Driving OTR with US Xpress

Hello There.


Well, I've been running. Busy as can be with a sprinkling of truck repairs to boot.


I came off home time to a truck that would barely turn over, but Frankenstein finally coughed up the fur ball and came to life. Told my FM the batteries are most likely waste product, but she was insisting I pull the load first. The run picked up in Monroe, GA with a final in Lowell, AR (789 miles). When I fueled up in Birmingham, AL, it didn't want to crank over at all (great...that's all I need). After repeated attempts, I got one good rotation out of that motor and old Frankie boy fired up.

Enough of this bull-twinkie.

My routing sent me up US 78 in MS toward Memphis, TN. Guess I'll see what our Olive Branch terminal is all about. Nice place.

Sure enough, 3 out of 4 batteries were poo-doo, so 4 new ones were installed.

After electing to stop for repairs, it forced me to leave at 0400 to make my delivery window. Not my favorite thing to do, but sure beats waiting for road service to show.


After I was unloaded, I headed to Sapulpa, OK to pick up an Exel load headed back to Cartersville, GA, paid miles: 875. My second fuel stop was at the same Pilot in Birmingham, AL. I was coming in late and very low on hours, my plan was a "gas and go" (NASCAR talk).....Ok.....fuel and go.......better? I figured parking would be more plentiful at the Flying J in McCalla, AL than at a small to mid-size TS in Birmingham, make sense?

I show up around 2100, and plenty of parking. What the heck.......park it, fuel up in the morning. As I'm sitting there watching the parking clinic......actually.....there was no parking clinic. All the spaces just stayed available. (hmmm......tons of truck traffic, but no one is staying...........getting a bad feeling about this)...........Back to Plan A. I fueled up and headed down to the Flying J.

Next morning, I take off heading for Cartersville, GA about 45 minutes into the trip: Engine Light.

GRRrrrr!

Well, gages are nominal, I don't see any pieces flying off the truck in my mirrors..........yeah....... I pulled over ASAP to check under the hood..........again.

Fluid levels good, everything intact. Visual inspection revealed nada.

Called break-down (we're on a first name basis). There's no loss of power so it was agreed I'd run the load in and then worry about it.

I get unloaded in Cartersville and had a big pre-plan that would have picked up in Dayton, TN and delivered in Ft. Pierce, FL but I decided to hold off on accepting after BD elected to route me back to Ellenwood for repairs (wrong direction).

Late in the day, small shop, bazillions of trucks waiting for repair..............I'm going home.......well, kind of like going to a hotel except all my stuff is there.

Next day shop has the truck fixed. It had trouble codes stored for the DPF system. Line to the SCR nozzle had a DEF build up around it........but they said I was fixed.

So I got back in the truck, grabbed a trailer at the terminal and headed for Birmingham, AL.........again (162 mi, plus 65 dead head miles for the routing back to Ellenwood for repairs). Then a Home Depot load that picked up in McCalla, AL and delivered to a HD store in Laplace, LA (366 mi). The pre-loaded trailer I picked up (at 0300 I really hate these) had a DOT that had been expired for 3 months.

Figures.

I run it into the TA in Cottondale, Al for a DOT inspection. Dispatch changes the appointment times to compensate for the delay.

Next trip: Pick a carpet load in Saraland, AL and delivers in Plantation, FL, 876 paid miles. It was a drop at a Best Buy store. They were replacing all the carpet.........needed it. And being just a drop, I came away BT (that's OK, I'm sure there are plenty of mty's nearby.....)

Dispatch comes through......Pick up an mty at FedEx in West Palm Beach, an hour north (I have a P/A that picks up in Miami and delivers in New Albany, OH) I reach FedEx, find the trailer, 2 illegal tires and a DOT that will expire in 4 days.


This has to be a conspiracy.


Time critical pick up in Miami (1700 on a Friday) I head back south through rush hour traffic and get to the shipper. I called him, en-route, and explained I might be a little late. He said no problem. When I arrive, he loads me up and I'm rolling North in 45 minutes. Next morning I stopped at the TA in Vero Beach, to get the DOT done and the tires replaced.



Well, while I've been running this past week, (since the DPF repair) I noticed I'm getting headaches, light-headed, like I was coming down with a bug or something. So after I dropped in New Albany, OH (no mtys, again), I contacted dispatch and told them I'm doing a 34 hr. reset, my 70 was getting low anyway. Then when I was talking to my son on the phone and told him what was going on, he said "Sure you're not breathing in exhaust fumes?"




Which explained why when I wake in the morning I feel fine (have a CPAP), but as the day drags on the symptoms re-appear.

So while I was parked at the TS, I shut down the truck (it had been running 24/7 for the past week), opened the windows, slept without the truck running, and the symptoms are gone. When I checked with BD, they confirmed that an exhaust leak is very possible.


So...


Here I am at our Springfield Terminal, waiting for my turn in the shop. Looks like they won't get to me until tomorrow, so another night preserving battery voltage to keep the fridge going.




I suppose if I posted more often, I wouldn't have to type so much.



It's alright......I felt like typing anyway.







Oh yeah, I almost forgot............I'm going to start training new drivers.







Thanks for reading.
-Wedge

 

It's at exit 123 off of I 20. Most likely the same one.

When I stopped there to fuel up on my way out to AR, I hadn't been there 2 minutes before I was accosted by a lot lizard telling me his life story, how he paid too much for a fuel pump and now he was broke.



I gave him a dollar just to make him stop talking.




Quick update on my truck repair:


Turns out that the exhaust repair done last week is fine. But the fumes I'm breathing are from an oil leak on the back of the motor. Pretty hard to see even with a flashlight.


Initial estimate to repair is at least 3 days.


As much as I would like to keep this truck, I have no desire to spend a week (my repair estimate) here in Springfield. I'm on a tight schedule this session. I'll be insisting on a re-seat this time.

 

I finished the Trainers class on Sunday in Springfield. My first student is a friend I recruited away from Swift because he got 2 bad trainers in a row. I don't expect any problems with this one.

On the other side of the coin, My truck spent 5 days in the shop because of oil leaks. They ripped this motor down to the bones to fix it. Looks like brand new. Now, I'm in Salem, VA waiting to deliver at 1300, looked over the engine this morning and this beast sprung another oil leak, running down the back of the block. I thought I smelled something burning on my way out here from OH.

I have a P/A that delivers tonight in W. Jefferson, OH, so I'm going to break at the Springfield term tonight and show them. My student starts his orientation tomorrow in Tunnel Hill. If they can't fix this truck right away, time for a new ride.

I'm not putting anyone in this truck until it's fixed right, especially a friend. I sleep with a CPAP, so my air is filtered. But I'm not having anyone clock out in the middle of the night from problems with a truck.


Anyway, I'll keep you posted. Students always provide great material for story-telling....lol.