ok, so i had my first tow on friday afternoon. i was driving in downtown Binghamton NY, not a very fun place to be driving through let alone brake down in the middle of the rd. so i caught a red light, put it in 2nd, went to 3, Thump!!!! what the heck was that?? i thought, oh well, went to go for 4th, went to put my foor on the clucth, to find out it was not where i left it!!! . i looked down, and found it, laying on the floor, not where it should have been!!. since i was still rolling, and approaching a rather large looking intersection, i decided to pull over to the right as far as i can go, to get my trailer and truck over as far as i can, so that i wasnt blocking the rd. if any of you have ever been to Binghamton NY, downtown, you can understand how bad of a place i was in. Binghamton Cops pulls up behind me, say " You Got 20 ##### Min To Move the ##### Truck!! " little did he know i already had a wrecker on the way. i grabbed my GPS, and went to Wrecker Service and called the first 5 numbers, everyone told it would be atleast 3 hours. Noone understood what i ment when i said i was in the middle of the street. but one guy did, and showed up in 15 mins. he came out in a 50-ton wrecker, towed my truck and trailer to the TA there in binghamton. sat there for about 4 hours before they even looked at it. 4 hours later, they come over, pull it in the bay, and in 4 min they were done. yes. 4 mins from the time they got it in, till the time they said " Ok, all done, and how are you paying for that, Cash? Credit? T-check? " what? that fast all done in 4 mins?? yup!?!? i payed cash quick run-down. tow $800, .....500 for the truck. 300 for trailer, both together $800 4 mins of work - $39.99, 30hour min work! Parts -.......a woaping .39 cents... yup. .39cents... haha. couldnt beleave it!!!
My interpretation is that the clutch pedal linkage fell apart. Perhaps, you could have made a temporary repair with one of the miscellaneous bolts rattling around in your tool box. Also, a diesel will crank and start while low gear is engaged. You may have to shut off the engine to engage low gear. Then, crank it up and drive anywhere without the clutch or linkage. Before you do that, walk back and look for any linkage parts that may have dropped in the street.
Yup , I drove all the way from Maine to Massachusetts in a Ford cabover that had a bad hydraulic clutch . You don't need a clutch to shift . I put it in neutral at the tolls then shut it off and put it in gear like you said , hit the starter , and off I went . Sounds like they should have sent road service instead of a tow on this job though . I have learned some shops insist a warranty job be towed in .
A company I drove for had to foot a tow bill of 800 bucks too and another 200 bucks in storage. A drive shaft u-joint went out on I-81 at the 118 MM in Virginia and the tow company happened to be located 4 miles away. Took him about 30 minutes to hook-up and 5 minutes drive to his lot. My company sent another tractor for the load and a tractor from Charlotte NC terminal of theirs came and towed my tractor to their company shop in Charlotte. Meantime I lost 4 hours waiting for authorization just to get it moved. It's a headache either way I guess, just hate that happened to you in that location. Thats an expensive repair but hopefully thats a freak problem that you wont have to face again anytime soon
it was the linkage, it was a very simple fix. the reason for the tow was because it had to be moved, and the fastes way to get it fixed was to have it towed away from the scene, and for the tow truck driver to take 50 feet, or 9 miles cost the same amount of money. my truck registration was expired. the cop said 20 mins to move it, or he was callin in the DOT, and the $840.32 would have been cheaper then the whole list of tickets i would have recieved from DOT. i walk back about 8 blocks looking something, not quite sure what it was that i was looking for, but i was looking for anything laying in the street. couldnt find anything, and the cop asked that i stay with the truck. i called all the repair shops in the area, non were able to make it to me, everyone i called said that it would be at least 3-5 hours till they could get someone out there. the company paid for everything. the reason i payed for the part and the service was because i couldnt get ahold of anyone, and i didnt feel like waiting around for someone to answer the phone so they can pay TA. it was $40, so i payed it, i was told to hold onto the reciept, and that they would pay be back. im not an o/o yet. but i took it as a leasson learned.
Ahhh - it always sucks to be broke down, no matter where or why. But some sucks worse than others. As was already pointed out, it never hurts to have a little miscellaneous hardware in your tool box. Not to mention bailing wire.
If you carry nothing else in your truck, carry belts! I cannot believe the amount of stranded guys and the amount of time and money wasted just because they broke a belt in the middle of nowhere.
