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First, let me say a HUGH thank you to Trailboss! The man has been nothing but patient and awesome throughout this entire process! Thank you and kudos, sir!
Ok, as I stated in another thread, up at 0400 this morning due to not being able to sleep last night because of the excitement!
Hit the road at 0530 at picked my buddy up at 0600. Got to TB's place around 0730 and had been told "Go on to your truck, I have critter duties to handle....
Got to the truck and the first item was to change out the muffler. TB was kind enough to donate a new one to the cause as the old one was rotted out.
Then came fresh batteries and the moment of truth.... the truck had been sitting around 3 years, so to say I was on pins and needles is an understatement. Leaned the starting process and turned her over about three times.... and she fired right off and started purring like a kitten.
While the air was building, TB was kind enough to get a generator/compressor and we started airing up tires. Put 50 in all of them as I'm running light and the air temp was around 35, so I figured when they heated up they would be good to go.
Let her warm up for about 10-15 minutes and now the moment of truth.... are any brakes locked up..... all of the brakes released and so I started moving the truck to get the M101A1 trailer.... the forward rear brake started acting squirrely, so TB whacked it with a sledge and put some get-right in it.
Got the trailer hooked up, shook hand and thanked TB once again and started easing down the road.
Boy did I forget how rough flat spots on tires rode!!! They eventually smoothed out and we stopped about every 20 miles so I could walk the truck, give it the old "See/hear/smell" test and check tire pressure.... everything was going great until I was about 1/4 mile from one of my stops. The truck started losing power and I noticed the air pressure on the primary and secondary tanks were both low (40-60 psi), which up til this point had been hanging between 100-120 psi. I pulled over and the dang same brake had locked up. I whacked it with a hammer a couple of times and sat on the shoulder until the air pressure started building again. I figured I would limp it to the station about 1/4 mile up the road and see what was going on. The truck was rtolling fine and I stopped at the station and let it running while the hub cooled. After 20-30 minutes, it had cooled to the point I could touch it, so I let it cool some more....... After about 45 minutes total, I dropped the truck into gear and she rolled fine. I eased on down the road at 25-30 mph until my next stop. At THAT stop, there was no loss of pressure and the hub had cooled completely off.
From there, I dropped my buddy off and eased on to the house and dropped the trailer. Then I counted out all my change and took it to a local car was to clean the pollen etc off as it being dirty was hurting my feelings. I brought the girlfriend, kids and we all spent quality time making her pretty again, drove it home, drained the tanks and walked around it grinning for aout 20 minutes.....
Now.... questions:
I don't know if it was a chicken/egg situation with the brake/air pressure... the only brake that heated up was the one wonkey one, and after the one time of seizing, I had no issues with it afterward.
The only other issue is the low pressure light keeps flashing even after I get past 100+ psi. Any ideas?
All in all one of the easiest recoveries I've ever seen'participated in and again, huge thank you to TrailBoss and my buddy William...
And yes.... there's pictures!
Ok, as I stated in another thread, up at 0400 this morning due to not being able to sleep last night because of the excitement!
Hit the road at 0530 at picked my buddy up at 0600. Got to TB's place around 0730 and had been told "Go on to your truck, I have critter duties to handle....
Got to the truck and the first item was to change out the muffler. TB was kind enough to donate a new one to the cause as the old one was rotted out.
Then came fresh batteries and the moment of truth.... the truck had been sitting around 3 years, so to say I was on pins and needles is an understatement. Leaned the starting process and turned her over about three times.... and she fired right off and started purring like a kitten.
While the air was building, TB was kind enough to get a generator/compressor and we started airing up tires. Put 50 in all of them as I'm running light and the air temp was around 35, so I figured when they heated up they would be good to go.
Let her warm up for about 10-15 minutes and now the moment of truth.... are any brakes locked up..... all of the brakes released and so I started moving the truck to get the M101A1 trailer.... the forward rear brake started acting squirrely, so TB whacked it with a sledge and put some get-right in it.
Got the trailer hooked up, shook hand and thanked TB once again and started easing down the road.
Boy did I forget how rough flat spots on tires rode!!! They eventually smoothed out and we stopped about every 20 miles so I could walk the truck, give it the old "See/hear/smell" test and check tire pressure.... everything was going great until I was about 1/4 mile from one of my stops. The truck started losing power and I noticed the air pressure on the primary and secondary tanks were both low (40-60 psi), which up til this point had been hanging between 100-120 psi. I pulled over and the dang same brake had locked up. I whacked it with a hammer a couple of times and sat on the shoulder until the air pressure started building again. I figured I would limp it to the station about 1/4 mile up the road and see what was going on. The truck was rtolling fine and I stopped at the station and let it running while the hub cooled. After 20-30 minutes, it had cooled to the point I could touch it, so I let it cool some more....... After about 45 minutes total, I dropped the truck into gear and she rolled fine. I eased on down the road at 25-30 mph until my next stop. At THAT stop, there was no loss of pressure and the hub had cooled completely off.
From there, I dropped my buddy off and eased on to the house and dropped the trailer. Then I counted out all my change and took it to a local car was to clean the pollen etc off as it being dirty was hurting my feelings. I brought the girlfriend, kids and we all spent quality time making her pretty again, drove it home, drained the tanks and walked around it grinning for aout 20 minutes.....
Now.... questions:
I don't know if it was a chicken/egg situation with the brake/air pressure... the only brake that heated up was the one wonkey one, and after the one time of seizing, I had no issues with it afterward.
The only other issue is the low pressure light keeps flashing even after I get past 100+ psi. Any ideas?
All in all one of the easiest recoveries I've ever seen'participated in and again, huge thank you to TrailBoss and my buddy William...
And yes.... there's pictures!
