Trucky Repairs

So I had gotten a great load out of Maine. Paper rolls bound for western Kentucky... 1150 miles which would have been a great way to start off the week. But alas, Trucky wasn't up for it. I had made it as far as Sterling, PA where I shut down for my break on Friday where I had a delicious dinner at Howes Truck Stop. A great night of sleep followed the great dinner and then Saturday was upon me with beautiful sunshine and chirping birds and all that jazz.

After my morning routine to get me going, I went in the truck stop and bought myself a bottled water and a lottery scratch off. I won two bucks on the one dollar card, my day was looking good already! I did my pretrip, finding everything in top condition. I caught up my logbook and then was ready to roll.

I made it less than three miles west of the truck stop when I started hearing an alarm going off inside the truck cab. I searched my dash gauges checking air pressure first, fuel second, temp and oil pressure... then I found the problem. My voltmeter was reading out at only about 10.5 volts....which is not good. Generally, while rolling Trucky is charging at or just below 14 volts.

I started to smell some strange odor in my cabin and so I promptly, yet safely, pulled over on to the shoulder, engaged my hazard lights, and wondered wtf was causing the white smoke to billow out from under the right side of my engine compartment. I shut down the engine and started to panic.

My first instincts were telling me to snatch and run... find what you needed or wanted most and start pitching it out the window towards safety. If Trucky was gonna burn to the ground, my laptop, XM radio and my underwear bag were the first items that came to mind for saving. Go figure.

After the momentary panic passed and I realized that the smoke was no longer being produced I waited a moment more and then hopped out and raised the hood to check things out. I dialed our emergency maintenance department, getting through in record time... seriously I've never dialed and gotten someone immediately. I was amazed and stammered for a moment before giving the operator on the other end all of the relative and important information.

He had me check some things on the motor, belts, fan, etc. Everything was as it was when I did my pretrip and as it should be. He put me on hold and dispatched a local roadside service place to come check it out. He wanted a professional opinion. So there ya have it.

After placing my emergency reflective triangles out on the shoulder behind my truck I sat in the drivers' seat waiting for the "professional opinion" to show up. As I waited, I thought I should check to see what might have been going on myself. I started the engine and got out to see how things were moving on the motor. The belts were fine, the fan was fine, but white smoke started coming out of the alternator. Hmm...

Lucky for me a big truck pulled onto the shoulder in front of me, the driver getting out and coming to my truck to see if he could help. It was awfully nice of him and he helped me confirm the source of the actual problem. The alternator was shot.

He kept me company while I continued to wait for the "professional opinion" to show up. I was told it would be 45 minutes but in reality it took over an hour and a half. Once the roadside guy arrived I was already calling our emergency maintenance department back to tell them that it was the alternator that was jacked up. I actually had a small argument about this fact with the operator because he insisted that as long as the belts were still in place, that the alternator could not possibly have stopped working.

Seriously? The belt was there, everything was turning as it should while the engine was running, but the alternator was not producing enough juice to keep the system charged. Simple as that. Yes, the alternator relies heavily on the belt to perform its full function, but diodes inside the alternator can malfunction which can cause the exact problem I had... with the belt intact.

The poor guy on the other end of the line just didn't seem to understand this. And I presume that since I'm a girl, he didn't believe that I knew what I was talking about. So I had to have the "professional opinion" verify the reality with "mr. know-it-all."

The whole thing was annoying. I'm not an idiot. I know enough about mechanics and motors to help diagnose most common problems. I might not be able to dig in and fix it, but I know enough to know I'm not a complete retard when it comes to what is going on under the hood.

I just wish other people would realize that and take my word for it. Basically the company wasted probably $150 for a service call that wasn't necessary in the end. Of course, they'd already been dispatched before I realized what the actual problem was. So in reality I was partly responsible for the costs incurred for the service call. Seeing the smoke made me panic and instead of trying to make a diagnosis before calling, I called in the heat of the moment.

So anywho. After confirming the information, I was told to head to the nearest terminal to have the alternator replaced, as it was an item they would not let an outside service repair/replace. I was less than 150 miles from our Carlisle, PA terminal and was told that I would have enough juice to get there.

The truck I have has a feature that cuts power to accessory sources when the batteries are getting too low to sustain them properly. In this case, that was pretty much anything inside the cabin of the truck. I had no interior lights, no CB power, all of my auxillary outlets were dead, no radio, nada. It was a long and silent trip to the terminal as I prepared for the worst. Which of course was that I'd end up sitting the entire weekend while Trucky waited his turn in a maintenance bay.

Which is, of course, pretty much how it went. I arrived mid-day on Saturday and they informed me that it was not going to be until Sunday evening before Trucky got to see the doctor. So I took care of some business, dropped my load which was going to be relayed, cutting my miles down to nearly nada, and then headed over to the hotel for the night.

I was actually amazed when I got word that my truck was repaired and ready to roll Sunday evening even before the actual appointment time. The shop, for once, was ahead of schedule and I was done before I expected to be. But since it was so late in the evening, I figured I'd push myself out until first thing this morning.

I started receiving a load assignment about 9:45 am and was happy to be hearing the Qualcomm beeps. But then I started reading the assignment macros and realized I was not happy to be hearing the beeps. The load was not going to be available for pick up until 7pm this evening but it had to be delivered, 450 miles away by 6am. Which means all night driving.

I'm not completely opposed to loads that require night time driving. But since I'd gotten a great, full nights' sleep last night and woke at my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed time of 6:30 am I knew the load was going to be risky for me.

I cannot even force myself to sleep during daylight hours after a full night of rest. So I knew that even if I tried to catnap throughout the day that once I hit the road, driving at night, that I'd be tired as hell about 2 hours into it. So I called my dispatcher and explained my concerns. He had no problem taking me off the load, he said he figured I'd call and say exactly what I'd just said but that he was giving me the opportunity for a load. "Other wise you'll probably sit in Carlisle for another day", he explained.

I said that would be okay... "it's better than wrecking and risking the lives of myself and others because I was too tired to be driving". I can wait. And so can death.

So here I sit. Wondering if I will get something today... or tomorrow. Not minding the down time really. Yeah it cuts my payday down, but hey.... safety first and always.