Good night from...

get a vice grip pliers too. helps when you pull the trailer pins and the arm wont stay in place

 

Up just after midnight, took off around 01:00. Got a nap in at the Georgia Welcome Center and landed in Jackson, GA at the Flying J a little bit ago. This has always been one of my favorite stops for some reason so I was happy that the timing/mileage worked out right for it. Up early again for my 11:30 appointment in Tampa tomorrow. Was surprised to find somebody went ahead and set my PTA for 08:00 the following day like I wanted. Hoping to talk with the Walmart planners in Ocala this afternoon and do some surge work for them. We'll see.

 

I chewed up 4 hours on my 14 today waiting for the new air dryer to arrive and get installed. Once it was installed I started up the engine and got over 100 psi within a couple minutes. The mechanic said the defective air dryer had a valve inside stuck open and that there really isn't any way to predict how or why that might have happened, other than to be sure to bleed the air tanks at least once a day to make sure there isn't any moisture built up in the lines. This morning it was only 36ºF, so freezing in the lines wouldn't have been an issue. I had a similar moment of inability to build air pressure about a month or two ago on a freezing cold morning, but bleeding the air tank again after my pretrip resolved the issue. I got into this truck with 129,000 miles on it, so someone else drove it through last winter and it may be that the air tanks weren't getting bled consistently and rust may have built up to make the valve stick.

Vice grips are also very handy for getting your lock on the doors when the holes don't line up because the metal parts on the doors are bent. I also have a metal rod that I can insert in order to straighten the holes so they line up before I apply the vice grips. Once the holes are lined up and the vice grips are squeezing those metal plates together it's very easy to install the lock.

I brought my very complete screwdriver set, with all the sockets for weird screw heads. That became essential for getting to my fuse box inside the glove compartment of my '12 Cascadia. You need a star shaped screw driver to take out the inside panel of the glove compartment to get to the fuse box, a rather odd thing IMHO since a driver should be able to access the inside fuse box and requiring an "off" screwdriver head seems strange. If you haven't yet accessed that fuse box in your glove compartment I strongly recommend you try as soon as possible, and make sure you have the right screwdriver if your glove box is like mine.

 

got to final couple hours early. hardly any traffic, so lucked out there. unloading early too which makes it nice since i can get to irvine for next load going to el paso tx. load should be preloaded already. last time i was there weds., had to wait for 4 palletts. behind on product. hopefully today its all done. like to get to pheonix az before shutting down. depending on hrs left will decide if i go futher. on 766 miles for a 11/04 1000 appt time

 

Sitting here at cummins in sikeston. Check engine lite again. O/o division knows that I am fed up, especially after 1 week on phx

 

sitting at shipper and what was suppose to be a drop and hook going to be live load. said to come back and check back in 2 hrs. second time . wont forget this place lol

 

aso routing me down 405 to the 8. 803 miles from here. 40 xtra miles.

 

May that it is only a faulty sensor or other small matter...

 

Looks like the hotel for 2 nights. They actually finally found the problem. It is a oil leak in the lifters. The oil is leaking down into the DEF and DPF. DM is now talking to the O/O division and Cummins is writing up a detailed history regarding the truck. They are saying that this problem should have been found long time ago if Kenworth would have actually looked. From what I understand, Swift is going to be going back on the repairs and dealers and see about mucho $$ back including all of the hotels and loss of revenue. What tipped them off, the computer was showing too many Regens.

 

Of course I have those, used countless times. Woke up to a message about dedicated in target so I called the guy and we talked for a bit then he said come meet him in person and he would also give me an mt here so I didnt have to go further north. Called my dm and he said I need to go after it especially since the ups gig is ending soon. Sitting at the targrt dc waiting for the guy to return to talk, will let you guys know if I score the position.