A Tear

Throughout my driving career, I have had my fair share of incidences that have made me laugh. Things that have angered me or left me feeling frustrated. Even a few that have made me cry.

I don't cry often. I can't even remember the last time I cried, but that was probably over a lost love anyway.

Yesterday, I shed a tear! Not boo hooing in the essence of snot dripping down my face. Not sobbing and gasping for air. Just a single tear!

The most difficult and challenging part of my job is to convince a mechanic that I just might possibly know a little something about my Truck. I may not know how to fix it, or what part needs to be replaced, but I can definitely tell when something is wrong. And when it comes to diagnosing a problem, who better to turn to than the driver who is experiencing the symptoms.

I have written up repairs in the past, that go unresolved for weeks and or months at a time. Just recently, I turned in a write up and after 3 weeks, it was still untouched. I took the time to drive to the shop during work hours and approached the mechanic.

"We never saw the request"

They are placed in one location (after hours) and the shop had all my other pre-trip inspections, but did not see the repair request? " So, will you fix it today, seeing as how you have my truck in the bay doing a service to it, or should I write it up again?"

"We will get it today, don't write it up again!"

Two days later, still no repair....So, I have come to the conclusion that all of my repairs will be done elsewhere. I will drive out of route, I will burn up my own personal time. I will never request another repair from this shop. This isn't the first time they have dismissed my needs. It is not even the tenth time. They are not a full service shop, just a small repair and minor service shop, but my needs always seem to be forgotten anyway. I mean who actually needs tires that will hold air when you can just stop every week and refill them. I would air them up at the shop, but the air hose mounted outside for after hours use only produces 90psi, which is not the standard air pressure required on a big truck. I have asked them to fix the air hose for seven years.... Still not working properly.

But this rant is not about the incompetent mechanics who are seen huddled in the shop office every time I come to the yard. I have rarely caught them at work. Okay, there is one who is regularly working on something, but the others....not so much. I think they just roll around the floor to get their uniforms dirty, to make people think they are working.

.................I am complaining, aren't I???

Yes, I am , dammit!! To give these guys an ounce of credit, they do repair the trailers....I think?

So, back to my tear......

I have suddenly developed suspension problems with my truck. I have had the exact same problem before with another truck, this year. It only took me about 3 months of consistent nagging to get the mechanics to replace the defective part, and then I think the only reason they did it was to get me to shut up, because they could not find anything wrong with the old part. But it did fix the problem.

So, after two weeks of bouncing down the highways, I decided to approach another shop about my dilemma, remembering how difficult it was to convince the first group. I pulled in the alternate location and proceeded to tell the mechanic what the symptoms were... After staring at me for 10 minutes like I had three boobs, or green slime running out of my ears, he proceeds to try to come up with a way to appease me.

" Well, honey, we could always adjust the air-ride on your sleeper and then you wouldn't bounce so much."

This is not a predicament concerning my comfort! Jackass, and I have been driving longer than you have been mechanic-ing, so spare me the pitiful looks. I am not some sweet little honey learning to drive a big rig!! The air-ride on the sleeper only affects the way my cab sits on frame, it has nothing to do with my suspension........Try Again!!

Here are my symptoms...When I pick up a loaded trailer, my suspension does not react to the weight of the load. The air bags do not fill up for at least ten minutes. When they do fill, they lose pressure as soon as I start moving. Okay, this is hard to explain to you, faithful reader, if you know nothing about air-ride truck suspension. ....

But they should hold about 50-56 psi with my loaded trailer attached, of course this varies with the weight of the load, but my loads are consistently between 35 and 40k. My air bags will fill to 50 psi, but as soon as I start moving, they drop to around 30 psi. What that means is, my suspension is now in a bind. The U-joints are now put under higher tension because of the lowered suspension. During the course of my drive, they will fluctuate as much as 15 pounds continually. They should never fluctuate more than 2-3 pounds unless weight is actually removed. YES, this makes for a very uncomfortable ride as every pot hole or dip in the road sends me swaying and bouncing with exaggerated movement. But forget my comfort, this is a safety issue. It is unnecessary wear and tear on the drive line. I do not want to be the person sitting on the side of the road because my drive shaft is dangling. It is having to be even more aware of road conditions, because one hard bounce at the wrong time could send me into a wall, or median or another vehicle. I do not feel like killing anyone, because I hit a pot hole and my 70,000 pound truck could not recover from being thrown at an odd angle. The air bags ensure that the load will ride level. Not mine!!

So after he suggests a useless resolution, I simply make the comment, "Never mind" and drive away. I had just wasted ten minutes trying to convince someone of a safety issue and he never heard a word of what I was saying. I shed a tear of frustration because this is not the first alternate shop who has treated me this way.

I shed two tears.

I then proceeded to another shop a hundred miles away, because this had to be fixed. When I approached this mechanic, I pleaded with him to listen to me as a driver, not as a female. He did! I had only uttered about 3 sentences when he diagnosed the repairs that were needed. he then asked a few questions, which I answered, and we were in business. The bad part is that the parts have to be ordered as they were not in stock. So hopefully, my truck will be fixed next week when the parts arrive, but we have still not decided which shop will do the repairs, as this one has limited resources and time.

At least someone paid attention. Now lets just hope that the person who actually fixes it doesn't know the driver is a female, because that could just lead to even more frustration for me.

Sometimes I do actually know what I am talking about, but it is damn near impossible to convince others of this.