Thanks, Wedge! I have a lot of thinking between now and when I lose my flying job. Either way, though, I enjoy this thread and look forward to driving someday--enven if it's not any time soon!
Hey wedge, what did that turn out to be? The same thing happened to me a few years ago. It turned out all the clamps for the hoses were loose....LOL...every single one. I'm still convinced my co-driver at the time (this was when I was at CRST) did it.
You'll love this. Call up Sunday (day before my PTA set) and ask about the truck. The service writer says "It was just low on coolant so we filled it up and your all set to go." "Wait a minute. Didn't you read the repair order? It's using a gallon every 600 miles." "Oh, wow. The Cummins mechanic will have to look at it on Monday. Call me about noon." My PTA was set for 0800. I go up there Monday morning, figured I should go get in the way. Got there as the Cummins tech showed up. I explained to him what was going on. He says give a call in about 4 hours he was going to look at the EGR. I called about 2 pm. Service writer tells me he's still working on it and I should call around supper time. Called back at supper, they said the trucks ready, and he couldn't find anything wrong. When I loaded up my truck on Tuesday, I ran into the tech. He told me he couldn't determine where the coolant was going. He said he checked everything. I've got about 500 miles on the "repair attempt" so far and I can see the coolant level is dropping. I got my money on a bad head gasket.
it's the egr cooler.... about 6-10 more gl of coolent and it will blow out..... you'll know when it does........ just keep a eye out for white smoke every time you start it or when you start moving 1-5 gear...... when it went out in our pro-star it took about 4500 miles when it got to the 500-600 mile a gl. range...... had 2 of our shops check it and the dealer checked it 2 times in 10 days... the last time it was checked they said it's ok and 17hrs later we had white smoke coming out of the stack
I'm heavy on this run so this motor's getting a real work out. Maybe that'll accelerate the demise...lol. I'm sure it's down 1/2 gallon already. I keep watching the exhaust side as best I can. He spent a lot of hours working on this truck to end up finding nothing wrong. Wonder how he justified that. Warranty only allows for a limited amount of diagnostic time.
when they check the cooler for leaks they pull a cover and look for coolent.. if they don't see any then they start checking other things... the only true why to check the cooler is to pull it off the truck so they can look at the cooler from both sides BUT it takes 8hr's to do it.... and no one wants to pay 800.00 just to check it... usx SHOULD do oil samples when they do a PM.. a oil sample would show the egr cooler going out BEFORE it goes out...... i had a sample show mine was going out 27,000 miles before it went on my truck and i never used more than 1gl per 20,000 miles until it blew white smoke, but i knew it was going to go so i had the money in the bank for it when it happened and i was lucky because when we got to the dealer i was in at 09:30 and out at 17:45 the same day most dealers take 2-3 days to get it done
Hello There. Gooooozz Fah Bah...................Gooooooozz Fah Bah......... That's what they kept saying in that movie Anger Management when they were trying to calm down. I know I haven't been posting lately. I'm still trying to get my brain right after coming off home time a day late, and then spending 8 hours on my first day back hunting down an empty. So my settlement sheet for this past Friday had a big dent in it with only scoring 989 miles. Goooooooozz Fah Bah...............Goooooooozz Fah Bah........ :smt068989 OK.........I'm better now. After digging up the elusive empty, I picked up a load in Cleveland, TN headed for West Branch, IA. Paid miles: 832. I got a pre-plan enroute that picked up in Clinton, IA and delivered in Buford, GA. Paid miles: 850. There was almost no down time between runs and I ended up dropping at our Ellenwood, GA terminal 2 days early. I was given a pre-plan (enroute) that picked up the same day I dropped in Ellenwood. It was a live load from Conyers, GA and delivers in Statesville, NC just before 1300 today, paid miles: 295. I'm sitting at a rest area about 25 miles from the receiver waiting until 1130 to start my clock. Reason? I have another pre-plan that picks up tonight at 1800 in Charlotte, NC that drops in Roanoke, IN, paid miles: 623. The pre-plans come in a timely fashion because I am constantly giving dispatch my ETA to delivery. And I do this before I start moving each day. So if you still have to drive, let's say, 400 miles to deliver, and your FM knows your ETA to the delivery, he or she can start working on your pre-plan while your driving. That gives them many hours to get with the planner and dig you up a run. It doesn't matter if you have a huge delivery window either. They want to know when you'll be available as soon as you can get them the information. Otherwise, they won't even attempt to find you a P/A until they know when you'll be there. Doing my part by informing my FM when I'll be available and how many hours (approx) I'll have left for the day makes it possible for them to keep you moving. If you say nothing..........they're not going to invest the time to get you a run if they're not sure you can pick up and deliver on time. That's how I get it done. Give them absolute information they can bank on. Where you park at night, when you're rolling out, estimated ETAs, the works. If you deliver on time, and give your FM this type of info, there is no reason you should be sitting. Don't wait until you deliver to alert them you're available. The sooner they know, the sooner the pre-plans show up. That's a fact. That's it. See ya in Indiana. Thanks for reading. -Wedge
Yeah, that was pretty low but understandable. I elect to come back from home time on Mondays. Our payroll cutoff for trips is Tuesday night, so when things are going right I can maybe get 2 trips in under the wire. But in this case, I get a 24 hour delay so I don't get back in the truck until Tuesday, and then spend a pile of time hunting down an empty trailer. My first dispatch was over 600 miles so that was it for the week.
Howdy Everyone. Just rolled into our Laredo yard about an hour ago with 9 minutes left on my clock. I don't recommend trying that. You'd be amazed at how much of an impact a delayed traffic light can have on your nerves. Trips and Stats. Last week pay settlement sheet: 2,622. A good week considering I've been fight a very low 70. The last run I talked about put me in Roanoke, IN. I was able to drop that run to Roanoke about 18 hours early, and was given a short run that picked up in Kentland, IN and delivered in Monroe, OH, paid miles: 329. Next pre-plan I received was for a "High Value Load" that was to pick up in Hebron, KY and drop in Elk Grove Village, IL, but after a 4 hour delay at the shipper that load was canceled, and I went back to the nearby TA. A wasted day with only minimal compensation. Before I forget, an interesting thing happened that night at the TS..............let me finish up the trips. Next morning I had another HVP load ready to pick up and the same place, and dropped in Earth City, MO, paid miles: 393. It was a D & H on both ends so it was an easy run. Glad too, because I was exhausted from the previous night I'll get there........gimme a minute. From there, I picked up my present run which is a load of tires for Mexico. I picked it up in Mt. Vernon, IL and it delivers tomorrow morning here in Laredo, TX, paid miles: 1,178. I kept saving my hours where ever possible and as it worked out I was able to run 644 miles today and arrive here with just minutes left on my clock. I ran hard with the hope of being able to get a drop number for this load, and get a new trip to move me back up north, but they told me I'm running it in tomorrow................Dang. OK. That night at the TS after the blown load. I eat, go to sleep, and something, I don't know what, woke me up around 0100. So I figured I'd peak out from the privacy curtains for the heck of it. What I see is the Schneider truck that was parked next to me is pulled half way out of his slot, but couldn't go any further because of a truck, or I should say, a few trucks parked perpendicular to him were in his way. I figured he was waiting for them to move..................NOT! Being a new driver, fresh off of his trainers truck, and unsure how to proceed in a situation such as this, he tried to get his truck out ....................he sort of did..............but he tore the nose off of the Prime tractor parked next to him. I had a ring side seat.............great...........why does this have to happen next to me? They finally got 1 of the 3 trucks to move, so after a barrage of photos and information exchanges, the Schneider driver was able to leave. For the next 3 hours, countless numbers of trucks kept making an attempt to park into the space just vacated by the pumpkin. Neither the Prime driver or myself could even think about going back to sleep (the other 2 trucks were still parked in the way). Finally around 0400, a bobtail came bouncing along, obviously thrilled to find an open space. I almost jumped out of the truck to help him back in. I had to roll out early next morning, but couldn't sleep. Every sound I heard had me up, sticking my head out from behind the curtains. I did fall asleep eventually, and was glad to see that in the morning, the other 2 illegally parked trucks were gone, and a quick inspection revealed that Snowball didn't get clipped by the truck on the other side of me. That short HVP run I was on seemed like it was 600 miles long. I couldn't wait to hit the sack that night. I felt bad for the Schneider driver. He was just a kid. The right move would have been to walk up to the fuel desk and tell them that that there were trucks blocking him and he couldn't leave. That's not my style, though............If it was me.............. THUMP........THUMP.......THUMP.....................HEY! GET THIS TRUCK OUTTA MY WAY! Thanks for reading. -Wedge
