Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Shaping up to be a banner day for Yours Truly:

 

Yeah, I know. With the KW, don't even need to turn the batteries off. Just turn the ignition off and count to 10.

However, the problem in this case is persistent. Seems that the minor leak in my coolant system -- the one I've been nursing for the past four years and the one I've tried getting fixed several times in that span (the last time being last month) -- has turned into a major leak.

Hopefully this will at least make it easier to diagnose and fix the problem.

 

Paint all the gauges black, where you can't read them, get ear muffs where you can't hear anything and run the thing until it quits, then they will find what is wrong. LOL

 

So, my day today:

Sat around trying to get a load. Remained unsuccessful until around 3:30pm when I got the load assignment to the place that wants my thumb print for the privilege of hauling their Red Bull. Resolved that issue as noted earlier.

A few minutes later, got another load assignment to pick up insulation in Inwood, WV and take it to Portsmouth, VA. Due at 9:00am tomorrow.

Put the truck in gear and got the automatic truck shutdown about 30 minutes later. Turned truck off. Turned truck back on. Cleared the alarms, put her back in gear. Three minutes later, I was shut down again on the side of the road. Smelled coolant as soon as I got out of the truck. Popped the hood and it was all over the engine compartment. Coolant reservoir was below half.

Suggested to HQ that they let me limp my way to Richmond instead of Portsmouth, where they could split the load and let one of the local drivers take it the last stretch to Portsmouth while I put my truck in the shop. They said that sounded like a great idea.

Arrived at the insulation place in Inwood. Found out that the trailer I was due to pick up wasn't ready, wasn't even in a dock yet, and likely wouldn't be loaded until sometime after 11:00am tomorrow. Which, you'll note, is two hours after it's due.

Informed dispatch of the circumstances. Was instructed to bobtail down to Richmond, which I did. Had to top off the coolant reservoir every 45 minutes or so. Went through an entire gallon of coolant, and when I ran out of that, went through a gallon of water.

Finally arrived at the yard, and the truck sits there awaiting the tender ministrations of our shop on the morrow.

 

Here is a picture of a driver dealing with a mechanic. Mechanics or now days, technicians, really have a "dim" view of drivers. In the back their minds, the driver caused the problem or they will take 30 mins arguing with the driver that there is nothing wrong, when it wouldn't take 15 mins to fix the thing. I know, one of the best friend that i ever had was a top notch mechanic.

 

Coming off hometime,got a call from the load planner,a driver got sick,and they needed a 2 stop florida load delivered.Got swapped with another driver in kingsland,because I couldn't make the first stop last night,his load was going to Gastonia,Nc, they had me drop that on the Pooler yard,now i'm picking up about 20 miles away going to Manassas for the morning.

 

34 up at midnight and ready to roll 0300 tomorrow and of course I didn’t get planned today so gotta wait until late tomorrow morning before can call anybody….I really wish I could plan myself so things go a lot smoother and I stay moving….I miss being an owner operator in times like this so I don’t gotta wait on somebody else to do their job….another reason kind of hate coming to south Florida, not a whole lot of stuff coming out of here. I still don’t understand why they can’t stack loads on a truck here….

 

Do they have any drop yards in Florida?

 

No, our closest yard is Pooler/Savannah, Ga.