Your worst breakdown and how did it happen?

Discussion in 'Road Stories' started by Coolbreezin, May 1, 2018.

  1. Coolbreezin

    Coolbreezin Medium Load Member

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    Jun 11, 2016
    Florida
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    I was driving for USA Truck, hauling about 44,000lbs of beer up a NC mountain in a 1 year old Prostar with an automatic tranny. All was going ok until I heard a loud bang. The engine sounded like only half was now working. I came to find out a couple days later the crankshaft broke in half. I got a new truck!
     
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  3. skellr

    skellr Road Train Member

    8,737
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    Jul 17, 2011
    The Village, Portmeirion
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    Bad fuel. Some fuel hauler dropped a load of solvent instead of fuel. It raped the injectors in the middle of MT, in the winter.

    The shop replaced the injectors but didn't drain the solvent from the tanks...
     
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  4. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

    45,836
    200,276
    Sep 19, 2005
    Baltimore, MD
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    E/B on US-58 in Danville VA. Blew the turbo on my old big cam and sprayed oil all over a brand spanking
    new Hitachi 200 excavator.
     
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  5. Opus

    Opus Road Train Member

    16,119
    90,137
    Dec 18, 2011
    South GA
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    DC loop....DPF went kabloooy just before rush hour. Hook got to deal with rush hour. Only time I ever pooped outside
     
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  6. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

    34,017
    42,098
    Mar 5, 2016
    White County, Arkansas
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    Air compressor died in Doswell Petro during dinner, came out to dead air, spring brakes locked.

    Tow vehicle brings shop queen from Maryland, drags my dead tractor back. I get the queen hooked up went to bed. Still 4 am...

    Morning after breakfast I had pulled out of there out of Doswell when shop queens power steering showed flaws and whole front end went out at 22 or so. Pulled over. out the triangles and waited. Other company people showed up, got the word passed. My safety boss got involved and used his authority to force the shop boss to hand me the big day cab via tow truck.

    All of this was preceeded by a alternator failure to feed batteries that died in Norfolk Navy Base during a delivery. That took a hotel stay and a half the second day to fix. Before Doswell. All together 4 some days lost.

    We had words. I was paid that week for essentially 24/7 at twice normal pay to be shut up and I think they did some one way converstations to the shop boss for sending me the shop queen. I got a new virgin daycab Mack 350 the following monday.

    The worst place for breaking down anywhere in the USA for me personally is Valley Forge. I can have a brand new truck (And did twice...) that would just quit. And die right there in that cursed valley. There I sit breaking appt times, satellite messages going no where and so on. what a waste. Twice in my life I sit up there until towed clear.

    To this day I do not go anywhere near Valley Forge. I visited the place as a kid for history and found it not to be my liking. Little did I know later on in trucking just how hideous it would become.
     
  7. ironeagle2006

    ironeagle2006 Road Train Member

    I had a remanned rear end let loose in Des Monies IA in early 97. The original one in the truck had busted after 1.1 million miles on the truck with a slightly hopped 444 Cummins hammering her hard for 9 years. Well I had written up the truck since the replacement was put into her every week saying something was wrong with the reman. Shop foreman was like dumb ### driver does not know his head from a hole in the ground. Well that night the rear pinion shaft burned off her inner bearing dropped into the spiders doing almost 70 just past the 35 80 split. To say there was carnage in the driveline is putting it mildly. It destroyed the rear end gear the housing was cracked all 4 axles broke threw the intermediate drive shaft out from under the truck into the median and then snapped the thru shaft and that damaged the front rear end gear of the set. I spent 4 days in Des Monies waiting on parts. The foreman got his ### reamed out not by the Bossman but by his wife. I evidently performed coitus interrupts on their anniversary night when I called their house to let them know what the hell happened.
     
  8. ChancesRGood

    ChancesRGood Light Load Member

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    May 28, 2017
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    not sure this is bad enough but it is very nerve racking... when i worked for Schneider i had a team truck that after 1.5 months of use started gradually moving when parked... if you applied the breaks it seemed to stop but just having parking break on and turning off the truck didnt stop the truck from slowly moving an inch or so ... kinda like oozing down hill... even seemingly flat parking resulted in the oozing motion. my best guess was the slack adjusters on all the breaks or something but if you actually pushed the breaks with it turned on it would stop.... it is hard to sleep and my partner at the time we had a deal we drove 12/12 not every 10 hours switch... so for a couple of hours on each end we were parked... I would use chalks but he didnt typically ... he said it wasnt his truck... but i cared so i reported it and turned it in to maintenance when i quit
     
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  9. Coolbreezin

    Coolbreezin Medium Load Member

    373
    366
    Jun 11, 2016
    Florida
    0
    Hey ChancesRGood - Not a breakdown, but still an interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
     
  10. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

    34,017
    42,098
    Mar 5, 2016
    White County, Arkansas
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    If you have a truck that is supposed to stay put on any grade with brakes (Parking) applied and she starts to inch downhill anyway, throw chocks on the drives. Most if not all your brakes are out of adjustment.

    If you have auto slack adjusters get off your parking brake quickly stomp your service brakes (Primary and secondary air be ######) 7 times and reapply parking brake. That should quickly stop that inching downhill for the moment but does not really solve the problem you now have.

    IF she continues to inch... you are not going to be staying there no more. Get off that grade and have the shop send you a technician road call to get under your truck and see about all those brakes on flat ground.
     
  11. rbrtwbstr

    rbrtwbstr Road Train Member

    3,202
    7,075
    Jul 11, 2012
    in the bush somewhere
    0
    Climbing a 14% grade at 81000 lbs when the carrier bearing exploded was fun. That one bent the cross member that held the carrier bearing.

    Climbing a small hill at 80000 lbs when the crankshaft snaps. That one was really fun because it was like 5 degrees out that night. I was able to limp it to a McDonald's that was open 24 hours and had truck parking. At 3AM, most of the trucks were parked and the driver's were asleep. Didn't take them long to wake up when I came rolling in. Went inside, called the boss, had a bite to eat. Came back out to a cold truck, couldn't idle to stay warm. That's when I realized candles are wonderful in the winter. My wife had bought me a scented candle for the truck, which I'd burn when I was unloading. But that night, it serves to keep some warmth in the cab.

    I'm sure I could think of others, but those are the most memorable
     
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