do try to claim our actors, singers, and blame us for anything they do, plus they don’t correct anyone from overseas when they assume nz is a state of australia so, more like a love hate relationship,,,, meaning that we love to hate them,, haha…. Only ever turns into a fight if there is rugby involved,, the rest of the time, we will drink and laugh with those Aussie clowns all day long, just a neighbour that ya wish ya didn’t have, but also glad ya do, just in case some worse moves in.
Hey, denying it would only make me seem more guilty, but unfortunately I’m too ugly and even the sheep turn me down… (sad face) But those southern kiwis won’t take no for an answer and grab their Velcro gloves and make sure those sheep are well marinated for export…. Think about that next time the gravy is running down ya chin buddy… hahah.. All good banter my friend, I’d punch the bajebus out of anyone that does that to an animal, especially if youd claimed her first.
Hi Everyone. Greetings from South Africa. Currently I'm in the industry of repairing, rebuilding and maintaining Heavy Duty Earth moving machinery, and recently we've started up an engineering sector in the company where we do line boring and bucket repairs. Hope to get to know some of you better. Thanks.
Welcome bud! Any particular brand you favor, or whatever comes in next?
Thanks. I used to work for Bell Equipment for a number of years as a Technical trainer, of which I would train the technicians on Bell, John Deere, Liebherr and Bomag machines, so obviously you grow to like the brand above others. After leaving the company and starting up my own, I've learned a lot on other brand machines also. So far, my favorites would still be Bell, but in addition, I've grown to like Hitachi Excavators, ZX670, ZX870, EX1200, Komatsu Excavators, PC850, PC1250, Komatsu Rigid Dump Trucks, HD785's, HD465's, Komatsu Dozers, D155, D275, D375, D475's. At the moment we take in what ever work we can get, so a person gets to learn a lot on other machines that we may not have worked on before. At this moment we are busy with Line Boring on a Bell B30D's articulation, Line Boring on ZX670-5 boom and stick, Line Boring on a EX1200-3's boom, stick and Toggle link, hydraulic diagnosis on a different EX1200-6, electrical diagnosis on a Bell 315SK TLB and hydraulic diagnosis on a Cat D10T dozer.
So you make a proper introduction, click on post thread and create a new introduction for yourself. That way everyone will see it. I would copy n paste what you've already stated. Good luck and welcome