The Breakdown
OK, I keep saying that I'm going to keep up with this better but I haven't been real good at that, have I? I'm hoping that when I finally get a laptop I'll be better at it b/c I can do it from the road. I guess we'll have to see.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Richmond. It reminded me why I always liked Richmond but would never live there. The roads were apparently designed by crazy people. I do want to say thanks to the guys at Automotive Headliners Unlimited (710 Research Rd, 897-4000). I was backing into the place across the street from them and was busy not hitting Automotive Headliners mail box and didn't see the ditch that suddenly appeared next to the mail box. If it hadn't been for those guys coming out and helping me stacking lumber up underneath the tires there probably would have been a tow truck bill in my future. Thanks again guys -- you are the kind of people that periodically renew my faith in mankind. If they do headliners half as well as they help people out of ditches you should stop by if you need one. I may drive my Camaro from Tennessee just b/c they helped me out.
Lexington, GA may be the prettiest town on earth. It's east of Athens on US78. In fact the whole drive across 78 when you're going from Atlanta to Athens is pretty nice. Lots of old house and small towns.
I worked over Labor Day and took a load from Lebanon to Tacoma WA. Once I was unload there I picked up in Portland & Wilsonville OR and Rancho Cucamunga CA (that's a lot longer run than I had previously realized) bound for Lebanon. My truck was due for a PM when I got back and I had started making my list of things that I wanted them to check. One of them was that it was hard to start after it had been sitting for a few hours and it seemed to be idling rougher than it used to. While I was in Barstow at the Flying J (I ALWAYS stop at the Flying J in Barstow, it's the only place I know of for sure that there's an In-n-Out Burger in walking distance to a truck stop.... CA drivers feel free to let me know of others) I was talking to my wife on the phone and told her it wasn't running right.
Coming across the Mojave desert that night I started getting passed by Swift trucks and Schnieder trucks and knew I was in trouble. I was willing to let the first one go since he might be empty and I had on 31,000 but after a while it was obvious that unless they were nigrating all the emptied east there was something seriously wrong. I called Penske SOS before I got to the top of the mountain coming into Needles because I had to drop down on the low sidemore than once. They said they had to find the tech (it was about midnight on Friday by this point) I said I was going to keep running down the road to try and find a milemarker to give him as a reference. About the time they called me back to find out where I was I crested the pass and told them I'd roll down into Needles to the shop.
He looked it over and said that it was an injector and that it would probably be Sunday or Monday before anybody could look at it. The called Bob West and got him out of bed at 3 in the morning to ask him what he wanted them to do. He asked me if I could make it over to Kingman AZ and I said that I didn't think so but if he wanted me to try I'd go. I took me quite a while to get over there -- coming up the hill into Kingman I was down to 15 mph and wouldn't run on the flat in 10th gear. I parked at the address they gave me for the Frieghtliner dealer. Next morning I realized that service had moved down the street and that I was at the tire place. But my truck wouldn't start. So they had to fire up a tow truck to drag it 2 blocks down the street. They looked at it and said that it was a recall item on the fuel injection system and that I had an O ring on one of the cylinders that had gone bad so it needed a complete rebuild.
That night Penske woke my up in the hotel room that I had gotten and told me that my sub truck was about an hour out and that he'd stop by and pick me up and there would be somebody to let me in to the service bay so I could get my stuff from my truck. They never showed up to let me in the service bay which was fine with me since I wasn't going anywhere that night anyway.
The next morning I went down and started transfering stuff from one truck to another. They had the injector problem fixed before I got everything moved but it still needed the rebuild. The sub truck was a 2000 FL Century with 400k+ miles on it. It was pretty obvious that it had spent it's life as a rental b/c it's pretty well abused. Anyway I got back to TN and took a few days off. I'm leaving this evening headed back west to Canoga Park CA and I'll pick my newly rebuilt truck on the way.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Richmond. It reminded me why I always liked Richmond but would never live there. The roads were apparently designed by crazy people. I do want to say thanks to the guys at Automotive Headliners Unlimited (710 Research Rd, 897-4000). I was backing into the place across the street from them and was busy not hitting Automotive Headliners mail box and didn't see the ditch that suddenly appeared next to the mail box. If it hadn't been for those guys coming out and helping me stacking lumber up underneath the tires there probably would have been a tow truck bill in my future. Thanks again guys -- you are the kind of people that periodically renew my faith in mankind. If they do headliners half as well as they help people out of ditches you should stop by if you need one. I may drive my Camaro from Tennessee just b/c they helped me out.
Lexington, GA may be the prettiest town on earth. It's east of Athens on US78. In fact the whole drive across 78 when you're going from Atlanta to Athens is pretty nice. Lots of old house and small towns.
I worked over Labor Day and took a load from Lebanon to Tacoma WA. Once I was unload there I picked up in Portland & Wilsonville OR and Rancho Cucamunga CA (that's a lot longer run than I had previously realized) bound for Lebanon. My truck was due for a PM when I got back and I had started making my list of things that I wanted them to check. One of them was that it was hard to start after it had been sitting for a few hours and it seemed to be idling rougher than it used to. While I was in Barstow at the Flying J (I ALWAYS stop at the Flying J in Barstow, it's the only place I know of for sure that there's an In-n-Out Burger in walking distance to a truck stop.... CA drivers feel free to let me know of others) I was talking to my wife on the phone and told her it wasn't running right.
Coming across the Mojave desert that night I started getting passed by Swift trucks and Schnieder trucks and knew I was in trouble. I was willing to let the first one go since he might be empty and I had on 31,000 but after a while it was obvious that unless they were nigrating all the emptied east there was something seriously wrong. I called Penske SOS before I got to the top of the mountain coming into Needles because I had to drop down on the low sidemore than once. They said they had to find the tech (it was about midnight on Friday by this point) I said I was going to keep running down the road to try and find a milemarker to give him as a reference. About the time they called me back to find out where I was I crested the pass and told them I'd roll down into Needles to the shop.
He looked it over and said that it was an injector and that it would probably be Sunday or Monday before anybody could look at it. The called Bob West and got him out of bed at 3 in the morning to ask him what he wanted them to do. He asked me if I could make it over to Kingman AZ and I said that I didn't think so but if he wanted me to try I'd go. I took me quite a while to get over there -- coming up the hill into Kingman I was down to 15 mph and wouldn't run on the flat in 10th gear. I parked at the address they gave me for the Frieghtliner dealer. Next morning I realized that service had moved down the street and that I was at the tire place. But my truck wouldn't start. So they had to fire up a tow truck to drag it 2 blocks down the street. They looked at it and said that it was a recall item on the fuel injection system and that I had an O ring on one of the cylinders that had gone bad so it needed a complete rebuild.
That night Penske woke my up in the hotel room that I had gotten and told me that my sub truck was about an hour out and that he'd stop by and pick me up and there would be somebody to let me in to the service bay so I could get my stuff from my truck. They never showed up to let me in the service bay which was fine with me since I wasn't going anywhere that night anyway.
The next morning I went down and started transfering stuff from one truck to another. They had the injector problem fixed before I got everything moved but it still needed the rebuild. The sub truck was a 2000 FL Century with 400k+ miles on it. It was pretty obvious that it had spent it's life as a rental b/c it's pretty well abused. Anyway I got back to TN and took a few days off. I'm leaving this evening headed back west to Canoga Park CA and I'll pick my newly rebuilt truck on the way.
posted by lojak at 1:47 PM
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