The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Transmission Talk: Manual vs. Automatic in the Trucking World
Ever wondered why trucking companies choose certain transmissions over others, or what happens when a specialized truck manufacturer goes out of business? In this captivating episode, we dive deep into the world of commercial truck operations with a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at custom truck maintenance challenges.
Patrick shares a compelling story about a unique problem facing their fleet: custom fairings for their reefer unit trucks have begun deteriorating after the manufacturer, Premier Customs, went out of business several years ago. The solution? A hands-on approach involving salvaging existing parts and working with Bolt Custom Trucks to reverse-engineer replacements using aluminum that will be more durable than the originals. This glimpse into the practical problem-solving required in fleet management demonstrates the unexpected challenges that arise when specialized manufacturers disappear.
The conversation shifts to an informative breakdown of transmission technology in commercial trucks, with Patrick explaining why Hyfield exclusively uses automated transmissions rather than traditional manuals. You'll get a comprehensive education on the evolution from early Eaton AutoShift systems that required partial clutch use to today's sophisticated 12-speed automated transmissions that communicate directly with the engine computer for optimized shifting and fuel economy. The team explores the trade-offs between the butter-smooth Allison automatics (with their poor 5-6 mpg fuel efficiency) versus the slightly rougher but significantly more economical automated manuals that deliver 10-11 mpg.
We also discuss Louisiana's new aggressive left lane law that fines drivers going just one mile under the speed limit when in the passing lane, and celebrate the opening of a new Love's Travel Stop in West Jefferson, Ohio that brings much-needed truck parking and services to the area. These real-world updates highlight how regulations and infrastructure directly impact the day-to-day operations of trucking companies.
Whether you're a trucking professional, transportation enthusiast, or simply curious about the complex world of commercial fleet operations, this episode offers valuable insights into the technical, regulatory, and practical aspects of keeping America's freight moving. Share your thoughts on these topics or your own trucking experiences by emailing theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com!
Email us: theouterbeltpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.hyfieldtrucking.com
Interested in joining our team? Email us at info.hysg@gmail.com we have open trucks! You must be part of a team. No solo drivers.
Call us at 1-833-493-4353 Option 1
Facebook: The Outer Belt Podcast
Instagram: The_OuterBelt
Let's do it. Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt. I'm Patrick and you know my friends Tone Loke.
Speaker 3:Butter Milk.
Speaker 4:Eric.
Speaker 3:Zucchini Bread and Jerry.
Speaker 1:Well, clearly today's going to be a day. We want to welcome you back to the show. Tone, look how has your day been today. Because we didn't get a chance to see you today, me and Eric went to the yard, we worked, we did things and I didn't, and you didn't, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I took the day off today.
Speaker 1:How was it? It was a day off Nice. Did you get any snuggles in with Annie?
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 5:I barricaded myself in the basement. Usually I go down there and I don't close the door to the top of the steps. Yeah, but today I did, I get that yeah that way I wouldn't irritate Melissa with what I was doing in the basement.
Speaker 1:Or vice versa, because she talks on the phone all day. Right, she does talk loud.
Speaker 2:She talks a lot.
Speaker 5:Loud, loud. You're a loud talker.
Speaker 2:I am a loud talker.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Her voice carries, you know so.
Speaker 1:Which is better than being a soft talker, right.
Speaker 5:It is better than being no? I don't think so, I guess in her line of business.
Speaker 1:It is better me think of that Seinfeld episode, agreeing to the puffy shirt. It's a great episode. Anyways, Dawn, where are you? I need you.
Speaker 2:It was a good episode.
Speaker 1:She's like I've never seen it, but I'm going to agree.
Speaker 2:I've seen it, I'm a Seinfeld girl.
Speaker 1:Are you?
Speaker 2:Yep, we've had that discussion before.
Speaker 1:We have. I should take better notes.
Speaker 2:At any rate, yes, a loud talker, I think, is better than a soft talker.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree. At least we can hear what you're saying. Today, Eric and I went out to the yard and we have, as you all know, we have a bunch of trucks With different type sleepers. We have Bolt sleepers, which is out of Fort Wayne, indiana. We have ARI sleepers out of Shipshawanda.
Speaker 4:I still need to go there and see it.
Speaker 1:We do, which is out of Fort Wayne, indiana. We have ARI sleepers out of Shipshawanda. Yeah, I still need to go there and see it. We do. We need to make a road trip, we do and take some video and maybe be an outer belt on location or something.
Speaker 6:Yeah, sure, it would be fun.
Speaker 1:And then we have a bunch of AA sleepers Now, aa out of Texas. They have discontinued making the large sleepers but they out of Texas. They have discontinued making the large sleepers but they are still in business and they do still provide us with service, which is very handy. And then the smallest category of sleepers we have is Premier Customs out of Texas. Unfortunately, about a year and a half ago, two years, ago maybe two and a half years ago.
Speaker 1:They went out of business during that COVID time. Wow, covid was five years ago, yeah, but I think they hang on for a couple years and then went out.
Speaker 1:It may be more than two and a half years. I could be getting my times wrong. Our most recent one would be like 2021. So three or four years. Yeah, you're right, it's been a while. They unfortunately went out of business and the good news is the majority of the parts in service were able to get done at either AA or Bolt or wherever, and it's not a big deal. But we had a unique problem on some of our reefer units. Well, all of our reefer units have these. They have these little. The sleepers are notched out. We've talked about that before how the?
Speaker 1:sleepers are notched out and the reefer unit goes over into that notch. On the sides of that notch they have these little fairings. They're just these little faux pieces of aluminum or fiberglass that hide the reefer unit and keep that static of the body of the sleeper going. And also the aero and the aerodynamics yes, keep the wind blowing down the side of the truck instead of getting caught in there and causing drag. We had one that flew off. It's missing. We don't know where it's at it's gone yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we have several others that are just not in great shape. Like you can tell, the fiberglass is getting old. There's starting to be little tears and rips where the bolts go through and stuff. They had to be taken off. When they work on the reefer unit they're on and off quite a bit. We need to replace them, which is common, but that is a custom-made part that nobody else has. We had to actually go grab a truck, get both sides of those fairings off and tomorrow I'm bringing them out to Bolt Custom Trucks in Indiana and they are going to reverse engineer them and create us new ones out of aluminum and get us a bunch of spare sets so that, as these fly off or need replacing because they just look bad, we can finally do that.
Speaker 5:So by reverse engineer you mean that somebody's seven-year-old kid, who is coming to work with their parent because they're out of school for the summer, is going to sit down with it on a piece of paper and take a magic marker and outline it right. Well, yes, basically.
Speaker 1:So because we're getting made out of aluminum, they're going to be stamped, okay and so, because that has to be thrown in a CAD, so they have to like and it's not a one-dimensional part.
Speaker 4:It's a three-dimensional part.
Speaker 1:It has curves and stuff. So they have to actually go through and upload all that into the CAD software and then make one and then verify it's identical to the one that we're giving them as a sample.
Speaker 5:So they're going to have somebody's 10-year-old kid who's out of school for the summer, come in, give them a digitizer and have them go through and digitize everything and then they're going to make us a bunch and enamel coat them, paint them and get them back to us so that we can.
Speaker 1:That's going to be fun, it will be nice, it will be very nice. I hope it's done relatively soon. They didn't really give me a lead time so we'll see.
Speaker 5:Paint timing, a paint booth is a little tricky. Sometimes it is with them.
Speaker 1:We're hoping we can get these back in a pretty quick turn. But yeah, I'm excited that we are going to be getting these done and have some spare parts for that, Because it's a little bit of concern when you've got something. That's that custom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's of concern when you've got something that's that custom. Yeah, there's not many parts on the truck that are that custom. No, there really aren't. Most of the stuff. Like if you were to hit a God forbid hit a bridge and put a crease in it, you could just like a fiberglass. That's super easy. That kind of repair is easy. This is a freestanding, independent part.
Speaker 5:It's a one-off part.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about getting that done, but that's what we had to take care of today, and Eric got a chance to ride a truck, which he hadn't done in how long? How long has it? Been since you've ridden a truck A good bit. A good bit, that's an industrial term, it means a long time ago, and so yeah, prior to PCS going out of business, it's my guess I would bet that's pretty accurate. Yeah, uh, and then sounds like a fun day me being in a truck.
Speaker 4:Who's PCS?
Speaker 1:that's funny, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty busy day. Got to do uh orthodontist appointment. Uh finally got an update on the timeline of these braces.
Speaker 1:Nice, and that update is, we'll finally got an update on the timeline of these braces. Nice, and that update is we'll see. He did say that he, for the first time ever since I've been going to this orthodontist, he finally was like I know we're in overtime and kind of a little longer than we planned, but you know we're making good progress and things are coming together nicely. So you know we're just going to keep going at it. Nice, so I have no, we're just going to keep going at it.
Speaker 5:Nice.
Speaker 1:So I have no idea how long until this is done.
Speaker 5:So I actually had a good day today. I'm working on a new something or other that I'm not ready to talk about, but I got to do some work on that today, cool, you know. So it was a good day. I barricaded myself in the basement, did some messing around and then did some research. But I did some other stuff too that I'm not prepared to talk about, but yeah, it was a good day.
Speaker 1:Well, that's exciting. I know projects you keep me pretty well in the dark too about it, so I know those kind of projects are exciting.
Speaker 5:I've kept even Melissa kind of in the dark about progress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that was weird, though. You actually brought her into the basement with all the lights off, you walked her in, you turned her around and you took her right back out. So, it's like you didn't give her a chance for the eyes to adapt or anything. You actually had her in the sun, had her sit outside in the sun and then walked her down.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I made her put shoes on too, so she couldn't feel around the floor with her feet.
Speaker 1:Appropriately, yeah, appropriately, appropriately. And then the giant pieces of foam that she had to walk on just to really throw her off, Just to really throw her off. At least it Ooh that's good in the basement.
Speaker 5:That was under the phone.
Speaker 1:Put some visqueen.
Speaker 5:It was kind of weird, though, and I put the handkerchief over her face and I said does this? Smell like chloroquine?
Speaker 1:She said no, it smells like hydrogen peroxide.
Speaker 5:I poured the wrong bottle. Wow, that sounds really bad. I would not do that to Melissa. We're just teasing, that's okay.
Speaker 2:We're just teasing, that's okay, we're just teasing, that's okay. I know you are All in good fun. Got it Jerry Only because I'm probably the only person in the world that Googles. Where do you buy chloroform?
Speaker 5:No, there are others. There's others. Only person in the room. Morbid curiosity Only person in the room.
Speaker 2:Well, I listen to a lot of podcasts and I watch a lot of true crime, and then I watch a lot of not true crime, which is where it spurred my interest. I was watching Criminal Minds episode and the guy used it on the lady and I'm like where are people in general just buying chloroform?
Speaker 1:They do make it sound like you can buy it like Scope. They do, they really do. So I was curious and I Googled it the other day I get you 10% off at CVS. Yeah Well, it's literally like you can go to CVS and you're like, all right. Listerine Scope, chloroform.
Speaker 5:Aqua.
Speaker 1:Aquanet, aquanet. Thank you, aqua.
Speaker 2:Velvet, which could almost be like Chloroform. It could be.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I know that I have to make sure the fan is on in the bathroom and everything when I put it on my hair.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I got to use a lot for this too, I believe it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I believe it.
Speaker 5:You know, too much will make your hair come out.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah Well, the more you know this has been your NBC spotlight moment.
Speaker 2:I had a personal appointment this morning and Vince drove me to it and afterwards we went and grabbed a quick coffee. It was at a location we've been to before and I really enjoy their coffee.
Speaker 1:The human bean.
Speaker 2:Some of you know. No, that's a two and a half hour drive in any direction, but Vince and I like to do coffee dates on the weekend, try to find new places that aren't major chain, and this is one that we've been to before. So we went and grabbed a quick coffee, yep.
Speaker 5:A little breakfast.
Speaker 2:A little breakfast and then back at it. I think I was back in front of my computer by like 930. Maybe 9. Cool, so yeah, just answering people's phone calls, all their questions.
Speaker 1:Yep, I had a flight lesson this morning. They got canceled, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Ah, that sucks yeah. How was?
Speaker 1:yesterday's Yesterday's got canceled because of me. I canceled it actually.
Speaker 2:So I still went in and did a ground.
Speaker 1:Okay, I did some. I'm in my final preparations for my checkride, which checkride is like your final test to yes, you can be a pilot or you can't Go work on these things, right? So yesterday I went for my annual doctor's checkup. Is that what it's called? Okay?
Speaker 1:Your physical, yeah, annual physical that my insurance has us do. The last thing we had to do, always everybody's favorite blood draw, and I hate getting my blood drawn. I'm just not one of those people that likes it. But you know, sometimes you get in there and the nurse, practitioner or whatever they are, the lab technician they're like I got you and they're like zoop, zoop. They're like grab this ball, pump a fist, how's your day been? You know what's going on with whatever. And then it's done, your blood's drawn. You're like, oh, my god, that was amazing. This was not one of those days. This was not, this was a. Which arm would you like it in? I was like this one. He's like okay, cool, whatever he goes looking for, he's like pump up your arm and I do the fist and everything. He's like fill it around. You ever had them touch a vein? And you can like oh, that's it.
Speaker 1:Like I can tell you found it. Yeah, and I'm like cool, he found it really quick and then he kept filling around.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 1:And then he kept filling around. Then he kept filling around, oh dear, and then he's like let's try the other arm and he pops that little thing off and wraps it on the other one. I'm like great, I don't like I'm right-handed, so he was going to the right arm. I'm like I don't like doing that, because that's what I write with and everything. And so he's like, all right, well, we'll give that a shot.
Speaker 6:And he's like oh, is it that much?
Speaker 1:better If you're still Really.
Speaker 6:I was super nervous.
Speaker 1:And then he finally Is like alright, got it. And he goes over there and I had my phone Sitting next to me and I moved it To the other side of me and he's like you can play on your phone If it helps, like I don't mind If people do that or whatever. And I, I don't like getting my blood drawn. So I'm like, as much as I would appreciate the distraction, I'd rather just look away and then, when it's done, it's done and boop, he goes in. And then halfway through I feel another ooh and I'm like, oh, did he not find a vein? It felt like he did. And then you hear him change the thing out. And then he pulls it out and he puts a little swab on it and he's like hold here now, hold here. And I'm like he's like all right, you're good. And then he goes and gets a Band-Aid to put on and he's like, by the way, he's like you kind of moved halfway through it or whatever. And I'm like BS, I didn't move, I was stoic.
Speaker 4:You know, I Same thing for me. I'm stone. I don't like this.
Speaker 1:I'm just doing. I'm like tense as it gets, I'm not moving. After I got in my car and again, I don't like getting needles and if you're listening to this and you do or don't, I'm sorry because I know the queasy feeling. I'm sitting in the car, not feeling great, but I'm like I just know this little air conditioning on the face and then I'll be good to go right. And while that's happening, it's like wow, it's actually starting to hurt. Like it wasn't hurting when I left, but now it's starting to hurt and I'm like what is going on? So I go on to the house and I texted my flight instructor. I'm like I would love to meet up for a ground today.
Speaker 1:My arm is killing me. There's no way I could fly this plane, because you do use your right arm a lot on the airplane. That's your throttle and everything you know, so you've got to have access to that At this point. It's really hurting. So I took a little Tylenol and then went and did the thing with him and, yeah, sure enough, this morning I wake up with a bruise and I'm like it's my first time ever getting a bruise from having blood drawn and the pain has subsided, but it's like. It's not pretty looking and it's frustrating, but Eric's going there in a couple days to get his blood drawn, so it'll be better.
Speaker 4:I think I'm going to schedule an appointment at the allergist blood draw place.
Speaker 1:I'll get her to draw the blood and I'll just drop it off at the doctor's the last time I got blood drawn was for allergies.
Speaker 4:She was great.
Speaker 2:I always. The last time I got ledron was for allergies. She was great. She was great. It's always awesome to use the butterfly needle. It's much smaller with the hose on it, and then they take the blood off the hose, not your arm Especially if they need more than one vial Vival.
Speaker 4:Vival, vival gone west.
Speaker 2:It's a significantly smaller needle when I did it at the allergist.
Speaker 4:they took like three files and I didn't even know it. It was done before I even thought about it.
Speaker 5:Is it part of the same health group?
Speaker 4:No, oh is it Ohio Health?
Speaker 1:No, this one's not. He's not part of Ohio Health, yeah, but we did get the bombshell too that this will be our last visit with the doctor, because in the fall he's moving to Toledo. So now it's like great, we're getting another doctor too. So you know, just a double whammy.
Speaker 5:I remember bragging to you how much I liked my doctor. I had the same problem. My doctor moved to a different clinic he's no longer part of Ohio Health so I liked him. He shot me straight. You know, he didn't BS me. I'd ask a question, he'd give me an answer or say I don't know and find me an answer. So yeah, I still haven't replaced him. I got to do that soon.
Speaker 1:Ours automatically. They're like we'll just automatically assign you someone in the group, and when I went to go make my appointment for the next year, she gave me the name of someone. I was like okay, whatever, if I don't like him, we'll change it again. That's a year from now, so we'll figure it out. But uh yeah, crazy stuff. This getting old and taking care of your body, stuff sucks.
Speaker 5:Not a fan. Wait till you get to Melissa's age.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, oh, he told me he's like well, alright, at 45 you get the colonoscopy and I'm like, oh, do we have to? He's like. And then at 50 he's like no, that's a long ways from now we don't even need to think about it how was your day?
Speaker 3:zucchini bread same old, same old yeah, y'all have to deal with the boob squeezer.
Speaker 2:That's right once a year what age does that start? It depends on what kind of health history you have in your family, but I think they recommend it. I think I did mine around 40-something. Yeah, I don't know what the Cancer Society or Breast Cancer recommends.
Speaker 3:I haven't been back.
Speaker 2:I do mine once a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We have health history, though in my family, of breast cancer.
Speaker 1:I remember my mom before she passed. We were chatting one day and she was like dreading going to Fort and I'm like what's? The big deal and she told me everything that happens and I'm like yeah, I wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not pleasant.
Speaker 1:That sounds horrible.
Speaker 2:I also think if you're more sensitive or don't have a high, or you don't got a lot or don't have a lot or high. You know your pain tolerance level isn't high. It's a significant squeeze. It's very uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I'm going to try and say this as delicately as I can, so that YouTube doesn't defund us.
Speaker 2:But she had a lot to squeeze. Yeah Well, and sometimes you know.
Speaker 1:So I think that was part of her thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh, no, yeah, I miss her.
Speaker 2:Jerry, how was your day?
Speaker 6:It was good. I too locked myself in the basement and worked on something that I'm not ready to talk about Nice.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, oh.
Speaker 6:Oh.
Speaker 3:Top secret talk, all these mysteries.
Speaker 6:Oh, no, I'm.
Speaker 2:Jerry's. Let's follow him on Twitter.
Speaker 3:In the basement.
Speaker 2:That's really the office, isn't?
Speaker 5:it, it is.
Speaker 2:For both of you. For me it's the office.
Speaker 1:yeah, Is it for both of you now?
Speaker 2:No, I mean for Vince and for Jerry. Oh, oh, oh, oh sorry, Different basements, but that's where their offices are.
Speaker 1:So if you don't know Jerry's Don, I thought maybe he moved in the basement with you. Okay, I was going to say, because that would be a lot, because he's on the phone.
Speaker 2:So is your secret project, personal or business.
Speaker 5:Business. Did you have mahogany delivered too?
Speaker 1:No, Just not ready.
Speaker 3:That was oak because it's business. Exactly there you go.
Speaker 6:Just not ready to announce it to the public, but something within Highfield that I've been working on for a while and I have gotten a lot of stuff done recently with the videos and different things. So 100% of my focus is now going on this and I'm not stopping until I get it done.
Speaker 3:Very exciting, exciting. So if you don't see a podcast, that's thrilling.
Speaker 1:So is Don working upstairs Like your old office Yep, is he during the heat? Yeah, yeah, jumping into the AC there yet.
Speaker 6:We are running the AC. We had to yeah this weekend. We're really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 6:By Monday 94. It's going to be 94 this weekend, Monday 90s over the weekend and Monday 94.
Speaker 1:It's going to be 94 this weekend, monday 90s over the weekend and Monday 94. How's the humidity going to be High? I had to Thank God y'all can't smell it, but where our studio is we had to bring the dehumidifier in Came into the studio. I guess it was maybe two or three days ago. I think it was two days ago and I was was like, oh no, I smell it like you know that if you have a basement and you know the mildewy, musty smell.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, this isn't good. Uh, so right now we're all smelling it. Uh, thankfully y'all aren't, but I I put the, the dehumidifier down there and like an hour in a it was like 70 something percent humidity and an hour in it filled the little bundle up. So it's like I've had to keep coming down here and dumping and dumping and dumping. Just try to get that humidity out of the air and get it back under control, because it's frustrating and it's so weird how, like we recorded here a week ago, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was totally fine. There's just been that much rain and humidity.
Speaker 2:That's come into this area. It has been humid. Yeah, rain and humidity that's come into this area. It has been humid, yeah, it hasn't produced much. Last night I think it did A little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of been sprinkling Rain, rain.
Speaker 5:It rained today.
Speaker 2:Oh it rained good today. Oh it rained good today.
Speaker 5:I went out to Gahanna.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was raining this morning.
Speaker 5:It was raining this morning. I went out to Gahanna about 12, 1230 and it came down On the highway. Everybody slowed down because it was coming down good.
Speaker 3:It wasn't raining at the yard. No, I talked to Mel and she said it didn't rain at the yard, it was just that strip, that center strip. When I got home, it was dry.
Speaker 5:They got nothing at the house.
Speaker 1:When I picked up that truck today, eric and I picked that truck up today at Fighter Freightliner. I picked up that truck today, eric and I picked that truck up today over at Fyder Freightliner. I guess that storm was moving at an angle, because it was. We got in that truck and it was pouring down rain.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Got on the interstate and the interstate's straight due west east rather, and we drove out of the rain and made the little clover leaf and it was on to 270 and it was dry, dry, dry, onto 270 and it was dry, dry, dry, past the yard, dry. And then we got up to, uh, cemetery not it's an actual cemetery, it's the road and, um, that's where thermo king is off of right and it was just pouring I mean like totally missed that section you told that's crazy because it was like it was bad pouring and I just like thinking the whole time.
Speaker 1:They're doing me a solid by removing these fairings and I'm showing up as it is pouring down rain. I mean monsoon. And as soon as we parked in the parking lot, the rain. We literally watched the edge of the rain leave.
Speaker 4:Isn't that cool.
Speaker 1:And then it was dry. And it was like well the road, I mean the ground wasn't dry but it wasn't raining anymore. It was. I was like, oh, thank God, we got here, literally just in time. And you know it takes those guys five minutes to pop those things off. But and then we drove back to Fida.
Speaker 3:So that's I didn't realize the yard didn't get any rain either. It like sprinkled, like seriously barely sprinkled, like got spit on oh wow.
Speaker 1:That's crazy Cats and dogs. I mean, it was just.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and those windshield wipers.
Speaker 1:They're not really rated for cats and dogs.
Speaker 5:They were meowed and barking Cats maybe but not cats and dogs.
Speaker 1:No, you got to have one or the other.
Speaker 6:Tomorrow night is supposed to be strong storms, possible tornadoes.
Speaker 1:No that's not good. So, no, that's not good, so I need to not dilly. I'm taking the truck out. To well, like you said, about to build tomorrow, I hope, our other contractors know about that too, yeah. Yeah, we have one of the buildings getting painted right now and they've been busting tail to get as much painted as possible.
Speaker 4:It was a great weekend for them to work.
Speaker 1:They didn't bother showing up at all today at all, yeah, so, oh, so much going on, so much going on. But we have to get to the news. It's what we do, it's what we have come prepared for. And I saw something that zucchini bread you sent to me and Eric, and it was interesting because it was about my home state.
Speaker 3:It was.
Speaker 1:And you said would this be appropriate? And I'm like, I think it's not only appropriate, but I'm excited about it and I think we need to talk about it. So if you would be so kind as to let us know what's going on in the great state of Louisiana.
Speaker 3:Louisiana.
Speaker 4:Or if you're from the south Lusian.
Speaker 3:So you know how you're driving down the road and you're in the left lane and there's somebody there just cruising blocking your path, can't get around them and they don't move over and they just sit there. That if you're going one mile, is it one mile under yeah, one mile under the speed limit in the left lane that you can get a ticket?
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:Yes, they used to do it before. It was 10 miles under before they would ticket yes, and now it's only one mile and it's up to $150. Fine, if you get stopped again, it's two times, it's 250, third offense 350 and possibly jail time up to 30 days.
Speaker 1:Wow, yes, so that'll keep you off the road. I love it. I love it. I also, you know, forewarning those of us that drive speed-controlled trucks. So if you're in a speed-controlled truck like we run governed trucks at 65 miles an hour on the straight truck side when you're going through those areas at the speed limit 70, and you may be tempted to go past someone that's doing 63 or 64 and a half or 64 and three quarters and you get that left lane to pass them.
Speaker 1:you are now under that one mile Before, if Spelan was 70, you were doing 65, you were within that threshold. But now, with that one mile per hour difference, you're no longer in that threshold and you can get a ticket. I think that's a very important part of this. So you need to make sure there's no one around you when you go to make that pass.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, right, or that you can do it in sufficient time.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, so you're not blocking traffic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, probably not a good idea to try and pass somebody that's governed at 64. We all know those trucks, like prime trucks, that are governed a little bit low, low 65, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so be careful with it, yeah, and then?
Speaker 2:And is that any road in Louisiana or just specific like interstate?
Speaker 3:It just says a state, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:So any road? Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Like she said. It doesn't say which, but I will say this, coming from Louisiana not a lot of two-lane roads, so I would imagine most of this is going to be interstate related. But if you're not on the interstate and they do our two-lane road, most of those are 55-mile-an-hour roads, so then you could kind of get around someone if you needed to. But then be careful, Don't get caught speeding. I was going to say I'm totally for the law.
Speaker 6:I think it's great because there are a lot of people that do go a lot slower in the left lane.
Speaker 2:Camp out there.
Speaker 6:However, do you think something like that does promote?
Speaker 1:speeding. You could argue that. I think you could argue that, because now if I'm doing 72, I'm keeping myself a buffer to get away. Argue that. I think you could argue that because you know, now if I'm doing 72, I'm keeping myself a buffer to get away from that as well. The other thing that makes me a little bit nervous is, you know, maybe they want to target the person that's leading the pack.
Speaker 1:But if everybody's spread out far enough and I've got my adaptive cruise control, like in my Jeep, I have adaptive cruise control then I can set the distance out pretty far, which I'll do when I'm cruising on the interstate. And if the person in front of me slows down slow enough, my car automatically slows down slow enough. What's the chance of the cop coming after me and saying, hey, you shouldn't be in the left lane, even though I am passing people because I'm going under 70 miles an hour? So it does bring some interesting questions. I mean, you would ideally hope well, no, they're going to go after the guy in front of you. But if that adaptive cruise control is set out as far as it'll go, that car can be pretty far from you. You've seen it in the trucks.
Speaker 3:Even Sometimes that car in front of you that you're following is pretty good ways away. I guess I didn't see it as if you were passing and you weren't blocking traffic and cruising, that it wouldn't matter if you were under the speed limit. But I suppose they still could technically. The way this is written, the way it's written yeah, but they think that this will help for unsafe lane changes and avoid will help so that there are not as many crashes and avoid road rage.
Speaker 3:Yep, I mean like I love the state of Louisiana but will help so that there are not as many crashes and avoid road rage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I do. I mean, like I love the state of Louisiana, but I do think some of that's crap. I think it's just people don't like to let people in the left lane. No, none of us do.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 6:None of us do. There's a guy I follow on TikTok and he says it all the time Like you know, don't be in the left lane if you're going to be camping out. He always says if you ain't got ticket money, don't be in the left lane.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 6:I got ticket money I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, it's cool to see them make a change like this. I'm very curious to see what people say, and we've got a lot of family and friends that are left in Louisiana, so we'll see how this actually kind of shakes out. I mean, again, if you're stuck in the left lane behind someone and they're going slow, you still got to wait and hope that there's a cop that sees it, and who knows how long that'll take to find, because there's never one around when you need them.
Speaker 1:There's never one around unless you're doing something wrong.
Speaker 3:So how long do you think this will be now before other states start doing it? I other states start doing it.
Speaker 1:I hope sooner than later. But you know, again it comes back to is there empirical data that says this helps or is this a hunch, because like an excuse because we don't like it? I feel like there's a lot of states that want to see actual data saying it helps, and I think Louisiana is a little more okay with. We don't like this, so we're going to outlaw it.
Speaker 6:I could totally going back to what you were saying with the trucks and passing government trucks and stuff. I could see something like that in California. You always seem to have the trucks that get over in the left lane because they're climbing up these slow mountains and someone's going a half a mile an hour faster up that mountain.
Speaker 1:Or even, and that gets really bad too because you've got, you know, a truck doing 35 miles an hour and so someone gets in the left lane going 38 because they're passing someone, Meanwhile, you know, regular traffic's going 65. Other trucks, like our straight trucks, climbing a hill in California, fully loaded, 55 all day, no big deal, and so I could definitely see that like I got stopped in california.
Speaker 6:I did and I got it. I got a warning for it were you in the wrong lane I was in the wrong lane because it was one of those instances where there's seven lanes of traffic climbing up the mountain and I got over because I can go a lot faster than all these other trucks and I was cruising at 55 and he stopped me and he gave me a warning not a lot of being out left california is very.
Speaker 5:The signage is there right. Yes, trucks have to stay in the left two lane or right two lanes. Um, it's throughout the state and I'm gonna guess maybe you were climbing out of castaic going north of i-5, correct? That's a hot spot for chp to sit there because it is so wide there and it's the first big hill coming out of Los Angeles and I've seen CHP on their bikes all the time, just going to get drivers that are in the first and second lane and just grabbing them.
Speaker 1:Is that where you passed the Getty?
Speaker 2:No, that's further south.
Speaker 1:That's on the 405 further south this is literally as you're leaving, leaving.
Speaker 5:Castaic, like where the Flying J is, like where the Flying J, the pilot, the pilot, yeah, the pilot is going towards the Flying J.
Speaker 1:Yes, up higher.
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, you're just starting to climb the grapevine there.
Speaker 1:We hardly ever ran that, which is crazy as many times as Eric and I ran all those roads because we spent a lot of time in California and we were in the desert all the time, but we rarely rode I-5. We were almost always on, is it 99? Yep, we were on 99 a lot. We were in Vegas a lot. It was very rare for us to actually take 5 and go north. It was just the freight we were hauling.
Speaker 6:I guess was a little off.
Speaker 1:Because, out there. I mean dry freight's unique. It's not. I mean y'all ran it with Panther.
Speaker 5:It's not always where you think it would be going Sure. And I saw it too when I was pulling a reefer up and down I-5. I was always on I-5. So I saw it a lot during that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 6:And a lot of our reefer trucks run I-5.
Speaker 1:That makes sense too. Again, we're in dry vans, so we hardly ever kind of did that. But well, it'll be interesting to see what happens in Louisiana. I mean, you know I tend through Louisiana's majority of its three lanes, but there are still good sections of two lanes.
Speaker 4:They've been developing it over the past decade. Making everything into three lanes yeah, over the past 30,. Making everything new Over the decade yeah, that's how long it takes Over the past 30 years. Okay, I was putting you on frame for a minute. It takes them a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, can't really complain. How long has Dallas been working on their freeway system?
Speaker 5:When did they stop? How is Columbus working on their freeway system?
Speaker 1:Yeah well true by Columbus Morgan on their freeway system. Yeah well, true by the time they get done with it.
Speaker 4:They have to go and do it all over again, because the road will be potholed.
Speaker 1:Oh man, crazy stuff. Well, interesting to see what happens in Louisiana. I'm curious y'all driving out there, as you go through Louisiana, do you feel that pressure? Do you see people obeying that law or not? And are cops really? Do you see anybody getting pulled over if we're going too slow in the left-hand lane? I know we don't get a lot of traffic through Louisiana. Most of our freight is going to be north of Louisiana, but we still get a few trucks through there, I know.
Speaker 5:Panther goes out of Baton Rouge Across ITN all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, quite a bit Interesting. Well, Melissa, you've got some new news. That is exciting. We kind of spoiled this a few weeks, a few months, a couple months ago yeah. I talked about heading out to FIDA and I actually saw something out there that excited me and we talked about it a little bit, but you can finally make the announcement. I'd love to hear it.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited. We were just out there last Saturday yeah. We saw the sign, the big sign go up. Yeah, the last Saturday Saw the sign, the big sign go up.
Speaker 4:The beacon of what we called home and love.
Speaker 2:That's what we used to call it. So Love's just opened up a new travel stop in West Jefferson, ohio, on I-70, which is just outside of Columbus near FIDA Freightliner. Yes, so, kind of between FIDA and the TA. So out there it does offer 80 parking spaces, six bobtail parking spaces, the Love's Fresh Kitchen, hardee's, eight diesel bays, five showers, catscale, dog Park, self Checkout Options, and my favorite was the 85 Jobs Added.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought it was the Hardee's.
Speaker 2:Oh, did I say Hardee's you?
Speaker 1:did say Hardee's. Oh, did you say Hardee's? Oh, my apology, I didn't hear that no.
Speaker 2:Fresh Kitchen and Hardee's Yep.
Speaker 1:I saw it, I honed in on. I like.
Speaker 4:Hardee's.
Speaker 2:So anyways, yeah, it opened up, and super excited to have another Love's Around the Circle as an option, the Outer Belt as an option.
Speaker 5:I got to say I'm going to be totally controversial here and I'm sorry I'm not going to high-tech your story.
Speaker 2:No, that's okay.
Speaker 5:Carl's Jr is much better than Hardee's. Oh, much better than Hardee's.
Speaker 1:You Much better than Hardee's. You know, it depends how east or west I am.
Speaker 5:I get that, but I'm just saying Carl's Jr is better than Hardee's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, if you think about Carl's Jr has the Los.
Speaker 5:Angeles market locked in. There is no Hardee's there, it's all Carl's down. There is no Hardee's there, it's all Carl's Jr.
Speaker 1:There is no Hardee's there. But my question is if you were in Los Angeles and you were locked down by Carl's Jr, then obviously you would go to In-N-Out, of course.
Speaker 5:I mean, this is a Carl's Jr Hardee's conversation In-N-Out doesn't even come to play in that conversation.
Speaker 1:There is no difference. The then In-N-Out doesn't even come to play in that conversation. There is no difference. The way I see it is, out here it's Hardee's, because we don't have In-N-Out, and in Texas it's of course, whataburger Hardee's.
Speaker 4:Whataburger.
Speaker 2:Whataburger Texas.
Speaker 4:Whataburger.
Speaker 1:The most controversial thing I'm ever going to say on here is Whataburger is just okay, the spicy ketchup's nice, and see, I think In-N-Out's just okay.
Speaker 6:In-N-Out is horrible. I hate it. Wow, it's not horrible.
Speaker 1:Wow, how can it be horrible? I'm not a fan either.
Speaker 2:What I'm not a fan.
Speaker 1:It's because y'all don't have a giant row with one of the massive safety pins holding it, exactly it's fine.
Speaker 6:I just never understood the lines.
Speaker 1:I never Too long of a line. I do agree with that. That is what.
Speaker 5:For a burger that's not that great.
Speaker 1:It's a delicious burger. I don't want to hear y'all say that, but the lines in California are ridiculous. But when you're in Texas, like around Dallas, dallas has In-N-Out Burger.
Speaker 5:The lines are much more reasonable, okay.
Speaker 1:They're bringing them to the East Coast. Didn't we have In-N-Out?
Speaker 5:Burger. Last time we were in Oregon together we did on the way out.
Speaker 1:I'll eat In-N-Out, don't get me wrong Animal fries, animal fries.
Speaker 2:I don't understand a secret menu that's not posted. That you should know about that. You have to order from. That confuses me. Well, you don't have to order from it. Well, at this point, how?
Speaker 4:secret is the secret menu.
Speaker 2:It's not even a secret menu anymore.
Speaker 1:Now it's an unlisted menu. That's exactly what it is. It's just animal stuff. It's great food. Well, I'm sorry you don't like fresh, never frozen, ground beef, french fries chopped right in front of you, not flash frozen in a factory a thousand miles away.
Speaker 5:They need to be fried extra long. Well fries are well done.
Speaker 1:Oh see, I like them.
Speaker 5:Animal fries are well done.
Speaker 1:I like them. Animal style. Not well done, because it's almost like a baked potato kind of experience.
Speaker 5:I get it. I get it, but I could see, yeah, I want a little crispy.
Speaker 1:If I wanted to eat them as french fries, I'd go to McDonald's. Mcdonald's is great french fries.
Speaker 6:I'd go to Burger Shake Shack.
Speaker 1:I've never been to one.
Speaker 6:You need to try it. You know what I want to do. We were just there this last weekend. I want to do the shake. Thanks for the invite.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, thanks Let me check mine, oh okay, that's not fair In all fairness In all.
Speaker 3:Fairness In all fairness.
Speaker 6:In all fairness, in all fairness, I was supposed to hang out with you this weekend and I chose not to, so that is on me, but I do want to do the Shake Shack Challenge.
Speaker 1:Have you considered it? What's that? You go to Boston and you get a Shake Shack in Boston and try it, and then you get on a Delta flight out of Boston, over a thousand miles, and they actually have a Shake Shack burger as your lunch or dinner option, Not breakfast. Don't go too early, You'll miss it. And then you get to compare it and how it is. Everyone that's done it so far is like mind's blown away at how good. It is. Interesting that they can actually make a hamburger, a cheeseburger, so good on a plane. So I'm like I really want to try it and see if it really holds up.
Speaker 5:Does Shake Shack do Smash Burgers?
Speaker 6:They're kind of like that. I think they're not as paper thin as some people think a Smash Burger is but they are really thin. They're really good. It's like a potato bun and their fries are big, thick, crispy fries. They're good.
Speaker 5:Are they the ones advertising beef tallow fries? No, that's steak and shake.
Speaker 3:That's what that sign means we don't have a steak.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I can't wait until Patrick gets his Blackstone, so I can play around with Smash Burgers.
Speaker 4:I can't wait either. I thought you were going to say pilot's license.
Speaker 5:We can fly to Boston and then fly back with the Shake Shack burger.
Speaker 1:We could fly to Boston, get a Shake Shack burger just bring it back on the plane. Like an Air Force. One thing with McDonald's. You know who has a Smash Burger now too. That's actually pretty darn good. It's Sonic. I don't know if y'all ever go to Sonic Drive-In.
Speaker 3:I haven't been to Sonic in ages.
Speaker 1:I always liked their burger. I thought it was a pretty decent burger. It's not spectacular. I probably feel about their cheeseburgers the way you feel about.
Speaker 6:In-N-Out.
Speaker 1:It's just an okay burger. But sometimes an okay burger is what you need. But they now have a smash burger and I would have actually was ordering a footlong chili cheese dog, because that's my jam. I love Sonic's footlong chili cheese dogs. Their chili's good, they get the onions Anyways, yes, I had dinner tonight, dang it.
Speaker 1:So they had a special going on with the Smash Burgers, like get one half off or something, and I'm like well, for like $1.50, let me try it and ooh, I'm like it's good, good to know it's considerably better than their regular cheeseburgers, good to know. So, sonic, if you're out there, I mean I love Sonic Blast. I used to love the Coke slushy things.
Speaker 6:They would do.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, America's driving for a reason.
Speaker 5:You know what cherry lime I made from Sonic.
Speaker 3:I used to work at Sonic. I never did Sonic, you did.
Speaker 1:Did you have the rollerblades?
Speaker 3:I did not do the rollerblades. I was not allowed and I didn't feel comfortable. Anyway, I'm not coordinated enough.
Speaker 5:Which you proved earlier this evening.
Speaker 6:Their shakes are half off right now for happy hour. You know what I always loved about, you know what.
Speaker 4:I always Ask me how.
Speaker 3:I meant to.
Speaker 1:We'll be back.
Speaker 5:After this break we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:We'd like to thank our sponsor of the show Sonic. No, we. So Sonic was always, but my sister was going to college. She went to college. No, I'm wrong, but my sister was in high school as a senior, sophomore and senior, and I think she did this in the college too, but sophomore and senior she would work at the Girl Scout camp, cape Meridale as a wrangler. She was a horse wrangler. I don't know if you know that about Melissa or not. She was a horse wrangler. The place was probably an hour and a half from the house and so Melissa didn't have a driver's license, so Mom and I would take her and then on the way back, me and Mom would swing into Sonic, and I always loved it because I would get a Route 44.
Speaker 1:And if you remember back then they were the only people with that size drinks. They were Even like Circle K or 7-Eleven didn't have that size. Yet Our AMPM did in LA. We didn't have AMPM in Baton Rouge, louisiana. We did in LA. We didn't have 7-Eleven either. We had Circle K.
Speaker 5:How did you know they didn't have that big a size? A super big gulp, a super big gulp. Yeah, 64 ounces of sugary goodness.
Speaker 1:So we'd hit the Sonic for happy hour because we'd just gotten rid of my sister.
Speaker 1:And we'd get the Route 44 for half price. And we would get the Route 44 for half price and we would get a I don't know some kind of ice cream treat Sunday or something, and then head back to Baton Rouge. The only thing that sucked about that was you've got to keep in mind this is like early 90s, mid-90s and late 90s and the cars back then weren't really big cup holder things. Cup holders weren't a thing. So Mom's Buick had a little cup holder that slid out of the dash and it was perfect for a can of soda. Like one can of soda would fit. But if you had a big Route 44, you had to hold that sucker the whole way because there was nowhere to place it.
Speaker 5:It didn't have the fancy breakdown to a small one Later on.
Speaker 3:they did do that.
Speaker 1:It was so close to the radio.
Speaker 5:Even if it would have fit, you couldn't have fit it in there because the radio would have pushed it, and if it did, it would probably be so heavy when it was full it would break the thing.
Speaker 3:Or fall over.
Speaker 1:That's why we always liked Dad's pickup truck. Dad had a Ranger back then, which five-speed manual and on the side of the shifter. It had two cup holders that you could put the big drink in. That's where I became a big fan of Sonic was through that process, and then me and Mom would just sing songs and screw off all the way back to the house Nice. Good memories from childhood, and Sonic was part of it, now redeemingly health-wise nothing.
Speaker 6:They don't have a single thing there, not at all.
Speaker 1:You Now redeemingly health-wise nothing. They don't have a single thing there. Not at all. You don't even want to count. That's a cheat day. It's a cheat day and you don't record it. If your app that you're recording your calories on doesn't know that you had it, it didn't count. It didn't count.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my favorite thing working there is we would make the shakes and we could put in whatever flavors we wanted. So I could do like a chocolate covered cherry shake, or I could do like I don't even remember what.
Speaker 1:That's one I always made Did you ever do chocolate mint, because that's the best. That is the best.
Speaker 2:I don't remember having mint but, yes, I love chocolate mint. You outnumbered. For those of you that can't see, I've got the look of disgust on my face, which is the look, I see every morning when she opens her eyes and looks at me.
Speaker 5:She rolls over and sees me and I get the look of disgust.
Speaker 1:I love chocolate mint man. I remember going to Piccadilly back in the day. Anybody know Piccadilly, piccadilly, anyone Going to Piccadilly? And afterwards you get a little York peppermint patty on the way out for five cents. Or going to Cracker Barrel and getting the Andy's mint on the way out the door, or Baskin Robbins and getting the mint, chocolate chip, ice cream, good, good stuff.
Speaker 5:Yeah, heather was kind enough when she did her Girl Scout cookie order this year A little.
Speaker 1:Thin Mint.
Speaker 5:A little Thin Mint. She put a sleeve of Thin Mints in the freezer for me and she's like that's all yours. I actually ate the last three last night.
Speaker 1:Last night, last night I paced myself. I wanted to be so mad at her for not getting me any.
Speaker 3:Samoas Samoas Caramel Delights, depending on where you're from yes and.
Speaker 5:I was at my house. It's like Hardee's Carl's Jr kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I was at my house one day after one of these recordings and you had been over because you were getting the goodie bag for a team. So, if you don't know, when you come to Highfield Trekking we have a little goodie bag put together for you and all that accoutrement or not all of it, but a lot of it is kept in my office. And so she came over and made a couple goodie bags and then left and on my bar was a little snack bag of those Samoas and I'm like, well, I would rather a whole box, but like this is nice. I appreciate this and I was very thankful and I ate those. I spaced them out because I only had like six maybe.
Speaker 3:I don't remember Six or eight of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was good, I appreciate it, love it. But then, when it was good, I appreciate it, love it. But then when they were gone, I was like, well, this is sad. And then, like three weeks later, another bag appeared and I was like oh, someone's buying some love Nice and you can buy all the love from me.
Speaker 3:I got to keep my job somehow.
Speaker 1:Well, you're on the right track. It was great having those and, honestly, I am trying to watch what I eat. I did get a little fat and I was able to space those out. One cookie night is not a big deal. The problem is I would eat an entire box in one setting easily. Wouldn't think twice about it. Oh they're so good.
Speaker 3:I could try and make them. I have a recipe to make them, but I just don't know. It would be the same.
Speaker 1:What are you doing tomorrow?
Speaker 3:Tomorrow is your day off apparently.
Speaker 5:No, she doesn't get a day off, but she can just make cookies tomorrow, that's part of the job, very true.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing I liked about the Loves article was anytime they open one of their stores article was anytime they open one of their stores, they always do a $5,000 contribution donation to the local community and they do a $5,000 donation to Children's Miracle Network and I think that's something I'm sorry, nationwide Children's Hospital, but it's through the Children's Miracle Network. I think it's one thing we need to talk about too the next time they do one of their big Children's Hospital pushes is. Loves does an amazing job working with Children's Hospitals. Children's Miracle Network is that what it?
Speaker 5:is. They have the balloons, they have the little balloons. You can donate and put a name on or something, if you ever go into a Loves.
Speaker 1:You see all these little paper hot air balloons or whatever. Are they hot air balloons?
Speaker 4:They are All over the wall.
Speaker 1:They do these big pushes and people donate money right there and 100% of it goes to Children's Miracle Network and they let you fill a little thing out and they'll stick it on the wall. They do it once or twice a year and it's one of those things they do that we really don't talk about. They don't put a whole lot of publicity behind it because they're not trying to get famous off it. It's just one of the good things they do. So the next time they have one we need to publicize that and let people know about it, because it's a really good organization. It does help people out that are in those spots.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan of St Jude and Children's Miracle Network. I've got several family members that have been affiliated or had to use those services. Same with Ronald McDonald House. When you need that stuff, it's really great these charities exist to help out with that Big fan of that Love that they have chosen to give back in that way. The other thing I love about it is it is so close to the yard. Yes, it is. If you, maybe you have come to Columbus to work with Highfield or drive one of our trucks and maybe you are interested in it, a lot of people come, they get into the truck and then the pilot that's really close to the yard is horrible. It's tiny. It's very difficult to get in and out. Even if you just circle through to get air in your tires, it could be an hour long endeavor easily.
Speaker 1:It's not a good place, and so then a lot of people will want to go to the Loves in Obetz, which is a nice one-year, two-year-old Loves. It's not that old, it's about five years old now Is it five years?
Speaker 5:Yeah, because it was open when we were on the road. I was going to say it was open when we were on the road.
Speaker 3:We've been off the road for just about three years now. Okay, so so in early 2021.
Speaker 1:Apparently. I don't know time anymore, but it gets the local bobtail anytime of day, it's always bad. It's in the middle of a very busy industrial area.
Speaker 5:It really is.
Speaker 1:So most people avoid that. Then the next option is to go out towards Buckeye Lake, and they go to Aetna.
Speaker 2:Aetna. Do you know? They don't have laundry services. Aetna doesn't have laundry services, but they're a newer store too.
Speaker 1:Yes, but they're the kind of it can get busy at night. During the day it's not so bad, but at nighttime it can get a little crazy. On the weekend it's actually not bad. It's a good place during the weekend, but at night it's a bit much. So a lot of people choose to go to Circleville and Circleville is like 45 minutes or so.
Speaker 1:If there's no traffic. If there's traffic, it could be an hour south of Columbus, so that place there's always parking. It's never really a big deal, but this place is 10 minutes away.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but my concern, though, with this place is it's right on I-70. And it's where Circleville is, not on I-70. It's off a smaller state route. This one's right off I-70. It's a busy area out there as well.
Speaker 2:You know, I was doing the math on Bellefontaine. It also is equal distance as Circleville is.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing I'm hoping with this one is, like you said, it's a busy area, but you've got TA a large TA, large TA.
Speaker 6:You've got a pretty big Flying J right there. You've got a brand new sheet that just opened with truck parking. It's a good size too. It's a good size.
Speaker 1:And now you've got this LUVS, yeah. So you've kind of got everything right there to where even if you're like we're going to go to LUVS and we're going to get fuel and we're going to like try and make that our thing, you get there. You don't parking. You've got three really good alternatives right around the corner, and so that's what I like about it. I'm hoping that, with all those other options, that loves doesn't get too crazy. Now again, if you leave at 8, 7 pm, good luck. Sure, you know that might be a bit much, but most people are out of the yard by 4 or 5, and they should be able to get there and get some parking.
Speaker 1:I would think so, and then also, you know, if people come into town, I think it would be a great place for people to hang out, because there's a fair number of them that go to that.
Speaker 5:TA, they do.
Speaker 1:So to be able to have that Love's right there where you get your shower credits and free refills and all that stuff, I think it would be really nice. I'm glad to see it's open. They also I don't know if you saw this they have a spot where they have pre-planned for electric vehicle chargers.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:They've apparently not built it out. They are trying to come up with some kind of a partnership with a local utility provider to install that, but they are planning for it.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited. I think it's going to be a really cool place. I like the location. If you're going to FIDA, it is extremely convenient.
Speaker 5:Yes, it is I agree.
Speaker 1:One exit down from there. It's three minutes to FIDA. It's very close. We use them a lot. I think our drivers are going to see a good bit of benefit out of that. Even if you're not one of our drivers, you'll see some benefit out of it if you're in the area. So yeah, pretty cool stuff happening in Ohio and questionable things happening in Louisiana Sounds about right. Yeah Well, today, in continuing our series, talk on why, oh why, hi Phil, did you do what you do Today? Last week we talked about the engines.
Speaker 6:And I apologize.
Speaker 1:I kind of heard back that audio and it's ooh, it's rough. I was clearly a little under the weather still. But today we're going to talk about not engines. We're going to move a little bit down the truck, but not much. And we're going to move a little bit down the truck, but not much. And we're going to talk about transmissions. Ooh, yes, ooh. In our line of work, in the type of trucks we run, there's essentially four transmission options for trucks. So we'll get the first one out of the way quickly, which is a good, old-fashioned manual transmission. You know, I thought all truckersers grounded gears and double clutched, and right, you know, with that 18 speed eaten with the double reduction gear, you gotta have the double reduction, double reduction have my arm up on that, uh, gear shifter and cruise down the road.
Speaker 1:You know that's a lot of people's idea of of the truck, right?
Speaker 6:is that big old gear shifter right down the road.
Speaker 1:Well, we don't run those. We never have run those. We've always been some form of an automatic transmission since day one. But I did, eric and I. It was something we were concerned with. Actually, we first got started driving so both of us went and actually learned to drive on a stick shift commercial or test on a stick shift, I should say so that if we ever had to, we could Right Get in the industry. And here we are now and it's like nobody, no need, no need. Majority of your large fleets have all gotten out of that.
Speaker 1:Even when we got started, the 10-speed Eaton was like a. Everybody had them. It was very, very common. Today it's becoming less and less common. Even those people Like we'll always only have 10-speed Eatons have now moved to an automated form.
Speaker 1:But so manual transmission if you love it, great, I love a manual transmission. I got a car out in the yard that has a manual transmission right now. I love it. It's a fun car to drive. But when it comes to trucks it's just a little easier with the automated transmission, easier on the left foot and the right shoulder, yep, you know, that's one thing. So my dad was one of those people who drove a manual transmission truck all his life and it's one of the things he talked about. As he got a little older His left knee started to give him trouble because of just working that clutch. It just is what it is. Your body can't do one steady movement its whole life without an issue. So the automatic transmission is easier for driver recruitment, it's easier going down the road and nowadays the automated transmission has gotten more fuel efficient than a manual.
Speaker 5:It's more fuel efficient, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've run across a lot of people who argue me this, although it's getting less and less common, but the facts are there Black and white. You can see it. The automated transmissions have gotten so good they are more fuel efficient than the manual transmissions. So now that you know that we don't have manuals, all we have are automatics, we have a few different types of automatics I want to talk about. So there are two that are OG original automatic transmissions and there's one new guy on the market right now and the new guy's been on the market for 10 years. So I'm not like hiding anything but the OGs, which I think OG you had. One would be the Eaton UltraShift 10-speed automated manual with the clutch. I did, I thought you did, I had a feeling you'd been around long enough.
Speaker 6:I was in a Western Star, so please explain how this transmission worked. So you had the clutch. You had to engage the clutch whenever you started the vehicle, whenever you came to a stop. However, once you started rolling, then you no longer had to use the clutch. It would automate and shift the gears for you, but whenever you then came to a stop, you had to engage the clutch.
Speaker 1:Yep. So those old Eaton transmissions. They were pretty smart in what they did. They knew like if you meet a trucker that drives a manual transmission, he'll tell you I clutch first, I don't clutch again. Outside of that, you're floating gears, floating gears yeah.
Speaker 1:And so by floating gears if you don't know what that means is you match the RPMs of the engine to the RPMs of the gear that's actually spinning and you can pull the truck out of gear and into another one and you don't have any clanging of the gears because they're spinning at the exact same speed. So as you drive manual transmission you get used to hearing it and learn where those shift points are because they're spinning at the exact same speed. So as you drive manual transmission you get used to hearing it and learn where those shift points are and you can do it without having to hit that clutch. But it only works once the truck's moving. If you're at a dead still, then your engine's turning but your transmission's not, so you have to use a clutch to engage that transmission. So what Eaton did at the time was they said all right, we can use air and we can like air pressure, like off the air system of the truck, and we can program our computer to know with sensors when these two disks are flying or gears are flying at the same speed. Then you do your shift and they do it with compressed air to make that happen and it worked great. But they didn't know how to get the truck moving in first gear clutch. So that's why your old school ones had a clutch. Well, they finally got smart and they found out how to do an electric clutch and now you've got a little motor that actually engages and disengages that clutch, which is how it's able to get in and out of first gear. But it's still. Once you're rolling in one of those old Eaton transmissions, it's air-right, it's just air-controlled, it's all floating gears, so the only clutch still out of first gear and reverse and not moving neutral. So really cool technology, very fuel-efficient, very dependable.
Speaker 1:Those old school ones you had, xy shifters and some other things that were problematic, had to get fixed, but other than that, very durable, so durable that the latest version of that so that was the Eaton AutoShift. I think it was the Eaton AutoShift, wasn't it? I believe it's. The Eaton AutoShift is what it used to be called. Now it's called the UltraShift Shift, wasn't it? I believe it's. The Auto Shift is what it used to be called. Now it's called the Ultra Shift. The newest version of that is what we have on our M2s which is the Eaton Ultra Shift.
Speaker 1:That one works great. It's dependable, great transmission. Not the fastest thing in the world. It's not going to win awards Durable, long-lasting transmissions. When they break, you can get them fixed pretty easily. Eaton is a huge company and almost every trucking like Peterbilt, kenworth, freightliner, western Star, international, volvo, they all use it, so everybody's familiar with them. There's a lot of independent Eaton shops so you're able to get service everywhere. But a lot of times just replace a clutch is what it normally is.
Speaker 1:They're just reliable transmissions not very fast, but super reliable. Uh, the piece de resistance that everybody loves, absolutely loves, and you see this in modern motorhomes, you see it in touring buses, you see it in like, if you've ever done a charter bus, they probably had. One of these would be the allison automatic transmission. Now allison builds an automatic transmission that is a true automatic, just like what's in your car. It's got a torque converter on it and it's a 5 or 6-speed transmission so it doesn't have the 10 or 12 or whatever you're used to.
Speaker 1:It's very large gears and it runs the gamut, but it runs like your car. When you put your foot down you don't feel the gear shifts, it's instant power. It goes pretty quickly and they are really nice, really durable transmissions. They've been out for a long, long time. Allison started by building airplane engines for the war. Like they've been out a long time.
Speaker 5:Is the Allison, the one with the push buttons?
Speaker 1:Yes, so Allison had. Yes, if you've ever seen an RV, or even some trucks have had the little push button, it's the Neutral, is in the middle, drive reverse. That's the Allison. Very, very cool. We had one truck like this.
Speaker 5:We had a couple of them like this. We don't have any more.
Speaker 1:We don't have any more. We only had one. We had another, eaton, that had a push button. Okay, but we only had one Allison Gotcha, and that Allison was crazy how nice it was, it was nice. The reason we don't use allison. Like I said, we've only ever had one and I bought that one used the only reason we don't use them is horrible fuel economy because it is like your car, so it runs through a torque converter.
Speaker 1:Now, a torque converter, think of it like I'm gonna dumb it down, but think of it like two fans. Um, like you take two box fans, you put them in front of each other and then you seal them up and you turn one fan on. It's going to make the other one turn, right. Well, that's what a torque converter does. It's basically two fans inside of a liquid and as your engine turns, it spins the liquid which makes the other one turn. Well, you can imagine, by doing that it's not perfect you lose a lot of power and waste in that spinning liquid and so you lose a lot of power. So the engine has to work harder to move the truck forward. And when you're at speed, so when you're going 65 miles an hour, 70 miles an hour down the road, they actually have these little teeth that come out and lock the two torque converters up to help with fuel efficiency. So now you are actually connected to the system so you don't have all that loss.
Speaker 5:But everything to get you there was inefficient.
Speaker 1:You lost tons of diesel using that. So again, great transmission, super well built, well built, very reliable, very comfortable to drive, but just horrible in fuel economy. Um, you look at like the big touring buses, most of those are like five to six miles per gallon, whereas our commercial trucks are getting around 10, 10 to 11 wow so it's very, very inefficient versus what we're getting, but more comfortable for a big coach, absolutely yeah especially if you're driving around people.
Speaker 1:So when you're driving like the Eaton or the next transmission I'll tell you about, you do feel the gear shift. So if you're ridden with a manual transmission car and you feel the car move forward a little bit like when you shift gears and all, you do feel that on the automated manuals, on the Allison, you wouldn't. So if you're on a charter bus and you're trying to get some sleep because you're riding, because you play saxophone in a band, like a marching band for example, and you're trying to get to a game somewhere, and so you're trying to sleep on the bus, you don't want to be feeling all those shifts you want to be able to just conk out and that be that.
Speaker 1:So that's why those Greyhounds, all those guys, they run the Allison. So it's nice and smooth, but freight don't care and we haul freight.
Speaker 1:So the transmission that we now use is the modern-day 12-speed. Eaton, detroit and Volvo all make a version of this transmission. It's a 12-speed automated manual. The new thing that's so great about it is it actually works with the engine. So beforehand you had an engine telling a transmission hey, we're going to go to this RPM. And the transmission would go oh, that's cool, whenever you get to that RPM, I'm going to shift gears, right. And so they didn't really talk to each other. They knew what each other were doing but they didn't really chat.
Speaker 1:Right, modern, these new, modern transmissions, these 12 speeds that are out right now and Eaton actually has like an 18-speed too that'll do the same thing. The transmission computer and the engine computer are sharing information. So now the transmission can tell the computer hey, we want to do this, can you do this to the engine to make to where I can do this? And so now they're actually all talking back and forth, which is just increasing that fuel economy and making them even more efficient and getting them better so they last longer, because there's less wear and tear on them, because they're not kind of fighting each other. Now they're working as one and you get better fuel economy and a plus side of that is now they can skip gears.
Speaker 1:So if you've ever jumped in a truck with a 12-speed transmission, you might have noticed if you looked at the number. A truck with a 12-speed transmission, you might have noticed if you looked at the number it would start at 3 and go to 5, and then go to 8, and then go to 10 and then go to 12. Whereas before it would be 2, 3, 4, 5, every little shift pattern. They act more like a 6-speed transmission. Because they're all working together it makes for a more pleasant ride, I think.
Speaker 5:It does.
Speaker 1:It's a more fuel-efficient transmission.
Speaker 5:Even though you can still feel those shifts, you're feeling less of them between zero and 65.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And in some cases they're smoother shifts because they are working more together, and so it's definitely a lot better of a way. It is so good that Prevost Bus Company. So those are, you know, prevost yeah big motor coaches Big motor coaches. They're the ones, pretty much the only thing Greyhound buys these days. They're owned by Volvo and they are now buying that version of transmission from Volvo for the Greyhound buses Nice that version of transmission from Volvo for the Greyhound buses.
Speaker 1:So, even though they've always been Allison, these new ones have gotten so good and so slick that they're buying those and, much to our happiness, freightliner just introduced those into the M2s that we buy. So now all of our new M2s that we've been buying, I think we probably got about 10 of like six or about ten of these, now About ten. Okay, yeah, it's about ten of these so far and we've got seven more to get something like that yeah something like that.
Speaker 1:They all have the new 12-speed transmission. That works together and it's really nice. They also work with your engine brake. Now it's tied into your transmission as well, so it's a really, really smart system. If you're driving a Cascadia right now and it was built 2016 or new, you probably have this. They have tweaked it and made it a little better over the years, but they're finally rolling it out to the Freightliner M2 series, which is what we mostly run across the board, so that is very exciting that we get this.
Speaker 2:That's exciting.
Speaker 1:Those are the two, so the Eaton and the Detroit are the two transmissions that we pretty much run exclusively now, and they are fantastic, very well-built transmissions. We get a lot of reliability out of them. They get very good fuel economy and, depending on which service group you're working with within Highfield, some people pay for their own fuel, some people don't, and if you're paying for your own fuel, you certainly want the most fuel efficient combination you can get, and it's really cool to see that we have this option out there and that we are running that top of the line equipment.
Speaker 1:So that's just a little bit about why we do what we do. The big one we get all the time is why don't we run the allisons? Because people know how smooth they are fuel economy it just cost a fortune to run them what do you think big enos had in his truck running that beer across the country? Uh, he would have had it eaten, but it would have been Probably an 18 speed In that old Kenworth W900.
Speaker 2:I fact checked for you.
Speaker 1:And it's who.
Speaker 2:Big Enos was the name of the bandit. Well, the driver.
Speaker 1:What's his call handle?
Speaker 2:Really, Was it bear no it was. I don't see anything about that If you remember his call handle Drop us a line.
Speaker 1:And tonight, Eric, we're watching Smokey the Bandit. Do you think, does Iowa 80 still play Smokey the Bandit on loop? They used to. I haven't been to Iowa 80 in a couple years, but they used to always have it on loop. We've only stopped in there, like once.
Speaker 3:I could have stopped on my way back, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:I've been there quite a few times, but I'll be honest with you. It's because they had a blimpy subs in there, in the fuel bay, which is a weird thing to say if you're not familiar with trucking. But I would go in there and get that beef, turkey beef and cheddar. Anyways, get it panini style. Oh, this is great man. That's when I knew Subway was crap.
Speaker 1:Was when I first had Olympia, Anyways so you heard I'm going to rat out our Southeast division. Kelly and Jimmy and Delina just had a Firehouse Sub built right next to them.
Speaker 6:Wow, I bet you Jimmy's on hogging it. Oh, they're loving it.
Speaker 1:They're loving it. I'm like, oh God, you're going to gain 20 pounds next time. I see you all that bread, but anywho, well, that's how we do our transmissions the way we do them. I'm curious if you've been out there and you've experienced different trucks You've had the Volvo, or you've had a Kenworth with the Eaton transmission or something and it's a little different. What is your experience? What do you like on it? What don't you like on it? Let us know Smokey's partner's handle.
Speaker 2:I saw Snowman.
Speaker 1:Was that Snowman? That is his name, that is his handle, that is him.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it's him, and his handle is Smokey Bear, smokey Bear, smokey Bear and Snowman is what I get when you Google. We have botched this. I am so sorry. I apologize.
Speaker 1:We will be handing over our CDLs and going back to CDL permit holders and we will do our diligence to watch and get better. We did not mean to offend the trucking community but if you were listening to this and you're kind of curious, what is Highfield all about? What is this company you all chat about? I thought you all were just a show that you all put on. Feel free to reach out to us. We have highfieldtrekkingcom. You can kind of see what we do there. If you want to talk to one of our recruiters and get a little more of an idea, you can talk to Melissa or Delino, who's been on this show before. You can look her up a few episodes ago and see her on here as well.
Speaker 2:You can support the Expedite Chicks.
Speaker 1:And support the Expedite Chicks. They do a wonderful job. You can check out LookShark Expediting Adventures. You can check out Truck and Travel. You can check out Expedite Boogie. You can check out the Real, the real trucker couple, the real trucker couple, the real trucker couple. Look online. There's other YouTubers out there that aren't affiliated with our company, but they still put out great information. Check them out as well, and if you would like to call and talk to one of these ladies in recruiting, you can always call us at 833-493-4353, option 1.
Speaker 2:That's 833 Highfield, monday through Friday 8am to 5pm Eastern Time, or Jerry, what else can they do?
Speaker 6:You could shoot over an email To theouterbellpodcast at gmailcom If you're interested in leaving a comment on the show or have an idea for a future show. You can check us out on all the socials Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.
Speaker 2:We're on TikTok.
Speaker 1:We are.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I don't have TikTok.
Speaker 6:That's pretty cool we don't have TikTok, it's cool Some people do.
Speaker 1:You can also leave us a comment here as well and we'll chat with you on there. We have had a couple people send us some corrections and we've chatted. If you find some of those chats we talked about like we were talking about the English language proficiency, we were kind of really focusing on what was happening in Mexico and we were certainly told about some other things that we had a blind eye to we really do appreciate your comments. It does help us make the show better and it does help us with our education as well. Thank you for that. Thank you for supporting our channel.
Speaker 1:If you like what you see here, share the episode with someone. Hit your like, hit, hit your subscribe. All that stuff helps us. Uh, if you think anybody else might enjoy this, while they're going down the road for an hour, you want to hear a few people just chat for meaningless hours on end? Uh, by all means, share it with them. We're on youtube. We're also on any podcast format you're familiar with, so if listening to us is easier than watching us, you can check us out on any of your podcast formats you like, and I would like to say we actually last episode just published our 75th episode.
Speaker 4:Nice Wow.
Speaker 5:So, we're on our way to 100. Had you told me after that lost episode that we'd be at 75 episodes, I wouldn't have believed you.
Speaker 1:How about, after the first one, the lost one, the lost one, the lost?
Speaker 5:one. Oh, that was bad.
Speaker 1:That was horrible that was y'all putting oh.
Speaker 5:And people are streaming at their phones right now saying all 75 have been horrible, but that's just in my opinion. Well, you know, I think we've done a great job.
Speaker 1:We have done a job, so, and we've expanded our cast and we've changed our setup.
Speaker 5:We have, we've adjusted.
Speaker 1:It has been a lot of fun so far, but in the meantime, until we meet again, thank you, OTR Services for sponsoring this episode. If you are interested in a carb test, otr-servicescom. That's otr-servicescom. Help support them. Anything you do to support our sponsors helps us and we just appreciate you.
Speaker 5:Make good decisions and stay safe don't leave money on the table and keep those rolls of toner bye bye, we'll be right back you.