Delivered Load Behind A Wrecker

A few weeks ago I had a load of steel parts going to a place in MN. I exited I-35 and started the 12 miles of two lane road to get to the customer.

I got just about a mile when I suddenly heard the serpentine belt start squealing. That's never a good thing so I started pulling my rig onto the shoulder. Suddenly I felt the truck lurch, heard some very loud banging coming from the engine compartment, and by the time I got stopped a huge cloud of steam came out from under the hood. Not good.

When I opened the hood I saw that the fan hub had come off it's shaft and slammed the fan into the radiator, which had a pretty big hole in it. I wasn't going anywhere.





I called the shop so they could get a wrecker out to me, called dispatch to let them know what was happening, and then called my customer to give them a heads-up that I was close but broken down. The customer understood but said he really needed those parts ASAP. I told him I would do what I could to make it happen.


Shortly after getting my triangles set out, a state trooper pulled in behind me. He was very friendly and one look at what was left of my fan and radiator showed him I had good reason to be parked on the shoulder. He gave me the phone number of a local wrecker company as well as a repair shop. I thanked him and called my shop to pass on the information.


It turned out that was the same wrecker service and repair shop my guy had already contacted.


Once the wrecker showed up, ran a temporary air line to keep my trailer brakes released, dropped the drive shaft, and got my rig hooked to his wrecker, he towed my rig to the customer so they could get their parts. Very nice of him to agree to it as it was 11 miles in the wrong direction.


Being towed into a delivery is a personal first for me, but the wrecker driver told me he had done the same many times before. The customer was impressed and pleased, I was happy that I managed to get the job done despite the truck breaking down, and of course dispatch was happy that the customer was happy.


Once unloaded my truck was towed to a local truck repair shop. I shook the wrecker driver's hand and thanked him for going above and beyond. I also made sure my shop knew to not debate the wrecker bill as the guy had done us a huge favor.


It took two and a half days to get all of the parts and make the repairs.

 

Thanks. Believe me, taking that photo was more depressing than seeing it here

 

Yeah, true enough, but the hub was only about 6 months old