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

Well I thought I made a reply talking about how it all ended up but I guess I never clicked reply. So here it is, lol.

I ended up taking my truck to Snider Fleet Solutions (not SCHNEIDER, SNIDER) in Greensboro, NC and had them do a full 3 axle alignment on the truck. I told them the situation about having gotten 2 different reports of the alignment being Ok or off from the first shop and the Petro. I got a good laugh from them when I told them about the guy at the Petro jumping on a pipe wrench trying to get the cross-tube to move and then the alignment mirror falling off and smashing to the floor. Anyway, long story short they found the front axle alignment to be OK, the rear drive axle needed adjusting in the OPPOSITE direction that the guy at Petro adjusted it, and the front drive axle needed to be shimmed in the opposite direction of the rear drive axle. The two rear drive axles being off slightly was probably the cause of the tire wear as it was trying to push that tire to one side as I went down the road.

$220 later it was all taken care off. The first shop I went to was closed on the weekend, but I will call them on Monday and try to get some of my money back. I'm OK with paying them maybe a half an hour to an hour of labor, but I'm not OK having paid them $180 to tell me that my alignment is OK, not adjust anything, and then find out that their assessment was completely wrong. Who knows how that will turn out.

Anyway, truck rides nice and smooth with the Centramatic balancers installed. I might consider getting a set for the rear axles as well, but that will have to wait a little bit.

The steer tires I bought were Michelin XZA3+. They were very expensive but from what I have read about them they are the best out there for steer tires.

Lastly, based on all the troubles that I had, I want to stress the importance of maintaining a maintenance account outside of SFI, if you do decide to go through SFI to get a truck. Can you imagine how many hoops I would have had to go through to get all this work done at different places dealing with Paccar? What if they told me "no, you can only replace 1 steer tire with the exact same one that came off".

Yes, it is frustrating to not be able to use the money I put into that account whenever and wherever I want. The reason I tried to use it this time was so I could get SNI's fleet discount. Is it like that for a reason? Yeah, so some moron doesn't try to buy a truck and not maintain any kind of funds for maintenance and then go under when he has to make his first major repair. You know that has happened and why it is like it is.

So, like I said, I maintain my own savings for my truck repair and pay for the majority of it out of pocket. Its just easier and I don't have to fight with Paccar or sit on hold for an hour, I just get **** done. So far the only thing I pay for out of the managed maintenance account is my PMs. At $220 a week, I have a nice chunk of change saved up in that account now.

That money does come back to me at the end of my 1 year, so I will likely use that money to put down on what I still owe on the truck. It all works out one way or the other, but I can't imagine relying solely on using that account every time I needed to get some work done or buy a part for the truck.