Still Tuesday morning

I went over, fired up the truck, got the air system pressured up and then pulled off the service glad hand.  Pushing in the valve, plenty of air coming out of that.  Hooked it back up, went back to the rear of the trailer, observed where the slack adjusters were sitting, pushed both valves in, back to the rear of the trailer and saw that they had moved considerably.  

So, that means the brake system is working. What does that leave? Well, that leaves brakes that are so far out of adjustment that they aren't doing anything to stop the trailer.  Found some tools, got a piece of sheet metal to lay on, turned the bolt head to bottom out the brakes on one set.  Shocking, actually. Three full turns to bottom it out! You say, what does that mean?

It shouldn't have taken a turn, turn and a half at most - and that's for brakes out of adjustment - to get the shoes to bottom out on the brake drum.  All of them were that way.  It means that the brakes haven't been adjusted on that trailer in a very long time.  It's also out-of-service material, you get caught with them like that, they will put that trailer out of service and you will have to call a service person out there to adjust them. They won't let you do it yourself, you have to have it signed off by a certified mechanic.  

It also means these "mechanics" at the yard aren't checking anything. That trailer was sitting in that yard and was given the all green to take, that they had checked it out and everything was good to go when I picked it up.  THIS is why I checked them to begin with, I wondered if the shoddy atmosphere in this company also translates over to the equipment? Brakes are the number one thing they should be checking.  I mean, that part isn't shocking and it lends to why this company racks up so many CSA points when drivers are pulled over for random inspections.  

So whatever. I adjusted all 4 sets to half a turn and saved myself hours and hours waiting at a Love's to have them do something I can easily do myself and save myself the torture of sitting there, waiting forever.  Yes, I checked them after I was done.  I got the truck moving and pulled the trailer brake lever, the trailer brakes instantly locked up, just as they should.

I won't get paid for doing that, but I should. It's not my job as a driver to be fixing trucks, for goodness' sake.  Well it sort of is.  They certify you as a brake adjustment "pro" at the orientation.  You have to get under a truck in the pit in their shop and adjust them, then they sign off on you and you are now good to adjust them yourself. I wonder if that would translate over to Troopers giving the clear if I got caught with them that way?  I just don't believe drivers should have to be doing anything besides minor stuff to trucks, such as replacing windshield wipers or fixing broken running lights or brake lights and such.  

I never agreed to adjust the brakes.  Not in writing or verbally, I just did the training - a thing I already knew how to do anyway from my years as a truck mechanic - to make them happy. They obviously think that drivers should be getting on their backs in mud, dirt, asphalt, whatever and adjusting brakes. Not like I have a "portable pit" to take with me.  I don't own a creeper, either. I don't do work like that anymore, I have rid myself of that mentality altogether.  And yes, I am dirty, hence I came home to change plus let an hour and a half pass.  There is no reason to end up arriving at the loading plant too early, they will just make you sit there and wait, even if there are no other "outside" trucks. They'll load one of their trucks for a pre-load and screw you, basically.  So, I intend on leaving here at 10, get to the washout at 11:30 and then get to the plant around 12:30 or later.  I mean, I'd love to get there early and get loaded right away, experience shows that doesn't happen and unless a person likes to sit in a truck getting bored, might as well wait at home.

Meanwhile, one of the welders was hooked up and leaving when I arrived. He said he'd let me know, he did not. So I don't know if that means the other guy is leaving or if he's the one that was picked to stay or not.  What I do know is that both of those lots are paid up until the first and it's only the 7th.  I have plenty of time to get them rented out.  It also enables me to let a repeat customer come back for 4 days, he wanted to come in but said the system wouldn't allow him to.  Yes, after checking, because someone else had the overnight lot rented.  

However, with this dude leaving and another short term leaving tomorrow, I'll have 2 more lots to fill up and if that other welder leaves, that makes it 3.  This is why I try not to turn anyone down if I can help it.  I'll let someone come stay at the overnight lot if it facilitates getting a long term guest in there and if the lot is available long enough to have another one available when the next overnight guest is slated to show up.  Besides the overnight lot - which has people coming and going on random days - I had the entire place filled up yet again until this morning. 

The nature of the RV Park business.  

Oh, and yet another RV park has opened.  It's not terribly close to me, but it lends to the idea that the market is becoming greatly over-saturated with RV parks. They must have spent many millions on that place, looking at the pics. It's a "resort" RV park with several pools, one of which has a bar that people in the pool can come up to and order drinks.  It has a huge lake with rubber, apparently floating, play gyms on for the kids.  It has all kinds of stuff. Those parks are multi-million dollar operations and very risky in this current economic environment.  They'll have to be bringing in a truckload of money every month just to make the mortgage payment.  And I know from experience, you don't fill a place like that up overnight.

And yet another park is being built about 30 miles up highway 59 from here.  It's a pretty bad design tho.  They are cramming in the spaces and they aren't even angling them.  Unless they are going to be charging on the cheap-cheap, I don't see them as a major threat.  It's next to a safari of sorts, where you walk and drive through and see all kinds of "exotic" animals, perhaps that's what they are doing that for, try to get more business in.  

What all of this leads me up to? I need a pool.  It doesn't have to be a resort style pool, I just need something that people will say, wow! they have a pool! let's go there! even if I raise my prices to cover the costs.  So what I really need is a pool and more spaces.  We're talking a medium sized pool and it will have be approved by the county.  I have no idea what it will cost, but 70k is probably a good number to start with.  So I need around a 170k loan to add more spots and build a pool.  

That isn't a lot of money for a business loan for an already existent business that is making at least decent income in correlation to the number of spots I have.  I'm just waiting for interest rates to come down and so far, the Fed has said no, they aren't lowering the rate.  If I could get enough, also build a jacuzzi. The other option was what I mentioned a while back: an above ground pool but built partially into the ground.  I dunno how that would work for the "tackiness" gauge tho. YES, they have a pool! And get there and frown, but it's an above ground pool! Gag!  I really don't know how people feel about them, but I do know they make huge versions of them.  IT would still need a deck built around it and I'd have to have a shower (required by state) and a fence surrounding the entire setup with a keypad entry door.  So that will still cost a chunk of change.  

All I know is, if I want to stay competitive, I'm going to have to up my game.  

I'm slowly firing myself back up internally to get the motivational gears churning to try and get this thing moving along.  I need money, that's the bottom line.  I'm thinking to switch my business checking account over to a local bank and get some history going with them.  Austin bank, to be precise. There is a man there that bends over backwards to try and help people get business loans.  If I get an account there and start showing some income, that is certainly going to help.  I don't have too many auto-payments going out of it so it wouldn't be the pain it would be trying to move my personal account to another bank. 

Yes, that's a great idea and I think I will plan on doing that soon.  Very soon.

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't had a lot of motivation lately. It's 'get the minimum stuff done' and that's that.  There's a lot of "minimum stuff" to do. I just got tired of constantly going, going, going.  I am still going, just not as much as it was while building out the park and afterwards, getting stuff done. Always stuff to get done.

I need that last hurrah! to get beyond the stalling point of 16 lots and nothing more, get myself at least 30 in there, a pool and move on.  30 lots would provide around 7 to 8k per month income after taxes and expenses.  That's enough to live off of, even with paying $800 per month for health insurance coverage.  It's why I am wanting more spots, quite a bit wanting more lots.  

And with that, it's time to be out of here.  I am very happy I could fix the problem myself, regardless of grease and dirt, the time saved was the time earned.  

G'day