USA Roadblock I94 IN

Thursday morning was the worst day I've had out here so far. It started with me getting up in Michigan and heading West on I94 towards Chicago at about 1 am. Well after dealing with some heavy snow off and on and some whiteouts I made it to Indiana where apparently they don't believe in salt or sand on icy roads. Got to about the 20 mm and saw a car doing donuts in the middle lane. He/she must have spun it around about 3 or 4 times before finally getting it under control. Then got to the 18 mm and traffic comes to a halt. Trucks couldn't make it up the big hill before the toll road and were stuck. The road was solid ice. So there I sit in the granny lane at 5 am waiting for the mess to clearup. Well I hop in the bunk for awhile to stretch out while waiting and the icon turns the truck off. I was getting up and restarting it periodically to keep it and myself warm. Well at about 7:30 when I restarted it I quickly noticed that I wasn't building up air and was at 60 psi. So I grab my hammer, pop the hood, and go to beating on the compressor governor, put some alcohol in the lines and tried again. Still nothing and I couldn't get it off the road because I was too close to the truck in front of me. 5 minutes later the traffic starts moving, but now I'm down to about 50 psi and can't release the brakes to get it to the shoulder so there I sit blocking traffic in the right lane. Well I ended up sitting there to about 11 before the mechanic came out and tweaked my governor all the way out so I could get to the next exit and to the shop for replacement. So if you were in that mess Thursday morning that was me broke down in the granny lane. Some drivers thought I fell asleep at first waiting for the cleanup. Some later were telling me hell of a place to park there USA. I told them that dispatch said when I run out of hours to just park it. Anyways I guess the saying goes when it rains it pours...then it freezes in IN. Lesson learned: always leave an out, when you least expect it things can go from bad to worse quick.

 

As far as I know WM it was just the governer. I'm not sure what the unloader valves are but the mechanic adjusted a screw that tweaked the governer up some. He said it was seized and ended up having to adjust it all the way to where the governer wouldn't turn the compressor off. It pegged the needles and I made it to the shop where he replaced it. I don't understand Indiana. They waited until all the chaos was done and brought out the salt shakers at about 10 that morning. I could have thrown out more salt though with my hands, but it was better than nothing I guess.