Get me to a shop tricks....

Yes they do probably should carry a bolt for it

 

Alternator went north of Wawa, the Sault didn't have any, Sudbury didn't. Nor Barrie. But by then the sun was going down and couldn't read the gauges anymore.
Ran into Walmart, bought just an automotive battery for sixty bucks. Clamped it down on the back deck and ran booster cables. Got me to T.O. , dropped the trailer and parked it in the shop.
Mission accomplished and no service call.
1998 Century with a Detroit

 

A buddy and I did something like this TWICE when we both started, too broke to pay road calls. We swapped batteries for 2 hrs, then again to keep them charged. We ran all the way from North Bay to Saskatoon like that, because I knew where I could get the parts to rebuild an alternator for $30. Three weeks later the mine died, we repeated the process from Longlac to Stoon. $60 and way too much hassle and we both had rebuilt alternators without missing a load or a day of work. We were pretty proud of our ingenuity. Idiots!
Oh yeah, and I'm one if the idiots that carried tire bars, patches, glue, & repairs his own flats after a full day of trucking...that was yesterday, so today I'm drinking beers now that I'm parked, cause I deserve it...I'm still an Idiot!

 

The last Horton hub I had did not have the locking bolt hole, what a pain in the ### that was!
Blew a U-joint on the short shaft on a Saturday, no parts in range, so I dropped the shaft out, locked the power divider, and carried on. Delivered, then web home and fixed it.
Stepped on the clutch backing under the crane to load a banjo, truck wouldn't stop! Shut I off, loaded the banjo, and hauled it from D/FW to Fort Mac AB with no clutch, delivered, went home and R&R'd the clutch...
Dimes in maxi-pots, caged the pot, cut the caging bolt off at the nut, silicone glued the rubber plug over the catering bolt, brought it home to fix it...
Have I mentioned I'm an Idiot before?
Growing up in the broke in the middle of nowhere will make you a MacGuyver in a hurry. Particularly when every time you need parts your in the land of "the day after tomorrow"

 

Carry a selection on bungees. If a bungee, duct tape or chicken wire can't fix it then its not broke

 

I know that the heavy wire clip that holds the cap on a older chevy brake reservoir will unlock almost all trucks with a wing door window. The bend is perfect to get behind the glass, push the button in and turn it.

If you are hung up with your drive wheels ####eyed and opposite corners spinning and no help anywhere around. You can back the brakes off on the corners that have traction. Take off the service line. Giving it power while dragging the brakes will usually get you off and going again.

Every so often the old air power wipers hang up all the way extended. Always at the worst possible time. Arm out the window with your tire thumping hammer for more reach will work.

The old 359s had the window washer bottle in the corner next to the driver seat. When the air pump quits in a snowstorm you can put a rag around your boot cleaning blow nozzle. Wedge it in the fill hole and run it that way.

Borrowing trailer air lines that you really don't need to splice into the truck air line that you really do need.

Transferring fuel out of your full reefer tank with a gallon oil jug. To put in your bone dry truck tank.

 

Lost my clutch, in other words push the clutch in as far as you want and if the stick is in gear there is no neutral with the clutch. Drove over 1000 miles to deliver my load mostly up on the freeways which is easy to get going and floating up in gears. Problems are stop signs and red lights, slow truck stops, fuel stops anything where there might be a chance you have to come to a dead stop because you cannot get it back into gear while the truck is running. Backing up is pretty much out of the question because you cannot stop once you start so all stopping is in forward, pull through sidelines of the truck stop situations.

What I'd have to do is shut the truck down while gently pulling it into LO gear at the last moments the engine is shutting down. Push in air brakes and turn key, truck lurches forward in gear but you're moving and at that point you can float the rest of the gears.

 

I run reefer trailers more than once I've carefully ran a wire through my electrical cord loop with some slack every foot or so to allow stretch in turns when I've cooked a altenator on truck or trailer to keep juice in the batteries .. Trucks must be better now though as its been 5 years at least since I've needed to do it. PS only works if it's not a bearing issue

 

I had a hot wire that ran through the trailer hot wire switch tied into the reefer battery. It was nice for those times that one wanted to leave marker lights on but not idle the engine, also for keeping the reefer battery fresh in the winter when not running the reefer.

 

I thought specifically of this post as I spliced a cut air line on my converter dolly about 3 am this morning. I was at a dark terminal and normally would have just switched it out, but a manufacturer defect has put a significant number of our dollies out of service for repair. There aren't any extras to be had at some locations. So there I was. I had hose clamps, but no ink pen so I rummaged through the city tractors and swapped my new gel ink pen for someone's cheap Bic. It got me almost 300 mi. back to the barn.