The company I work for does oil changes for semis and when the camper business was booming 06/07 we were doing these hot shot trucks six or seven a day, abnormal in a Shop built for semis. There were plenty of those guys running what looked like a clapped out 94 dodge 3500 but even with 700k on them they were very well taken care of. Didn't see many Chevy trucks, almost all dodge and some fords.
This will be a great fit for you I think.
chiodos wrote:Carro Atrezzi wrote: This whole idea of hotshotting an 8 year old half beat to death GMC for a living is Berking Awesome!Half beat to death? 227k is only just over quarter beat to death!
I'd say hardly a quarter beat to death, maybe an 1/8 
. This truck is actually in exceptional shape, aside from dents and scratches.
I've only replaced wear items so far and still have PM related stuff to take care of, but it's been good so far.
In reply to chandlerGTi:
The Dodges are really are the winners in this industry no matter how anyone plays it out, but there are plenty of the GM twins and Fords. I actually see more GMs and Dodges than I see Fords.
How's the work been?
Where have you traveled to?
It's been good. I've taken 3 trailers so far. I've been to Wentzville MO, Byron GA and Syracuse NY.
I purchased a backseat air mattress for the truck:
I've tried sleeping on the backseat and it's not comfortable by any means with a person of my size. I'm not making enough money yet for me to stop at hotels for the night. So far the pay has been pretty good though.
Fuel consumption hasn't been horrible. The biggest trailer I've pulled is a 5800lb (Dry Weight) 31ft trailer. I got a little over 13 mpg. I average about 20 mpg unloaded. By best tank was 577 miles from 29 gallons of fuel which comes out to 19.8 mpg.
so over a week you've had three trips?
Do they pay fuel or do you have to negotiate a trip to cover it? (i.e. do they pay your fuel costs like an expense or do you have to bid high enough to cover your fuel costs and make money?)
Do you bid for work? I figured it is a pre stated or pre negotiated rate per mile.
No bidding. They tell you what they have available, first come first served. There is already a set payment per mile. It ranges from 1.18 to 1.35 depending on the size of the trailer.
I have to pay for my own fuel, so I want to make sure my run is long enough to cover my fuel costs.
I also can pick up back hauls, I haven't yet, mainly for the reason they have never been near me and it would be a waste of fuel. They usually don't pay as well.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: It's been good. I've taken 3 trailers so far. I've been to Wentzville MO, Byron GA and Syracuse NY.
Hey, Byron! I'm only about 15 miles south east of Byron. If you make another run down here and need a place to crash overnight or some assistance, give a shout. There are a bunch of dealerships there. It seems to be the RV hub of I-75 in Georgia.
In reply to ultraclyde:
Well that's good to know. My buddy who lives in Smyrna is moving to Cali in September and it's nice not to have to sleep in my truck or save money on a hotel room.
Got my air mattress today. Filled it up, tried it out. Definitely more comfortable than the backseat by itself. Still gotta sleep in the fetal position, but at least I won't kill my hip.
I may need to put something under the front of it, but it didn't seem like I could roll forward.
Can you sleep in the camper?
I figure shoes off immediately and then a sleeping bag atop a still plastic wrapped queen sized mattress.
For the backhauls, are you set up with your own Uship account?
Are you aligned with multiple brokers?
Do you need a back seat? You could remove it and build a basic platform that would fit a foam mattress (or custom cut down 5 inch mattress topper). The underside could be left open for storage.
JohnRW1621 wrote: Can you sleep in the camper? I figure shoes off immediately and then a sleeping bag atop a still plastic wrapped queen sized mattress. For the backhauls, are you set up with your own Uship account? Are you aligned with multiple brokers?
That's a gray area. One company rep said yes, one said no. I get dinged for trailer damage. I'd rather stay out of the trailer.
As for back hauls, the company provides backhauls. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be moved around, but you have to determine if it's a waste of time, because some runs you don't really make a profit. I will pick one up at some point, all the ones I have had offered are way out of the way.
Part of the contract with the company I'm with is that I can't be contracted with another company (most of them are like this). For now that is fine because I'm new at this and it's just to much hassle for me at the moment. I have also been told by other drivers that have done other Hot Shotting jobs that UShip can either be your best friend or a complete joke depending on what you are hauling.
logdog wrote: Do you need a back seat? You could remove it and build a basic platform that would fit a foam mattress (or custom cut down 5 inch mattress topper). The underside could be left open for storage.
Youre not the first to comment on that and that would be considered a Sleeper Berth and it has to be DOT compliant and by compliant, I mean it has to be a kit that has been approved by DOT. It also involves gutting your doors and making your rear windows stationary. Totally not worth the hassle.
So I haven't really updated in a while because I have been busy but basically I'm still having a power down issue with the truck in the mountains. I need to find someone who owns a real scanner so I can find out what the codes actually are since my $50 Harbor Freight special can't seem to read diesel specific codes.
The brakes were also starting to worry me, so I replaced all the brake pads. Rotors still had a lot of meat and were smooth, so I just roughed them up. I went with Ceramic. They have proved to me that they can take abuse and handle it.
Finally figured out how to remove the air filter. You actually have to remove the entire airbox with the filter still in it, take off the end cover and pop the filter out with a screw driver.
Last but not least, I acquired my trailer today. I unfortunately had to leave it at my grandmas because the tires are shot (two of them have bad leaks and none of the wiring works. The deck looks solid and the frame needs to be painted. The trailer is 25 years old, so it needs some work. Luckily the deck is solid. Needs a new jack too. The one on there gave up the ghost.
This is the condition I found it in.
Big Red had no problems pulling it out, but due to the soft peat like soil on my grandmas property, I put it in 4WD anyways. All four tires aired up fine, but they are all dry rotted. One tire had a a dry rotted valve stem, so it was leaking and the other was hissing away.
Took the implements off and swept the years of fern matter off the deck. Doesn't look half bad.
Try taking good it by auto zone or advance. Most of them can read codes on cars, dunno on diesels though
In reply to ultraclyde:
Unfortunately, when it goes into limp mode in the middle of the interstate, I need to delete the codes and get back on the highway. Both times its done it to me, I've been pulling a trailer and its after I've been climbing hills for a while.
The torque app and a bluetooth dongle won't read them either?
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to ultraclyde: Unfortunately, when it goes into limp mode in the middle of the interstate, I need to delete the codes and get back on the highway. Both times its done it to me, I've been pulling a trailer and its after I've been climbing hills for a while.
Seems to be the car is trying to tell you what's going on. Could the transmission be overheating? (or you're getting a transmission fluid temp too high therefore limp mode?) Slipping converter or something?
(i.e. lack of pulling power.)
Mad_Ratel wrote:SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to ultraclyde: Unfortunately, when it goes into limp mode in the middle of the interstate, I need to delete the codes and get back on the highway. Both times its done it to me, I've been pulling a trailer and its after I've been climbing hills for a while.Seems to be the car is trying to tell you what's going on. Could the transmission be overheating? (or you're getting a transmission fluid temp too high therefore limp mode?) Slipping converter or something? (i.e. lack of pulling power.)
I'm pretty sure it's not the trans, it stays well below 200 degrees and doesn't give me any typical transmission issues. It's something with the fueling. I know this truck has a dirty tune. The last time it did this it gave me a low fuel rail pressure code. The I think the engine is pushing more fuel in faster than the pump can keep up, hence the rolling of coal,
ouch. someone did a tune w/o upgrading the HPFP? no bueno.
coal is usually pig rich my friend. Sounds like maybe some Fuel Regulator is dieing? (If it has a fuel pressure sensor, and it's gone bad, it'll dump fuel in trying to mete the requirements and then the o2 sensors will report too rich? )
just thinking in text.
In reply to Mad_Ratel:
Yeah I'm going to set up an appointment to get my truck into a local Diesel Performance shop to see if they can figure it out. This is out of my league.
So I think I may have found what is going on with my A/C.
My mechanic friend and I diagnosed the system and it does in fact have a full charge. After some troubleshooting, it looks like the clutch isn't getting a signal from the ECM, because it kicked on when we bypassed the relay, which is good, but not receiving voltage.
After some research, it looks like with certain tunes, it shuts off the functionality the A/C in the ECM. Apparently there are several people that have gotten tunes and lost the A/C in their truck.
More reason for me to get rid of this damn tune. At least if it doesn't fix the A/C issue, I have at least gotten rid of one of the possibilities.
I'm going to call a dealer tomorrow and get a quote on reflashing the ECM back to factory specs. I'm not sure if a diesel performance shop can do that.
So the diesel performance shop suggested I take my truck to the dealer to get reflashed stock.
I called the dealer and they said $125 to reflash it. Not horrible, so I guess I know what I'm doing this week.
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