Not a Mechanic Story

I know I give the mechanics an extremely bad rap, but this one belongs to a driver!!

After dropping my truck off and being sent down the road in a hunk o' junk, my boss makes arrangements to have me temporarily move into the "temporary" driver's truck.  I happened to run into him at the yard and inquired as to whether he had any concerns with his truck.  "NOPE, it is good to go!"

Ummmmm, yeah right!  Before heading out, I did my meticulous checking of air pressure in all 18 tires. This is my  undeniable OCD.  I obsessively check air pressure, because I do not have time to sit on the side of the road waiting on someone to come fix a blow-out.  I find it humorous how often the other drivers are delayed for the very same thing.  Not me....no time for that...So, I check them every week.

When I checked the tires this week, I was ecstatic to find that my trailer had 8 tires with sufficient pressure. WOW, that does not happen often!!  Too good to be true?  YES....Upon inspecting my tractor tires, I found one drive tire with a reading of 32 pounds.  UGH....Anytime we have a tire below 70, we are supposed to call in the On-call mechanic and have them change it.  This week, the man on call just happens to live over an hour away. I will not wait if I don't absolutely have to. So, I inspected the tread ~ no punctures. It had not separated from the rim, so I aired it up.  What was even better was the 63 pound steering tire.  I aired this one up also, and was on my way.

My first delivery was only 2 miles from one of our shops, so I knew if I encountered a low tire the next morning, I had help just down the road. I did, of course, make several tire checks throughout my first leg, to ensure safety. I have never blown a steer tire, and never want to!

The next morning, I was sitting on two low tires. They were promptly replaced, well three of them actually. How could he have not known his tires were losing air?  He had just returned from a trip when he handed me the keys.

But it gets even better....You see, the thermostat is sticking on this truck. And the fancy schmancy new exhaust system designed for re~burning exhaust to allow for  cleaner emissions is also not working properly. In fact it has "regenerated" itself 8 times today, complete with a smog cloud thick enough to kill all the mosquitoes in a 10 mile radius.  This truck appears to have lost its turbo. (For those of you non-diesel types, it resembles a blown motor fogging out the roadway) But appearances are deceiving, for it is not the turbo, but rather those cleaner emissions that are trailing behind me down the interstate. The regeneration should only occur about every 2000 miles, not every 50.......Oy!!!  

I might as well go ahead and mention the cracked fender,  busted mirror housing, and huge dent in the side of the sleeper......All things to make a girl feel very proud to be seen in this truck.....  Hey, what did ya do to your truck?   What did you hit?

And while I have no clue as to what may have happened....Neither does he, you know, the guy who has been driving it over the past 6 months...

Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be so quick to blame the mechanics for everything. It seems that some drivers have no idea what a pre-trip inspection is, or could care less if they are getting other motorists intoxicated with those thick clouds of exhaust fumes.  Double Oy!!!