The Heyl Truck Lines Experience

What a day.......

I made my delivery to Tyson in Waterloo. I ended up with a 34 hour reset before picking up my current load from Tyson which is taking me to Laredo. Yesterday morning did not get off to a good start because of the snow. I was unable to leave the Flying J because a driver put his trailer tandems in a snowbank blocking the entire exit. After almost two hours of trying he finally had a tow truck get him out. My DLD was 0550 and I did not arrive until 0710. I went into the security office and checked in. They told me to go to the frozen office because this is a Mexico load. I get my papers from the frozen office and start to look for my trailer. The trailer number I was given seemed odd but I looked for it anyway. Half an hour later I still can't find it. I can find only one loaded company trailer. The others were empty. I look at the tag on the loaded trailer and the order number on it matched the order number on my bills. I go back to the frozen office and let them know there was a mistake. I was told since it is not the right number they are going to have to verify the load on the trailer. Three hours later I am finally on my way.

Even though I am now several hours past the DLD I can still make on time delivery with about 30 minutes to spare if EVERYTHING goes right. Did not happen. It was more like everything went wrong.

I made it to Perry, OK (just over 600 miles) and took my 10 hour break there. This left 655 miles to Laredo. In a world without snow and ice I would have been able to do it.

After a pre-trip I start my day. About 10 miles down the road the truck starts spitting and sputtering. My first thought is that some of the fuel in the tank had gelled but I had put some anti-gel in the tanks and refer the night before. I call the shop and tell them what the truck is doing. I am told to go buy more anti-gel and put it in the tanks to see if it will clear the fuel lines. The truck continued to run rough for another 10 miles then it smoothed out and had plenty of power. Thinking the gelling had stopped I continued on thinking I would not need any more anti-gel because I was headed for warmer weather.

Fifty miles later, without warning, the truck completely loses power. Fortunately, I was able to drive the truck off the interstate and down an off ramp before stopping. As luck would have it there was a Love's a few hundred yards away. I walk over and buy another bottle of anti-gel and put it in the tanks. I do my best to shake the truck back and forth to work the anti-gel into the fuel. I wait half an hour and try to restart the truck. Nothing.

I call the shop and let them know I still can't get the truck started. I am told to check the air vents on the fuel tanks and see if they are clogged. Sure enough, both vents were clogged solid. I clear the vents and then leave the fuel caps off. Then I left the key in the "on" position so the fuel pump could equalize the amount of fuel in each tank.

Three hours later the fuel is finally at a point in the tanks where the truck would start. At first it idled rough but it smoothed out after a few minutes. The truck has run fine ever since.

My lesson learned for the day is to thoroughly check the fuel tank air vents during bad weather. Since I had been driving for several days on roads with slush, snow, and ice the vent tubes had become clogged. When the vents become clogged it prevents air from going into the tanks. Once the tanks are starved of air the truck pumps all of the fuel from one tank into the other. In my case the fuel was pumped from the driver's side tank to the passenger's side. I usually do a good pre/post trip inspection, however, checking those vents is something I never would have thought of. In the future I will.

The truck actually did give me a warning that something was wrong but the it did not come in the form of a warning light on the dash. It came from the fuel guage. When I started driving I had 1/3 tank. By the time the truck quit running the fuel guage was between 1/2 and 2/3.

Once the truck issues were fixed I was very slowly on my way. The roads from south of Oklahoma city all the way to south of Fort Worth were still icy. In 10 hours of driving today I was only able to go 343 miles. This, unfortunately, will make me late for my delivery.

 

Friday morning I woke up and looked out the window. A fresh two plus inches of snow had fallen during the night. I-35 was closed in certain areas so I waited for the sun to come up nice and bright to melt some of the snow. My situation for the weekend was looking like I was going to be spending a whole lot of time babysitting my trailer waiting for my newly scheduled Monday morning delivery. I asked my DM if I could just go to San Antonio (I35 and I10 intersect there) and wait there for a possible repower.

The traffic heading south of I35 was heavy. I think it was just after noon that I35 completely opened up. It took me a full 5 hours to drive the 168 miles to the Flying J in San Antonio.

As the afternoon slowly turned into evening there were no messages on the QC. I figured I would just take a 34 hour reset at the J and then continue to the Laredo area on Sunday. I must give credit where credit is due. The planners came through with flying colors. Early in the evening I was given a two stop load delivering on Monday in IL. I was quite happy with that. Instead of a 250 mile weekend it turned into a 1200 mile weekend.

I am now in the bustling metropolis of Olney, IL waiting for my 0400 delivery and then it is off to University Park for my final. The truck stop here does have cheap laundry machines ($1.25 per load and $.50 for the dryer) so I will take advantage of that.

 

It is the Red Rooster. The lot is like a postage stamp. Make sure you get there early. It fills up quick. There is enough parking for 30-40 trucks.