What type of repairs have you done on the road?

Just playin with ya, Bulldog.

 

Most of the "repairs" that I've had to do have been in the bush and they weren't really "repairs" so much as MacGyvering things to get the job done then do a proper repair when I get home. For repair of braided rubber air hose I carry a pill bottle with various sizes of rubber discs punched from an inner tube. Back off the effected brake, remove the hose upstream of the leak and put a rubber disc in the end of the JIC fitting to plug it off and reinstall the hose. I've changed a power steering pump and Fan hub in the same week in <-50 temps at night of course. That sucked.
On one particular job, we were building a couple lease roads and were on a very tight schedule. We were getting a good rate ($140/hr) and working around the clock. A few weeks earlier I had hit an Elk with the truck and the one fender was smashed and the hood hinge was busted so it took two people to open the hood. I would put my butt on the bumper while someone lifted the hood open by the back of the fender and I would support the grill on my back an bend over with the hood as it opened (and those hoods on an LTL 9000 ford are HEAVY). I also noticed just prior to going to this job that I had a broken spring on the drivers side steer. I gave the driver the day shift and I took the night shift. During the day there were cats and hoes working and the consultant was there but at night, it was just me with the water truck so I had to be VERY careful not to get stuck because the nearest living soul was an hour away in Red Earth.
The second or third night out at 10pm I was loading at the water hole and could smell burning wires. The smell went away but shortly after, I was just backing on to the lease road to start spraying and the truck just quit as if I shut the key off. I had no power to the cab. It was -25, I had a load of water on and was alone until 7 the next morning. Normally, I could just run a jumper wire from the fuel shut off to the starter to open the fuel then jump the starter with a screw driver and I would be good to go but, of course, i couldn't open the hood to reach the injection pump. I opened the dash and, after poking around a bit, found a main wire that had come apart at the crimp. I went through my tool box and had electrical connectors but nothing big enough for this 8 or 10 gauge wire. The wires were also buried way in the back with NO slack so, while I could get a finger on them I couldn't get them together. I ended up taking the insert from a 1/4" union and, holding a pen light in my mouth, used that as a crimp to connect the wires. It had been about an hour by this point and was getting COLD in the cab. I tried to wrap tape around the crimp but the tape was stone cold so I had to put it in my shirt under my arm for 10-15 minutes to get it to stick. By the time I got it going the engine had cooled right off and the defrost was blowing cold air.
Two days later, my driver called me at about 11am to inform me that he heard a noise and on investigating found that another spring broke so we only had 2 left on that side. I told him to load a bit lighter and driver 'gingerly'. That night, at about 2 am, I heard a "tuk" noise and, sure enough, broke another spring so now just had the main. I nursed it through till morning when everyone else arrived and we took a D7 cat, chained the blade to the bumper, lifted the truck then took a piece of swamp spruce, chopped it about 18" long with an axe and cut a bit of a saddle in it. We placed that between the frame and axle mounting pad, let the truck down on that, then used ratchet straps to strap the log to the frame so it couldn't turn. Finished the job 3 or 4 more days riding on spruce ride suspension. The consultant was impressed that we didn't let a few hicups shut us down. That was back when I only had the one truck. Now, if something like that were to happen I would just change out the truck and fix it at home.

 

Good lord, did anyone make it past the 1st sentance? i got a headeche just looking at that.




American Trucker

 

Bulldogs post reminded me of this one time, in band camp.......oh no, this was north of Mcmurray my driver had a serious fuel leak when he got to the water hole. On investigation, he found that the fuel return line had blown out. On a 3406E, there is a fuel block on the drivers side with fuel lines going in and out and the return line exits the bottom with a 90 degree ORB fitting. Well some jack wagon cross threaded it and it finally failed. He pushed it back in the hole and wired it in place with haywire. Never leaked a drop. I ordered a new block and put it in the truck but told the driver NOT to change it in the bush unless the repair failed. His repair lasted until the truck came home. I carry a spare hump hose in my trucks but that duct tape fix would work too. My trucks don't leave without a new roll of duct tape and a roll of haywire, even the newest ones.

 

A picture may be worth 1000 words.....but it's a hell of a lot easier to read.

 

I don't know how anybody fixed anything prior to the invention of duct tape, bailing wire, zip ties, and WD-40...

 

Wish I had pictures but this was before I had a cell phone with a camera.

 

Gotta love working in the patch (or any remote-location job like logging, etc.), you learn to do what needs to be done in order to finish the job... or you go home.

In addition to all the aforementioned; wheels, tires, starter, alternator, turbo, CAC, brakes, lines, electrical, hydraulics, etc., I had to drive a truck for a couple of weeks with chains and boomers locating one side of the front axle.

I was running a twin-pump cementer for DS and we were on our way to a rig north of Red Earth. We fell through a creek crossing and it sheared off the centre bolt on one side, so we chained it up and carried on. No mechanic was available to come up to our shop so I had to drive it that way for a couple of weeks. It wasn't too bad, but it made a lot of noise and was a bit squirmy under braking.

Then there was the road-side rear spring replacement on a C&A unit on the road to Rainbow Lake, or removing and rebuilding a 4x3 centrifugal pump at -40 with a triple waiting to cement...

 

Not only did I get past the 1st sentence, can't begin to tell you how impressed I was with his and Bulldogs inginuity. (Know I spelt that one wrong)