Good night from...

San Antonio, TX at the Petro.

Last night I had to idle just to keep electrical power, so I figured I had a bad battery or two. It's been getting worse for the past couple weeks.
After my unload at Walmart I was sent to Petro to get it fixed.
All 4 batteries checked out, but the problem was actually found as the tech was removing the post bolts from the batteries to do the testing. Several of them were no more than finger tight.
Once everything was tight again the voltage was back to normal.

So a word of advice when you start having battery problems...
Drop the side cover and make sure the connections are tight, and also not covered in corrosive powder. The mechanic was ranting for an hour about a truck that came in last night that had mounds of the stuff on all the terminals.

It would have been a 10 minute fix, had I thought to check. The last time this happened it was 2 of the batteries, which Swift replaced back in April.
But those loose connections can make batteries go bad if left too long, and that might have been the problem the first time.
So I think now I'll be checking those bolts every month or so, just to make sure they stay tight.

I only drove 150 miles today. So a short day during a short week.
I still had plenty of hours left, but I reset my PTA to 0600 tomorrow morning. I needed to get some laundry done, and I already had a parking space at 1800 at the Petro.
And I hate driving at night.

 

Last night I stayed at the Love's at MP 9 near Lake Havasu City, AZ, pulling in about 2:30 am, so I parked in the dirt lot way behind the main lot, with plenty of room and I situated myself to be as far as possible from other trucks to avoid reefers and idlers... and had a great night's sleep.

I had a casual start today, waking up at 11:00 am to start gradually preparing for a 12:30 pm start. Around noon I was treated with a Fedex relay convention in the dirt lot. At first I thought it was just two drivers setting out to relay a couple of sets of doubles, but then more and more Fedex doubles came rolling in, kicking up clouds of dust. By the time I finished my pretrip and got underway there were over half a dozen doubles doing a do-si-doh drop and hook bonanza.

Now that I figured out that my beloved Seahawks aren't playing until Monday night, that changed my schedule. Now I'm thinking the T/A in OKC might be the place with the big screen. I need to figure that one out....

 

New Boston picking up a tcall. The trailer has an airleak; surprise. Kinda putting a damper on my plans.

 

moose I will use that advice and check my batteries often too, I am always for spending a couple extra minutes for preventative maintenance compared to hours in a shop.

As for the glad hand seals I try to always keep a few extra in my truck, I actually need to get me a few next time I hit the terminal since I have been using so many on all these trailers I keep hauling, I know I will have to get my Bservice done probably tomorrow since I got a message when heading for hometime that I was within 800 miles of being due.

Was a nice few days off but going to hit the road this afternoon to begin again, got 2 dispatches already set for me to go to the walmart dc in porterville for a couple trailers and taking them to ontario.

 

Shut down at one of the Pilots in Georgetown, KY. Burned a few more hours than I would have liked to but still averaged out to 9 hrs a day since taking my reset. Tomorrow I should meet my goal of less than 8.75, as well as Tuesday. I put my PTA out to 08:00 on Wednesday to get myself back on a day schedule but the computer didn't like that. Said more than 12 hours from my ETA and to call in immediately. I'll pass on talking to the weekend crew but thanks.

And same here, moose. Great idea to think about it. I am amazed at how willingly the shop guys give me what I ask for. Roehl was incredibly tight with handing out spare parts but when I got my truck here they gave me a bag with every possible light I could need, tons of seals, fuses, and valve stem covers. Plus there was a metal box under my bed with even more stuff like that in it. BTW, I love the valve stem covers we use. I honestly hit all my tires with a gauge every morning just because its so simple.

 

If you have one, there are a supply of them in the Road Ready kit.

I'm still at the Petro in San Antonio, waiting for a pplan since 0600.
The place is pretty full, so maybe freight is just slow today.

 

I put new batteries in in September. After a few days the voltage dropped to around 12 while at idle. Another Swifty was walking by while I was working on removing the step for access, and he told me my alternator was bad lol. Well, I continued working and sure enough some of the battery posts connections were loose. That solved the problem and they have come loose a couple times since then and I re-tighted them and good to go for the last month.

Now I just have to figure out what is wrong with the Espar heater. Fires up and blows hot air for about an hour then shuts down.

Speaking of bservice, I was at the OK terminal on Thanksgiving day, there was a driver there who had been instructed to come into the terminal for a bservice. Once she got there they would not let her leave due to maintenance hold. She was very upset and wanted to go home to Lawton. I told her to throw some plywood over the tire spikes and drive out through the fuel pumps lol, they would never notice. .

 

Palestine, AR. As far as I could get before I ran out of hours. Some major back ups in Arkansas. By the time that I would have gotten out of this one, I would have ran out of hours before I was able to get to the T/A. Found out that I actually have until 12/4 to deliver. It is so hard to walk into a t/s to try and get something to eat. Way too many 4 wheelers.

Frank, I was not looking for some one to hold my hand. Just do their jobs. Why could Joe not have some seals in his golf cart to help out when something happens. I looked at the other trailers that where around me, and mine was the only one missing the seals. There is no reason that they should have been taken off in the first place. Even when I t-call a trailer in the area that is going to Mexico I am never told to take them off, and BTW, I was out of seals since I have been replacing so many worn out ones.

 

back at fontana terminal after a nice long weekend off. alot of miles riden on the dirt. and a bunch of alcahol. now i'll stay out till superbowl weekend and do it all oveer again.

 

picked up the tcall load in mira loma going to vernon ca tomorrow at 1100. then going to irvine to get that load going to el paso tx for the 4th delivery at 1000. drove over to fontana term to get a shower and do laundry.