First time driving an automatic

I had ten miles to go on my nearly week long 3000 mile,16 stop run. 10 more minutes to the distribution center where I would park the truck, get in my car and head home for the weekend.

Was going 66 mph east on us-80 out of Dallas when all of a sudden I hear the air began leaking. Not just leaking but the same sound you would hear if someone pulled your air lines off your trailer, this was a gusher.

Both air gauges had already dropped from 120 to 90 in just a few seconds and still dropping.

Traffic was heavy at 1600 on Friday from all the folks heading home from work. There was a long line of cars pretty close behind me. I should probably pull over to the shoulder and see what was happening, I was hoping to be able to make the next exit. Heck if it had been just a tire that blew out I would probably be tempted to run it all the way to the dc if it was an inside tire and the mudflap bracket wasn't twisted all up.

The air alarm goes off now, guess now there is not enough time to find a safe place to stop. That rinkydink shoulder was not too inviting with a sharp cliff going down a long way but it was a lot better choice than having the trailer lock up on the highway. With the outside of my passenger side tires in the air I manage to come to a stop with my gauges reading below the 30 psi mark.

With traffic going by just inches from my truck I climb out the passenger door and scramble up onto the catwalk to check out the airlines. It did not look good. The entire rigging had broken apart somehow. the airlines had dragged on the asphalt and chewed up beyond anything a little duct tape could patch up.

I call up my boss and give him the bad news. "Well I guess you will need a wrecker to come get you then, good thing you aint too far out."

"I can still drive the truck, it is just the air lines going to the trailer that don't work. I can leave the trailer here and then just have another truck come pick it up." I tell him.

 

"All right I see what you are saying, but it is Friday and I do not have any drivers at the moment. We got a few extra trucks here you can use to get it yourself once you make it back here."

Slightly disappointed because of the extra work I would be doing, but that is alright, things could have been a whole lot worst and this company has been great to me over the years so of course I tell him I will do it.

I have to crank the landing gear down while I am underneath the truck so as to avoid getting hit. It is a bit awkward but I get it down. I leave a note attached to the bill box saying "Be right back!" and finish the last ten miles bobtail.

"Here is the key to a brand new truck we just got in. It belongs to another driver so just be careful not to disturb his stuff" Boss says throwing me a single shiny ringless key.

I step out into the yard and there is the truck, right in front of me. Great I am thinking, I will have this done in no time. It is a pretty fancy looking thing, a lot more complicated than my own certainly. It has a lot of buttons and switches that my regular one does not. Except when I try turning the thing on I discovert there are only two pedals. Awww crapps.

I am still wondering how to turn this thing on when I see one of the old timers on our account pull up and I ask him if he knew how to make the thing go. He did not have a clue. There was nothing where the gear shifter should have been. Not even the lever that puts the thing into drive and park on regular cars. Well now wait a minute, some cars do not have the center console thing, sometimes they got it on the steering wheel like in them fancy family type mini-vans and such. Yes there it was. Where the windshield wiper knob should have been were a set of letters: L P D N R
.
I could guess most of them but still wonder what that L was all about. Excited with triumph I turn on the ignition and switch the selector from N to D, nothing. Old timer still has no idea. Man this is frustrating, I should have been home by now...

I pull out my phone again and call up the boss, as if he even had a cdl and would know what to do here. "Give it some fuel there man!" he laughs at me. Sure enough that was all it needed and off I go to pick up the trailer.

Driving this thing out I marveled at how it displayed the gear I was in and would go up and down on its own. Being without a trailer though it would still drive as if I had one fully loaded. Trying to pull out into the street I could not accelerate worth a ####. I felt like an old man. Might have even caused an accident if the car behind me did not go around as I was still in second gear by the time he had caught up.

The thing did a lot of jerking. I was screaming in my head Shift Up! Shift Up! But the thing keeps going as if I had exactly 34000 pounds balanced perfectly on the drive and tandem axles. I was getting car sick and I had not even made it out to the highway yet. I felt like it was my first day back in truck school.

I finally do make it to where the trailer was dropped without hitting anything. I am backing up and notice that the trailer is sitting pretty low so after searching I find the switch to lower the air bags and slide underneath the kingpin. After making sure I am connected and secured I raise the airbags and hook up the airlines. Finally I can get back.

No I cannot. Now for some reason when I turn the selector to D an alarm goes off and nothing happens. I turn the selector to R, same thing. Only N will quite that blaring alarm. I could be having dinner now. Ten more miles and I would have been eating with the wife at this very moment!

Okay, only thing to do is call road service. I am tired of calling the boss. "Ah shi- man, this happens sometimes. Just turn off all the power to truck and let it sit for 15 minutes. That usually does the trick." The tech told me after a short ten minute wait on hold.

So I go pacing outside the truck for the quarter hour, Texas is way too hot right now to be waiting inside the truck. I give it 16 minutes then go back inside and power everything up. Same problem still. Feeling a bit reluctant I call up road service again and this time after only a five minute wait on hold a new tech answers the phone. I was feeling lucky, this would be the one that would solve the problem.

"Sounds like your transmission is messed up. It is a simple problem that happens sometimes." This guy sounded like he knew what he was talking about. I really hoped I would not end up needing a tow after all but whatever it takes we can get rolling at last. "Ya just turn off the power on the master switch for 10-15 minutes and that usually clears it up". I thanked him and hung up.

Believe it or not I was actually reaching down to cut the power off again when instead i flipped out myself realizing that I was going to be here all night listening to these guys. There had to be something I was missing here. Looking at the switches again I noticed the airbag toggle was lit up still. Are they still lowered down? I was sure I had raised them. I push the switch and the air bags lower, I knew they had been up! Light is now flashing though indicating they are down and the truck actually rolls a slight bit. I press the switch again and they raise, lifting the trailer up and this time the light winks out.

All of a sudden the alarm is silent when I turn the selector to drive. When I press the accelerator I am moving! With only 90 minutes left on my clocks I rocket back to the dc with the empty trailer as fast as an 80000 pound semi would accelerate.

Now I had one last task to do once I returned and that was to back the trailer into a slot. Am I going to be able to do this with an automatic? It was not pretty, the yard dog was watching me the whole time. We had known each other for a few years and as good of friends as one would normally get with a work acquaintance but that day I think he was about to offer to back it in himself for fear of me hitting another trailer.

It was now 1830 when I got out of that truck and turned the key back in at the office. Boss had left already and I thought at least I would have enough time to get home before the wife went to sleep when I realized I got to get my truck fixed. Did not want to risk going all the way to the terminal in Dallas for repairs, my truck was still missing that passenger side mudflap and bracket that I had been putting off on getting repaired and no way could I cover it up with a trailer with the broken air lines and all. Only place I dared to go was the local TA there in Terrell and hope they had the parts for everything.

The lady at the counter said they could handle it but it would be a long wait. Several hours really. "We been swamped all night, one of our techs gone home early, feeling really bad with all this heat going round. We can get you though hun, just roll the truck in bay #3 and we will get you before the night is done."

It was 2300 when I came out and saw a nice shiny new hanger and mudflap along with the new set of air lines all wrapped up nice and secure. "You all ready go there driver, I just finished with the reflective tape on the flaps there fer ya."

I thanked him. I was only a few miles from the terminal, but it was just far enough to kick me into driving and being already out of time on my clocks, I just stayed at the truck stop. If I broke my 34 hour break I would not have enough time to make it to Wyoming next week with event two additional stops this time over the previous week. So here I still am to this moment sitting in the truck.

I asked the boss if I could get a manual truck when I turn my current one in. My company rarely keeps any truck beyond 300000 miles and mine was getting up there. "Sorry man, all new trucks are automatic transmissions. Don't worry though you will get used to it."

I do not think I ever will. I am going to do everything I can to keep this truck. Me and my manual here are going to be crossing those million mile markers together for the rest of my career with these guys.

 

Ha, here I am the one that has to spend his 34 at a truckstop instead of at home, and yet you are the one that is all pissed off!