A bad day.

So........ I ended up in a semi with an engine that wanted to shut down on steep uphills.. and I was stuck in a very treacherous valley notorious for being hard to get through in adverse conditions. Extreme level of driving difficulty & problem solving. Once the problem presented itself, I made the determination not to get loaded & to try to go back out the way I came. I made a near impossible back into a rancher's driveway to get turned around. On the way out, the engine shut down twice but was able to back up & take another run & nearly made it out... that is until I got to the last icy uphill turn. The engine shut down 1/2 way through the turn & I had to come to a stop... and then the drives slide back & to the inside of the turn. [insert extreme problem solving skills here] I got a passing truck to notify XTO safety of my situation. I was then informed that a blade would be sent to pull me out. The blade showed up 3 hours later by which time I was quite frosty (the engine would only run for 20 seconds max) Q: How do you move a truck with no running engine & no air pressure? Give up...? A: Inform the blade operator that there is no way to release the parking brakes. Then advise him that you have 20 seconds of running engine power to assist in pushing "through" the parking brakes (in the lowest gear possible) and hopefully get the truck on flat level ground where in theory it should run... and that is how it happened. Got the truck up on top of the hill where I finally made it out after several hours. Now, it is time to enjoy a tasty adult beverage.

 

1998 Kenworth T600 Detroit Diesel. Based on 'over the phone' magical diagnostics, the shop mechanic suspects a fuel delivery problem of some sort... but I don't care because what you see in the video is most likely the last run I will ever make with this owner/op.

 

Unknown... although I have several opportunities here, I am going to take tomorrow off & calm down before making any rash decisions.

 

Yes... all of this is my fault. I made the decision to "man up" and run this old beat-down oil field truck to its limits. I put safety second to making money.

But no more.