CRETE - A Year in Review

Sounds like the stretch I had last year with my PS. Believe me...I feel your pain!

 

I got out of IA, all the way down to Mathews, MO last night, and checked the weather. Now I get to see the southern end of the storm I drove thru Sunday...oh joy. I check the weather channel's route forcast...a second bunch of nasty stuff was forcast to move thru the nw part of MS early Tues, then warm by 11 for a couple hours then turn into an ice storm. *note to self...don't trust the Weather Channel*. Had I gotten up early, and rolled before sunrise, I'da just had wet weather south of Batesville or Winona, MS. Silly me decided to trust the weather guessers at The Commercial Channel(they don't have much weather stuff on the Weather Channel - only commercials, interupted by an occasional mention of weather). I ended up getting south of Memphis just when it was freezing on the bridges. 4 wheelers put on a dandy 'ice follies' show again. There were cars, pickups, and all manner of 4 wheelers in the woods, in the median, on their roof in the right lane. I didn't have much trouble w/my 42,000 lb load. Just played dodge 'em. Just past the Peelot exit (I55 x-185) the temps warmed to 35-38 deg and it just was a nasty cold rain. I delivered my load to Brookhaven, and for the 1st time in a while, they had a choice of empties. My next load picks up out of the paper mill in Monticello after 1700 tomorrow and doesn't deliver until 930 Friday morning, putting me right back through this schmutzing storm again. Not the greatest miles for the week, but anything over 2500 in January, with the way the weather has been...I'll keep my complaints for next time.

 

Brookhaven? I'm envious. Got a couple friends there.

 

Ok, it's the next time already(I mentioned I would hold my complaints until the next time)

My POS Prostar...keeps giving me a 'water in fuel' message...so I pull some fuel out of the big clear(ish) filter. Then a couple days later I get it again. Plus, even after they tried twice to fix my truck in Ottawa, I am still losing coolant somewhere. Once a week, it's down to the 'low coolant sensor'. I hope the water in fuel is because something major is going wrong inside, and this boat anchor dies once and for all so I can get out of it...I've said it before, and it is still true...I HATE INTERNATIONALS!!!!

Although, the batteries seem to last longer, so Ottawa did something right...or maybe because I'm not using the front blower at all, that's just that much less juice draining out of them.

 

SS my former truck, a Cummins powered Peterbilt, gave me the "water in fuel" message constantly. It would go through phases. A month or so of whining then a month or so of nothing. It drank coolant also. I'm guessing the way most of my previous trucks have used up coolant...unless its leaking out of the motor externally, they won't even attempt to fix it. Eventually you get drivers that add water and on a truck that goes through a gallon a week, it doesn't take long to make the cooling system null.

 

On these Maxxfarces, it takes the special 'yellow' Mountain Dew colored coolant since it's the new graphite engine. The only place you can get it is International or from our company shops and it's twice as expensive as the red. Plus we were told to -never- just add water to these pieces of compacted graphite scrap. I think the EGR cooler might be going, unless the EGR valve is going again. I still get a high pitched wheeze like a mix between a sound of loose turbo hose and the sound a blade of grass between your thumbs made when you blew through it as a kid.

 

Supersnack the new Kenworth is a 680 series. It is supposed to be an improvement over the 700 series. You are correct is saying it is a new version of the T-2000.

 

I think you are on the right track if you stay with the EGR COOLER as the possible problem. If the coolant is not actually going into the fuel, or leaking from a hose clamp, there is no place else for it to go. If the shop won't heed your concerns, run it till it croaks and tell them I TOLD YOU SO. Document via QComm.

 

That's the one. I remember reading about it when they 1st introduced it at the big trucking deal in Louisville. I can never keep up with the new models when they just use numbers...kinda like the Pete's. Wouldn't mind if they shipped a few into Lincoln. It would be a nice breath of fresh air to see some new direction.

 

I stopped for lunch in Kit Carson Colorado today and there was a driver from Western Container, Big Spring Texas, broke down in the lot. His 180,000 mile Cascadia was done. The pistons sounded like they were swapping cylinders....I told him to be glad it wasnt a ProStar...it probably would have burned to the ground too......