Stevens Transport aviary

Just yesterday praising a warm tk apu....now no heat. Stuck in Laramie Wy, 30 mph winds, getting coooold. Told by RR to idle main, again. Heading to Ontario, Cali with Kraft foodstuffs. At least apu works, but no heat. Oh well.

 

I woke early this am to an ALT code from my APU and no heat. Truck would not idle no matter what I did. So another 200 miles out of my pocket to go get it fixed at TK, happily under warranty, had my load pulled and got a new one with three drops on Long Island. My final is very close to Uncle Wallys, so I may be pulling muffins out of there. Now if my load will just be ready in the am instead of the pm....

 

You will need the AC when you get here anyway. Hit the 90's. Today. I parked here in Ontario at 1500 and.it was 88 at the time.

 

Just stopped near Springville UT, south of Provo. 55 degrees here. Nice Flying J. Where is Marie?

Just had my third DPF regeneration, manual, in a week. Took a whole hour out of my drive time. Pulled into ts with 3 minutes remaining on DOT. Getting annoying. Just like repeated trailer abs alarms.

Melton and TMC starting to look real good.

Again.

 

You think their trucks don't have the same problems?
Any 2011 or newer truck has these problems. It's what comes with the government mandating industry to design a new engine in 5 years.
We're all guinea pigs as the engine companies figure out how to make things work.

 

Sitting at the TA in Columbia, NJ staged for my three drops in NY. Hopefully I will get a load out of Uncle Wallys as I will final out close to there. 91 miles to my first drop at 1 am. Anyone been to fresh direct, Ava pork or dicarlo dist can clue me in if there are any issues at these places?

 

Is OK they flipped my switch to running nights, im down in the warmer weather and guess what I woke up to the other afternoon....ACS code. Tried to refire the APU but right straight back to an ACS code. This is the 7th time since October, wish they would get it fixed and fixed right. But talking to other drivers, they seem to be plagued by the same thing. What are we doing so wrong that our APUs have such a high failure rate?

 

Think Ive been to Ava. If its the place I remember, you cant see the truck entrance sign as someone drove over it. You have to pass the building and the road that looks like an alley you shouldn't be turning down, that's it.

 

Guess that I was lucky. Never had an major problems at all with the truck or the APU. I had a few minor issues but they were all either fixed at the yard or at a T/A.

But I will say that I like the APU's that Stevens uses so much better than the one in my truck now. Inverter doesnt work unless the APU is running. The blower fan also turns on and off constantly and is noisy when the A/C kicks in. I cant sleep unless Im wearing ear plugs. All of the other drivers I talked to have the same complaint.

 

Now sitting outside Yermo, Ca, rest stop. More fun with my tractor. After leaving Provo this morning, about 3 hrs down the road, "need to regenerate" comes on. Engine starts slowing. Stop for parked regeneration of dpf again. One hour later, good as new. Rolling, late by one hour.

30 miles north of Baker, Ca, check engine lite flashes, then solid, then engine quits. Roadrescue sends out some help. He arrives, and we do a pti on engine. Starts right up. Told him about dpf stuff, says that might be problem, it will shut down a engine.

Rolling, to rest stop north of Yermo, done driving for today. Up tomorrow early for 0600 delivery Ontario. One hour wasted again, dont make Barstow as planned.

Melton may have same problems as us, but flatbedding is what I was thinking of. Outdoors, more freight control, more versatile freight, more hands on, etc.