[Sirrotica]

I made the change because of all the physical ailments I had from beating the crap out of my body and joints for 40 plus years.

All was fine until when hauling fuel into retail service stations I jumped off of the top step onto the ground and landed on a short piece of rebar sticking up and partially severed the fascia band in my foot, year and a half later I went back to work and slipped on a bunch of spilled diesel fuel from a leaking fill tube at a fuel rack. I fell backward and messed up my left wrist, surgery and am now restricted to lifting no more than 10 lbs. with my left wrist.

The last injury put me on SSDI in 2012 so I in effect had more debilitating injuries driving truck than I did turning wrenches, just bad luck on my part. It surely didn't work out the way I expected, but I didn't mind driving. Of course is pretty much 60 hours or more a week, and no OT pay. If you like your weekends as your own you won't have that luxury driving truck for most companies. OTR is the worst for time off.

If I were you, you might look into construction equipment, or possibly Ag equipment tech, pay seems better that truck work. I went from car and truck work in 1988 to working on rental equipment for some of the bigger rental companies, much better pay than working on vehicles. The problem is mechanics never have shed the grease monkey image in the minds of a lot of employers eyes, and they think you're only a dirty mechanic, and can be easily replaced with a younger guy fresh out of tech school, willing to work for less money.