Instant O/O and Load boards

By rate, I had my best week last week I think: $1.34/mile all miles average.



Drove about 2600 miles, around $1k in fuel subtracted from that figure.


In other news, I think, I'm pretty sure, well I definitely am unless some obstacle comes up that I can't overcome - Leasing on another truck this week. I'll expand on that as details reveal themselves.

Next I'll get on to the demon in my truck

 

Ok well I would appreciate it if the mechanically inclined could give an opinion or two. I'll try to keep it to the facts:

On Wednesday, I had just dropped a load, pulled out onto the street, and as I waited in the turning lane, my truck just shut off and wouldn't restart. I called Wayne and he said the computer probably shut it down, give it a few minutes. I did, and I shut off everything in the truck and all dash buttons. It restarted, so I headed for the nearest lot, a Sunoco on the corner. As I was rolling I turned on the a/c and the truck shut right off immediately again.

I coasted and landed at a 45 to the fuel pumps and was stuck. I turned everything off again and kept trying to start it until the batteries got too weak to turn the engine (about 8 tries).

While waiting for a wrecker, I would turn the key on halfway and the guages would dance and the red light on each one would come on. I would hear a click-CLICK under the hood. I tried to run out a couple times to see if I could hear where the click-CLICK was coming from.

I checked the fuse box it looked ok. Next time I tried the key halfway, I heard a familiar sound, the fuel relay pump kicked on. I felt pretty good it would start if the batteries had a charge. Sure enough when the roadside repair came, we jumped it and it fired up. We couldn't get it to shut off again even with the A/C on. He looked it over for a bit and couldn't find anything. Curious enough though, it turned out my inverter had blown a fuse. Well I put another fuse in and it blew right away. I figured well there must be something screwy there. The mechanic guy didn't really agree or see how that could be it, but I don't really believe in coincidences so I was satisfied even if he wasn't.

I left the inverter off from then on.

Later I was going down the road and lost power again and it resumed a half minute later as I lost speed. I shut off the A/C again, it eventually kicked back on. I pulled over to a pilot which was small and parked in the "no parking anytime" zone. I turned on the A/C and it shut off. As I waited the cops came and ran all my information but didn't give me a ticket. This time I didn't try to turn the engine at all until I heard that fuel relay pump. It eventually kicked in and I started it. As I started moving, I turned on the A/C and it turned off again, but this time restarted right away.

(I know, quit screwing with the a/c right?) well I couldn't, it was hot and muggy and knew both COULD work under the right circumstances and the temptation was just too much.

20 minutes later with no a/c and I pulled into a rest area and tried it again. Shut right off, and this time the fuel relay pump never kicked back on after an hour. I decided we (me and my son) were going to sleep since it was almost 1am. I had a fan and plugged it into the 12v invertor I had bought at the Pilot I was stuck at. At 5am I woke up sweaty, luckily the fan was still going and batteries were ok, but even after all that time, the fuel relay pump was a no go. Just the click-CLICK.

At this point I was desperate and decided to go out and have a look-see. I left the key on halfway. I went to the fuse box, and as I touched it to pull the cover off, there goes the fuel pump running. I run back in and start her up. Since I'm an ### the first thing I go to is the A/C. Stall. click-CLICK.

I go back to the fuse box and pull the over off, I push in on the top relay which had a little give, and it fired back up, this time I tried the A/C and it went on full blast.

Since then, I've not gotten stranded, but the poltergeist lets me know it's still there. Since then I've noticed that every powered thing I add, takes a toll on my voltmeter. If I turn the a/c on fan 1, it drops a bit, 2, 3, 4 each takes a bit more. Add the headlights and it drops to just above the yellow.

Twice more I lost power while driving 70, but by the time I hit 50 it resumed. When night came and I had everything running, the headlights shut off while driving for about 10 seconds. A couple miles later it did it again, I turned the A/C down from 4 to 2 and it never happened again, but the volts stayed right around 12.5.


So, am I scewed? What do you guys think?