Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Didnt think you did....

 

Thought they might do that but ended up with a live load down the road going to the Richmond yard since load doesn’t deliver til sat. Due for PM anyway so it works out.

 

Butcher is a noble profession.......

 

Baker and candlestick maker also.

 

truck driving was at one time

 

Dropped a trailer at WalMart in Mount Crawford, noticed a whole buncha grease/oil spots all over the back of the cab, the catwalk, the gladhand hoses, the front of the trailer, etc. Thought to myself "That can't be good." Once I got parked bobtail in front of WalMart's traffic office, went out and took a good look. Turns out I'd blown an inside wheel seal? I think that's the correct terminology. Not sure. It's what keeps the axle oil in the axle instead of all over the back of the cab, the catwalk, etc.

Literally never happened to me before. Obviously it needs to be fixed, but I have no context for how serious it is. Does it need to be fixed now, with only enough miles put on it to get me to the closest repair shop? Or will it be okay to run back to Richmond (which was only 2 hours away) and have the shop there fix it?

So I called up JohnBoy for the first time in 5 years and asked. Was informed that it should be fine to drive to Richmond as long as it happened recently.

Soon as I hung up the phone, another Abilene driver rolled up. He saw me looking at the axle, I explained the situation, he came over to take a look, and his response was "Of course. F----in' Kenworth."

Which is funny to me because I have 414,354 miles on that truck, and I put all of 'em but the first 400 on there. You'd think this sort of thing happened every day to KW drivers instead of this being the first time in 3.5 years of driving this truck.

At any rate, I went inside to sort out the paperwork, and when I came back the guy was still there. Honked his horn at me and told me he was going to follow me back to Richmond just in case. And so he did. Personally, I don't think it was strictly necessary, but I appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

Unlikely to be fixed tomorrow, as there's only one dude in the shop on Sundays. Looks like I got a couple days off.

 

Make of truck has nothing to do with it.

 

Nah, weekend dispatch will just tell ya to move into another truck for the weekend.......hopefully not.

 

As far as I'm aware, handing out loaners is above the pay grade of the weekend guys. Think that's something that can only be done Mon-Fri when certain other people are in the office.

 

Enjoy your weekend. BT slowly.....