Greetings drivers. Let me reinforce to you that we here at acourtesyflush do not represent the "mainstream" truckers press. Been there, done that, as the saying goes. I have little or no respect for "those" folks. I do not trust them. And, I don't think you should either. My personal experience with "them" was, needless to say, disappointing. That's why you're here on this site reading this. We aren't going to bullshit you. We don't "sugar coat" anything. We don't play golf with management, we are not in the pocket of advertisers and we don't go on those little paid junkets paid for by manufacturers like Kenworth. What you read here is written on the road by truckers on the job. And, most importantly, this being Friday night, we are still on the road, not at home with our family, not fishing or hunting or going out to dinner and the movies. Today, we have been on the road for 22 days. We are not scheduled to be home until the 24th of this month for the holiday. The cute "travel center" press has no clue. They never will. And you know it.
Item #2 - What is it with all these rebates? I don't have time to screw around with filling out and mailing rebates. And the "sneaky" manufacturers are counting on that. One wonders how many of these rebates are actually claimed. I will not buy anything that is not discounted up front. $5 off Diesel Klean is from a mail in rebate. A Delphi XM satellite radio costs you $39.99 AFTER a $40 mail in rebate! A Cobra Nav One model 2500 GPS is $299.97 AFTER a $100 rebate. A $100 rebate - are they kidding? Take the $100 off at the register!
Item #3 - $8 for Gorilla tape. No way. T/A has a $6 version which is smaller than the more expensive version. I'll stick with "regular" duct tape. If Gorilla lowers its price, then I'll buy it. I've written about this before - I'm bringing it up again because I saw it (again) inside the store after dinner. I'm annoyed every time I see something so grossly overpriced.
Item #4 - We saw a multi-band 800 mhz trunk scanner - used only once - on E-Bay. We've had nothing but bad luck buying anything on E-Bay. The bidding was hovering around $80. We checked back and the final bid was $160. With shipping you would do better just buying the damn thing new or on sale.
Item #5 - If I read one more truck review written by someone who has no clue what's it's like to work and live on the road, I'm gonna puke. I drive the 2007 soccer mom version of the KW T600. In the next few days, we'll present a real-world no BS review of this equipment. One thing that really bothers drivers me is what to do with all the damn wires we need for all the equipment that does not come with the truck. I want to ask the Kenworth designers where do "they" expect us to put our cell phone, cb, compass, toaster, microwave, laptop, printer, Qualcom, canned goods, water, clothes, antennas, paperwork, guides and maps and more.
Lastly, we drove 52.8 miles today from the T/A off I70 in Foristell, MO to the shipper to load and then back to the T/A. The majority of the day was spent securing and tarping high value - right off the line - manufactured product. A hot shower, good meal with lot's of ice tea was all we had in mind when the last bungee cord was secured. Tomorrow morning, we're headed to W. Richland WA.
