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- Location
- Appomattox, VA
What a day! Took me a full 24 hours just to get the energy back to post pics. Good news is three of my four trucks are home. Bad news is...
Pulled an all-nighter Sunday night so I can leave early to pick up the new trucks. Older I get, the less my alarm will wake me up so if I need to leave at 0500 I have to be up ALL NIGHT in order to make it. Met with my buddy Rob, his friend's son Ryan, and Steel Soldier L1A1 (Matt) at 0630 to head up and pick up four trucks. Before the story starts, let me just say that these are trucks I previewed and checked, all fluids were good, brakes pressurized up and ran well. Nothing major wrong with them upon inspection, good trucks. One needed a jump to start during preview (dead batts), other than that, great.
Previous pickups took 6 hours total, start to finish, including driving there and back. This one I assumed would be the same. I told Matt we would get back in time for him to drive back home and go to work at 1500. Rob started a new job last week, has to be at work 1600. I have to be back by 1800 to pick my daughter up at day care. Just to let everyone know how important time is here.
Got to Chambersburg at 0900. Told by the gate person our trucks have been moved down the road 4 miles. Goto storage lot and our trucks are buried behind 2-3 rows of mostly non-running trucks that need to be pulled out of the way by other non-running trucks that were in the yard. Turns out GL organized all the trucks so that the running trucks were in the back, and the junkers were in the front. Waited patiently while the GL guy played musical chairs with the trucks. Until 1130 or so.
Got the first two trucks ready to go, and running like champs. Check all the fluids and everything was 100%. Truck number 3 was pulled out and cranked and cranked and cranked and died. Jumped it with a couple different trucks and it finally ran, but died after 2 minutes. Not sure why. Got it running again, and it died again after 2 minutes. We found our candidate for towing - thanks to n3uka for loaning a towbar. Found the 4th truck and it sparked like all getout trying to jump the truck. By this time it was near 1400 and we were told to leave - other customers had to loadout as well and we were taking up room. We decided, since we couldn't tow two trucks with one towbar, to leave the 4th truck and come back with two batteries and some new cables to see what was up. It was a runner, so it should run home fine.
Hooked up to towed truck, me driving and Matt riding shotgun, Ryan in the chase Durango, and Rob in the other runner. Pull 300 yards outta the gate and Rob runs out of fuel in downtown Chambersburg. Right near town square. Crap. Pushed him off the side, and went south on Rt. 11 to get a can of diesel. 15 miles south (it was the nearest place that had diesel). Sent the chase vehicle back north and waited for Rob to get back to where we were. Finally he catches up, and it's now 1500. Matt calls in late for work. I call a friend and have her pick my daughter up at daycare because I know I won't make the 1800 closing time.
At 1600 pull over at WV welcome station, to check things out. Top speed towing a deuce is 50mph, average is 43 or so, slowest is 35. Kids in car seats are flipping me off as they pass. Everything is good, so we convoy out again. Couple miles down the road, Rob isn't in the rear view. Matt and I assume he slacked back a bit. Travel some more miles, still no Rob. Near the VA border, the chase truck passes me, pulls me over, and tells me that Rob broke down just after the rest stop, brakes locked up. Crap crap. This was the truck that was mostly new parts, 37 miles on a new engine! And it's treating us like this? Called him on the cell and told him the I am sending the chase vehicle back to bring him home, it's getting late, I'm getting ticked and tired, and I lack the expertise to fix an unknown problem on the roadside like that. Told him we'll hire a wrecker to tow him the final 45 miles home. I went on my way and Ryan went back for Rob.
1720 arrived back at home base, running like a champ, ran cool and steady the whole way home. After I parked the truck/towed truck, got a call on my cell - Rob is limping the deuce home, and it's smoking from the rear hubs! "I thought I told you to leave it!" He says he goes 15 miles or so, it starts smoking, and he stops till it cools, and goes another 15. He was calling me from 15 miles up the road, when a fire engine pulls up since someone called and said a truck was burning. He told the fire guys he wasn't burning, just the brakes. Sigh. I said "leave it and come home in the chase vehicle". Nope, he decides to wing it and try to make the 15 miles home.
The bad news is he has so little mechanical expertise that he had trouble turning the light switch on. The worse news is that he expects me to fix the problem after I figure out what it is. Ryan and Rob said they thought the smoking was coming from the rear axle(s). But they weren't sure. In other words, it could be they left the ebrake on the whole way home, or the airpak is shot, or the wheel cylinders are shot. Until I pull all the hubs and see what's up, I have no clue what caused the smoking since they weren't sure where the smoke was coming from. THAT truck can sit and wait til I feel like playing with it.
He finally pulls in at 1900 and walks in the door smelling like a brake shop and says "man, that truck has POWER! Pulled 60 mph the whole way home!" In other words, I exceeded the max recommended rpms on the engine with something smoking behind me so badly the fire department was called, and I have no idea what it is, and BTW here - you fix it."
To round out the story, I picked up my daughter at 1930, got home, showered and get in bed before my daughter did, after being up for 36 hours. Man I hope every pickup isn't like this. We gotta go back next week and get the last truck, which I hope drives home without incident. With ME at the wheel, and not Mister Magoo.
Pulled an all-nighter Sunday night so I can leave early to pick up the new trucks. Older I get, the less my alarm will wake me up so if I need to leave at 0500 I have to be up ALL NIGHT in order to make it. Met with my buddy Rob, his friend's son Ryan, and Steel Soldier L1A1 (Matt) at 0630 to head up and pick up four trucks. Before the story starts, let me just say that these are trucks I previewed and checked, all fluids were good, brakes pressurized up and ran well. Nothing major wrong with them upon inspection, good trucks. One needed a jump to start during preview (dead batts), other than that, great.
Previous pickups took 6 hours total, start to finish, including driving there and back. This one I assumed would be the same. I told Matt we would get back in time for him to drive back home and go to work at 1500. Rob started a new job last week, has to be at work 1600. I have to be back by 1800 to pick my daughter up at day care. Just to let everyone know how important time is here.
Got to Chambersburg at 0900. Told by the gate person our trucks have been moved down the road 4 miles. Goto storage lot and our trucks are buried behind 2-3 rows of mostly non-running trucks that need to be pulled out of the way by other non-running trucks that were in the yard. Turns out GL organized all the trucks so that the running trucks were in the back, and the junkers were in the front. Waited patiently while the GL guy played musical chairs with the trucks. Until 1130 or so.
Got the first two trucks ready to go, and running like champs. Check all the fluids and everything was 100%. Truck number 3 was pulled out and cranked and cranked and cranked and died. Jumped it with a couple different trucks and it finally ran, but died after 2 minutes. Not sure why. Got it running again, and it died again after 2 minutes. We found our candidate for towing - thanks to n3uka for loaning a towbar. Found the 4th truck and it sparked like all getout trying to jump the truck. By this time it was near 1400 and we were told to leave - other customers had to loadout as well and we were taking up room. We decided, since we couldn't tow two trucks with one towbar, to leave the 4th truck and come back with two batteries and some new cables to see what was up. It was a runner, so it should run home fine.
Hooked up to towed truck, me driving and Matt riding shotgun, Ryan in the chase Durango, and Rob in the other runner. Pull 300 yards outta the gate and Rob runs out of fuel in downtown Chambersburg. Right near town square. Crap. Pushed him off the side, and went south on Rt. 11 to get a can of diesel. 15 miles south (it was the nearest place that had diesel). Sent the chase vehicle back north and waited for Rob to get back to where we were. Finally he catches up, and it's now 1500. Matt calls in late for work. I call a friend and have her pick my daughter up at daycare because I know I won't make the 1800 closing time.
At 1600 pull over at WV welcome station, to check things out. Top speed towing a deuce is 50mph, average is 43 or so, slowest is 35. Kids in car seats are flipping me off as they pass. Everything is good, so we convoy out again. Couple miles down the road, Rob isn't in the rear view. Matt and I assume he slacked back a bit. Travel some more miles, still no Rob. Near the VA border, the chase truck passes me, pulls me over, and tells me that Rob broke down just after the rest stop, brakes locked up. Crap crap. This was the truck that was mostly new parts, 37 miles on a new engine! And it's treating us like this? Called him on the cell and told him the I am sending the chase vehicle back to bring him home, it's getting late, I'm getting ticked and tired, and I lack the expertise to fix an unknown problem on the roadside like that. Told him we'll hire a wrecker to tow him the final 45 miles home. I went on my way and Ryan went back for Rob.
1720 arrived back at home base, running like a champ, ran cool and steady the whole way home. After I parked the truck/towed truck, got a call on my cell - Rob is limping the deuce home, and it's smoking from the rear hubs! "I thought I told you to leave it!" He says he goes 15 miles or so, it starts smoking, and he stops till it cools, and goes another 15. He was calling me from 15 miles up the road, when a fire engine pulls up since someone called and said a truck was burning. He told the fire guys he wasn't burning, just the brakes. Sigh. I said "leave it and come home in the chase vehicle". Nope, he decides to wing it and try to make the 15 miles home.
The bad news is he has so little mechanical expertise that he had trouble turning the light switch on. The worse news is that he expects me to fix the problem after I figure out what it is. Ryan and Rob said they thought the smoking was coming from the rear axle(s). But they weren't sure. In other words, it could be they left the ebrake on the whole way home, or the airpak is shot, or the wheel cylinders are shot. Until I pull all the hubs and see what's up, I have no clue what caused the smoking since they weren't sure where the smoke was coming from. THAT truck can sit and wait til I feel like playing with it.
He finally pulls in at 1900 and walks in the door smelling like a brake shop and says "man, that truck has POWER! Pulled 60 mph the whole way home!" In other words, I exceeded the max recommended rpms on the engine with something smoking behind me so badly the fire department was called, and I have no idea what it is, and BTW here - you fix it."
To round out the story, I picked up my daughter at 1930, got home, showered and get in bed before my daughter did, after being up for 36 hours. Man I hope every pickup isn't like this. We gotta go back next week and get the last truck, which I hope drives home without incident. With ME at the wheel, and not Mister Magoo.
congrats on the trucks, hope the forth goes well!
