A bunch of useless crap
Published on April 25, 2006 By MasonM In Blogging
After delivering the broken down fire truck to the factory in Oshkosh today I loaded another fire truck heading for Scott AFB in IL near St. Louis. This presents particular problems as it's not only 10 feet wide but quite high, well over legal limits once loaded on the trailer.

Once I got it back here to the yard I had to make it less tall. I let most of the air out of the tires and used chains and binders to "squash" it down some. I got it down from 15 feet high to 13 ft 11" high. Best I could do, and good enough for the permits. Was a lot of work though. I kept expecting the chains to break at each crank of the binder. I put every ounce of strength I had into those last few cranks on each of the 6 binders and am feeling it now.

Once I had the thing down to the level I could manage I said "to hell with this" and went to drink a few brews. Enough fun for one day. I have two weeks of paper work to get done and turned in, and I'll finish it in the morning. Would be nice to get a paycheck at the end of next week. I haven't seen one in a couple of weeks because I just haven't managed to get the paperwork done. Should make for a nice check next week though.

Tomorrow morning, while I'm waiting for my oversize permits to come in, I'll finish the paperwork and get it turned in. FOr now I'm gonna rest after a rough day.

Comments
on Apr 26, 2006
Glad you made it...hope you get some rest..drive safe with that tall load!
on Apr 26, 2006
What is the legal height?  I know there are problems because of over passes, but have never heard of what the height limitation is.
on Apr 26, 2006
Dude!!!  I LIVE on Scott!!!!  Shoot me an email at dharmagirl69@gmail.com I'll give you my cell number.  Hopefully we'll be able to get together for coffee....
on Apr 26, 2006
Oh, and by the way - you're going to have to come through the Mascotah gate.  All commercial deliveries come through that gate.  It's on the far side of the flifghtline.  But, you'll find all that out soon enough anyway.
on Apr 26, 2006
Dharma, I thought that's the basse you are stationed at. It's why I put the name in the title.

Guy, max legal height without needing permits is 13'6". Max legal permit height without needing escorts is 14'. That's why we needed it below 14, so we wouldn't have to mess around with getting escorts.

Thanks, Tova.
on Apr 27, 2006
Well, I delivered the fire truck this morning. Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit with Dharma as I was supposed to pick up another load in St Louis. By the time I got there the load had cancelled so now I'm sitting at the truckstop waiting for another dispatch.

The folks at the motor pool who took delivery of the truck were like kids on Christmas. It was fun to watch them. They could hardly wait for me to detach so they could drive it off and play with it. A couple of them were up inside playing with all the gadgets before I even had the chains off of it.
on Apr 27, 2006
Guy, max legal height without needing permits is 13'6". Max legal permit height without needing escorts is 14'. That's why we needed it below 14, so we wouldn't have to mess around with getting escorts.


Gotcha! Thanks for the education.
on Apr 27, 2006
De nada
on Apr 27, 2006
The folks at the motor pool who took delivery of the truck were like kids on Christmas. It was fun to watch them. They could hardly wait for me to detach so they could drive it off and play with it. A couple of them were up inside playing with all the gadgets before I even had the chains off of it.


Boys and their toys!
on Apr 27, 2006
Wasn't just boys. The girls there were pretty excited about it too.