Question About Something Wierd

I was kidding, I never check my wiper motor or batteries during a pretrip

 

I don't know if poster was joking but that is GREAT advise to anyone with a sleeper. You can danged near arc weld with the current in today's batteries. Don't let the fact it's only 12v fool ya. It ain't the voltage that gets the job done it's the current (amperage) and there is some serious amps in these modern truck batteries the way they are configured. Once a truck fire does starts it's "viral" in just a few short minutes and a charred frame in a few more. Think about being in the bunk and a raging inferno in the cab and nose. Where ya gonna go? Hope you got a Paccar with a side door or another make with sleeper windows you can kick out . . . and fit through. Just sayin'. Emergency sleeper exits and smoke/CO alarms ought to be MANDATORY on all sleepers. If the Feds are just all up in arms about making new Safety Regs for so-called "our own protection"; why don't they focus on things like that? Just a thought form a guy that sleeps every night in a box with thousands of amps of current going through an electrical system with a zillion points for it to short, sitting on a couple hundred gallons of fuel going here there and yonder between the tanks, engine up front and APU in back, wrapped in plastic and sitting on rubber all snuggly in a steel frame and tin skin. Where's Ralph Nader when ya need him? Seriously. Get a smoke/CO detector for your sleeper. Might save your life and anyone or pet you have with you one day. If you never need it . . . it was $20 and a new battery every six months.

Back to topic: I had a Pete 379 with a Cat 3406E that was plagued with problems described. When they replaced the alternator and all four batteries the problems went away. Turns out a bad alt had made 1 battery go stone bad. So they replaced THAT battery. Then it fried another. So they replaced the alt and THAT battery, but it had burned a couple plates in the other two but they still had power. BUT, the fried a couple cell plates in those batteries . . . fried the new alt. Whole time the electrical system was doing crazy bat spit stuff like you described. They finally replaced all four batteries and put a new alt on and spent a LOT of time tracing out wires in the harness and replacing connectors . . . then Lady P finally acted herself again. Don't know if that's your problem or not but I do know these modern trucks and all the electrical stuff are mighty finicky about just the right voltage, current and resistance being in every single circuit. Everything is electronic today. Electronics just can't stand the small electrical fluctuations the older electro-mechanical stuff could.

 

Since the Century class series, Frieghtliner have been bad about water getting into the dash and shorting out the fuse box or other electrical connections. The water may enter around windsheild or skylight window if its a condo sleeper. The cab roof lights are another possibility for water intrusion. Sometimes this water intrusion goes unnoticed as it runs under the trim or dash area. A company I was associated with had a fleet of centuries and at least one burned down because of it, with flames coming from the dash near the glove box. You likely have a serious electrical issue. Have a working smoke alarm and fire extinguisher in the sleeper with you at all times.

 

Strange things can happen.


Years ago on a 70 something conventional KW my alternator was out. At out shop here in Arkansas they change it out. I left out for LA & it was working just fine. On the other side of Tucson just east of where the 76 Truck Stop was back them my alternator starts discharging & my lights go dim. I stopped at that 76 Truck stop & a mechanic found that the mechanic that installed it had put a new end on one of the wires but had not stripped off the insulation. He change the end out put it back on & it was just fine. I’ve always wonder how alternator worked for the 1st 1,000 miles or so, but it did.


A few years before that I was running local driving the same truck Conventional KW every day. One night at the shop they changed out one of the battery cable ends. The next day the alternator over charged all day long boiling the batteries dry & ruining them. I knew what had been done & that evening wrote it up telling them they did a poor job on putting a new end on the battery cable, they need to redo it.


All they did was replace the batteries & the next day the new batteries were once again ruined. I talked with the mechanics that evening & they seem to listen to me.


That night they did nothing but replace the burnt up batteries & that next day it did it once more. After I wrote it up this time they went to my boss blaming me, saying I was running a high power linear on my CB Radio causing this was ruining the batteries on this truck
But I wasn’t, I was just running a plain Jane cheap CB Radio, & after my boss got all over me chewing me out for running a high power linear I had him go to my truck with me & look at my CB Radio set up. When he way my set up he said, “Well Jerry, that little CB Radio could not cause that!”


I them told him about them replacing the battery cable end & that’s when this started, asking him if he would tell them to replace that battery cable. He had them to replace that battery cable & of course replaced the batteries one more time, the next day everything worked perfect & never had another problem, but the shop people were mad at me after this.



My father bought a new Chevy pickup in the early 80's, I believe it was an 82. This truck would die on him every now & again. he had carried it back to the Chevy place & they said they could not find anything wrong. One day in town it did this & he called them. They towed it back to their shop & looked & looked never finding it.

So after that I traded with my father for a few days hoping it would do this with me, yet for a whole week I drove it & it never stopped on me. the very next week dad came to town & it did it again, the Chevy place checked it out again, but said they found nothing, he traded it off for a new one & it was not a year old yet.



When it comes to the electrical system on cars & trucks some very strange things can happen, its often a mystery. And at times its very hard to find.

 

I had a issue once where I pulled to fuel island to fuel and truck would not shut off. After a short phone call for help I pulled the pigtail for trailer and truck died. Trailer had a ground short and was back feeding through truck ground system.

 

follow the smell

 

that's what she said.I have a t shirt form the 80's,and the group The Cramps, that reads"the smell of female". in combination with my natural charm and wit and etc., that shirt paid huge dividends.

not sure what sparked that reply.sorry.

 

I had something similar in a '05 Columbia it was the PDM in the circuit box behind drivers seat getting wet. when dry the circuit would break with key off but when raining water would keep circuit complete. The leak was at the joint of roof cap to body just above drivers door. I loved the mechanics expression when I pulled the key out of ignition and handed it to him with the truck still running.