Instant O/O and Load boards

Well "Truck it up" Driva!!!,............

 

I forgot to mention that I may have been just a little over length on that load,.LOL,......

 

I had a load in the vacume tank I wish I had weighed. It was 130 barrels of 15 pound mud. they told me it was 11 pound when I was loading it up. The air bags on the trailer would not inflate it was so heavy. I'm lucky I didn't split that aluminum tank

 

Nothin a few fire trucks with big hoses couldn't clean up... and a few questions from the dot man.

 

um yaa... that would be oil based mud. Not really mud, it's drilling fluids they just call it mud.

 

Back when I worked for the custom harvesters, if they were way out in Timbuctu just hauling to a little country elevator, after it closed, they would keep the combines going and load up all their trucks, I mean load them up. I had several loads with a 78" side hopper bottom that were 112K, 114K. I hate being that heavy, feels like you're driving a freight train. Their trucks exist to keep the combines moving, was reminded of that several times!

 

No drama, I'm not kidding, I think this may very well be the end of the line unless some miracle happens beyond my means.

I've had a terrible run of repairs the last 2 weeks, over $2k in cumulative stupid stuff, was already in the rears and planning to pull out of the hole with the next month's proceeds.

Well one new problem that developed last week that I don't even think I mentioned was that under load, in reverse, it felt like the stick was pushing up through the floor and yanking out of my hand. I was told it was probably the motor mount, and I guess it was.

Yesterday I was at a shipper and pulling out of the loading area, it was wet mud and I was losing a little traction. I put on the differential and when it kicked in there was sort of a jolt and the truck got loud again. I figured something in the exhaust must not have held.

Well I get on the scale and get my BOL's. When I walk back out I see my coolant all over the ground under the truck.

I pulled it over to the side and opened the hood. The large radiator hose had severed, and the exhaust had pulled out of the back of the turbo.

I was already in disbelief at that point from bad luck, had to call Eclipse and get my first ever advance against invoices. $500 is what they were willing to do. I figured well that will have to be enough.

Roadside comes out, first thing they point out is my alternator is supporting the engine on the frame and it's leaning sort of unnaturally.

The piece coming out of the turbo for the exhaust is of course proprietary, it is gnarled and crushed at the end and they said it would be at least day to order it. (I have since found out that it is about $275 and no one has it, has to be ordered from Rockford, IL and take about 7-10 days.

And now the best part. They got under there and took off the radiator hose, the rest of the coolant came out followed by... well you can probably guess. A good pint or quart of oozing texas tea.

They said this is no longer a roadside repair and couldn't do anything for me.

For the first time I felt real debilitating shock for at least an hour after. I have no idea what to do. I called my wife to come pick me up and left it all there. Couldn't even idle without coolant.

I'll do another post with what I think my options are, but they're all desperate and in at least a small part dependant on some kind of mechanical help and good will.

The truck is in Gainesville, GA at Ampro. I can't pay a large wrecker bill and still get some of these fires put out. I at least need to get it to the point I can baby it bobtail to some generous shop (yeah right!). They say no point in doing exhaust with a bad motor mount because it will just rip out again, and I can't move it without it because the heat coming out of there is tremendous and will melt all the electrical behind it, the air lines, the firewall and probably cook me in the cab after long enough if it even still runs after that.

I'm sitting here trying to come up with ideas but the day is beginning to get away from me.

 

Hey Rob, You probably took the power divider out when you was in the mud spinning and kicked it in! So don't be suprised if you get the truck running and you have a clunking, vibrations, or shimmy.

 

I woul LOVE vibrations clunking and shimmying right now.

I did detach from the trailer and move the truck around just a little bit. The engine still purrs and it drove ok, the whole thing mocking me.

 

Who knows you may have gotten lucky and it will last years before going completely out. Next time make sure none of the wheels are spinning when you kick it in.