What NOT To Do

I picked up a loaded trailer this morning at a facility in Dublin, Ga. I was astounded to find the following "quick fix" to a tandem locking pin problem. A small pack of zip ties and a part of a coat hanger (I presume) later and the problem was fixed. Please... don't try this at home (or on the road) and if you do... please have the courteousy to at least attempt to get it legitimately fixed.

Please, don't do this. Or if you do, don't leave it in the out position.

Doing my pretrip on the trailer I picked up I first noticed this issue by seeing this rats nest as I crab-crawled under the trailer checking out brakes and other stuff.

Another drivers "quick fix" was an interesting find.

The right front locking pin bar is severely bent and does not allow the pin to pull OUT when pulling the tandem slide bar.

So a small package of zip ties and one clothes hanger later.... the pin stays out.

A little jimmy rigging does the trick. Zip ties and metal wire and voila... it stays OUT.

The problem was the pin wouldn't retract when the tandem slide bar was pulled out.

See!? Out!

In other news, (as you may recall) I recently had the elbow joint on my exhaust replaced due to a hole and severe rust issues. While I was pre-tripping and still tripping over the trailer issue above, I found that the exhaust stack and the brand new shiny elbow were not getting along.

I noticed that there was an awful lot of rust runs and a strange "hissing" noise coming from the exhaust area (while the truck was running of course). I started checking it out and found that the elbow and the stack had separated.

Exhaust = Soot... see the soot? Gi-Gi hates soot.

Bad exhaust... why just look at that mess!

My shiny new pipe isn't too shiny anymore.

Rusty runs and tale-tale signs.

We have separation.

Houston, we have separation.

And now I'm sitting in a hotel in Charlotte while my truck and the trailer are getting serviced in our shop. I just hope that both are done by 8am, when I need to hit the road for Richmond. *crossing fingers*

G'nite.

Comments

texino said…
Hi Gi Gi, this is Texino. I always thought I would go over the road when I retired from Fire/Rescue at 55, but I ended up with a bad heart and no CDL. It's OK, I enjoy reading your stuff, it's very well written. Back when I was still working I ran a lot of rescue calls on I-95 in FL from 279 to around 340 MM, so I feel for you having to deal with Q-tips driving 4 wheelers in strange manners. Raining too hard? No problem. Put on the 4-ways and stop in your lane of travel, at night. I've seen it. Please keep up the good work and be careful, OK? Fine.
August 4, 2008 at 2:05 AM
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