Can I drive with this???

My very first trip as a CDL driver I got 73 miles into Wisconsin (about 125 from the yard) and my left rear set of duals with the shaft came right out of the hole along with flaming oil. I had a load of spuds going to Frito Lay (45+). This was in 1984. Didnt even have a CB in the truck yet.

So Im standing there with a fire extinguisher in my hand when a trooper rolls up, he gets out, comes up to me, looks at the smoke, the dry power on the ground, me standing there with the extinguisher in my hand and he says "did you have a fire?".



They had forgot to pack the bearing with grease...

 

In some cases, yes it will - significantly so.

The Boss Shop in Black River Falls comes to mind. It is cheaper to have TA come up from Madison to change a tire then to have them do it.

It's also cheaper for us to send a contract vender from GB up to Menomonie or Iron Mountain in the UP than it is to use the local shops. Mainly because the local shops charge us mileage to get parts and they're going to drive down to GB.

 

Back when I was the overnight breakdown agent for "Fudpucker Transportation", we had several of our marginal dry van trailer cook their wheel spindles, often on some hot day in the middle of summer. Luckily, we had an account with "The Spindle Doctor", and he made a roundabout tour of the mid-western states about once every 2 weeks. We had 3 or 4 trailer needing his repair on location.

 

Drop the trailer. Have the truck towed from the rear.

You might also want to make arrangements for another truck to finish your delivery. Whichever shop you wind up at you are most likely going to be there a while.

 

A real world example - the empty trailer I picked up has old damage in the upper right corner that was caulked up. The caulk has fallen off and a driver slapped some duct tape on it. Sent to a shop, shop did a quote on a proper repair. 30 seconds after getting the quote, company is deadheading me to Columbus for repairs.

I'm in Canton, OH. It's 130 miles one way and I'm coming right back to pick up my load. Eating 260 miles of non revenue generating miles is not only still cheaper than whatever the shop quoted, it is cheap enough that the Puzzle Palace didn't even convene a meeting of the Step Over Dollars to Pick Up Dimes Managers.

 

Of course the other shop 90 miles away will drive out there to fix it. They're going to bring the cactus to your boss for his pleasure completely drained dry of any water in the form of that labor rate for driving both ways. It's easy money for them.

So what is the update? You still there waiting for it to get fixed?