After we delivered in Ft. Campbell Ky, we drove to Richmond, Ky to pick up our next load. We didn't have to pick up till the next day so we got a good nights rest. Went there the next morning and got loaded. This load had a lot of extra time on it so we just stayed at the shipper to kill off several hours before heading out to Charleston, Sc. This would be our first delivery to Charleston AFB.
I always hate going to a military base for the first time because you never know what you are going to run into. Some of them have multiple gates and depending on what you are hauling, there may be a specific gate that you have to enter through. Of course, nobody lets us know in advance. We have to find out the hard way. We got there and found what we thought was the correct gate. Wrong. The guard wouldn't let us in and directed us to a different gate. It was about a 10 mile drive to the next gate in bumper to bumper traffic. We got there and the guard let us in and told us how to get to the building our paperwork showed as our delivery point. We drove to it, went in to check in and were informed that we were not supposed to be allowed in that area with the freight that we were hauling. That guard called someone and informed them that the guard at the gate had mistakenly let us in and now we needed a police escort to get us to where we needed to be. I pointed out to him that our paperwork showed this building that we were at as where we were supposed to be and suggested that whoever sets these loads up should be informed to use a different address or include specific directions on where they want the drivers to go. I guess they think we're psychic or something. The police came along and escorted us across the flight line to where we were to get unloaded. About an hour and a half later we were out of there. Now in the future we will know where to go. Unless they change the rules before our return.
At this point, we were out of legal hours to work so we headed to a truck stop to spend a couple of days and get some much needed rest. We ate, showered, and I think I slept for about 15 hours straight. I slept most of the next day too. I didn't know how tired I was until I got there. I guess your mind knows when you need to keep going and when you can rest and you don't even realize it. We met a nice couple at the truck stop who was asking questions about the company we are leased on with. These people had just gotten back into driving after 2 and a half years away from driving. The husband had fallen off the flat bed he drove while tarping a load and got some serious injuries. They ended up losing their truck, their house, pretty much everything. I hate to see things like that happen to people who are just trying to work and make a living. Their goal is to save up enough to buy their own truck again. I hope they make it and I think they will.
After our break was over, we got a load picking up in Weaverville, NC delivering in Livonia, Mi. Non government, no special requirements. The only difficult thing about this one was driving through the freaking mountains. We can't seem to get away from them. We delivered that load, went to Meijers and stocked up the truck and drove to the truck stop. We were fueling up when our phone started ringing off the hook. Our qc started going crazy with messages also. Load offers from about 3 or 4 different dispatchers at the same time. The one we ended up taking was picking up in Jackson, Mi in a couple of hours and driving straight through to Maxton, Nc. Yep, back the way we came, more mountains!!
On the trip down, John noticed one of our steer tires had a cut on the outside edge. We knew we could complete the delivery, but after that, we were going to need to get it changed. We delivered the load, drove about a hundred miles up to Kenly, NC and got a new set of steer tires and an alignment done. While changing the steers, they noticed that one of our tie rod ends was bad, so we had them change both of those while they were at it. The next day we went to the Speedco and had the maintenance done and then went to the Blue Beacon for a truck wash. Now she's riding smooth and looking mighty shiny!
Dispatch called us the next morning before we were even out of bed with a load offer picking up on Friday delivering on Monday. It's a whopping 15 pounds. So we are hauling our 15 pounder 2300 miles across the country. We are on that load now, having to take our time on it because we can't deliver till Monday, but that's okay. We don't mind not having to push it. We will end up in the Northwest so we will see what happens from there. We have decided to stay out on the road instead of going home right now. We are enjoying the weather, the freight seems to be running strong right now, so we are hoping to get the bank account built up and take off later in the year. We will see how long we can stay out here!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Loving the Cooler Temps of Fall
We were both really worn out from the long drive and frustrated from the chaos of the delivery. The place we had to deliver to was in the middle of an area that had road construction all around and we couldn't get there the way we planned on. We had to detour and the detour included crossing railroad tracks. Not a big deal, normally, but at this crossing, the rr arms that come down to prevent you from crossing when a train is coming got stuck in the down position and we couldn't get across. We sat and waited for a while and nobody came to fix it. There was no other way out, we were trapped there. Finally, in desperation, I got out and manually raised the arms one at a time and John drove through. It was perfectly safe, there was no train coming, and the arms were spring loaded so as soon as you start raising them, they go right up. Probably could have gotten in trouble for doing it, but we needed to get out of there and we had waited long enough.
After that, we had to figure out how to get to the delivery with the detour and construction messing up everything. It took us awhile but we finally found it. This place had really tight security protocols and they wouldn't let our dog go in, so I ended up having to sit outside the gate with the dog while John went in and completed the delivery. Needless to say, we will not be delivering there again. What a bunch of crap. Our dog is a Maltese/Poodle mix and weighs 13 pounds. I don't understand what harm he is going to do as long as he stays inside our truck. I'm sure they have their reasons but we're not going back there because I don't like sitting outside with a dog, waiting. There are plenty of other loads that we can do.
After getting to the truckstop, we filled up the tanks and found a parking space. Went inside and ate at the Wendy's. Came back out to the truck and got some much needed rest. We had ourselves off the board till the next morning. We went in and had a shower in the morning and then went back in service. We got a couple of crappy load offers that we turned down and then finally on Wednesday evening we got an offer that we accepted. It was picking up in Carson, Ca going to El Paso, Tx. I drove the deadhead up and got checked in with the shipper. John went inside to find out if the freight was ready and while he was inside, dispatch called and said the shipper just called and said it wouldn't be ready till sometime the next day, so we got dry run pay. We headed out and went to the TA truckstop in Ontario, Ca.
We usually go to that one when we're in the area because they have a special parking area just for expediters and it's free to park there. A lot of places in Ca charge for truck parking. The drive up from San Diego was nice and easy. It was about 3 AM when we got there and I was starving. We went in and ate at the restaurant there and then back out to the truck to sleep and wait for another load. When I got up later that morning, I turned the key in the ignition to the on position so our qualcomm would come back to life. When I turned the key, the windshield wipers started running and a check electrical system light came on the dash along with a buzzer sound. After about 30 seconds it all finally stopped. Me and John looked at each other and said what now? We looked at fuses and he checked the wiring in the battery box, but all seemed to be okay. We turned the truck on and let it idle for a while and everything seemed okay. I lost my appetite because I knew that there was a problem somewhere, but we were going to find out what it was the hard way.
While we were looking around at things on the truck, dispatch called with a load offer. He started out by telling me that he had the best weekend load offer I would ever get. He was right about that. It picked up the next day on Friday up at Beale Air Force Base, a little north of Sacramento. Then it went almost 2900 miles to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. The weird thing was that our sons had just gotten a load to deliver at the same place, but we wouldn't be seeing them because we had to deliver on Sunday night and they weren't delivering until Monday morning.
We accepted the load, even though we were worried about what might or might not be going on with the truck. The deadhead on this load was 450 miles so we figured that would be enough time for any problems to show up. John did the first half of the deadhead and the drive was pretty sucky heading north through California on I5. That road is a joke. So bumpy it's awful. Add in the congestion, the mountains, the heat, and it doesn't make a pleasant drive. He made it about 70 miles or so when I noticed that our battery gauge was dropping. This was in the daytime, no headlights were on so there was no way our batteries should have been that low. Suddenly we realized our alternator must have stopped working. Fortunately, we have our generator so we turned it on and it kept the batteries charged up. I started making phone calls to different places along our route and found an International dealer in Turlock, up by Stockton who said they would take us in and change out our alternator.
We made it there and they were awesome! It only took them about half an hour to do the job and the bill was only $289. We had had the alternator changed 15 months ago at a TA in Baltimore and they charged us $480 and it took them almost 3 hours. Hard to believe that a TA charged that much more than a dealership. What a racket!! The good news in all that is that we now know why we had the crazy ck electrical system message that morning. Apparently the truck somehow knows when it has a problem and tries to tell you. If only it had a message on the dash that would say, need to replace alternator instead of a generic check electrical system. Oh well. It's fixed now.
We made our pickup the next morning and began the long long drive to New Jersey. This load was a straight thru drive. We only stopped to fuel up and switch drivers. Our delivery time was set for 11:30 Sunday evening, but we got there two hours early. I was pretty impressed with us! Before we had even left out of the delivery point, dispatch was on the phone with three more load offers. They were all military loads. First one picked up in Connecticut on Monday morning and delivered to Crane, IN on Tuesday morning. Then we reloaded in Crane, In at the same place and delivered to Ft. Campbell, Ky on Wednesday morning. The third load we are on now, so I won't say anything about it until later. After we make this delivery, we are out of available hours to work so we will have to do a 34 hour reset. We will be happy to do the reset as we are pretty well wore out. Very happy though as we have made quite a bit of money these last two weeks. It's about time!!
A funny story involving our sons. They drive a truck just like ours and are signed on with the same carrier as us. Our oldest son called me up the other day and said you will not believe what just happened to us. I said what now? He was driving along the interstate and a truck pulled up next to him and was honking his horn so Johnny looked over at him and the guy started waving his cb microphone at him. Johnny just kind of ignored him because he didn't want to talk to the guy.
The guy kept honking and waving and then finally gave up and went ahead of him. Johnny suddenly had the thought that maybe the guy was trying to tell him of a problem so he turned on his cb just in time to hear the guy telling another driver that he tried to tell him but he must not have his radio on. Johnny got on the cb and said I have it on, what's going on? The driver says, man, you got sparks coming out from under your truck! Johnny looks in the drivers mirror and sees nothing so he yells at Steve and Steve looks out the passenger side and sees the sparks. Johnny pulls over on the side and they get out to look and find out that their tail pipe that comes out of the muffler had rusted through and broken and was hanging there dragging along down the road so sparks were flying off it. The pipe is about 4 feet long and they had a load in the trailer with a seal on the door so they had nowhere to put the pipe. They just took it the rest of the way off the truck and had to continue on to the delivery without it.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Repairs, Repairs and More Repairs...Did I Mention Repairs????
When I last posted, we were on our way to Laredo and I was hoping that we wouldn't break down and have to go back to the International Dealer there. Happily, we did not. We delivered and went back to the truckstop and was about ready to head in for a shower when we were dispatched on our next load which went to the Los Angeles area of California. We were really upset that we didn't even have time to take a shower, but couldn't pass up the good paying load, so we figured we would just deal with it.
We headed off to California and since the load was delivering Friday evening, we assumed that we would sit in Cali till Monday which would have been great with us. We desperately needed showers, rest and wanted Sunday evening off for our fantasy football draft. About 50 miles into our load, dispatch called and offered us a load picking up in Cali on Saturday and delivering in Ohio on Monday. We turned it down because they couldn't give us the weight and piece count and I told him that I wasn't going to disrupt my weekend plans if I didn't know for sure the load would definitely fit on our truck. He wasn't happy about it, and we weren't either really. It was a lot of money, but whatever.
The next morning we got another call from dispatch for another load offer. This time picking up as soon as we could get to it after making the delivery of the load we were on. Only problem was that it was going to Canada, which we no longer do, so they wanted us to take it to a crossdock in Michigan on Sunday night. I told the dispatcher that we already had plans for Sunday night and could not be driving at that time so they worked it out that we could deliver the load to a crossdock in Indiana on Sunday morning instead. That was perfect. Right. Funny how things never go according to plan.
We delivered the load we were on and it was a nightmare dealing with rush hour LA traffic. We immediately headed to the next pick up which was next to the LA airport. More nightmare...Anyway, we got there, got loaded and headed out. Still in rush hour traffic. I fought my way out of it and eventually things settled down. All seemed to be going well except for the fact that due to the traffic we were now not going to be able to deliver until around noon on Sunday. Still not a problem. Right...
John and I took turns driving and I took over again in New Mexico. I drove about 100 miles and it was about 100 degrees outside. I had just passed thru Santa Rosa and was climbing up and down the hills. I was keeping a close eye on the temp guage because we are obsessive about trying to make sure our truck never overheats so that we don't damage the motor. We want it to last as long as it possibly can. Everything was running perfectly when all of a sudden the temp guage starts climbing. It went up to 200. I was listening for the fan to kick in but didn't hear anything. It went up to 205, still no fan. I start worrying. Temp goes up to 210, no fan and I know somethings wrong. I look ahead and see an exit coming up so I pulled over on the exit and stopped. The temp had made it up to 217 but then came back down to 210 after I stopped. I got out and pulled the hood open and saw our coolant leaking all over the ground. I opened the truck back up and yelled at John to come look. He immediately saw a hole in the hose. I shut the truck off and thought okay, no big deal, we'll just call roadside repair and they can fix it. I got the cell phone out and tried to call, and got a message on the phone saying no mobile network service. Emergency calls only. What?? Thinking that maybe it was just my phone acting retarded, I got John's phone out and tried it. Same result. I continued trying to call over and over on both phones and finally gave up.
I told John that maybe a cop would come along or some kind of highway helper and they could call repair for us. I waited about 10 minutes (still no patience) and finally decided I was going to call 911. Sure enough the call went right through. I explained our situation to the 911 dispatcher and he helped us out by calling the TA RoadSquad. However, due to TA's policy, they ended up taking about 5 hours to show up because they couldn't call us to verify how we were going to pay. Fortunately, I was able to send a message over the qualcomm to our carrier and they contacted the TA and reassured them they would get paid.
The problem started at 5PM. The repair guy showed up at 10:15 PM. We didn't get out of there until 12:45 AM. He did do a good job repairing the hose. Just took him awhile because he was working by flashlight and it was a tight squeeze for him to get his hand into. He filled us back up with 7 gallons of coolant and we paid him $370. Not too bad considering that included 7 gals of coolant. While he was fixing the hose, he pointed out to us that we had a diesel fuel leak. He said he wasn't authorized to repair it but it should be okay till we could get somewhere to fix it. Great!! Not what we wanted to hear.
Off we went. I was so upset because now our load was going to be late. Up to this point, we have never been late. Our fantasy draft was up in the air. Were we going to have drop out? We now had our sleep schedules messed up. To say it nicely, we were both getting a little cranky. There was nothing we could do but continue on and hope we made it to our delivery without any further problems.
It turned out that John was going to be driving the last leg of the trip which freed me up to be able to do our football draft. It was horrible. It was pouring down rain the last 300 miles of the trip, road construction, it was dark outside, the roads were so bumpy and again, we were both grouchy. I had to work two laptops to do my draft and John's draft and it was all I could do to keep track of things. John arrived at our crossdock right about midnight and I was almost done with the draft. Problem was, our crossdock was closed and they had the entire parking lot roped off because they had repaved their parking lot. We parked across the street and called in to dispatch and let them know the situation. About an hour later they called back and said, change of plans, you need to take the load to the crossdock in Michigan. Another 260 miles!! We were furious! We had already made plans to get more repair work done on our truck in Indiana. Now we had to drive another 260 miles away from where we wanted to be, not to mention the fact that we were both exhausted! I had stayed up doing to the draft thinking that our trip was done and I wouldn't need to drive. It was a disaster. We split the 260 miles in half. John drove the first half while I slept. Then I finished the drive. It was all I could do to get it done. We got there, unloaded, parked and slept till 2:30 PM.
We got up, showered, ate, filled the truck up and headed back to Indiana to get the work done on the generator that we had been wanting done. After that we were going to go down to Lafayette to the International Dealer there to get the fuel leak fixed along with having our AC repaired. AGAIN!! It started having problems on the way to our delivery. Not happy about that at all since we had just spent almost $2000 and three days getting it worked on in El Paso back in May.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, there was more to come. John only made it about 15 miles when he called me up front and said we had a problem with the truck. You could feel the engine cutting out like it wasn't getting fuel. It would run okay, and then cut in and out. We pulled over at the next truckstop and looked under the hood. We couldn't see any problems. We sat there and let it idle. It seemed okay. I called a couple of the closest International shops and both said they were swamped and couldn't look at it right away. We debated on what to do and finally agreed to give it another try. John took off again and went about 20 more miles but we decided to stop because it was running really rough. We parked for the night and in the morning I called the International in Toledo and he said he could take us in and if it wasn't anything major, he could fix it that morning. We headed over and the truck ran like crap but it made it.
They replaced the fuel line and showed us the old one that was worn out. I asked them if they thought that was the problem making the truck run rough and they said it could be if it was letting air in the suction side or something like that. Okay, whatever. $150 for that repair. We started the truck up, it seemed to run fine. Off we went. Again. The first 50 miles were great. No problems. Nice and smooth. Then, it started acting up again. Just a little at first, then a little worse. I just kept on driving and at that point, we decided to just keep going and if it quit, we would get towed. We finally made it to Remington, In which is where we were getting the work done on the generator. The truck had ran bad off and on but the last 20 miles it ran great. We had no idea what was going on with it.
We couldn't get in to the Chrome Shop for 2 days so the next day we spent visiting with our sons who were still there and then visiting some of our friends who live in the area. We took the truck in to the Chrome Shop on Thursday and they raised the generator up several inches. Thank goodness!! No more worrying if we were going to tear it off going over rr tracks or speed bumps. Cost of repair, $350. The next morning we got up and drove the truck about 40 miles down to Lafayette. It started out running great but the last 10 miles it acted up again and by the time we took the exit ramp it was a nightmare. The truck was bucking like a bronco. Acting like it was going to die. But it made it. Barely....We gave them the keys and a list of the repairs we wanted done. Called Enterprise for a rental car. They came and picked us up and we headed down to southern Indiana to visit family. Figured we might as well treat this as vacation time since we were in the area of all our family.
I called later in the day to see if they had figured out the problem and was told no, that their senior mechanic wouldn't be back until Tuesday due to the Labor Day Holiday so I called and extended my rental car. The good news was that the rental car was only $17 a day. We didn't have to pay for a motel since we were staying in my parents camper. We had a great visit with our families and get rested up. The truck was finally done on Thursday. The problem turned out to be the wiring for the IPR valve. (Injector Pressure Regulator). Apparently when we had our fuel leak which is right next to the IPR wiring, the fuel got into the wiring and caused damage. So, we got that replaced, a new air horn, (when John hit the wild hog, it broke our horn), added an extension onto our air hose inside the cab so it would reach into the back of the sleeper for easier cleaning, replaced a couple of marker lights, and fixed a problem with our air compressor. The pop off valves weren't working properly and were allowing air to leak causing the compressor to run pretty much all the time. Oh yeah, they fixed the AC. Again. After all that, the total bill was $2100. No charge for the AC since it was still under warranty. So....to sum up, we have spent about $2900 on repairs in the last two weeks. Not including rental car and lost wages. It's hard to believe, but we somehow still have money in the bank.
After picking up the truck and returning the rental car, we stopped in at Meijers to stock up the truck with all the necessities. Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, snacks, paper towels, baby wipes, etc. There was a Steak and Shake next door so we had lunch. After that we were discussing which direction to head to wait for a load when dispatch called. Surprising since we weren't back in service yet. They had a load offer for us which we accepted. It picked up the next morning in Southern Indiana and delivered in San Diego, Ca on Monday morning. That one load paid enough to cover all the repairs we had done, plus put a little extra in our pocket. The deadhead to the pickup was 150 miles which was great. We wanted to give the truck a good test drive before actually picking up a load to see if everything seemed to be running properly. It ran fine, but I was so anxious the entire drive listening and seeing if I could feel anything that didn't seem right. This truck is driving me crazy and making me so paranoid.
We got the load picked up and headed off to San Diego. We had about 30 extra hours on the load so I actually had to come up with a trip plan. The load was a military load which only allowed us to stop for 3 hours and 30 minutes at a time. After that time, you must start moving again. In addition to that, one person must remain with the truck at all times, be awake and in the cab of the truck, not the sleeper berth. It's a pain, but it paid well. With so much time on the load, we only drove a max of 200 miles before stopping to take a 3 hour break. This continued all the way from Indiana to Ca. 2100 miles. You would think that you would get a lot of rest with so much extra time, but you actually get less rest due to the security requirements of having one person in the cab at all times. The person in the sleeper can't really get rested due to all the stopping. Im not going to complain too much because the truck made it here, on time, with no repairs needed and lately that is saying A LOT!!!
We headed off to California and since the load was delivering Friday evening, we assumed that we would sit in Cali till Monday which would have been great with us. We desperately needed showers, rest and wanted Sunday evening off for our fantasy football draft. About 50 miles into our load, dispatch called and offered us a load picking up in Cali on Saturday and delivering in Ohio on Monday. We turned it down because they couldn't give us the weight and piece count and I told him that I wasn't going to disrupt my weekend plans if I didn't know for sure the load would definitely fit on our truck. He wasn't happy about it, and we weren't either really. It was a lot of money, but whatever.
The next morning we got another call from dispatch for another load offer. This time picking up as soon as we could get to it after making the delivery of the load we were on. Only problem was that it was going to Canada, which we no longer do, so they wanted us to take it to a crossdock in Michigan on Sunday night. I told the dispatcher that we already had plans for Sunday night and could not be driving at that time so they worked it out that we could deliver the load to a crossdock in Indiana on Sunday morning instead. That was perfect. Right. Funny how things never go according to plan.
We delivered the load we were on and it was a nightmare dealing with rush hour LA traffic. We immediately headed to the next pick up which was next to the LA airport. More nightmare...Anyway, we got there, got loaded and headed out. Still in rush hour traffic. I fought my way out of it and eventually things settled down. All seemed to be going well except for the fact that due to the traffic we were now not going to be able to deliver until around noon on Sunday. Still not a problem. Right...
John and I took turns driving and I took over again in New Mexico. I drove about 100 miles and it was about 100 degrees outside. I had just passed thru Santa Rosa and was climbing up and down the hills. I was keeping a close eye on the temp guage because we are obsessive about trying to make sure our truck never overheats so that we don't damage the motor. We want it to last as long as it possibly can. Everything was running perfectly when all of a sudden the temp guage starts climbing. It went up to 200. I was listening for the fan to kick in but didn't hear anything. It went up to 205, still no fan. I start worrying. Temp goes up to 210, no fan and I know somethings wrong. I look ahead and see an exit coming up so I pulled over on the exit and stopped. The temp had made it up to 217 but then came back down to 210 after I stopped. I got out and pulled the hood open and saw our coolant leaking all over the ground. I opened the truck back up and yelled at John to come look. He immediately saw a hole in the hose. I shut the truck off and thought okay, no big deal, we'll just call roadside repair and they can fix it. I got the cell phone out and tried to call, and got a message on the phone saying no mobile network service. Emergency calls only. What?? Thinking that maybe it was just my phone acting retarded, I got John's phone out and tried it. Same result. I continued trying to call over and over on both phones and finally gave up.
I told John that maybe a cop would come along or some kind of highway helper and they could call repair for us. I waited about 10 minutes (still no patience) and finally decided I was going to call 911. Sure enough the call went right through. I explained our situation to the 911 dispatcher and he helped us out by calling the TA RoadSquad. However, due to TA's policy, they ended up taking about 5 hours to show up because they couldn't call us to verify how we were going to pay. Fortunately, I was able to send a message over the qualcomm to our carrier and they contacted the TA and reassured them they would get paid.
The problem started at 5PM. The repair guy showed up at 10:15 PM. We didn't get out of there until 12:45 AM. He did do a good job repairing the hose. Just took him awhile because he was working by flashlight and it was a tight squeeze for him to get his hand into. He filled us back up with 7 gallons of coolant and we paid him $370. Not too bad considering that included 7 gals of coolant. While he was fixing the hose, he pointed out to us that we had a diesel fuel leak. He said he wasn't authorized to repair it but it should be okay till we could get somewhere to fix it. Great!! Not what we wanted to hear.
Off we went. I was so upset because now our load was going to be late. Up to this point, we have never been late. Our fantasy draft was up in the air. Were we going to have drop out? We now had our sleep schedules messed up. To say it nicely, we were both getting a little cranky. There was nothing we could do but continue on and hope we made it to our delivery without any further problems.
It turned out that John was going to be driving the last leg of the trip which freed me up to be able to do our football draft. It was horrible. It was pouring down rain the last 300 miles of the trip, road construction, it was dark outside, the roads were so bumpy and again, we were both grouchy. I had to work two laptops to do my draft and John's draft and it was all I could do to keep track of things. John arrived at our crossdock right about midnight and I was almost done with the draft. Problem was, our crossdock was closed and they had the entire parking lot roped off because they had repaved their parking lot. We parked across the street and called in to dispatch and let them know the situation. About an hour later they called back and said, change of plans, you need to take the load to the crossdock in Michigan. Another 260 miles!! We were furious! We had already made plans to get more repair work done on our truck in Indiana. Now we had to drive another 260 miles away from where we wanted to be, not to mention the fact that we were both exhausted! I had stayed up doing to the draft thinking that our trip was done and I wouldn't need to drive. It was a disaster. We split the 260 miles in half. John drove the first half while I slept. Then I finished the drive. It was all I could do to get it done. We got there, unloaded, parked and slept till 2:30 PM.
We got up, showered, ate, filled the truck up and headed back to Indiana to get the work done on the generator that we had been wanting done. After that we were going to go down to Lafayette to the International Dealer there to get the fuel leak fixed along with having our AC repaired. AGAIN!! It started having problems on the way to our delivery. Not happy about that at all since we had just spent almost $2000 and three days getting it worked on in El Paso back in May.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, there was more to come. John only made it about 15 miles when he called me up front and said we had a problem with the truck. You could feel the engine cutting out like it wasn't getting fuel. It would run okay, and then cut in and out. We pulled over at the next truckstop and looked under the hood. We couldn't see any problems. We sat there and let it idle. It seemed okay. I called a couple of the closest International shops and both said they were swamped and couldn't look at it right away. We debated on what to do and finally agreed to give it another try. John took off again and went about 20 more miles but we decided to stop because it was running really rough. We parked for the night and in the morning I called the International in Toledo and he said he could take us in and if it wasn't anything major, he could fix it that morning. We headed over and the truck ran like crap but it made it.
They replaced the fuel line and showed us the old one that was worn out. I asked them if they thought that was the problem making the truck run rough and they said it could be if it was letting air in the suction side or something like that. Okay, whatever. $150 for that repair. We started the truck up, it seemed to run fine. Off we went. Again. The first 50 miles were great. No problems. Nice and smooth. Then, it started acting up again. Just a little at first, then a little worse. I just kept on driving and at that point, we decided to just keep going and if it quit, we would get towed. We finally made it to Remington, In which is where we were getting the work done on the generator. The truck had ran bad off and on but the last 20 miles it ran great. We had no idea what was going on with it.
We couldn't get in to the Chrome Shop for 2 days so the next day we spent visiting with our sons who were still there and then visiting some of our friends who live in the area. We took the truck in to the Chrome Shop on Thursday and they raised the generator up several inches. Thank goodness!! No more worrying if we were going to tear it off going over rr tracks or speed bumps. Cost of repair, $350. The next morning we got up and drove the truck about 40 miles down to Lafayette. It started out running great but the last 10 miles it acted up again and by the time we took the exit ramp it was a nightmare. The truck was bucking like a bronco. Acting like it was going to die. But it made it. Barely....We gave them the keys and a list of the repairs we wanted done. Called Enterprise for a rental car. They came and picked us up and we headed down to southern Indiana to visit family. Figured we might as well treat this as vacation time since we were in the area of all our family.
I called later in the day to see if they had figured out the problem and was told no, that their senior mechanic wouldn't be back until Tuesday due to the Labor Day Holiday so I called and extended my rental car. The good news was that the rental car was only $17 a day. We didn't have to pay for a motel since we were staying in my parents camper. We had a great visit with our families and get rested up. The truck was finally done on Thursday. The problem turned out to be the wiring for the IPR valve. (Injector Pressure Regulator). Apparently when we had our fuel leak which is right next to the IPR wiring, the fuel got into the wiring and caused damage. So, we got that replaced, a new air horn, (when John hit the wild hog, it broke our horn), added an extension onto our air hose inside the cab so it would reach into the back of the sleeper for easier cleaning, replaced a couple of marker lights, and fixed a problem with our air compressor. The pop off valves weren't working properly and were allowing air to leak causing the compressor to run pretty much all the time. Oh yeah, they fixed the AC. Again. After all that, the total bill was $2100. No charge for the AC since it was still under warranty. So....to sum up, we have spent about $2900 on repairs in the last two weeks. Not including rental car and lost wages. It's hard to believe, but we somehow still have money in the bank.
After picking up the truck and returning the rental car, we stopped in at Meijers to stock up the truck with all the necessities. Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, snacks, paper towels, baby wipes, etc. There was a Steak and Shake next door so we had lunch. After that we were discussing which direction to head to wait for a load when dispatch called. Surprising since we weren't back in service yet. They had a load offer for us which we accepted. It picked up the next morning in Southern Indiana and delivered in San Diego, Ca on Monday morning. That one load paid enough to cover all the repairs we had done, plus put a little extra in our pocket. The deadhead to the pickup was 150 miles which was great. We wanted to give the truck a good test drive before actually picking up a load to see if everything seemed to be running properly. It ran fine, but I was so anxious the entire drive listening and seeing if I could feel anything that didn't seem right. This truck is driving me crazy and making me so paranoid.
We got the load picked up and headed off to San Diego. We had about 30 extra hours on the load so I actually had to come up with a trip plan. The load was a military load which only allowed us to stop for 3 hours and 30 minutes at a time. After that time, you must start moving again. In addition to that, one person must remain with the truck at all times, be awake and in the cab of the truck, not the sleeper berth. It's a pain, but it paid well. With so much time on the load, we only drove a max of 200 miles before stopping to take a 3 hour break. This continued all the way from Indiana to Ca. 2100 miles. You would think that you would get a lot of rest with so much extra time, but you actually get less rest due to the security requirements of having one person in the cab at all times. The person in the sleeper can't really get rested due to all the stopping. Im not going to complain too much because the truck made it here, on time, with no repairs needed and lately that is saying A LOT!!!
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