The Latest news with Me+

BigBusBob

Veteran Expediter
Driver
We're having a BOY!!! Due August 1st of 2007.

Also happening with me... Unfortunately I won't be attending the truck show, as much as I'd like to...
I've got a whole pile of shtuff goin' on.

Closing on my 5 acres in SC next week, then hopefully by May, the house will be out there - Yes, I'm so into wheels I'm having my house wheeled to my land! Ha! I crack me up!

2007 manufactured home (Double-wide),
2 full baths!!! and a dishwasher!
even gettin' a fridge with a built-in Ice Maker!!!!
3 bedrooms. 1,200 sq. foot.

I'm "off" the road currently, driving a Cement mixer in upstate SC.
I did it briefly last summer for a different cement co. before being called out on the road to do some private bus work.

I'd stay in the bus work, but, and I know I've said this before - it's too seasonal. I'm making changes in my life for my Boy. The bus biz has been good to me, I've gotten paid to see what most would have to take time off to see. I'd love to continue to do private bus work, but the marketing of the private coach I ran just isn't being done enough to keep me busy. Soooo, upstate SC sees me pouring cement again, mostly slabs, walls, and driveways.
The rest is a mixture of projects.

This co. I'm on with now is a 2 year old co., that so far gives me hours and plenty of over time.
The plant is new, and the equipment is also new.
They're a good bunch, they have 10 trucks, 4 are front discharge, the other 6 are rear discharge. I'm having a boy. I drive a rear discharge mixer, a 2005 Mack with drop down tag axle, that holds 10 yards. Anything over 3 yards onboard you gotta drop your tags.
Most of the time we're hauling 8 to 10 yards.
The truck is nice, a 9 speed with CD player in it! I have air conditioning and heat this time around too!!! I'm movin' up!

The front discharge mixers are neat, their fleet doesn't have tag axles on the front discharge units, so they can't run the interstates with too much on them. They're cool though, with allison automatics in them. Their operators can do almost everything right from the cab of the truck. By the way, I'm having a boy. They can't add additional chutes from the cab, but they can manuever the chute anywhere from the cab - and also from outside the cab as well. But they run them fronts hard, because they're very manueverable - they say they can out manuever a rear discharge unit. Many construction sites request the front discharge units because of their manueverability.

Personally, I like the rear discharge units. They're a bit more work, they can't turn to get out of their own way - but I get to do alot of off-road driving - so far I've slid sideways in 3 different backyards and 1 warehouse site. They're all power, with low reduction you don't even need to touch the throttle - they just crawl over and thru anything. Did I mention I'm having a Boy?. That's what's goin' on with me so far... I miss the big road, but I'm 30 now - married with a Boy on the way, but I've gotten to drive commercially thru all 48 states in tour busses and 18 wheelers (and an expediter straight truck)... I've seen Ontario and Quebec, Canada extensively, and NYC and DC extensively. I miss the road, but I still get a taste of it... I have a 35 mile commute. That's something... goin' from 500+ mile days to basically less than 200 total - with the commute.

There is cool side note - there's a total of 13 guys that I work with - the plant manager, and 2 owners, and 1 yard man... all have kids except 2 drivers... and 5 of the guys used to drive OTR like I did. So we're all able to relate for the most part.

That's what's goin' on with me.

BigBusBob
 

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
Wow - a cement truck driver who's walking on air, lol - sometimes I crack me up! Congratulations to Mr & Mrs BigBus, sounds like you've got a wonderful future, and I'm sure you'll come up with a better name for the lil feller than 'boy'...;)
 

mcbride

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
Congratulations Bob!

I have secretly always wanted to drive a cement truck...one of the red and white ones. I am serious!

-mcbride-
--What goes around comes around--
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Congratulations Triple B. How about calling your son Mini Bus Bob. Or perhaps Moot.
 

Pappy

Expert Expediter
Congratulations on the SOON TO ARRIVE BOY! I know you're very proud.
Even better is the fact the child will have a new home and it too will be located in GODS country!

I, too, changed jobs---I went with Paper Cutters on hwy 25 by pass in Travelers Rest. Finally, a company that wants you to drive by the book---along with a new KW with a 500 hp Kitty. No drop and hook, home 3 to 4 nights a week, great hourly pay and fantastic benefits!

Pappy
:) :) :)
 

pelicn

Veteran Expediter
Congratulations on the new baby, ...it's a boy isn't it? :7 ...the new job and the new house.
 

babs3361

Expert Expediter
Congrats!!!! you forgot to close with YOU ARE HAVING A BOY!!!! That is great... Good luck to Mrs. Bus and You. Oh by the way you are having a boy. You arn't to excited are you couldn't tell for sure.
 

fastman_1

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Congrats!!!!!!! on the soon to arrive Dependent, Cool Thing about a House on wheels if you don't like your Neighbors its easy to Move. Now I'm cracked up.







































Owner/Operator since 1979
Expediter since 1997
B Unit Semi Retired
Somedays are Diamonds and Somedays are Stones
Home is Wherever you Park.
The Price of Freedom is Written on the Wall.
 

davekc

Senior Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
Hey Bob, congrats on all your recent good fortunes.







Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator
 

RichM

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
Congrats and good luck Bob to you and the lady doing all the work.Sounds like life is treating you well. Thanks for all the advice last fall.
 

Tennesseahawk

Veteran Expediter
Congrats, Bob!!! Hey... if you call him Mini Bus Bob, wouldn't that be the same as calling him Mini Me? ;)

-Vampire Super Slooth Trucker!!!
 

BigBusBob

Veteran Expediter
Driver
The Process...

Thank you... to All...

Multiple stuff in this reply...

McBride, driving a cement mixer is a very different kind of vehicle... it's not really like a tanker, and it's not at all like a drybox... mainly because of that spinning drum with a very adjustable speed - both forward and backwards... when you reverse the drum and spin it down towards the road on the drivers side, it discharges. That's fine if you're not loaded, but not fine when you are. The main thing I like is the off road driving and tight manuevering you end up doing.

Everybody tells me: you're close, you're close... I tell them it ain't close til the driver says it's close. Try Elizabeth St. in NYC, north of Canal St., at nite when you're 45 foot long, and there's cars parked on both sides of you... that's close. I think that was the tightest manuevering ever, next to backing up 5 miles on the side of a mountain in NC... then there's I-70 to Fair Play, CO with the 18-wheeler... with two (2) "Hair Pin" Turns - Not Curves... Turns. The drop lot I had to do a drop and hook at once up in WI was really tight, and the snow and ice on the ground didn't make it any better. The time I decided to run from Davenport, Iowa (Walcott's Iowa 80) to Lincoln, NE was eventful in the snow thru the middle of the nite. Did the same thing from Boise, ID to Salt Lake City... I was glad to see that tiny J bird that morning!

You really have to read alot of different hand signals in cement truck driving... because you deal with mostly non-english speaking Mexicans (That's what many cement finish crews are who direct you in) - but they all seem to vary slightly with their hand signals. Then when you get to a site where they speak english, you're so happy, you're almost confused.

Anyways, Pappy, that sounds like a sweet deal up in TR (Travelers Rest, SC)... how big is their fleet and can you take the rig home? I imagine you probably live close to the terminal up there... that's about an hour up the road fir me - maybe 75 to 90 min. depending on traffic and the route.

I was at the manufactured home dealer today where I ordered our home from... the home is "on the line" and will be ready March 29th.
That even surprised them... it's being built "Wheely fast"!!
Ha, there he goes again!.

However, the site has to be prepped for the house... due to it going up onto a brick foundation... there will be footers poured (not sure if I'll be pouring them or not), and the home has to be put in place... then somehow it will be tied down by metal straps. That way we don't end up with a Wizard of Oz Effect when a tornado comes along. Ya, right. Then they brick up around the base of the house to make it look like it never rolled to the site. The inside has a flat ceiling, so you won't be able to tell where the house splits.

There's a bunch more that has to happen...

The county comes out and puts in a steel or concrete culvert in the ditch by the roadway, and puts gravel over it, then covers it with blacktop to make our entrance onto the main road... free... thanks to our tax dollars.

The county electric co-op comes out and brings electicity to from the powerlines on the main road "to" the meter box at the house - that an electrician put up. The key word there is "TO"... the electric co. won't hook up a meter box... they only run power to the box. The electrician will be the one who installs the meter box, and actually hooks power up to the box, and then to the house.

Believe it or not, the county won't put the culvert out there or anything until the house actually on the site... why? Because they want to see the house out there and make sure there's a residence out there. They'll make it about 16 foot wide by approximately 12 foot long.

A well is being drilled, and a septic tank is being installed.

I'm having 2 dump truck loads (about 40 to 45 tons) of gravel dumped to make the drive way... why not cement... gravel is about $1,800 to over $2,200 less money. I am having (eventually) a cement pad poured for a garage.

Once the house it out there, it'll be about 2 to 3 weeks (Depending on the weather) before it can be lived in... due to various work indoors and outdoors that has to be done.

Well, that's it for now... Later, Bob.
 
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