Just got home from the road. The new job is going well. I should have been doing this kind of trucking all along.
Have been hauling machines and equipment on drop-decks. A lot of farm machinery and diesel generators among other things. It's nice to just chain or strap down the load and haul it where it needs to go. No warehouses or appointments to deal with. The loads usally go to farm implement dealers, heavy equipment dealers, and job sites and they are glad to see you show up because they are needing whatever you are bringing them. A nice change from warehouses where they get hundreds of trucks a day and could care less.
I did have one rough experience friday up in WI. I hauled a load of steel I beams from Richmond, VA up to WI. When I went to unchain it, one of the chain binders was jambed against the load. Well, I was struggling to get my bar onto the handle of the binder when the binder suddenly released. Now, you have to understand that they are called "snap binders" for a reason. When the handle is released it snaps up with a tremendous amount of force.
When the handle snapped up my cheater bar (a solid steel bar about 4 feet long and 2 1/2 inches around) recoiled up right into my chin pretty damned hard. It dislocated the right side of my jaw and left a large goose-egg and cut on my chin. Luckily it didn't knock out any teeth. I quickly used my fist to jam my jaw back into place before swelling could set in and make it impossible to set. That hurt much worse than dislocating it in the first place.
All I can say is, I am glad that I can take a punch. Otherwise, it may have knocked me out cold. My jaw and chin are still sore, but healing up ok.
In the future I will be making a point of keeping my head (and the rest of me) out of the way of those damn binders.
Experience is a very effective teacher.