This and That

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking - just busy. Thought I'd clean out the camera on this post - nothing very scenic - just normal day to day stuff.

My company has really been expanding production for the past several years, and we've been purchasing more and more trucks - with Cormach knuckle boom cranes for delivery purposes. The standard model we've been using has been the 38000 E4, which has four extensions, has a boom length of close to forty feet, and can pick up 6k lbs at full extension. This is a 49000 E8, which will pick up another ton at four extensions, plus the boom is close to sixty five feet. That's a long way out there for a truck platform.

All the extension ends stacked. This thing is a monster.

This load was, if I remember correctly, twenty three feet wide. From a distance, it looked like a semi trailer being pulled down the road sideways. That seems a bit excessive to me, and I'd just as soon not haul something that wide.

Somewhere in the Texas Panhandle. I set those puppies  - four steel 12'x15' 300 bbl tanks and one fiberglass 12'x15' 300 bbl tank for water. This particular company uses this setup in this area - the water to crude ratio being pumped sets that for them. Some outfits have different setups. This same company uses "box" batteries north of Oklahoma City. Box batteries have two rows of tanks with a shared catwalk between them. I set one  a couple weeks ago that had four each crude and water tanks, but it was raining when I got done, and taking pictures was about the last thing on my mind after fighting mud and slime all day.

The ol' Binder rolls over 400k miles.

Speaking of the ol' Binder, here it is getting a bath at a Streakin' Beacon (Blue Beacon Truck Wash).

This was all but about three of our trucks, parked and waiting for Monday.

A little further out, so you can see my truck to the left. This shot kinda hides some clear in the back. We've also started buying Peterbilts instead of Kenworths, too.

Monday of this week at Goodland, KS. Winds were gusting over forty mph (and it got a lot worse), and it was snowing. Not much snow, just a lot of winds and slick roads. We were all headed west on I70, but it was not to be, since Colorado had it closed from the Kansas/Colorado state line into Denver because of the adverse weather conditions. Some of us ended up dropping our trailers and going back to the yard, and some stayed to attempt to deliver to Utah the next day. The trailer left of the Swift truck belongs to one of our competitors - he had dropped his load and headed to a motel already. All they make is fiberglass tanks, and their trailers are pretty lightweight. The wind was actually moving that trailer. I'd hate to have to pull that setup in a really heavy wind.

This is the load I have on now - I'll get back home around noon. I detest hauling this stuff - its coiled steel tubing. When I picked it up, it was all nice and uniform. All the company does is strap it and put little blocks for spacers in certain spots. I can get the damn things tight, go down the road a half mile, hit a rough spot, and the coils shift under the chains and get loose, as you can see here. I've already pulled over twice to tighten stuff up. I'll spend a while in the morning retightening everything, and maybe even have to stop a couple more times on the way home. I'm sure if I had some of the pipe haulers' goodies, such as some upright braces, I could drop those in strategic spots to help keep the coils from shifting. However, we don't carry that kind of equipment. I have no idea what we use this crap for in production, but if we never needed any more, it couldn't come too soon.

So, that wraps up the camera collection - see ya on the flip side, as us truckers say.