Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

Well, I’ve always heard, change oil at 5000, run overhead at 70 +, Maybe newer engines are different, but the older 12.7s when brand new, would seal rings up at 70 k, fuel mileage would jump up almost 1 mpg. Then run an overhead, just to make sure everything’s right. I’d wait till Sat the 14th, to pick it up. Not superstitious, but why take a chance. Lol

 

It wouldn’t hurt to change filters only at 1000, then oil at 5000. Best just do whatever they say, and document it.

 

Update.

The rebuild is complete. The truck has been through dyno testing. QC has passed the truck as being finished.

Now I just have to wait for them to finish all the paperwork. I hope they can finish the paperwork before Monday. They do have weekend hours, but I don't think the service writers work weekends.

We shall see.

 

What kind of warranty on the repairs...?

12 months unlimited mileage...? By a oem dealership......?

 

Just how long has this been going on?
I mean from start to finish?
What have you lost in loads and what have you paid in motels and food and whatnot.

Bottom line, the expense of the warranty (not warantee), the out of pocket, the days lost, (because had you came into the shop with the same problem and told them you were paying cash...which would have been a couple of days)......hotels, cabs, all sort of extraneous BS,

At the end of the day, did you do better with a warranty? (Not warantee)?

Inquiring minds

 

Uncertain. I know the cylinder head itself has a 12 month warrantee.

 

The truck first went into the shop in Dallas about a month ago, on the 15th of November. It came back out a couple days later, then the next day went back in.

The Thanksgiving holiday delayed things pretty severely.

Finding the damaged cylinder and liner delayed things pretty severely again.

The warranty company's refusal to cover what they should have cost a LOT of time.

All told, it's been pretty much a financial wash. I lost a ton of income, but I also wasn't buying fuel in that timeframe either. I spent a bunch of time in a hotel. My food costs were about the same as they would have been on the road. My tax burden for the year will be enormously decreased.

The warranty was worth buying. Barely. The good thing is that the warranty is still active, though I will not be using it if there is another engine problem, since I will have a real warranty through Freightliner.

 

Come on, Bob. You have time on your hands, computers, spreadsheets, all manner of calculation.....break it down.
I'm not trying to bust your balls, and I hate that this happened to you, but in the beginning (first post on this thread), you said you were going to tell it all.
So, do tell.

 

I cant believe they got it all finished which is a relief ( for now ) but yet couldn't get the paperwork squared away so you could roll out... What a bummer. Pretty crappy of them to do that IMO... You've been sitting there a month nearly and they dont have the decency to have the service writer stay over a couple hours or atleast come in Saturday for a couple? They must not be making enough money off the deal I hate dealerships with a passion!!!

 

It's hard to say how much it cost me, to be honest, because I can't say how much I would have earned.

But I'll make a better guess.

It looks like I won't be getting the truck back until Monday, so that's a month of downtime.

30 days hotel stay at a decent hotel. @$3000
30 days lost income at 450 miles per day average. @18,495 including FSC
30 days fuel not bought @ 6.8 MPG @ 2.50 per gallon = $4963
About 2k in truck payments and insurance payments will come out of settlements until I'm caught up.
I spent @18k on the rebuild.

So, my losses AND expenses (real cost) was @ 36.5k. Pretty much an entire quarter shot.

HOWEVER

@ 21k of that will be tax deductible. Between expenses and reduced average income, I'll likely be getting a chunk of the money I've sent to the government (in estimated taxes) back. Hard to say whet that number will be.

EVEN MORE

It's been nice to have extended downtime. Home time has not been terribly relaxing for me for the last year, as I've been needing to deal with moving from GA to TN and then to SC during my home times.

This is the first actual vacation-like time I've enjoyed in over a year.

Current status of funds:

Maintenance fund: wiped out.
Cash on hand @ 4k
Credit available @ 13k

Will be nice to get back on the road.