Off to North Dakota

[ColoradoRVHauler]

I'm leaving for NoDak tomorrow. Found a job I cant pass up. I got me a minivan and am going to see what the fun is all about up there. Pay? I can make 2500 a week within a few months after learning my job. Pay is on a % just like I want to. Will be stating at 1800-2000 a week. Will be hauling water.

Thanks for your Help shortstack. I will be up there Saturday night. Maybe we can meet up.

Carey

[haulin rv]

Hope it all works well for you!

[smr500]

Keep us posted. We will need an oil field thread lol.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Ok guys I will. Ive seen several northern light shows around Kenmare and Portal. I will be working just west of there out of Crosby. I'll take my camera. You guys all know me, I'll be posting the pics from the job and how Im making it up there. Will be coming home every 2-3 weeks or the guy said whenever works for him. Just would like me to spend more time working for him then sitting at home.. I laughed and said no problem. Even though its crazy busy up there people seem pretty laid back. Just put reflectix on all my windows, got the matteress in, and getting my lil minivan ready for action. I got an extended Caravan and still have 2 feet lengthwise after a twin pillow top matteress is in there. Heck plenty of room.

Carey

[short stack]

i hope to see you in the next few days. it's been raining here for a week so i would make sure you bring your galoshes[mud boots lol]. we're supposed to have a week of nice weather so we may get back out on the combines. i hope i remember how to drive them lol, it's been a few weeks. good luck and we'll be seeing you shortly
mark

[Brisco]

Are you going to be out in "The Boonies" working, or are you going be in a populated area??

Winter's right around the corner for ND. So YES, I want pictures posted here all winter long!! That way there when I'm sitting here in Texas in January wearing shorts I can see what I'm missing!!

Know what I mean..............

[ColoradoRVHauler]

The closest population is Williston prolly 60 miles, Dickinson, prolly 120 miles or Minot prolly 100 miles. Just guessing. I'll be in the boonies so to speak. The towns around there might be 5-600 people, but with the oil boom, those towns may be 2-3000. My boss said there is absolutly knowplace to live. I did see a 3 bedroom house for rent north of Williston for 2250 a month. If I got a bathroom and a place I can find food I will be just fine. I only need a place to plug in to stay warm. Between Marks place or the yard in Crosby I got that covered.

No problem on the pics Brisco. I make ya envy my fun, lol. Im packing for cold weather so I'll be ok. Right now its wonderful up there, 50-70 highs and 40's lows.

Boy winter is already here. Been snowing and sticking on Copper Mtn today, and the Aspens are in full color. Been in the 20's at night above 8000 feet. I live at 5000 and its been 40's here. Be frosty here soon too.

Carey

[bth9461]

Well good luck, I hope the deal is as good as you expect. Seems you could use some good fortune. Maybe this job will propell you forward into a brighter future.

You seem tough as nails and must be a hard work. They will be lucky to have a guy like you.


Brian

[Brisco]

No problem on the pics Brisco. I make ya envy my fun, lol. Im packing for cold weather so I'll be ok. Right now its wonderful up there, 50-70 highs and 40's lows.

Cool!! I always love SNOW pictures. Guess I'm kinda a cooler climate type of guy. If it weren't for family down here in Texas, I'd already have relocated somewhere up north.

I remember one August/September morning up in Elkhart where I had to warm up my truck to get the frost off the windows. Called my Mother and asked how hot it was back home. At 7AM or so it was already 80 something degrees here so I kind of rubbed it in that I was standing outside there in Elkhart drinking coffee, watching my breath flow through the air and waiting for my windows to defrost. :D

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Well good luck, I hope the deal is as good as you expect. Seems you could use some good fortune. Maybe this job will propell you forward into a brighter future.

You seem tough as nails and must be a hard work. They will be lucky to have a guy like you.


Brian

Im not very tough anymore.. lol But I'll give em an honest days work true. I spent 7-8 years hauling cement in a dry tank. This will be similiar, thats one reason Im not to scared. In the first 20 or so miles after loading a load of cement it would move as bad as a liquid. Except the trailer was 12 foot tall versus a water tank thats about 10 foot. We had a bunch of curves going right out of the cement plant. The guys would flip 3-4 trucks a year because of how much that stuff would move. Even after that powder would settle you could make it flow back and forth with a hard brake or bad shift. I cant imagine water will be a whole lot different. I'l be either vaccing it into the tank or pumping it out. We blew our loads of cement 100 feet in the air using a roots type 12-71 blower.. Could unload 55,000 lbs of cement powder in 30 mins using 4 inch plumbing at 15 psi. It was amazing and that hose waging behind the truck could easilly break your leg.

Had a buddy that had a hose connection come off while he was trying to fix a plug. The 4 inch wall of cement hit him in the face. He spent days in the hospital. Had cement on the back side of his eyeballs, seriously. Was blind for days from the chemical burns. I always wore a full face shield after that. Will prolly do the same up there, since much of the water coming back out of the hole will hold some chemicals. Yea I'll look like a puss. Hard hat with face shield.. Oh well, you only get two eyes.

Im thinking hauling water will be less dangerous, but the driving and working conditions will be more challenging. By the looks of things up there, the roads I will be running wont be plowed much and at least the ice road trucker guys have deliniator posts to help them find there way. Not many posts up there in NoDak. I bet the roads will just disappear on me at times. Bet I spend as much time off of the highway as on. Probably be a matter of when I stick the truck rather than if, lol As long as I can keep the wheels on the ground I will be happy. I already know Im prolly gonna look like a fool standing beside my stuck truck cause I made a bone head move.

[short stack]

just to let you guys know that carey made it to my house yesterday. i fed him and let him shower for 1 last time before the oil patch gets him lol. he went to start his job this morning, i haven't heard from him all day so either he's busy or he's on his way back to colorado!! i'll keep everyone posted. the rains have ended and the mud is turning back into dirt and dust. we are having a very nice warm up for the next week or so. lows in the 40's and highs in the70's. this should soften him up before the cold sets in lol.
mark

[ColoradoRVHauler]

lol Its been hot here. I got to wear a hard hat now. If its over 60 I sweat while wearing it.

Everything has went well. Im pulling a 130 barrell Vac trailer. By that, it pulls water into it and pushes water out of it. It use the same blowers I used on dry bulk tanks so that parts been easy. We carry a lil over 5000 gallons or 120 barrels. There barrel is 42 gallons. Im driving a road dude freightliner classic condo xl. Its got a big cat, 13 speed and stretched out there. Its a pretty nice truck, 600k on it. Its supposed to be blue, cept its all muddy right now. Everyones truck is muddy.

Dust.. Man its dusty!

Money.. The guy who trained me made well over 100k last year. Has seen a high of 13500 in a month. They are drilling like mad dogs up here. Opportunities are just endless.

I was on my own tonight. I had a hydralic leak on my pump. The fluid id a bit low so I parked a couple hours early. Thought Id catch up here real quick. My truck made about 11-1200 in 10 hours work. F'in incredible!

The people here are super nice. They will do anything for ya. F'in incredible too!

So far im basking in the heat. Like mark said it will pay me back.

It was really great meeting mark and his wife. Mark is a guy who is light hearted and keeps you laughing. He is a good guy!

The money part is true up here. They are so short for labor and truckers its crazy.

Carey

Hit two pheasants on the way up. They destroyed my whole passenger side of my windshield. Will have to get one before heading back home.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Well, still here. Everything is going good. Got the lil van pluged into power. Got plenty of electricity now. About all I do is work and sleep. Thats what I was hoping for. My boss is about 30 and a good guy. The trucks run 24 hours a day with two drivers and make at least 2500 a day on the low end. They run 24/7/365. They are drilling like mad dogs up here. Been fun so far. Im glad I didnt buy any Carhart stuff before I got here. The oil companies are wanting flame retardant outer wear. So the normal stuff would have been a waste. Other than that, they require being certified in the hazardous gasses, hard hats, safty glasses, and steel toes. Pretty normal stuff. Our trucks have a gas sniffer installed in them to alert us if we are in danger. Pretty much a smoke alarm typr thing. The risk is very minimal, but its there.

The amount of macheinery at the well sites is astonishing. At the frac we have been working its the largest formation of machinery I have ever seen. They are fracing 4 holes at whats called an ecopad. Its eco friendly to drill 4 holes in one spot rather than one. The amount of water these places require is far beyond anyones thoughts. Been running out of Marks city all week. There is a water depot right in his town that pretty much supplies the whole areas water needs. All of us have worked all week and we are barely keeping up. Crazy!

Its a cool job and all of the guys I work with are very respectful, and will give you there shirts off of there backs. Why? We all are paid by the hour. Tons of money an hour including the owner operators. No need to cut lines and make enemies so everyone treats eachother like brothers. Never been a part of something like that in my life. All of the trucking I have been involved with has to do with the "me first" attitude and who can do it the cheapest. Normal trucking is paid on performance. For us we can hone in on excellance cause all the normal stuff is out of mind. Here we all are getting paid just stupid wages and we respect that and work as a team. The biggest change for me has been this. Not the trucking part even though its all off road. lol my top speed is 35mph. Im kinda liking that, lol The roads are just too rough to go any faster.

But anyway Im still learning. I work at night mostly cause im a green horn. So pics are a bit tough right now. All I can say is the machinery I have seen this week and learned about has been an incredible experience! When the weather turns bitter cold I will see even more. So far its been fun and all good. Im making just stupid money no matter what happens so I have no worries about that part which is kinda cool, cause in trucking the dollar is the 1st worry and the every thing else is second. F'in backwards here and thats the wierd part.

Carey

[cosgo]

Careful... your making that place sound like heaven for those of us that enjoy working 40 hours straight without a wink of sleep !!!

[ColoradoRVHauler]

lol maybe in the old days.. We work 12 on and 12 off. I am choosing to work 7 days a week while im here. Got nothin else to do. 84 hours times 30 an hour which is how the % equals out, yea 2500 a week. ND is overtime exempt for truck drivers, but I dont want overtime, I want % and they have extra allowances for oilfield workers on HOS as long as the work is local. I sit in line almost as much as I drive. I actually am out of the truck doing physical work maybe 2 hours out of that 12 hours. Man ive done way harder jobs in my life. Yes the weather will be challenging for 3 months of the year. But that sounds fun.

The owner ops who have 3-4 trucks are quickly becoming millionairs because there trucks are making 15k each a week.

I will be home once a month. the same as being an OTR trucker or RV hauler. But both of those jobs pay 1000 a week. Im making 2500. I work way more than 84 hours a week out on the road too.

Yep the ND oil field hooked me in one week. Hell, not even, tomorrow is a week. lol

Carey

[ColoradoRVHauler]

hmmm lets see. 15k a week to the truck.. 5k a week to two drivers, 2 tanks of fuel, 1000 miles, plus maint. So lets say the truck costs you 10k a week in expenses. That leaves 5k a week profit per truck. Lets say a guy has 5 trucks.. 25k a week, 100k a month profit to the owner.

Guys there are a bunch of guys up here that have 5 trucks leased on somewhere. This place is dripping with money, just no place to live. Hell knowone works very hard that i see. Everyone works around 12 hours a day. I see some owner ops living in there trucks here and they work maybe 14-15 hours a day.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Here is the kicker. A new 130 barrell vac trailer, 50-60k. A pump and accesories is 10k. Plus a 500k mile used truck, 25k. So your looking at say 80-90k to get into the biz.

Be weary buying a used water trailer. The tank lining is very expensive to replace. Most used vac tanks have rotten liners. Id onlt buy a new one. Look up Dragon vac trailers.

here is what i pull. http://www.dragonproductsltd.com/trailers/vt-130bblsv.html

its 3 weeks old and has air ride. couldnt imagine being on these roads out here without air ride. We use a challenger pump and can unload 5000 gallons in under 15 mins. Can suck product on that fast too. The pump makes 23psi pressure or 23 inches of vaccum. My trailer is white with an ex warner freightliner classic in front of it. The truck an trailer has all leds, and the truck has the kit in front of the air cleaners and sides too. looks nice at night. its covered in dust all the time, so it looks best at night, lol

[smr500]

Do these trailers have everything needed ? http://www.mylittlesalesman.com/frontend/content/listingdetail.aspx?pos=1&adv=2c973b0c-3eaa-4a61-8e17-37e6a9fa56b3&item=598657&ind=3&status=all Looks like new liners are around $3500. I would love to buy a truck and trailer and go up there and work.

[short stack]

carey, you better re think the 3 months of foul weather. this year 2010, it snowed and stuck for a couple of days in may. last 3 years it started snowing by end of oct or early nov. enjoy this great harvest weather while you can, it could be gone shortly. it'll be a real treat when your slogging through the mud for days on end. you also have to remember that water freezes at 32 degrees. there's lots of days below freezing! lets all hope that the winter is not like 2 years ago when we had the 3rd record snow fall and cold since they started keeping records. i think i told you about the road grader that got stuck in the middle of the road in a 12foot snow drift. they had to take cats and push the snow out into the fields because they couldn't push through any more. real nasty. i only got stuck once that winter and it was on glare ice. i hit that corner 4 times trying to make it up the hill to the rig. took 2 front end loaders to pull me in and then four of us with torches to try and thaw out the ice cube in the trailer. a real blast!!! i have lots of stories from the oil patch. i believe a couple of years out here will make you a lot better driver and a hell of a man lol.
mark

[short stack]

for you folks that may be looking for work, try this site. it's the local sales paper from williston. www.theshopperinc.net look about half way to the second section. there you will find the help wanted area
mark

[ColoradoRVHauler]

My truck is getting a set of chains. That was a requirement when he hired me. Also our valves are getting wrapped in a heat tape type stuff, something new.

Add in your conditions to the rocky mountains mark. Where I live, if you screw up you die off of the side of a mountain. Here you only go in the ditch.

This place is very similiar to where I live. Lots of sunshine, high dessert, with punishing storms. Yes the wind can kill ya here. The mountains can kill ya where I come from. Id call it a draw.

Looking forward to hopfully learning something new.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

We had a punisher snowstorm in colorado a few years back on sept 7th. 18 inches. Broke every tree for miles. Have had snow on july 4th in Colorado. Its still winter in may in Colorado. Our winter in the rockies is much, longer than here.

For the most part snowstorms here are wind blown and inches. They are in feet there with 1/2 the wind you have here.

Still.. Id call it a draw.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Winter gear. It depends on the person. Im very warm blooded and love cold weather. Others arent. The black carharts and some long underwear with normal clothes will allow you to survive about anything. Biggest thing is keeping your skin protected. For a truck driver we dont have to spend as much time out there, unless you are in one of the scenarios like mark spoke of with frozen valves. Or like helping someone else. Or stuck in the ditch. So im preparing for the worst, but most likely I will wear quilted bib overalls and a sweatshirt. That will be fine for me 90% of the time. 5-750 spent at a ranch store would totally outfit ya.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Yep smr those trailers would be fine. 3500 will reline a tank that isnt rotted out yet. Some of the oilfield chemicals that we haul are highly corrosive and if they get thru the liner will eat the tank and weaken it. lol the oil companies claim that there outbound water isnt considered hazmat. Id wager that in any other biz than oil companies that itd be hazmat all day.

The next biggest problem is the suspension. In a 10 year old trailer, id expect that the suspension would need rebuilt. The mud is very hard of the joints, and bushings, let alone the brake hardware and wheel seals. Few grease the trailer right on schedule in this biz. They have us under the gun. There is always a shortage of trucks.

Like tonight. A bunch of us pulled water out of marks town, wildrose. Then we hauled it about 10 miles to a battery of 15, 20000 gallon frac tanks. So 4 of our trucks for each tank. At 7pm the frac tanks were empty. At 5 am they were all full. 60 loads of water in 10 hours. About 10 of us were hauling. Had to wait in line 3:45 of a 11 hour shift tonight. I hauled 6 loads and so did most everyone else. Had to drive down a one lane road so tight that we had to set up when two trucks could pass each other. The road was soft and had it been muddy, more than one of us would have been in the ditch. I seen 5-6 spots where I could see ruts in the ditch from where trucks had been pulled out the last time it was muddy. The roads were alos very rough. Top speed was 30 with most of it at 15-20 mph. Very tight corners and very dark. If one was to drop the trailer in the ditch, the whole operation would be shut down.

The water heater trucks were pulling up to heat the water as we were just done at 5am. That water will be 2 miles down in the earth in less than 12 hours now.

Id say the biggest obstical in this job is backing. One needs to be a precision backer. You need to pull in and quickly eye the opening you have, and make the perfect moves to set the trailer up to allowed to be back in as quickly as possible.

I seen one accident tonight. A driver made too tight of a corner and caught a frac tank. Tore the hell out of the rail that the hoses sit in. Its totally pitch black at the sites. This site had a pit and a well head placed close to the battery of tanks. It was tight. We had to back in with about 18 inches on either side of us between trucks. Its a constant movement of trucks as we are each unloading.

I have seen 3 accidents in one week. One kid dropped the trailer in the ditch, another backed into another guys trailer, and then the one last night.

Being able to back in a precision like manner far out weighs any of the other parts of driving the truck in the biz is what I have learned in 1 week. Those of us that can back with perfection quickly gain acceptance from the old hands. The ones who cant are razed till they blow there top and then everyone laughs it off and gives him pointers to help him. The guys are a bunch of very helpful guys is what I have seen. They will do about anything for anyone.

Carey

[ColoradoRVHauler]

pay, The guy I work for charges 115 an hour. Others charge 135 to 150 an hour. When times turn slow the oil companies give the expensive ones the boot first.

My boss has 22 outside trucks working for him. He pays em 99 an hour. All of the owner ops have said they have been rooked out of between 20k to 50k from other companies. They say my boss pays em on time evrytime and love working for him. Hes adding more trucks everyday. Hes buying more too.

The owner ops say my boss is the most honest in all of western dakota. All I can say is he is a stand up guy and deserves to succeed cause he has the right attitude.

Dont know if my pay or there pay is the best. Dont really care.. I only work for good people. In my book a few bucks more from an ass isnt worth it in the long run.

Most of the owner ops stay here in the local campgrounds and manage 2-3 trucks. Have several with just one truck too.

[smr500]

I'm curious on how these trailers work, for instance those trailers in the like above I posted, some have pumps. Is this all you need or do you need a pump/blower mounted on the truck getting power via pto? Or is it all part of the trailer and power supplied by the truck also? Is the pump dual purpose, vacuum and pressure? Amazing that it can pull or push 5k gallons of water in 15 minutes

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Depends on the pump/blower. Some use a roots type 6-71 to 12-71 blower just like what is on a hotrod or the old jimmy diesels. Those are truck mounted and are pto driven. All of your cement/dry bulk trucks use this style blower to move the load off of the trailer. I unloaded 28 tons/56000 lbs of dry cement thru a 4 inch hose to a silo 100 feet above the truck in less than a 1/2 hour thru a 4 inch hose and piping. Yes incredible!.

The same blower can be used for water too. But most guys use a pto driven hydralic pump that sends fluid to a trailer mounted hydralic motor that spins a vaine type blower. The vaine type blowers are much more efficient and make higher volumes of air than the old roots type. So they unload faster too. The trailers you are talking about have a blower, but may need the hydralic motor and of course will need plumbing and a pto driven pump on the truck. Prolly 1500-2000 would need to be invested on the truck to operate the trailer mounted pump/blower.

To suck the water or dry product back in, the blower uses a scrubber and a series of valves to make it form a suction. The canisters you see on the vac trailers are what make the suction happen. The roots type actually spin backwards, and the vaine type use valving to turn the vaine blower into a suction blower.

Our trailers have all the best hydralic pumps and blowers. Yes $$. My trailer can blow off a 5000 gallon load in under 10 mins. and can suck in a 5000 gal load in under 10 mins. Our stuff isnt normal and we run circles around all of the guys. The norm is 15 mins to 20 mins.

A guy can pass us in line at the water well head or frac tank and we pass em back at the delivery site.. lol pisses em off.

The new technolgy is just amazing anymore.

This is dangerous work and one can kill yourself pretty easy by not closing a valve before disconnecting. A 3 inch wall of product at 25 psi can just about take your head off or blow a hole thru ya. The water hoses dont move as they unload, but dry product hoses do, because you have to manually blend air with the dry product to make it move. Those hoses can easilly break your leg since the air traveling thru them cause them to violently move around. They are just like a several hundred pound really pissed off 4 inch snake back there behind the trailer.

On water tanks, there is a valve at the tank and a valve on the trailer. When under pressure the water tank valve must be closed first, then the trailer valve can be closed second. The trailer is one huge 25psi bomb when it goes empty after unloading. So we vent the trailer using a blowdown valve then close the trailer valve to escape the pressure in the hose so the hose can be disconnected pressure free.

Now when we suck a load into the trailer, the water tank valve is closed first, then we leave the trailer valve wide open. This way the water is sucked from the hose once the hose is loosened. Then we close the trailer valve and then blow down and then shut down the vac/blower.

Both dutiues require a series of functions that must be closely followed so we are safe. This is one of the dangers when running a truck while tired. It just takes one mistake to put an end to your life. Its really no biggie, and one catches on quickly. but yes it is very dangerous if precautions arent followed.

There are a hole bunch of alternative plumbing methods to make things safer, but they are complicated to explain here. Basically blowdown valves can be added thruout the sytem to allow hose disconnection while under pressure or to bleed off the air in the hose.

Its very easy to teach someone to operate a vac trailer. no worries there smr.

If just one access door hold down leg is removed while a trailer is under pressure can cause a lid to explode which often kills the driver. If a tank were to rupture while at 25psi it actually cold level a building beside it.

I often tell a newbie we are about to make a bomb out of our trailer, and use valves to make the product escape out of it. It really is a bomb. The valves are used to control the bomb. Thats preety much the truth.

A vac trailer must be made incredibly strong. It must have reinforcement ribs both inside and outside to keep it from exploding or imploding.

Carey

[smr500]

That was an excellent explanation. Thank you

[ColoradoRVHauler]

sorry, had to edit it a few times to make better since, lol

[LBZ]

Some bs'ing here but...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/trucking-jobs/118320-so-you-want-haul-crude-oil.html