THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

OH GOD FULL-ON DFO DAY TODAY

WHO'S READY?

Wake up in the morning just sitting bobtail in the walmart parking lot. Start engine and let it idle and warm up a bit. Walking around my truck kicking the tires brushing my teeth before I bobtail north to go pick up my empty trailer before headed for Savannah.

UH OH SPIDEY SENSES TINGLING (I KID YOU NOT I SWEAR TO GOD I COULD JUST FEEL IT BEFORE I EVEN LOOKED)

Lean under front of the truck and see stuff dripping and a dish-sized pool of something on the ground.

WTF is this.

Reverse back, hoping its just condensation but no way lol I haven't been using the AC at all.

Get out, stick my finger in it. OH LOOK ITS ENGINE OIL.

Message in something along the lines of "YEAH LOL GOT SOME PROBLEMS GONNA BE LATE FOR THIS PICKUP"

Crawl under the truck and start looking for the source with the 140 decibel Cummins ISX on cold high idle dwindling away what little hearing remains in my right ear from driving the straight piped Deuce and my Dodge.

OH BOY ITS COMING FROM THE FILTER!!

Dumb*** Freightliner mechanic somehow manages to screw up an oil filter install and now its Exxon Valdezing all over the parking lot.

Ok, well WTF am I gonna do. Over my dead body will I call for mobile service. Don't know of any shops nearby that I could even make it to. Shut down the engine and check the oil and its down by the low mark. Lost a good gallon of oil yesterday, because it was still up high the day before.

Alright, into Walmart, buy 3 gallons of oil, gloves, small pan and 2 bottles of brake cleaner. Look for a tool to remove the oil filter with. There is nothing. Considered ramming a screwdriver through the filter housing, but then remembered I'm not changing this filter, I'm just removing it to see why the heck its leaking.

Can't find anything in Walmart to use to loosen it up. Can't get it loose by hand. So, walk across the street to Lowes and start poking around. Find "as seen on TV"-style strap wrenches. This might work. Mind you I would normally use a monster-sized filter wrench attached to a 1/2" breaker bar to remove oil filters. Hope mr strappy works.

Throw on my coveralls. Its gonna get nasty.

Empty half the can of brake cleaner on the filter to try to get a grip on there with the strap wrench. Get it loose and start lowering it down into the pan. Finally suction breaks loose and oil gushes down all over the front axle, spraying every direction but the little pan. I try to flip the filter over to empty the oil into the pan, but lose my grip on it and drop the whole oil filter into the pan. Oil filter now looks like a National Geographic sob-story seal covered in engine oil so slick I can't even pick it up out of the pan.

My first thought was maybe the Freightliner tech left the old ring on as well as the new one and they were double stacked and the high oil pressure from a cold start finally blew a hole between them. Nope that wasn't it. Everything looks fine. Looks like he just didn't tighten it enough. Wow. Seriously how do you screw up installing an oil filter. Shove it back on there, empty the remaining 1/2 can of brake cleaner and entirety of the second can on the filter, housing, underside of the truck, my hands, the strap wrench, etc., in my best attempt to rival BP in the amount of oil covering everything in sight.

Add a gallon of the engine oil I bought and we're back to the right area of the dipstick. Fire it up no more leaks. Bobtail of to get the empty trailer from Walmart.

Show up to Walmart. 10 empty trailers there but they decided they weren't gonna release any of them. Go **** yourselves Walmart.

Send exception and immediately call in. Wait 10 mins get through. Explain that I have NO more time to go on a trailer search or there is no possible way I'll be on time for this pickup. Ask to bobtail. Get told to wait while she calls CS to see if I can bobtail or if I need to get another MT.

10 minutes later she gets back saying go ahead and bobtail in.

Alright fine, bobtail off to Savannah.

Show up to pickup in Savannah. Man-child clerk waddles out of the guard shark and snorts "NO BOBTAILS ARE ALLOWED IN THE YARD". I tell him someone here gave me permission to. "I UNDERSTAND THAT, NO BOBTAILS ARE ALLOWED IN THE YARD". Seeing his pea-sized brain start to work overtime thinking of what he was going to say next I just got in the truck threw it in reverse and backed away.

Box planners can kiss my *** at this point. I'm goin rambo taking this **** into my own hands.

10 feet away is a Target. See at least 5 empty trailers right there on the other side of the fence. Roll up to the guard shack and see if I can have one. "We aren't releasing any empties" he says. Go check Ikea across the road. I drive by Ikea. Don't see any Schneiders, no clue if we even deliver there. Gate was backed up so decided not to wait there.

Get back on 95 go down to SUPER SECRET PARKING AREA. Check for empty trailers there. 8 trailers, all sealed.

Go to Dollar General. No empties. Sit there and the gate and rack my brain about where I haven't checked yet. Finally see a yard truck hook up to a SNI in the doors. Chase him down. Its empty. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Run back to pickup location. Making progress with man-child now. He clears his 2-liter coke bottle and half eaten pizza box which were obviously his morning snack out of the way and grumbles about what numbers I have.

I give him numbers. He goes out to check the trailer. He can't step up the trailer frame to get in, so he has this platform step thing to get into the back. Hes too lazy to pick it up and move it, so hes just dragging it along behind him like a little kid drags along a toy truck on string.

He somehow manages to get up into the trailer. Asks me to close the doors so he can check for holes. I strongly consider latching the door shut and telling him "HEY MAN I FOUND A HOLE. NOT JUST A HOLE, AN ***HOLE!! LOOK THERE'S ONE IN THE TRAILER RIGHT NOW", dropping the trailer and driving away.

Finally get out of there. Make it down to delivery in deep south GA. Go to motel. Out of the truck for tonight. Maybe tomorrow too, might reset if there is nothing good out of here. Had eyes on a load that leaves this area on Monday, would round this out to be a decent week if I can squeeze that one in before cutoff.

Anyway... time to sit back and relax. 30 minute shower and a soap bar completely destroyed and I still cannot get all the engine oil off my skin. I'll go over to the Flying J tomorrow and get some proper cleaner.

What a freakin day. Haven't had one of these in a while. Figured sometimes ya'll might get a kick out of my misery, so if I can at least say I got a few laughs out of it, why not share.