I'm Alan, OTR truck driver and creator of SRASTFAST
|
When I tell other truckdrivers out on the road about SRASTFAST, they always ask me how long I've been trucking and how I came up with the SRASTFAST Multi Use Truckers tool so let's start from the beginning of my truck driving journey.
In the mid-seventies, at the young age of 16, I was employed as an apprentice contract telephone cable splicer. But when I hit 25, I had my mind set on being a truck driver. I’m sure that you have heard, “Be careful what you ask for, you might get it”! In the summer of 1980, I got my chance in a contractor’s truck for ACB Trucking North Little Rock, Arkansas. After a couple years of truck driving, I decided that climbing poles all day everyday was a better lifestyle for me. I had started a family, and even though I wasn’t always home during the week, I was home every weekend. As the years went by, life changed. Telephone jobs would end and I would drive a truck again until things picked back up in the telephone industry. In the early 2000’s, my next wife and I owned a transport refrigeration shop near Russellville, AR. Two years later, it was lost due to a major fire on the west end of the building in that complex. I was away, at the time, doing telephone work in MS during hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane, cellular phones had pretty much taken over. (Now I know what it is like to become a dinosaur.) With the telephone industry dying, the Reefer Shop burned down, now it was time to get back to trucking. For Real this time!! I really don’t know of a better place to be in transportation than Western Arkansas so I decided to get my own truck (I had tried before and failed). This time I built up to a small fleet pulling reefers until I realized you get to handle a lot of money, but you don’t get to keep much of it. I recommend that anyone who wants to try it, by all means do it when you are young! I have never had my own operating authority, because there were plenty of good companies in my area to work for at the time. In 2015, my current wife, (the love of my life) and I were leased to a KS company. A driver had picked up a load of wet, salted hides in a dry van from Dodge City and the trailer was on the yard waiting for me. I hooked “Blue Diamond” (the truck in the video) to the trailer and started my pre-trip. The tandem was at the rearmost position and when I pulled the air release button to slide my tandem, I pulled back a nasty, smelly arm. Now not only is it shower time, but I told my wife. “There has got to be a better way”. That night, the idea for SRAST-Fast was born! |
Although I don’t like to get nasty, the safety factor is the main advantage of SRAST-Fast. Unlit drop yard, ruts in the gravel, slimy mud or ice in the ruts. You’ve been there. How many times have you fallen? Pinched a nerve? Bumped your head?
If you are hurt at the rear of your trailer, how long will it be before someone finds you? 10 mins? 2 hours? The next day?!? The younger drivers think “Get over it! Just lean over, squat down, crawl under, it’s just a button!” As for us older drivers, we have bad backs, knees, rotator cuffs and various other parts that don’t function as well. This is especially good for the ladies, as most of them have shorter arms than me (I’m 6ft with long arms). When the tandem is all the way forward, it is nearly impossible to reach the air release button behind the skirt. This is where SRASTFAST comes into play. If you're a truckdriver, SRASTFAST multi tool is a must have for your truck. Release tandem locking pins to slide the tandems on your trailer, pull the fifth wheel release, check your tires with it, or use it as a whooping stick in a dark parking lot. It has so many uses you will be guaranteed to love it. What does SRASTFAST stand for? Set Release Air Slide Tandem Fast I created my first tandem axle pin puller without a flashlight and we have recently added a flashlight to all the different color choices so get you can choose from an unpainted stainless steel version without a flashlight or the newer version with a flashlight that comes in black, sky blue, neon green, hot pink, red, and safety yellow. The flashlight is an added bonus because you can light up the parking lot and not have to use both hands. 
The original SRASTFAST Blue Peterbilt
|
