CRETE - A Year in Review

I was parked on exit 395 off ramp for 30+ hours Christmas 09.

 

DOT came in and plowed the yard and started bringing in trucks from the highway no matter what company they worked for. We had just about all of them represented by the time it was over. It was a mess. Eating out of the vending machines and whatever food the drivers had in their trucks.

 

I was driving for Central Refg at that time and was lucky. They dropped their snow plow blades right in front of, so we were able to snag parking on the off ramp. Shoemakers was a mess and I remember Crete opening up their lots for parking. The following evening they reopened without any announcement. Just removed the barriers. I had hiked over to get some fresh water and was walking back when I noticed the barriers were gone. I raced the last 200 yards and vamoosed before all heck broke loose. I was bound for N. Platte. Wally world was happy to see any driver when I got there.

 

And Crete probably counted all the trucks and charged the state by the hour for every truck...they wouldn't pass up a chance to make a buck that easily. Either that or there was an application tucked into everyones door handle inviting everyone to join them in happyland where the grass is always greener, and you'll make more money than you can count...and every time a driver walks into the office balloons and confetti fly in the air, and it's like a never ending party because they love their drivers sooooo much. (Did I miss anything?)

 

The positive side, drive the 1st 21 minutes, it logs 19 minutes. Do that on your 8 days, you save 16 minutes w/o thinking about it. Then when you stop to pee, off duty, it waits 2 miles before putting you on line 3...saves you 5-10 min a day times 8 days... 40-80 more minutes per 70/8 day week. As much as I hate e-logs, it does have some positive parts.

 

I see you've figured out a couple of the Crete e-log idiosyncrasies, please keep us posted as to any others you find and thanks for the info.

 

Yep, I go to off duty immediately upon stoppage. Figure out later when I was "on duty". Keeps everybody happy and gets those few extra minutes each time.

 

What do you get when you mix a bulldozer with a crap spreader? You get a big diesel powered pile of bullcrap...aka known as a Maxxforce.(the reason I picked a bulldozer...Maxxforce is suppose to be an advanced hybrid of a CAT engine mixed w/International's egr technology)

I recently visited Lenoir City for another trailer slider pin issue...while I was waiting, a mechanic came up to my crap-spreader and asked me how I liked my Prostar...thinking I was speaking to a Crete mechanic, I didn't spare any words. Basicly told him that the one thing for sure it accomplished, it made me appreciate how much better a Freightliner was, and made me wish I had my Century Class back...as it turned out, it wasn't a Crete mechanic, but an International dealer mechanic assigned to our shop...Does anyone have a toothpick so I can get these shoelaces out from between my teeth since I just put both size 12's in there at once. After a quick chat about what problems I was having, he checked the VIN and discovered that my truck was due for an ECM upgrade. So it went in since this shift wasn't as quick as the last time I had a trailer problem like this fixed...so I had time. 30 min later my truck was done, my trailer wasn't even close. It turns out my truck was 3 updates behind. After I got rolling again, I had hoped that it would solve my stuttering engine along with the many other problems that had developed. At first it seemed it had, for a day or two. Then back to stuttering, along with another problem...the update has now screwed up my cruise control. When it coasts off a hill, or the OnGuard goes green after someone changes lanes in front of me and is speeding away...the cruise eases off, and doesn't always resume until I am down to between 50 and 55, then it slams full throttle to try to catch up...but if you catch it starting to do it, you can just lightly touch the throttle, and it reminds it to resume and the computer picks up smoothly and returns to it's set speed again. I think the ecm programmers for International must have went to the same computer school as those that program the Android OS on my smartphone...the same thing happens when it gets an upgrade...it doesn't fix anything, just adds to the problems.

 

I am knocking on my wooden head that ....as of yet, haven't experienced any unprogrammed experiences, except, an engine lite came on for a while...went away, came back for a short time and then went away. Had a circuit breaker pop that lights the marker lights/license plate lite on the trailer. Mech showed me how to reset that little PITA. Sure wasn't on that CD about the PS. SS, perhaps you need the Archbishop to come and perform a circumcism......NO I mean Exorcism...Get my cisms mixed up!

 

Talked to a trainer that had issues similar to mine...they ended up replacing the main internal accessory drive gear(the bull gear) which on most modern diesel engine designs in todays trucks is in the back of the engine, which means pulling the transmission. But he said it cured his problem.

I also have never seen the regen light come on, but I discovered that it is actually doing them. When I left Lincoln the other day with an empty trailer, at every red light my exhaust temp light would come on, and when I would pull away, I would leave a big cloud of blue smoke like a 70's Chevy w/bad valve guide seals. It turns out, that it's trying to do a regen, but I'm not running at a steady speed so that it burns hot enough all the time to burn the fuel being injected into the DPF, so it smokes. The way I read the instructions, the regen light is suppose to come on every time it's regen-ing so you don't park where it'll catch fire. But mine has never lit up except at startup when it's doing it's self test.

My engine light came on the other day...actually it came on before I started the engine. It was off the night before, and came on the next morning. So if they say it was an engine/vehicle overspeed, I guess I was sleeping to fast.

I can't have a priest do an exorcism...it makes my head spin 360's on my shoulders, I hate it when it does that...gives me a stiff neck the next day