Do you know how to work on your own truck?

I don't open up motors anymore. But everything else I can and will repair. I really do enjoy break work and axle work. When it comes to transmissions and rear ends, I just swap I don't rebuild anymore. we still do all our own tire work at the shop and most of the time on the road. And most of our AC work we do in house sometimes we'll send it out. Just depends if we're in a hurry or out on the road.

 

I will attempt to fix anything once maybe twice depending on what it is and its cost new. I will rebuild 30/30’s with a new $8 diaphragm before i will replace it at full cost. I take electrical switches snd air valves apart and repair all the time. Call me cheap but new stuff costs money and 99% of it is crap quality that even the old repaired stuff is still better than. Steering pumps, boxes, hydraulic cylinders, i’ve even split some radiators before, repaired window crank regulators where the handles wont stay on anymore. Wiper motors, air and electric, it don’t matter. I’ll try it first and if I fail then I replace it with new.

 

How do you do it cooter! X15’s and paccars are only able to be worked on at dealerships.

 

Theys a reason they call me Cooter lmfao

 

Cooter was the only one that could both the General Lee and Roscoe’s patrol car running right. Lol

 

What im willing/able to do varies. Anything emissions, A/C or brake related I farm out because i want a recipt just incase something goes wrong or because i dont have enough trucks to justify the machines cost. I.E a legal fig leaf. Anything shy of needing a crane or jacks on more then 1 set of wheels (our concrete pad wont support the weight, ive tried and cracked it a few times) ill tackle. Worst case i cant fix it, so we load it on my buddys flatbed and run it to town. Usually i can fix most crap and i have the service manuals for my rig so i can usually puzzle out a fix for most things. Sensors, switches and such unlike @wore out i just swap though. Not worth the migrane of a field repair in most cases since it is ALWAYS a pleasure trying to use a soldiering iorn in a semi truck while half of your dash is ripped apart 2000 miles away from home and then have it not work anyway lol.

Easolier to have my box o assorted crap and just pull a spare.

 

You might be crazy, but you ain’t dumb

 

Two new belts, new tensioner pulley 31 minutes 26 seconds..actually took my time

Keep belts and a tensioner in your box! Only have 342k on the engine so wasn’t expecting the tensioner to fail this early on.

This could have been really bad if I was on a load..got super lucky this time around..

 

Who in the crystal meth designed that?

 

You're not wrong. Although I 100% believe school can make a guy who can turn wrenches into a much better tech once they understand the theory behind it. I lost count at how many guys just start throwing parts at something because they don't understand how fluids behave in a hydraulic system, how to interpret pressure readings, what voltage drops mean etc. To be a good tech is more than just being able to swing a hammer, it's about using your brain and understanding the thinking side of it too.