Quality Control. Anyone ever heard of that concept?

I really do not know what to think about the problems we keep having. A couple of weeks ago, our turbo actuator went out and we ended up driving 1300 miles under load without a turbo. It sucked, but on that load, our freight was only 200 pounds and the route was from Iowa to Florida so there weren't any mountains to deal with. What we thought at that time was a terrible drive, we now know was only a nuisance.

We know this because that new turbo actuator that was installed two weeks ago failed while we were on a load from Alabama to California. This time our freight was 6100 pounds and we had mountain after mountain to deal with. Our total trip was 2230 miles and the problem began when we were in Tucumcari, NM. That left us with 1160 miles to our delivery. Sheer torture. I think we drove most of those miles with our flashers on. Every time we encountered even the slightest incline, the truck would lose speed and there was nothing we could do except downshift and put the flashers on when we got below 45 mph.

It was a test of our patience and determination. We were not giving up that load if we didn't have to. We wanted the revenue from the load to cover any repairs that we were going to have to make to fix the truck. Of course, we didn't know for sure that it was the actuator until we were able to get to the dealership and have it looked at, so there was the possibility that our turbo itself would need replacing so we were preparing ourselves for a $2500 repair bill.

Fortunately, the load had plenty of time on it for delivery. In fact, it had an entire extra day. But because this was a weekend load, we weren't able to stop into a dealership and get the repair made on our way since they were all closed and at home nice and comfy and not at all concerned about us and our problems. Problems that it turns out is caused by poor workmanship. It was indeed a faulty actuator. Two weeks? Two weeks is all it lasted? How can this be? We pay dang good money for parts and labor and I expect more  than two weeks! Sure, it was covered under warranty. But what about our down time? What about the frustration of driving over 1100 miles through mountains with no turbo? What about that?

I asked the service counter guy if that was unusual to see a part go out after two weeks and he said no. He said unfortunately they get a lot of angry truck drivers who are upset because their parts aren't lasting. I asked him where these parts are coming from and he said Asia. I don't know if he really knows or if he made that up, but wherever they are coming from, it needs to stop. How about making them here in America? How about holding manufacturing companies responsible for quality parts? We would be money ahead if we had to pay a little more for a quality part that will keep us running rather than paying less money for a part that isn't going to last and is going to cost us downtime, potentially a tow bill and a loss of a load.

What do I know? After all, I'm just a driver!

Looking for a new ride

We are back to work again after a short (for us) visit home. We got a lot of things accomplished while there this time. We didn't have any company which allowed us to stay focused on getting things done.

International in Ocala repaired our broken turbo actuator. That was no fun driving 1300 miles with no turbo. They also replaced our ac compressor. Again. This is the 3rd compressor in 9 months. We had to pay for the first one (in El Paso) the last two have been under warranty. Makes me wonder what is going on with the parts we are getting from International.

We took the truck there to get the turbo fixed. Along with a clutch adjustment and we had a freon leak from the hose running out of the compressor. Those were the known problems that we had. In addition to that, while they  were testing things out, they said we had a low fuel pressure reading so they wanted to change the fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator. We dropped it off late Thursday night. We rented a motel room for two nights. On Saturday we were told that it would probably be Tuesday before they would have the truck done.

We decided to rent a car and go home and come back and pick the truck up when it was done. I first called Enterprise since they will come and pick you up. They informed me that they had no cars available and no person available to pick me up even if they had a car. I tried another nearby Enterprise location and got the same answer. I tried called Hertz and was told no cars. Getting desperate, I called Avis and hit the jackpot. They had a car available.

I called up the International dealership and asked them if they could come and pick me up and take me to Avis. They said no problem. Someone was there within 15 minutes. He dropped me off at Avis and I left there with a very nicely loaded Chevy Cruze. Leather, sunroof, all the new gadgets, push button start and best of all, air conditioning that worked!

I went back to the motel, picked up John and Cody and we drove the 100 miles home. It's always so nice to go home and walk in and find everything exactly like you left it. This time while we were home we had to find a plumber to come out and do some drain work for us. The thing I've noticed living in Florida is that getting any kind of contractor to do work for you is a challenge. They don't return phone calls. They're over priced. They work when they want to work and a lot of them do shabby work.

I had no idea who to call so I just googled plumbers and started down the list. We got lucky and one finally called us back two days later and we set things up with him. He ended up coming a day later than originally planned because we had major rain the day he was supposed to come but he did get the job done and did it very well. His price was reasonable also so we feel very lucky that we now know a good plumber.

On Tuesday we drove back up to Ocala to pick up our truck and return the rental car. We started the drive back home and stopped off in Wildwood to fill up at the TA. I put the nozzle in the drivers side tank and tried to set it to automatically fill so I could go to the passenger side and get it going. It kept clicking off and wouldn't stay running. I finally called inside and asked if there was a problem with the pump. The lady said not that she knew of. I went around to the passenger side and put the pump in and it started filling up like normal. I went back around to the drivers side and pulled the nozzle out and found the problem. The tank was completely full. The passenger side took 35 gallons to fill it up.

This isn't supposed to happen. The truck is supposed to keep both tanks equalled out. I called International back up and asked them if they had done anything that would have caused this. They said no they hadn't, bring it back in. We turned around and drove 30 miles back to them.

We only had to wait for about 20 minutes for a tech to come out and hook up with his laptop. He ran some tests and determined that the fuel transfer pump wasn't working. Apparently, our trucks engine pulls the fuel from the passenger side tank. The drivers side is just a supply tank. There is a pump that will monitor the level in the passenger tank and pull from the drivers side over to the passenger side to equal them out. He replaced that pump and we were good to go again.

Back home we headed with our fingers crossed that nothing else would happen. We also needed to get our translucent roof resealed. Because we had been in so much rain we saw a couple of spots that were leaking a little bit. We decided to get it done on Monday right before we went back in service.

Another thing we did while we were home was car shop. When we started this job 3 years ago, we sold our vehicles and our boat. When we are at home we use our sons car. John has recently gotten the fever to own a car again so now we are shopping. Something that I consider sheer torture. I couldn't care the less about a car, but he is a car fanatic.

Our first test drive was a brand new Cadillac ATS. It was nice, not as nice as I had imagined a Cadillac to be, but we were seriously going to buy it. However, as usual, they tried to play the numbers game with us and we told them no and walked out.

We also test drove a new Dodge Dart. It's a nice little car but too small for me and not enough power for John. We drove a slightly used Chrysler 300. That was an absolutely beautiful car. We really thought about getting it. The only thing that stopped us was John wanted a hemi and it didn't have one. Honestly, it doesn't need one. He's just being a power hungry guy. Our next test drive was a Dodge Durango. It was a 2011  like brand new. We both really liked it. It had a lot of room in it. All the fancy gadgets. But, again, no hemi. If it had a hemi, we probably would've left with it.

So, we are still without a car, which is fine with me. John can continue looking for his dream vehicle while we are out on the road. The internet makes dreams come true, so we will see what happens!

On a Good Roll for a Change

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!

Loving the Cooler Temps of Fall

We delivered our load in San Diego. Afterwards we drove down to a Pilot truckstop very near the Mexican border. We aren't familiar with that area so we were blindly following along with our trusty gps to get us there. Sometimes, that's not such a good idea. I swear, one day that gps is gonna send us over a cliff! They were doing road construction in that area, so I am assuming that is the reason for the error in the gps. She didn't tell us to take the exit when we should have and next thing we know we see a sign saying last US exit, all trucks must exit. One of these days I just know we're going to accidently end up  in Mexico. Luckily, we avoided it this time and managed to find our way to the truckstop.

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.

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!!!

So So Much to Catch Up On...

Lets see. When I left off, we were heading to Nebraska with the hazmat load. We delivered that load and immediately got a return load that took us to Michigan. We delivered there and then debated on whether we would get a load taking us closer to southern Indiana for our time off or if we should deadhead ourselves there. While we were trying to decide, we received a load offer picking up in the Indy area delivering to New Jersey on Thursday. We declined the load and told dispatch that we had to be in Indiana on Friday for a planned family event. Dispatch begged and pleaded with us to do the load because they had no other trucks that had the qualifications to do it. Finally they offered us some layover pay along with a $550 bonus so that after we delivered, we could turn around and deadhead back to Indiana and be there by Friday for our family event. We gave in and took the load. The load went smoothly and we made good money on it.

On the way back to Indiana, just as we crossed into Pennsylvania, they sent us another load offer that was picking up Friday morning in Ohio and delivering that afternoon in the Indy area. We agreed to take it because we could do it and still get to our familys house by Friday evening. We parked at a truckstop about 20 miles away from the pickup. Set the alarm for 2 AM. We got up, got dressed, had a little snack and John started up the truck and turned the lights on. Problem. No lights on the trailer. They worked perfectly fine when we parked the night before. But now, no lights. We checked the fuses and looked for any obvious problems, but couldn't find any. Finally we had to call in and let dispatch know that unless the customer could wait until daylight, we couldn't take the load. Turns out the customer couldn't wait, so we were taken off the load. We went back to sleep and got up when it was daylight. We drove to a TA in in the Columbus, Oh area and had them fix the problem. They found a broken wire and repaired it. After that we continued on to Mom's house. Finally made it there that evening and got the truck parked out in the back yard. They have almost 2 acres and we were turning it into a campground for the week. We got settled in and visited for a little while and then had a good nights sleep.

The next day, we had Mom and Dad take us to town to buy some supplies for our week of fun that was coming up. We also bought a new fridge for the truck and John got it swapped out with the old one. Turns out this new one works far better than the old one, even though they are the same exact model. Makes us wonder if there was something wrong with the old one from the beginning. For all we know, it could have been the cause of our electrical problem. We will never know, but anyway, things worked out and now we have a fridge that works great!

Our time in Indiana flew by. We have so many family and friends there that it always seems there's never enough time to visit everybody. All in all this visit was an overall success! Every single member of my family was able to make it with the exception of one nephew who couldn't get any time off from work. We had great food, great company and will have a lifetime of memories. We try to do this once a year, but we had to miss out last year due to issues with the truck. The only negative thing about the week was the extreme heat. We had temps of around 100 degrees every single day. Since we were spending everyday outside, that was a pretty big deal. Happily though, even with the heat and all the alcohol that was consumed, there was not a single argument the entire week. That's pretty good I think!

After that weeks was over, we headed back to work. I don't remember all the details of the loads that we did and I'm too lazy to look them up. I do know that we made several trips to California and Texas and we were extremely busy, which is a good thing!

On July 19th, we made our FINAL truck payment!!!! I can't believe what a huge relief it is to have this truck paid for! We bought it on contract and made payments for 15 months. It was a very stressful 15 months as we had to make payments, and keep the repairs and maintenance done. Their was a lot of catch up work to do on the truck, but we have gotten it to the point that we only have one major job left to do and that is to have the frame of the box sanded and undercoated. After that is done, it will look like a new truck! Since we got the truck paid for, the lady we bought it from mailed us the title, so we headed home at the end of July to deal with getting the title switched over into our names.

Along with that, we had to do a new contract with our carrier which is a lot more complicated than it sounds. You would think that since the truck and both of us were already on with the carrier that it would be a simple process, but unfortunately with all the government regulations involved, it gets complicated and expensive. It took us a full week to get everything squared away. While I worked on the paperwork side of things, John used the time to do some more cosmetic work on the truck. He is such a perfectionist. Even though he is driving a 2006 truck, he expects it to look like a brand new one. Which is fine, except for the fact that it was hotter than heck at home in Florida and he was trying to work outside on the truck in that heat. That and the fact that every afternoon and evening we would get storms with lightning and rain. Very frustrating, but he got almost everything done that he wanted to get done.

Our carrier for some reason required us to get a new DOT inspection done, even though our last one is only 4 months old. There isnt anywhere near us that did them so we had to drive up to Wildwood and go to the TA and have it done. We did that yesterday and finally we were cleared by the safety dept to go back into service. Of course, by that time two other trucks got on the board ahead of  us. They are both gone now, so hopefully we will get a load soon and be back in business. Florida can be very tricky sometimes to get a load out of. At least in the expediting business.

We plan to stay out for about 3 to 4 weeks and then go home again. Right now, our truck only has a paper plate since the title and registration had to be switched over. Our new plate will be waiting for us when we go home.

Did I say how good it feels to have the truck paid for?

Stuck in Laredo....SOS!

We finally got the truck back yesterday. I am so sickened and discouraged by all the events related to this whole incident that it is making it really hard for me to even continue on in this profession. Not only is the dealership in Laredo unprofessional, they have now proven to be nothing more than common crooks in my opinion. What else would you call it when they blatantly try to charge you for services and parts that you didn't get or they didn't provide?

I called them yesterday morning and they informed me that our part had finally arrived. This was at 11:30 and our motel checkout time was noon. I went down to the front desk to see if we could get a late checkout and was told no. They were expecting a lot of new arrivals and wanted everyone out of their rooms so they could get them ready for the new guests. After being there for over a week I can't believe they didn't even want to allow us one extra hour. We packed up and called a taxi and headed over to the dealership. We found our truck and saw that it was still being worked on. I talked to the service manager and he said the mechanics were at lunch so we would have to wait till they came back to find out what the status was. Finally after about 2 hours they told us it was ready.

The service guy started to print out our invoice and I was looking at it on the screen. I could see that they were charging us $12002 for the towing bill. When I asked why it was $200 higher than the towing company told us it would be, the guy had the nerve to tell me that they have to mark it up just like all their other services. But, I said, you didn't tow us. Yes, but as a service to you, we are paying the towing company and collecting from you. Excuse me? I can pay the towing company just as easily as I can pay you. And at a savings of $200 that is what I want to do. Then he says, well, we may have already paid them, so you're going to have to pay us. I said, please give me the phone number for the towing company. I called them up and asked if they had already been paid. No, the charge was still pending. Good. Can you accept my credit card as payment over the phone? Sure, no problem. I paid the bill and then let the service manager confirm with the tow company that they wouldn't be charged for the bill. How is it possibly acceptable to mark up a towing bill $200? And not even give us the option or all the information we need to make an informed decision?

This is criminal to me. But...they weren't done screwing with us yet. Now the guy is upset with me over the towing charge so he disappears for awhile. We waited him out and he finally comes back with our invoice. He briefly flashed it in front of us and then told us to go to the cashier and pay it. I said, I need to look at that bill. He lays it down and again tries to blow me off by saying a few things as if there's nothing there for me to be looking at. I ignore him and continue to study the bill. I see that we are being charged for 2 circuit breakers at $45 each. I say to him, how many circuit breakers were put on our truck? He asked the guy behind him and is told one. Okay, so why are you charging us for 2? Lots of Spanish being spoken between them and no good answer is given. I said fine. If we are paying for 2 then we want the other one to keep as a spare. They had to go on a hunt to find the other one, but finally it was given to us. Again, the nerve of these people!! So much corruption. Is it because of their location on the Mexican border? Is that just how business is done there? I don't know, but I do know that I will not go back there unless there is absolutely no other option available to me. I hope to goodness that we are never in that situation. I have to wonder how much they inflated their labor costs on the job, because unfortunately I don't know of any way of proving how many hours they actually worked on the truck. I'm sure we paid more than we should have. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that they actually fixed the truck. If it does break down, hopefully it will be far enough up the road so that we can go somewhere else for repairs.

The whole time we were in the motel waiting to get the truck back, our carrier called us nearly every day with a load hoping that we would be able to take it. I jokingly told John that just watch and see, when we get our truck back, they won't have any loads for us. We went back on the board last night and got a call this morning from a dispatcher with a load offer. It all sounded great till he got to the part about the discounted rate. They wanted us to do the load for about 17 cents a mile cheaper than our normal rate. I told him no thanks. We'll wait . I thought we were going to get lucky. They sent us another load which was even better, about 100 more total miles and paid our full rate. We happily accepted it. It was picking up tonight at 11 pm and delivering on Monday morning. Of course, I should've known better. They just called a little while ago and said the customer changed the load and doubled the weight so now it won't fit on our truck. Load cancelled.

I don't know what I've done to be earning all this bad luck, but I really hope it turns around soon! If not, we are going to have to go back to regular jobs. And we really  do not want to do that.....

Truck held hostage

Not sure if we are ever going to get our truck back. I am amazed at the complete lack of professionalism that we keep running into when dealing with repair shops.

The first day they got our truck they said it would be next day before they could look at it. Then again we were told no it would be another day. We got to Friday and they said they would look at it that afternoon. I waited till 5 and called to check on it. They said they hadn't found the problem yet. Saturday morning I called again. I was told they still hadn't found the problem. I asked what the computer codes said. I was put on hold and then told the service manager would be calling me soon.

At that point I had had enough. I called and got a rental car and me and John headed over to the shop. The truck hadn't moved. They hadn't put the drive shaft back in. I went into service dept and asked what was going on. The guy says oh they found the problem. They need to order parts for Monday. It was the ground wire shorted in two. I said OK. I want them to show us the wire. He walked into the shop then came back and said the mechanics were out to lunch. I said fine. We will come back in an hour then. Then I asked him exactly what parts were they ordering? He disappeared into an office. When he came back he had another story. They think they can fix it without parts. Okay. So are you fixing it today? No. They would be closing soon. Maybe Monday. Fine. We will be there Monday and we won't be nice!

I have no confidence in this place but also no other options. I feel like once they get your truck in there its held hostage till they feel like getting around to it.

I'm sure they give priority to the large companies they service. One of the down sides to being a one truck shop.

At least we have a car now. We made a trip to Walmart and can eat other places besides the Golden Corral.

It is so freaking hot here we can't even take walks. I don't know how people live here!

Del Rio to Laredo

Delivered our load in Del Rio, Tx. What should have been a very routine delivery turned into a complete nightmare! I was a little worried about the drive from El Paso to Del Rio, having never made that drive before. I could see looking at it on the map that the route was going to follow the US-Mexican Border. The drive would be done during the night hours and on US highways. The route was pretty desolate. I think I only passed through a couple of little towns during the last 200 miles. You could hardly even call them towns. There was very little other traffic and I just hoped and prayed that the truck didn't break down and leave us stranded in that remote location along the border. I hear too many stories about crime in those areas. We were literally close enough to the border to look out the passenger window and see the fence that separates the two countries. The other thing that worried me was all the deer that I was seeing along the side of the road. I usually never see deer in Texas and it's one of the reasons I like driving there. After having hit a deer in Upstate New York once, I now have a phobia of repeating that incident.

Fortunately, I made it safe and sound and three hours ahead of schedule. I parked the truck at a Stripes truckstop about a mile and a half from our delivery point and took a two hour nap. I woke up at 7 AM EST and headed to the delivery. I pulled out of the truck stop, turned left, went through a stop light, about a half mile down the road it curved to the right. As I rounded the curve, there right in front of me was the entrance into Mexico!! I panicked and saw a driveway to my right and I whipped the truck into the driveway. John came flying up into the cab wanting to know what was going on. I told him that I almost just drove us into Mexico. He had to guide me while I backed back out into the highway and headed back to the truckstop to see what was going on with my gps. She should know better than to try and cross the border. I studied google maps for a few minutes and saw an alternate route so off I went. It seemed like it was going to be okay. Up until the point that I came to a railroad crossing. We recently had an apu added to our truck and for some reason the installer positioned it so that it has very low clearance to the ground. We should have made him move it up while we were there, but for some reason we didn't and we have been dealing with it since. I could see by the way the railroad crossing was designed that it was going to be a tight fit for us to cross. Not only that, but once we crossed we needed to make a left turn onto a highway and there wasn't room for our truck to clear the tracks without being out in the highway. Normally in that situation, we would not cross the tracks until we could see the highway was clear, then cross and continue to make the turn without stopping. However, in our current situation, we had to cross the tracks slowly so John could watch from outside to make sure our apu cleared and didn't get hung up on the tracks. The apu cleared, I stopped the truck,John jumped back in and in that amount of time, a couple of cars came along which made me have to sit there before I could turn. Completely illegal to have part of the truck stopped across the tracks and I was not happy, but what else could I do? The cars went past and I tried to pull forward to make my turn. The truck wouldn't go forward!! Oh my God, now what? I put it in neutral, back into first and tried again. Nothing. It dawned on me that our dolly legs may be stuck on the tracks. We drive a straight truck with a single rear axle, so we have dolly legs that have to be lowered when we are getting loaded and unloaded. They also have a very low clearance to the ground and have caused us problems before. That's another story! I screamed at John that I thought our legs were stuck on the tracks. He jumps back out, runs to the back and sure enough, one of them was caught. I backed up, he spun it around and tilted it so that it was at a different angle and I was able to pull forward. I crossed the highway and stopped and he ran back over and jumped back in. At this point, I was ready to cry and to throw up. If a cop had come along at that time, I could have lost my license for stopping on the track, not to mention what a disaster it would have been if a train had decided to come along! Thinking that the worst was surely behind us, I moved forward and wouldn't you know, I had to go about a tenth of a mile and make a left turn....back across the stinking rr tracks! John jumped out, watched me cross and fortunately this time all truck parts cleared the tracks.
Made it to the consignee all in one piece and of course there's nobody there. I tried calling the number dispatch gave us and got a recording saying that the girl was on vacation till October. This is May. Who takes vacation from May to October? I send a message over the qc to dispatch and ask for another number to call, telling them what the voice mail message said. I get a message back saying that that message is from last year, that the girl never updated her message and she would indeed be there, but that she doesn't come in until 9. Obviously they knew this all along so my question is, why do they schedule appts for us at times when they know nobody is going to be there to load/unload us? Things like this are what have me considering changing carriers. It happens way too much and is completely unnecessary.

With all that drama behind us, I drove back to the truckstop, parked it, and collapsed into bed. The mental stress had drained me. All the negativity of the prior week just seemed to keep building and building and I felt like I was gonna snap. Shortly afterwards, dispatch calls with a load offer, a really good one picking up right in Del Rio and going 1640 miles to Detroit. I said yes, we would take it, then he informs me that he didn't have it booked yet, just needed to know if we would be interested first. He promised to call me back within 10 minutes one way or the other. 20 minutes later he calls back to inform me that he did not get the load. Sorry. This trend has been going on all week and I really don't understand it. We've been with this carrier for over 2 years and this has never happened. I've also noticed that all the dispatchers who are calling are new to me. Very odd. About an hour or so later we got a load offer over the qc. This time the load was picking up in the same location that we had just delivered to and was delivering next day to Garland, Tx. It was only 400 miles. I refused it because that would have put us on the Dallas load board and that board is the kiss of death. We have gotten stuck so many times on that board that there was no way I was doing it at this time. In different circumstances I would take that load, but not with only 800 miles for the week.
It got quiet after that so I used the time to call the International dealership in Orlando and ask what the status was for the refund I was requesting on the defective ac repair they had done back in September. The service manager agreed to reimburse us for the new tube which was a little over $300. He is putting a check into the mail for us. Finally, something good happened!

A little bit later, dispatch called again with another potential load offer. This one was picking up that night in Laredo and going 1604 miles to Ohio. The down side is that it was 12 pieces and over 9000 lbs. A heavy load for us. He tried to discount the rate by 10 cents a mile and I told him no. I wanted our full rate. He went and talked to his supervisor and said could we split the difference and take a five cent a mile cut? I again said no. I want my full rate. Its a heavy load and our fuel mileage is going to suck. Away he goes, comes back and says fine, I'll send it over at your full rate. John was mad at me for taking it because he didn't think it would fit the truck. I told him the dispatcher said the pieces were stackable so they should fit but he wasn't convinced. We got to the shipper at 11 PM and it turned out to be one of the easiest pickups we've had. And as a bonus, it ended up being only 2 pieces and 1600 lbs. The rest of the freight never made it across the border from Mexico. I cleared it with dispatch that we were okay to roll with only the 2 pieces. They got on the phone with the customer and we got clearance to go. Woohoo! Finally, at long last, on our way out of Texas!

By the way,  as soon as we get through northern Indiana, we will be going back to the place that installed our apu and having them raise it up higher because we are done stressing over this thing. Now we also need to see if we can find a way to get more clearance on those dolly legs!

El Paso Stew

I like Texas. I usually look forward to coming here. It's truck friendly. Big roads, plenty of parking. But today makes a full week of being in El Paso. Four days that we have actually been on the board and available for a load. I am ready to go. I have my paperwork all caught up. We have visited with the boys. All truck repairs are done. It's time to make some money. I got a phone call this morning at 2:30 AM. A dispatcher calling wanting to know if we would help with a recovery load. Another driver broke down in Amarillo on his way to El Paso. Would we help? Sure. I gave him a flat rate that we would do the load for. It included all miles there and back and another $100 for the hand transfer we would have to do. He said there was no one in the office who could approve that offer so he would have to wait until 9AM to call a supervisor at home and see if they would allow it. No need to wake them up. Hmmm. Guess it's okay to wake us up, but god forbid we should wake up a dispatch supervisor. Needless to say, they never called back, so here we sit. They are really just pushing me into making a decision on switching carriers. Once the idea gets in your head, every negative interaction you have with your company just seems that much more intolerable. Our company that we are with is known to be one of the hardest to deal with. They hire drivers who have no experience, which is why we started with them. They gave us our chance and we appreciate that. But I think we are at the point that we have outgrown them. We do not want or need to have our hand held. The dispatch games have grown old and we have progressed to the point that we can manage our time well enough that we can certainly do more loads than they seem to be able to give us. If I am going to be sitting for a week, it better be my choice. Not because they have young inexperienced people trying to do a grown up job and not a clue what they are doing. So, here I sit in El Paso, stewing. Too much time on my hands. Dreaming of our next load. Looking ahead to the future and what it might bring us. One positive thing that I should note. I did not have to go to Best Buy and exchange my tablet. Luckily my techie son is stuck here in El Paso with us and he was able to get it rebooted for me. It lost all my user data, but that's okay since I was smart enough to upload my important information to dropbox. Dropbox is a free online storage for your data. I was able to recover everything I needed. Just took a little while to reload all my apps and download all the data, but all is well now.

Day 3 of AC Repair

Left the shop last night and made it about 5 miles and the ac quit. Took it back and raised cane with them.  We just spent $1100 on what? Two more hours and we are told its fixed now. We leave and get 2 miles down the road and it stops again. I call the shop and they say come back in the morning. We got here first thing this morning and still waiting.

Patience is not one of my virtues!

 Update: They said it was fixed and they went out on a roadtest. Brought it back and said no, still not fixed....Couple hours later the service manager brought an estimate sheet in for another $1100. Said we needed a new ac compressor. Wanted our permission to move forward. I look at the estimate and it says ac compressor and drier. Excuse me, didnt I just pay for a new drier yesterday? I told him his price was too high. He went away and came back with a price of $800. The first estimate included the drier which we had already paid for. I said fine, do it. About 3 hours later it was done. So far it is still working. I have doubts as to how long it will continue.

Trip from Hell!!!

To recap, first we had the bumper ordeal in Joplin. Then the wild hog incident. Then the ac quit working. Next I get a bladder infection. The apu acted up. We were told the ac was fixed, drove two miles and it quit. On our third day of trying to get it fixed now. The gps we just bought malfunctioned and had to be exchanged.
Hopefully all the bad stuff is over for awhile. Seriously, three days for an ac?

Off to Alabama..or not

We delivered in Ohio this morning and had our next load within an hour. Nice load picking up in Ohio and going almost 700 miles to Alabama. The pickup was almost deadly for John. The docks were so close together the truck next to us almost ran over him when he was lowering our dolly legs. The other driver said he never saw him. Broad daylight and John wearing a bright yellow shirt. Very scary!

Luckily it turned out okay and I headed out to Alabama. Truck was running great I had the cruise on and was doing about 60 mph. 165 miles into the trip the cruise kicked off, the truck slowed down and finally died, engine light came on. I managed to get onto the shoulder and tried restarting. No luck. Called our carrier. They were going to send a tow truck to take us to the International shop 25 miles away.

 I tried starting it again and this time it started and we made it to the shop. Repair only took half an hour but we had to give our load up since we werent sure how long it would take. Turned out to be an ecm idb fuse harness shorting out. New one and $200 we were good to go but now our sleep schedule is messed up so we are not accepting any loads till in the morning. Time for some gooood sleep!

The Joys of Ownership

It's too soon to know if we made the right choice in buying a truck of our own. We bought the truck in April and began making improvements and repairs. We had to redo the sleeper to make it acceptable for us. That turned out to be the the least expensive thing we have done.

We had a coolant leak, leaks in the trailer, the trailer doors had to be resealed, we had to have a new dot bumper put on, have our hinges welded to be acceptable for DOD loads and still none of that was a drop in the bucket compared to the repair we just had to do.

Having made only one payment and trying to get caught up on repairs that the prior owner had neglected we haven't had a chance to build up much funds.  It's very unfortunate timing that we have suffered a major repair so early on in our ownership.

We had a nice long run out to Middleton, Idaho. The truck ran great out there and we were on a high enjoying our truck and loving our job. After our delivery we were deadheading back east to position ourselves for our next freight opportunity.  The truck never really ran poorly, it just so happened that as I was driving down the interstate, I noticed in the passenger side mirror what I thought was dirt blowing around. I kept watching and eventually realized that it was black smoke that I was seeing.

I pulled over the first chance I got and we did a check of what we could. I called an International dealership that was nearby and they said to keep an eye on the guages and if there okay, go ahead and drive it to them. We were only about 30 miles away.

I kept going and we finally got there. We were told they were backlogged and we would have to wait before they could take a look at it. The night went on and they closed. They told us to come back in the morning. We drove to a nearby truckstop and parked for the night. We both had an awful feeling about things and neither one of us could sleep that night.

In the morning we headed back over and at that point the truck started acting up. We weren't sure we were going to make it, but we did. We parked and waited again. Eventually they brought us into a bay and hooked us up to the computer. Their initial assessment was that we had a bad fuel injector. I was happy about that because all 6 injectors had recently been replaced. This would be covered under warranty.

The work wouldn't be done until the next day so they drove us to a local motel for the night. The next day they came and picked us up and we were excited to get back on the road. As we walked back to the truck which was still in a bay we noticed that the hood was open and the engine was tore apart. The manager came over to us and told us he had bad news. He said that a retainer had broken and the cam shaft was messed up. They were going to have to tear into the motor and see how far metal had gotten into the engine. Only then would he be able to give us an accurate estimate but he said to prepare ourselves for a bill of about $7000.00.

I believe that is probably one of the worst moments of my life. We had only made one payment on this truck. Now we were going to owe $7000 for a repair? Wow. The manager was very patient with us as we didn't understand the repairs that he was telling us we were going to need. I think he felt sorry for us and knew it was a shock for us.

Eventually we did the only thing we could and that was to gather up our stuff and go back to the motel. We checked in and I had a good cry. I was in deep depression. Of course we were questioning our decision to buy the truck and thinking that we should have stayed driving a truck for someone else.

This went on from the 7th till we finally picked the truck up on the 21st. We were in Grand Island, Nebraska. We thought about renting a car and driving to Indiana to visit family but truthfully we were in no mood to be good company for anybody. We decided to just stay where we were and not make anyone else suffer from our bad moods.

Thankfully we did have access to enough money to pay for the repairs when they were finally completed. The final bill was just over $7200.00. We decided to cancel our family vacation that we had planned on taking in July and stay out on the road until we can get our savings built back up.

I really hope it gets better.

Oil Pan Damaged During Oil Change

After the parking lot fiasco where we were backed into by another trucker who failed to see us in our parking spot and tried to park in the same spot, we got another load picking up in Sandston, Va delivering in Smiths Falls, Ontario. At this rate, we should qualify as dual citizens with the US and Canada.

We again made our way into and out of Canada with no major issues. Just the usual hassles by border patrol coming back into the US. Kind of getting used to it by now.

While in Smiths Falls, we received a load offer of about 2200 loaded miles for a load that would be delivering in Laredo Texas. We were excited about the load because we haven't had the pleasure of visiting that area yet and it would be a nice change from all the Canada runs we've been doing. However, I made the rookie mistake of asking dispatch if there would be enough time on the load for us to stop and get a pm (preventive maintenance) done on the truck. We were due for an oil change. The owner of the truck has stated and it is in our contract with her that maintenance will be done every 10,000 miles. We are at that point now and if we took the long run down to Laredo, we would be over that mileage quite a bit.

Dispatch informed me that they have a policy against trucks getting maintenance done while under a load. Therefore, they said they would offer the load to someone else. I called our owner and told her about it and asked her how I should have handled the situation. She said to never tell the carrier if you plan to stop and get maintenance done. They will not like it, but it's common practice to do it, just don't tell them. She said if there's time on the load, go ahead and take the load and get the maintenance done.

I felt bad about losing a good paying load, but I'm learning. Right after that, dispatch called with another load offer, this time picking up in North Syracuse, NY and delivering in Schenectady, NY. We decided to take it and the pickup and delivery all went routinely.

After the delivery, we knew we needed to get the maintenance done. This was our first time to do maintenance on the truck so we weren't sure what to expect. We asked the owner of the truck where she wanted it done, and she said she usually used Speedco, but there wasn't any in our area. She said we could also go to a TA. We headed off to the TA and went into the shop and got the work order set up.

We pulled the truck into the shop and while they were working on it, we went into the restaurant to eat a good hot meal. We were about halfway through our meal when John's cell phone rang. It was the shop saying that there was a problem and needed him to come back over.  John went to the shop and I stayed at the table and waited for him to come back so he could finish his meal. About 10 minutes later he returned and said that the mechanic said whoever did the last oil change had twisted off the drain plug on the oil pan.

Since I didn't know what a drain plug was, this meant nothing to me. Apparently, it's kind of a big deal. We had to call the owner of the truck and see how she wanted to handle the problem. She in turn called the shop and talked to the mechanic and the end result was that  they were going to wait until the next day when one of the more qualified mechanics came in to assess the situation.

Luckily, the TA we were at had a motel attached to it, so we ended up getting a room for the night. The next day, the "more qualified" mechanic came in and said he could provide a workaround solution to get us by until we could get the truck into a repair shop. He put on a petcock, which to me looks like an outdoor water faucet handle. He completed the maintenance and we were good to do.

The owner told us that this was the second time the oil plug had been twisted off of this oil pan so it had already been tapped out and a bigger oil plug put in, so it wasn't going to be able to be done again, this time it was going to require a new oil pan. The truck has a Mercedes motor and apparently the metal that they used for the oil pan is weaker than used by some other manufacturers. She had already replaced the oil pan before, so this seemed like an ongoing problem.

She contacted Speedco who had done the prior oil change and it became a he said she said finger pointing session between them and the TA. They both blamed the problem on each other and the end result was that Speedco sent her a gift card for $200 for her troubles.

Lesson learned from this situation is that John says from now on when we are getting the maintenance done, he will stand right there and supervise the whole process to try and prevent another incident. That's about all you can do, you're really at their mercy.