On Your Mark. Get Set..... STOP!!

This week's breakdown officially started Tuesday night around 5pm. On Friday, around 5pm, I received the call that the truck repairs were complete. I personally think 3 full days is a bit ridiculous for a simple oil leak, a hub cap with a leaking gasket, and an exhaust leaking valve replacement. Pesky little O rings must be a pain in the ass to find, as I was told this was the hold up. A steel O ring that fits into a plug was the cause of my oil leak. I am still not sure if oil is what was coating everything under the truck because I have only added 2 gallons in a 2 month period. The shop assured me that it was not a leaking fuel line. At least they steam cleaned everything under the truck so I can keep an eye on it. I have my doubts though.

The boss had saved a load for me to pick up this weekend, so after I retrieved the truck, my intentions were to head towards New York. The first thing I noticed was a tapping noise coming from the area where the EGR shutoff valve was located. The valve that was leaking exhaust into my truck! And the odor was still seeping into the cab. This is the valve they just replaced. I also noticed that my warm dead idle oil pressure was running at about 12-15lbs. This is too low. It really shouldn't run below about 30lbs at a dead idle (sitting still). Next up was the excessive whistling coming from the turbo with a slight flapping sound. The sound of an air boot with a hole developing in it...

Because it is dark and raining, I have decided to wait until the morning to do any  further inspecting. So bright and early, I will determine if I shall return to the shop to check the valve. Because of so much down time this week, if I locate a hole in the boot, I will buy the boot and replace it myself. As for the oil pressure, I hope I make it through this delivery. I have no intention of any more shop time until after Christmas.

I find all of this to be simply ridiculous after 72 hours of downtime... But at least I no longer have to worry about the steer axle hubcap leaking oil.  YAY!!

On a side note, the last load I delivered, one of the dealerships claimed that fluids from my truck had gotten on one of the cars and dissolved the paint. The only corrosive fluids that I can think of that would have done that are brake fluid and battery acid. I don't have issues with either of those.  Pesky dealers will try to get anything over on you. This of course came after he signed off on a clean inspection of the vehicles...

Well, off to bed. I have a ton of things to do in the morning. Grrrrrrrr!!

North Adams, Massachusetts

Finally found me some SNOW!!

Accusations

On Monday, I had the privilege of being accused of hitting a fourwheeler. I know I didn't do it, beyond a shadow of a doubt!! But the lady was determined to lay blame.

I was backing into a customer's driveway (it is a deadend with no room to turn around) and with the excessive snowbanks encroaching on the parking spots, the cars were staggered out into the driveway. There is typically enough room for 2 trucks side by side, so with the limited space there was still plenty of room for a single truck. The driveway is at least 500 ft long, and once I was planted in the middle of it, no one was going to get around me. There are also 5 businesses in this particular building, with my customer being to the rear. I had waited for several cars to come out before backing in, but once I was in the driveway, I noticed a lady dart out of one of the doors and fly to her car. She proceeded to back out of her spot and pull up behind me. Sorry Chicky, the only way you are getting around me is to pull back into your spot and let me by.

She pulls back into her spot and I creep by in reverse. I noticed her get out of the car and stand by her rear fender. Can't say I blame her for that because if I had a truck within 12" on my car, I would be out watching too.

I can see my fender in my spot mirror. I can see my steps in the little handy dandy "lot lizard" mirror that hangs over the passenger door. I can see at least a foot of pavement between me and the cars. Yes, it was tight! I need to get my trailer over just a little more to the left and did not want to risk getting any closer to the cars, so I pulled forward to give myself a little more room on the right side. Back in reverse, she is still by her fender. I just had made it passed her car and into the fenced area when she comes flying around to my window screaming " You just hit me!!"

My internal reaction was, this lady is crazy! My verbal reaction.. " Really, you would stand between me and your car and let me hit you?"

No, she thinks I hit her car... I didn't. I would have hit HER first. She is irate and screaming at me, so I told her to calm down, as I set forth to inspect the damages. She is continuing to fly off the handle cussing and berating me in typical Jersey Girl fashion. I tried to calm her down by telling her that the situation would be resolved and our insurance would take care of it, IF I was proven guilty, but we would need proper documentation. So the police were called out and while we waited, I grabbed the camera to document damages and vehicle positioning. I also grabbed a tape measure to determine just exactly what part of my truck could have possibly been responsible for the damages. I never found anything that was at the correct height to have scratched the car. The steps were 4 inches too low. The corners of the APU were even further away from the appropriate height. There is nothing else that pokes out and there were no indications on my truck whatsoever that I had made contact with her car. The more I documented, the more upset she became.

The customer I was delivering to, viewed the footage on the camera mounted outside and could not determine that I had hit her. All the employees came out to look and agreed that there was no way I had done this.

After an hour and a half wait, the police finally showed up to take the report. The "victim" then starts screaming at them for taking too long to arrive. I remained calm throughout the whole ordeal, because I was certain of my innocence. I let her have her say and waited to be questioned. First thing I noticed from the officers, were the smirks emblazoned on their faces. They were also trying to calm the lady down, but mentioned to her that there was no way that I had done this. The positioning of the car was all wrong. The only way I could have hit her car in the center of the bumper, parked at that angle, would have been while pulling forward, and the damages would have been a lot worse had I done this in reverse. I would have destroyed the bumper and parts of the fender. She had told them I did it while backing up. She also made a few more mistakes.. She told them she was sitting in the car and heard me hit her. Then she revised her statement and told them she was standing by the car and saw me hit her... Finally, she said she felt me hit her while sitting in the car. Which is it, Lady?

The officers returned to the car while she continued to shoot a few "go to hell" looks in my direction. After filing there report, they returned to give her a copy and as she left, she almost backed into the police car...

Then the officer approached me and handed me a green slip of paper. His instructions were as follows...

" What I suggest you do is get back in your truck and throw this piece of paper away. I did not file an accident report. There was no way you were responsible. Your name and company are not listed on any documentation. The only reason I am handing you this paper is to keep her calm."

He told me that he filed a damage report for her, but the cause of the damage was unknown.. He said he would not in good conscience lay blame at my feet for something he could not visualize having ever happened.

See, the Smokey Bears are not all bad... Thanks again, Suffolk County!!

A Little Vaseline, Please

Today just happens to be one of those days where I unknowingly will be able to test out my driving skillz.

My second drop of the morning was in Washington, North Carolina. This customer has a bad habit of filling the parking lot with lots of random pallets of stuff, making it difficult to turn around. The more they scatter, the harder I work. This is the normal routine. But today, they caught me off guard. There would be NO turning around inside the gate today.

Parked right in the middle was this lovely dumpster.

So, I had to back out of the gate

And back out of the parking lot. Could not make the swing to the right because of the grade and angle of the street. I did not want to rip my exhaust pipes off the truck.

I had to continue backing until I reached the county road about a quarter of a mile behind me. And then a nice blindside back into traffic to get front and center once again. But these are the simple challenges that I love, and not so challenging with barely anyone to blow their horns at me. Makes me miss New York City !!

But this was not so difficult. After I made a few more deliveries, I ended up in Richmond, Virginia. Getting into the customer is a tad bit challenging dodging the cars, chain link fences and telephone poles, but getting out is even better. There is only one way out, and holding ones breath to squeeze through is a requirement !!

First, I have to place my fender against the fence, because I am turning into this alleyway

SQUEEZE !!!

With literally only a couple of inches to spare, I squeeze through and make a hasty exit back into the streets of Richmond. Dodging more telephone poles just to get back to a nice 4 lane. Who designed this city, anyways ??

I am currently sitting in Ruther Glen, Virginia because I know better than to attempt to make good time riding around the streets of DC in afternoon rush hour. Been there, done that ! After another 3 deliveries tomorrow, I will be heading home. And rumor has it that a handsome bedbugger will be in the area !!