Where is everyone #5

https://youtube.com/shorts/kO0FTuaWCF4?feature=share

I did a stint at a 5 star hotel.

I walked the floors at night. You would be amazed at the number of people who would go into their rooms and go to sleep without checking their doors. Being downtown in a metro area, some times there would be people who would walk in and look for something to steal.

I had a room list, and two keys, a security key and a master key. The difference between the two was that the master would unlock the deadbolt. I would walk down the hallway and press against the doors. Many times, that would be all it’d take to open a door that wasn’t properly latched shut.

Door opens. Uhoh…? I’d radio the night auditor and had her call the room. Don’t want to walk in on some unsuspecting guest. If the guest didn’t answer, my backup would show up. (I’m an ugly dude and my backup looked like a boy scout. It was better for them to see him than me.) Loud knock and hope they’d wake up. If they didn’t, we were coming into the room. That can get hairy. Or scandalous.

Some people got robbed and never woke up. Some times, we caught the perp in the room. “Staring down the barrel of a 45, 45!” If caught, we called the blues. Things got really ugly when the blues showed up. Third shift was usually bored and itching for action. Oh well…shouldn’t be stealing.

Now, the keys the staff carried varied, and we had the means to tell which key was used to open a door. Some times, some idiot would leave a door unlatched, get robbed, and swear up and down that a staff member robbed him. The door itself could tell which key and what time that key was used. We did the best we could, but ultimately, your safety is your responsibility.

 

The door of the truck said "Professionalism meets Quality"
Pretty sure he was tying his loose strap ends up, one was torn off from flapping loose I'm fairly certain!

 

Last load of the year today. Loading in Waverly later and going straight through just outside of Trenton NJ

 

Only two more days until 2023. Man, what a year it has been. I have finally decided that I don't want to live in pain
anymore and sometimes nearly unbearable agony and have my wounded lower back fixed. My wife and I are both 42 years old with a 7 year old son and if I don't act now I didn't want to take the chance of being disabled or physically unable to enjoy life and be active with my family. So, next month I have an appointment with a new neurosurgeon to evaluate the problem and see if he agrees with the previous surgeons about what the proper repair should be.

In the meantime the wheels are still turning. Had an issue last Tuesday night in North Dakota at the South Dakota border on I-29. At 1:30am a Kia Soul was driving with no lights on in the left lane doing about 25-30mph. I was in the left lane as well which was relatively clear of ice and and saw them in plenty of time to maneuver so I switched to the right lane and they followed suit. I slide over to the left to pass and as I am passing them they changed lanes towards my right fender. I made the decision to avoid them and put the truck into the snow in the median instead of making contact and possibly sending them spinning on the ice and maybe hurting or killing them. The snow was about 3 feet deep in the middle and I looked like Santa's sleigh plowing snow. A local heavy wrecker was behind me and saw the incident and he stopped to see if I was okay and he pulled me out to the road before any DOT vehicles passed by and started asking questions. Luckily the truck didn't suffer any damage.

I'm northbound US-87 through Dalhart tonight with a load of drilling pipe headed to Myton, Utah. Gonna deliver tomorrow afternoon and reload close by with some farm equipment going to New Holland, PA.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and hope you all have a Happy New Year.

 

Happy Holidays to you and yours, also. Sorry to hear about the bad driver incident...and your back...but make sure you get all the opinions you can, and looking for the least problematic aspect. Once surgery on the back is done, it's not able to be undone. I know when I was in your age group, I had a choice and was ready to do it too. Went massage, chiropractic and exercise/therapy instead and glad I did. At the time, sitting was the problem because of driving, heavy equipment operator, burning the midnight oil computing/programming etc. Had to get away from the keyboard more, back then, and focus on movement. Not saying it's the answer, but even the surgeon that asked me if I was sure I wanted to consider surgery was hesitant. His hesitancy made me rethink my condition.

That doesn't mean mine is equals yours. My wife uses pain killers and she definitely needs surgery, but even she knows, once she does, the pain may stop, but the movement may not return either. She needs rods in neck, low back, she's had one knee replaced and needs the second one done...so I can sympathize with you. I wish you the best with your decision and good luck.

How is the truck going to figure in? Are you good while you're off, or are you figuring to go back to trucking after, if that is the case or just retiring from it?

 

You going across 70? I've pretty much given up 70 and 80 if I'm headed towards Utah. I despise Colorado roads, and too many fools on 80 in winter. I've been going to Albequerque, then up to Farmington, Cortez, Moab, Price, then over the mountain. Adds miles I know.

Hope you get some relief on the back soon.

 

Was a long week here at home. A couple weeks back i had replaced cam, injectors, rockers, and rocker shafts after i developed a miss (#5 injector).

Last week coming through SLC, i developed a gear whine. I was able to deliver, then deadheaded home. Enjoyed the holidays with family, then tore into it Monday.

Pulled the accy drive and felt the bull gear. It was tight, so i pulled the top end back down to check everything there and the cam bearings (possible issue causing cam gear whine). All was good, put together and reset the overhead. Noise still there.

Couldn't find a shop bay to borrow, so Wednesday i tore into the front cover in the gravel. Drained the oil first and found this.


Tore down the front end expecting a bull gear bearing or idler gear bushing coming apart. Was getting frustrated when all looked good. No issues there. I checked gear lash before pulling apart, and lash was good, though oil pump to crank gear was .002 tighter than specs.


Next thing to do is drop the pan. Pulled the pan and found this bushing.


Ah hah! Oil pump shaft. Dropped the pump and there it was.



You can see one of the other bushings has made it's way out of the pump housing.

While I was there and had it apart, i went ahead and replaced the front cover, front structure, bull gear, and obviously the oil pump. Luckily, i had ordered all these parts early summer in preperation for an overhaul, so i had them sitting in one of my storage trailers.


Finished up yesterday morning and test drove. Adjusted my clutch, swapped my steers because of some wear caused by king pins, and greased it.

Finished all of it up last night at dark. Man was i happy! Fired up to go hook it to the trailer, turned on my lights, and it all fell apart...



My left low beam was out....FML

I'll fix it next week

 

Hey gents, need your thoughts. From a thread in the OO section
The switch up

This one has been bothering all morning. I am posting this here because I don’t want to threadjack, and I really don’t want to be a A Hole, BUT the arseholery is coming. Does this thread irk anyone else? Or am I just irkable?

 

I would not bother. Read through whole thread. Not worth it. Pick your battles.

 

You are just irkable. So am I, that's why I don't reply to a lot of threads. Don't want to be banned!