CRETE - A Year in Review

just a little note on the prostar if it over revs the check engine light will come one until its under 1800 rpms

 

My check engine light stayed on all the time(except during the initial 'key on' test's where it blinks 5x) It turns out my check engine light was my fault after all. After the mechanic told me what it was, I now remember that they warned me about it in Lincoln. It was because of an overly sensitive overspeed setting. But the weird part, I was on flat ground in IN when it came on. All the up and down the hills for 2 weeks with much heavier loads than this one, and it comes on running on flat ground...oooookey dokey. Looks like I'll have to fashion a custom piece of black tape. However he did say that I was fortunate that I didn't lose the front axle. When the person tightened the ubolts on my truck, they did it wrong and cracked the top plate that holds the axle to the spring. He said the only thing keeping my axle from sliding back was the big bolt that goes through the center of the springs to hold them together. And since it isn't a regularly replaced part, they had to next-day one in...and to my surprise, Crete insisted that I go to the motel instead of sleeping in the truck on the lot. The stuttering issue, one guy said may be from the way the egr works and they haven't developed a fix yet, but another guy said he couldn't get it to do it, but I got it to do it multiple times on the way to the truck stop(before I found out that I was suppose to motel it). So who knows what is up with that.

 

I finally got out of International Friday afternoon. Turns out I did have another problem causing my check engine light. My AAT(ambient air temp) sensor had a bad wire. Got the truck out, and it still has the stutter issue. At least I don't have a continous check engine light, or a worry that the front end is going to fall out. Plus this notion that my check engine light was caused by an overspeed issue like the mechanic suggested is not accurate. I pulled a load out of N Vernon, IN to the other side of Springfield, MO. Hit some of the hills on I44 and accidently got over 70 a time or two and no chk eng light.

 

Well, this time's update isn't a positive report. Most of this week I have been on the night shift. While I prefer to run days and sleep nights(because today's truck stop's are just to busy during the day to try to sleep) I will run when ever my logbook says I can. After I got empty at 3 am Monday morning sw of Springfield, MO, they sent me an hour north of there to pu headed to Woodland PA. But, the load was live load, w/a 16:30 Monday pick up appointment, and no parking at the customer. So that gave me just enough time to put in a 10 hr, and still pick up the load. It delivered before 7am Wednesday in Woodland PA...and a quick glance at the numbers told me that I didn't have enough time once loaded to put in 2 breaks and still make the latest part of the delivery window. So, I had to bust 1025 miles in just over 36 hrs, which also meant running most of the load at night. Got to the delivery with time to spare, but also late enough that I still had time on my 14 to pick up my next load before I shut down for the day. The next load came out of Mechanicsburg, PA going up by Ft Wayne for 9 am Thursday, which meant yet another all nighter, but would've put me at 2300+ for the week, and still had Friday to run. Which wasn't bad considering I had a 600 mile weekend. After fueling at the Flying Pilot in Carlisle, I decided that I would find a safer place to park for the day, and leave 10pm ish to go deliver. So I found myself a safe place at the Loves by the turnpike entrance. 8 pm, I was knocked out of bed because of some *bleeping* son of a *bleep* in a 6 wheel delivery truck forgot to set his brake after fueling(he claims he set it) and his truck rolled across the lot, missing the raggedy Pete on my right, and the old beat to crap International to my left....and hit my brand spanking new Prostar head on. Now it didn't do a huge amount of obvious damage to my truck, but it bent the center of the bumper, trashed the OnGuard, cracked the hood on both sides over the headlight buckets. But the biggest amount of damage was that it bent the frame plate that the hood hinges on and pushed my hood back so I can't open and close it. So off to the wonderful world of New Kingstown. Once there, after I told the guy what was wrong...it was 'start packing, you're number 5 in line waiting on that part, all of which have been hit in parking lots...but the #1 truck in line has been waiting 2 weeks, and the hood mounting plate is on indefinite back order...so they'll likely move you to another truck.' So after 9700 miles of more or less happy times, I was suddenly thrust into a seriously foul mood...not because of the shop, or anything that Crete had done... I mean, they can't force a parts maker to make more parts...but because 1) I though I did the right thing by finding a safer place to park, and 2) some yahoo picked me to run into... Although I can't blame him, he was just a tool of Karma. So if you're around me and you hear thunder....RUN. I have been swallowed by a sink-hole, got shaken awake OK when they had an earthquake, now had a runaway truck single me out. I do take my hat off to my terminal manager who raised cane with Lincoln when they were going to put me in an older POS Cascadia...and I was about to be reassigned to it when I suggested that, since there were no leaks from the radiator, or any of the other coolers up front, all they need to do is straighten that mounting plate with a port-a-power enough to allow me to open and close the hood...I could get it to an International dealer's body shop when I go on vacation in the spring when my daughter goes in to have my 2nd grandchild. Since the other guys insurance is paying for the repairs...lets make this easy on us for a change... So now I am sitting 40 min north of Harrisburg, in an outside body shop getting my front end fixed, or at least fixed enough to use... But it took me(being a stooped truk dreyevr) to encourage them to take this path, and it took the persistance and dedication of my terminal manager to push the right buttons in Lincoln to get the ok for this...I am gratefull for the terminal manager I have...so many others would have just pushed me into the other truck and said take it or leave it. Now...it all depends on this outside shop(which has a number of wrecked Crete's outside) to be able to fix it w/o any major issues....I'm keeping my fingers, toes, eyes and anything else crossed.

 

LOL! Sorry but it just cracked me up that you picked this parking spot destined to be the location of a runaway truck! It could only happen to you. Hope all goes well from here....sorry but that is so #### funny. If you fell into a barrel of titties you would come out sucking your thumb.

 

HAHAHA!!! I WILL be stealing this and using it frequently, so just let me know where to send the royalties!

 

OMG, too funny, I will also be using this line from now on.

 

Well, I did ok at this outside shop...The place looked like a Crete junkyard. Many rolled over, and big time totaled Crete/Shaffer trucks. And as they were working on my truck, another Crete rollover was being pulled in and dropped from up on the PA turnpike.

This crew looked like a NASCAR pit crew. They layed out a moving blanket and had my trucks various pieces of body work layed out. They even had a new mounting plate for my hood mount, so they didn't have to straighten the old one. They got it road worthy, at least mechanically in under 3 hours. But the better news (he said with a sarcastic tone) I got a beep as I was backing out of his shop...report to New Kingstown for e-log training...I guess it was an "as long as you're in the neighborhood" decision. So now, I am beginning to use the beech-box. The one statement I made to my wife about it after I watched the dvd on how to do it was something like "I wonder when I'll have to see the company proctologist so they can put the qualcomm probe up my butt so they can see what I'm thinking". I am truely not looking forward to e-logging, even though I expected it from the 1st day I got this truck, it still not on my bucket list.

For those drivers with Maxxforce Prostars ---WARNING. There may be an unofficial problem being discovered with these engines. There were 3 drivers in New Kingstown while I was there that had exhaust leaks at one of the turbo's. It seems as though they are coming lose, enough to blow out the gasket and leak exhaust...which happens to be right where the fresh air intake is for your heat and a/c. And since there is only 1 setting on the hvac controls that shuts off the fresh air intake (max a/c), if you have to idle your truck and your exhaust is leaking, you may be sucking in carbon monoxide. I spoke to a driver a couple months ago that was actually diagnosed with CO poisioning from one of Crete's trucks. I dug out my CO detector and charged it's batteries just to be safe.

 

Thats funny!...very funny

And to those that don't believe that there is a God...simply look at me...no I don't think I am
Him...I am living proof that there is one...this many negative things happening to one person this often can't be just random chance...there has to be a controlling force behind it.

 

Holy crap SS...that Prostar they were working on was a good friend of mine who rolled it on a entrance ramp to the Pa turnpike last week. 45K in the container loaded off center and went over at about 10 mph. Not a pretty sight either. BTW driver had almost 14 years with Crete and was fired.