Solar Power Switched On.

The last of the unused slide-out trays was used for the batteries. It was too narrow so needed a shelf fixed on top but plenty capable of holding the weight.

I went for four 6 volt, deep-cell wet acid batteries rated at 235 amp-hours each. The slide-out will make it easy to top them up with distilled water. 

A lot of care was needed in wiring the four 6 volt batteries to give a 12 volt output. First, a pair in series and then the two pairs in parallel. The inverter  is 2000 watt pure sine wave with wired remote control switch. Inverters work best when installed close to their batteries; you can't get closer than that.

The batteries power everything that is 12 volt inside the living quarters and are independent from the 12 volt truck system. I fitted a 12 volt outlet on the bottom edge of the shelf for the external shower.

There is already plenty of wiring in the vehicle with 12 volt, 115 volt and 240 volt circuits. I have used some of the old 240 volt wires to connect up the interior lights, the fridge, the water pump and extractor fan. I am leaving the fridge switched-on 24/7 at the moment to give the system a test. So far the batteries have been full all the time after taking two days to get maximum charge.

All the solar panel and  house battery stuff came from " The Battery Man " in Winnipeg. They had it all in stock and worked out what cables and connectors that I would need to do the job. I might have got it a bit cheaper on the Internet but I was happy to purchase it locally and couldn't fault their service.

The charge controller is an important bit of kit as it saves the batteries from being over-charged and stops them discharging into the panels during the night. Overall the whole system was very easy to install, most difficult thing was running the cables down from the roof and keeping them out of sight.

The roof-rack adds about 12 inches to the height of the truck, taking it up to 12 foot 6 inches. The solar panels are not really noticeable when laying flat on the roof. 

The Mother Of All Roof Racks.

____ With the weather finally warming-up; I take some time away from the road and get stuck into work on the Mack. It has been sitting in the yard all Winter without turning a wheel and I haven't done much to it. But now I get a chance to get on with the build and use all the bits I have been buying during the last six months. The roof rack and the solar panels are the number one priority. Here are some photos of the progress.

The frame is made from Unistrut 1 5/8 inch steel channel. It comes in 10 foot lengths and will fit in the cab of a Kenworth W900. It comes in Hunter Green, which is handy when you cut all your lengths and can spray the sawn ends with an aerosol.

I made it in sections to make it easy to lift on to the roof. It is 13 foot long, 8 foot wide and 12 inches high. it takes the running height of the Mack from 11 foot 6 inches to 12 foot 6 inches. 

I used some of the alloy sheet that came out of the Mack for panels on the rack. These were storage cabinets from in side the living area.

I don't have a lot of room to work in and the rack covers most of the deck. If you drop anything; you can bet it will go down one of those cracks between the boards.

The front of the rack has an angle of 45 degrees to help with aero-dynamics.

All ready to come to pieces and be carried up the ladder to the roof.

Building on the roof which is made of thick steel chequer plate and quite capable of carrying the extra weight. It was not easy joining up the sections when they were so close to the edge but the straps helped.

The tow-balls are the fixing points for the frame that will hold the solar panels. They will hold it firm when driving but can be easily disconnected to tilt the panels in any one of four directions when parked in the sun.

The solar panel frame [upside-down] with towing hitches at each corner and some alloy angle to hold the panels level.

The two 150 watt solar panels fit snug in their frame. I just hope the hitches fit snug round their ball.

The frame in position on the rack on the roof. Just undo two hitches and lift the frame to tilt towards the sun. 

____ That's the story so far. Next job is fitting the solar panels, running the wires down inside the truck, putting in the house batteries and the controller and a 100 other little things that are bound to crop-up.

This Weeks Winter Storm: Xanto.

Nine Day Trip.

____ Peat-moss for Scott`s of Cresson, Texas, one of the major suppliers of dirt for Walmart. Leaving Tuesday with the number one priority of a rendezvous with the breakfast buffet at the Winstar Casino on Thursday morning. A night at the Petromart in Missouri Valley before getting a free nose-bag at on the Oklahoma-Texas stateline; over 55 player-club members only. Then onto Cresson after the Fort Worth early-morning rush has subsided. A busy packing plant in an area where spring planting is in full swing.

____ The reload is from Laredo, appointment 11 o`clock on Friday, so a leisurely run down Interstate 35; empty rather than fully freighted. Into the TA with no need to set the alarm clock. It`s the regular shopfitting trans-shipping bonded warehose; a bonded load for a new supermarket in Saskatchewan, exiting the US through Pembina, North Dakota. Enough time after loading to get back to the Winstar at Thackerville, after battling the busy 35 through San Antone, Austin, Temple, Waco and Fort Worth.

____ Saturday is one long slog; trying to get as far North before I meet Xanto on it`s way South. Omaha is where the snow meets the Kenworth and the wipers struggle to clear the windshield. By Misssouri Valley it is blizzard conditions with reports of Interstate closures in South Dakota. The friendly Petromart Travel Plaza makes a good pit-stop for the night as the horizontal snow flies by and is still flying when I leave in the morning. Running on hard-packed ice and snow into the wind with only three tonnes of cargo soon tensions the neck muscles. But south of Watertown, Interstate 29 turns to the North-West and the wind lays on the side of the trailer. I feel the drive tyres spinning on more than one occasion, back the speed down and hope I don`t catch a strong gust on an extra slippery section. A wind-blown jack-knife is a distinct possibility but I safely reach Stone`s Truckstop and lunch before the road turns back North and going gets better.

____ At the Gas-Trak, Pembina, I call in to collect the faxed lead-sheet needed to cross back into Canada; it`s not there. After a series of text messages; the office reveals that they had me set-up to cross the border at Portal, 281 miles to the West. It`s the first I have heard about it. I have the option to sit at Pembina until Monday morning when the border-crossing can be changed or drive over to Portal and cross there. But when I point out that the exit border for the bond is Pembina and that I told them on Friday to send the fax to the Gas-Trak, all of a sudden it is possible to send the fax to where I am quietly fuming. Maybe they sensed my anger at being parked at the border for 18 hours because of their incompetence. There is not enough time to go home for the night so I try-out the new Flying`J at Ste Agathe.

____ Onto Saskatoon and a Tuesday morning delivery at a storage warehouse where the company is going to deliver the chiller cabinets as and when they are called for. Then wood-chips from Prince Albert and I get it right  this time. To PA and loaded by 1 o`clock, down to Brandon for the night before delivering the load to the Blue Water Truckwash. They wash-out a lot of livestock trailers and supply bales of wood-chips for their next assignments. It`s a regular drop just switch the loaded trailer for an empty and run back to Steinbach.

Still Winter in Missouri Valley, Iowa

Ice.

Heavy-haul brigade getting ready to leave the Husky at Saskatoon after early morning snowfall.

The full nine days of the trip; mileage and hours.

   

Winter Storm Wilbur.

Seven Day Trip.

____ Peat-moss, loaded in the morning and ready to leave at 1 o'clock when the customs entry has been done. Leaving Monday for a Thursday delivery in Laredo with a Winter storm warning in effect for South Dakota. The bright sunshine finishes at Fargo and when the Sisseton scale-house is closed, I know it is going to be bad. That weigh-bridge is always open unless the operators feel they might not get home at the end of their shift. Sure enough, the biggest climb on Interstate 29, up to Summit, is a sheet of ice. My badly worn drive tyres spin their way to the top while the windshield wipers become swishing blocks of ice. The Coffee Cup Travel Plaza is the best option in such conditions as the temperature drop to -15C in the gale force westerly.

____ Conditions are still tricky in the morning but the wind is now from the North and I don't need the wipers if I don't go too fast. South of Sioux Falls, the snow turns to slush, by Sioux City the roads are bare and dry. A big second day gets me into Oklahoma, followed by another big hit down to San Antonio and the job is back on track. Off-loaded in Laredo and off to Corpus Christi for the re-load. The loading appointment is for Friday at 10.30 but I roll-up on the off-chance that they will load it on Thursday afternoon. The pigment factory is just a short walk from the beach, the aquarium and the USS Lexington, an open-to-the-public aircraft-carrier. One of the few times that I am disappointed to get loaded early. Back up to San Antonio for a warm night at the TA.

____ Another cold-weather front is coming down across the Mid-west with the promise of freezing-rain. I swerve to the east in an attempt to avoid the worst of it; getting to Joplin in a full day's driving. Five centimetres of snow fall overnight but by Kansas City, the roads are bare and dry with just the threat of yet another storm coming through on Sunday. Back to Summit for another cold night on the high ground of South Dakota before leaving early on the last leg of the trip. The load is for Winnipeg but I take the trailer back to Steinbach and wonder if this Winter will ever end.

The bleak Coffee Cup Travel Plaza at Summit, South Dakota.

Waking-up to snow on the hood at the Petro 44 in Joplin, Missouri.

Seeking shelter from the snow.

Four Of A Kind.

The Way Down.

The Way Back Up.

____ For the fourth time in a row: the load back to Canada is destined for Calgary in Alberta. But it is a change from peat-moss and paper for the  south-bound cargo. Four drops of double-glazed windows, the same job that I have done previously for Flying Eagle and Payne Transportation. A lighter load that gives me a chance to run the back roads south of Watertown, South Dakota. Down to Hutchinson in Kansas for a Monday delivery, before exhausting the rest of the day, heading for drop Number 2 at Marshall, Texas.

____ Spread-out multi-drop work leads to shorter days but I do get rid of the third consignment at Austin. There is a bomber causing fear and panic in the Texas capital city; I'm keen to get out of town and down towards the last  delivery at Rockport. By the time I have an empty trailer the bomber has blown-up himself. My instructions are for re-loading at 2 o'clock in Laredo. More shop-fittings for the same new Asian supermarket in Calgary. The familiar run North, Highway 83, Highway 287, Interstates 70, 25, 90. A dust-storm on 70 before Denver and the usual Mistral on 25 between Cheyenne and Douglas.

____ Into Canada on Sunday afternoon and as I know the delivery site has ample parking, I put the trailer on an unloading bay ready for the morning. A good thing I did as two more Ruby trucks arrive at 8 o'clock. Then it's off to Saskatchewan for a cargo of salt; to be loaded on Tuesday, delivered on Wednesday at a hardware store in Arborg; one hour north of Winnipeg. Most of the daytime temperatures have been above freezing but the trip has a sting in the tail. I wake-up to a blizzard in Arborg. It is only two hundred yards from my parking spot at the hardware store to the Co-op fuel station but I am the coldest I have been all Winter by the time I get back to the truck with my morning coffee. Then by the time I have dragged 24 tonnes of salt to the back of the trailer, I'm soaked in sweat. Now I'm writing this with a runny nose after breaking out the shorts and sandals in Texas one week earlier.

Blue Beacon Truck Wash at York, Nebraska.

Bling Over-Load on  old Volvo.

Dust Storm on Interstate 70 in Colorado.

Peruvian Roast Chicken and Mexican Beer at Calgary, Alberta.

Icy Manitoba Highway 7 on the way back from Arborg.

Seeing Double with Sapphire Number 02.

12 Day Trip; the longest of the four of a kind.

The New Truckstops Trip.

11 Day Trip.

____ Day time temperatures are warmer but it is still pretty cold at night. This leads to early Sunday morning trouble when I find the trailer is frozen to the ground and the drive tyres are spinning on a sheet of ice. With a little fore-thought, I should have put on a couple of snow-chains before backing under the trailer. Luckily another Ruby driver is also leaving at the same time; he pulls the Kenworth out of the puddle of frozen snow-melt. A snow storm is forecast for later in the day but I manage to stay ahead of any bad weather; even with the bad luck of being selected for a DoT vehicle inspection at the Sisseton scale in South Dakota.

____ From the Coffee Cup Travel Plaza at Vermillion to the Choctaw Travel Stop at Thackerville is an uneventful second day; followed by more of the same as I reach Hidalgo on Wednesday morning. A quick cross-docking of the peat-moss onto a Mexican Dub'ya Nine and I am away to Laredo for a trailer switch at the new yard. Stopping for fuel at the new Pilot Truckstop at Falfurrias; mid way between Hidalgo and Laredo. After a few years of stagnation, there seems to be an explosion of new travel plazas at the moment. Love's open a new site every month and Pilot/Flying'J are expanding too. Big investments in what must be considered secondary positions as all the prime Interstate locations have long gone. But good news for truck-drivers as more parking spots and facilities help ease the burden of ELDs.

____ For the third time on the trot, the destination of the triangle's second leg is Calgary, Alberta. Shop fittings of only three and a half tons which helps enormously with the journey; as I am expected to make a Monday morning delivery and get back into Canada in less than 70 hours of driving time. Another brand new Pilot Truckstop is the over-night halt at Lamar in Colorado but not before I have re-fueled at the Rip Griffin Travel Centre, Tulia. Rip Griffin started building truckstops in 1962, sold eleven sites to TA in 2004 but kept nine in the Lubbock area of West Texas. Mr. Griffin died in 2017, aged 87. Old style service and new only a few hours apart.

____ Northbound and onto higher ground, the wind picks-up and leans on the lightly loaded trailer. Interstate 25 in Wyoming is notorious for the gales from the West but I make it through to Sheridan; just keeping out of cruise-control and easing back on the exposed bridge-decks. At the third brand new truckstop of the trip, I wake up to heavy snow on a Saturday morning. Common Cents is the name of the truckstop and common-sense tells me to sit-tight until the weather front blows through. I'm away just after Noon; five hundred miles to the Canadian border and on to Lethbridge, Alberta, with a couple of hours left of my weekly 70 allowance.

____ Sunday is a day of rest and round to the new Calgary supermarket on Monday morning. Unloaded and the re-load is something I have done before; Acheson, near Edmonton, to Niverville, near Steinbach. But it might of helped if I had read the message correctly! I get up to Acheson only to find that I should have been loading at the company's other packing plant at Prince Albert in Saskatchewan. My mistake adds about a hundred miles to the empty dead-head but the wood-chip people give me a load from Acheson to help me on my way. The punishment load is to Fort Saskatchewan; which would have been nice if it was in Saskatchewan but it is only the other side of Edmonton.

____ It is frightening that I can still make such stupid mistakes after being a truck-driver for over forty years. Crack-on; I'm sure the office will have noticed but as they never say anything when I do a good job then I don't think they will much about a faut-pas. Eventually loaded in PA and on to Niverville for a quick unloading before running back to the yard. Eleven days for the trip; the longest of the trio after an 8 and a ten.

Brand new Pilot at Falfurrias, Texas, where the manager said I was the Canadian customer.

The peat-moss went from one Kenworth W900 to another at Hidalgo.

The Rip Griffin name still lives on at West Texas truckstops.

76 different barbed wires on display at Coopers BBQ, Junction, Texas.

Oil-field heavy-haul did well to find a big enough parking spot at the Calgary Flying'J.

List of new Pilot/Flying'J Truckstops with a new one, quite close, at Ste Agathe in Manitoba. 

Elrose Rounder

10 Day Trip.

4881 Miles.

____ After the Bank Holiday Monday, the truck was in the workshop on Tuesday morning for an oil change and service. Away just after Midday with peat-moss for Laredo; getting down to Vermillion, where the weather wasn't any warmer than Manitoba. Winter still gripping the Prairies with cold winds across Kansas and freezing rain in Oklahoma. The big TV screens in the restaurant at the Cowboy Travel Plaza show chaos on Interstate 35 as I eat my brisket sandwich. The weather is the news and I decide to stay-put even though I have driving hours and day-light hours left.

____ The ice rain has stopped by early morning but every surface that has not been sanded is covered with sheet ice. A couple of gritters swing by the travel plaza for coffee and two bull-haulers take advantage of the sanding to pull-out. I follow. The Interstate is driveable but the shoulder is littered with big-rigs, all the way to the Texas stateline. The shut-down of the previous evening left many truck-drivers with no driving hours to move on when things got better. One of the consequences of the new electronic logs that would never have been seen before.

____ San Antonio is as far as I get on Day Three and again an item from the Severe Weather Menu has something in store for me. A thunderstorm at 03.00 hours is still circling at six o'clock; drenching drivers as they go for coffee and aqua-planing muscle-cars into water-filled ditches before dawn. By Laredo, the roads are dry. Into Ruby Truck Line's new trailer yard for a quick switch; a load of fruit drinks for Calgary. Highway 83 to Sweetwater, 84 to Amarillo, 87 to Raton, New Mexico. The same trip as the week before, so to change the scenery, I choose the volcanic black-rock Grande Sierra. But this gives problems at the end of the day; not many truck-stops on the Interstate 25, south of Denver. I reject the tatty Tomahawk; the Love's destination turns out to be "Cars and RV's only." The only Rest Area is closed and I am left with the prospect of a night on an on-ramp. Luckily, the Castle Rock Park and Ride is at my last exit as the clock ticks down to less than 10 minutes.

____ A quiet night with four other trucks and a few visitors for which Park and Ride has a completely different meaning on a Saturday night. North and into colder weather; the liquid cargo is liable to freeze and break the glass bottles. An icy blast greets me in Wyoming and reminds me to start the "Hot Box," a diesel-engined heater that sits at the front of the trailer. Set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it cuts in and out for the rest of the journey to Calgary.

____ Drinks delivered and unlike the last trip, there is a reload to go back to Winnipeg. Lentils from a farm, deep in the heart of Saskatchewan. An early morning appointment, seven miles East of Elrose, where the the lentils are augered from a grain bin, into the bagging shed, along the conveyor belt and into the trailer. All 680 of them and it takes all morning. A heavy load with not enough time to deliver into Winnipeg before morning. Luckily, it's a trailer-drop and I can bob-tail back to the yard.

Ruby trailer line-up in the new yard at Laredo, Texas.

Thermo-King Hot Box and control box on the front of a dry-freight box-van.

The bob-tail Western Star seemed to have been abandoned.

Lentil loading system at a farm near Elrose in Saskatchewan.

Broken Spoke.

Eight Days - 4728 Miles.

Average of just under 600 miles a day in 9 hours 45 minutes.

____ Leaving on a Saturday has the advantage that the trailer is loaded and the paperwork is all prepared on Friday afternoon. I get to choose at what time I leave on the 1720 mile run to Laredo in Texas; aiming for a Tuesday morning delivery. I get going early; maximizing all available daylight and hoping to get far enough South to enjoy warmer temperatures. It's disappointing to reach Percival, Iowa, in a snow-storm and minus 16 C. After a hard days work of cruise control at 66 mph on the Interstate 29; the Detroit Diesel idles all night at 800 rpm. It is another full driving shift before the motor gets switched off for the night at Hillsboro, Texas, where it is finally warmer than zero.

____ A short third day gives me time to relax in the warm afternoon sunshine of Laredo before unloading the next day. Then, after a quick trailer switch, pedal to the metal once again with a load that has come out of Mexico and needs to be in Calgary on Friday morning. The up and coming Holiday Weekend makes me think the sooner I am in Alberta the better. Amarillo is the first night's stop on the north-bound leg; a with a late arrival at the Travelcenter of America. The second night's destination is Casper, Wyoming, but strong winds from the West start buffeting the trailer before I have reached Denver. By the Colorado/Wyoming border at Cheyenne, the overhead signs are warning of 60 mph gusts and restrictions for lightly-loaded high-sided vehicles.

____ 25,000 lbs is not a light load but not as heavy as I would have liked. The truckstops are jammed with parked-up trucks not willing to tackle the exposed high-ground that Interstate 25 crosses as it heads North to Wheatland. High winds are a regular problem in this area; I've run this road in a blow before and decide to give it a go. I keep it below 50 mph and the back of the trailer sits out of line by about a foot. The tricky places are where the high bluffs on west side of the highway shelter the rig before the wind blasts the trailer when rocky outcrops end. Slow down when the wind drops because it is going to come back stronger. But does a faster truck get blown over easier than a slow one? I don't know. Maybe the five drivers of the blown-over vehicles that I passed could have given me the answer but they were all abandoned and awaiting recovery when the winds abated.

____ As darkness fell, so did the wind-speed. Driving-hours didn't allow me to reach Casper as planned. The Broken Spoke Truckstop at Douglas was an adequate substitute with it's popular restaurant but with a parking area that resembled a nearly dried-up riverbed. Broken Spoke could have easily been Broken Wheel, Broken Axle or Broken Chassis-rail. Day Three and the trip resumed in windy conditions, this time with enough snowfall to make it a blizzard. At Buffalo, Interstate 90 was closed for the section to Sheridan. Everyone descended on to the streets of Buffalo for two hours before blue skies and sunshine appeared as the weather front blew through.

____ Then it was Wacky Races as we all hit the road again. The heavy and the light, the high-powered and the slow, the timid and the brave, all jockeying for position on the rolling hills. All on a surface of hard-packed snow with drifting and dusting cutting the visibility. By Sheridan, an evenly spaced order had been established but the scale at the Port of Entry concertina-ed the convoy back into chaos. The flat land around the Little Bighorn Battle site in Montana eased the congestion before the snow-covered streets of Billings ground everything to a halt. The two-lane cross-country short-cut to Great Falls was a daunting prospect but the wind had dropped, along with the temperature. It was turning into a long day of high-concentration driving with speed and distance of minor importance. The day's final destination of Shelby had been quickly amended to Great Falls.

____ The Pilot Truckstop sits on the high ground up by the airport, overlooking the town of Great Falls in the Missouri Valley. Exposed to the bitter cold northerly wind, I had idled the engine all night to keep the cab warm and avoid problems with gelling in the diesel filters. Surprisingly, the temperatures rose during the night to only minus 4. By the time I had crossed the border and done the final 300 miles into Calgary, it was +1 and thawing. Trailers swapped at a home improvement RDC by 10 o'clock local time; but a puncture in one of the drive tyres needs repairing. The re-load for the final leg of the triangle had always been the weak link of the trip. No news after the tyre is repaired, nothing after I've showered at the Flying'J. A long weekend is imminent; at 3 o'clock I get the instructions to return home empty.

____There is enough time to get to Redcliff, Alberta, on the 870 mile un-freighted un-profitable run. Nice of the company to get me back for the Bank Holiday without me asking but I can't help thinking that this sort of empty running will further delay a much needed pay rise. An early start from Redcliff with a tail-wind helping the fuel consumption. Bare and dry roads for the nearly seven hundred miles that has to be done in just over 11 hours. A big stamp done with 12 minutes to spare. The finish of an eight day trip with the driving-hours rolled-over to maximum effect, just the failure of the office to find that final piece of the jigsaw that spoiled a good trip.

Satellite view of the section of Interstate 90 that was closed between Buffalo and Sheridan in Wyoming.

$250 fine for doing a U-turn in the delivery yard at Laredo. Too small for me to even contemplate it.

Coopers B-B-Q. Junction, Texas. Yet another Brisket sandwich for lunch. 

Metal spike in a drive tyre. Luckily noticed before it became un-repairable.