Still Here

Well our clutch finally gave out after 830,000 miles.  It was the original clutch. Interesting thing is that there was another truck exactly like ours and made at the same time. This truck that I'm referring to had a clutch installed from the factory which failed before 100 miles. 

Ours lasted to 830,000 miles.  I was going for 1 million,  but 830,000 is good enough.

We are still using the original EGR cooler and EGR valve.  I wonder how long they will go.

Still aiming for a million.

Blogging And Me

Writing a blog is work.  Salena knows all about it.  She creates content every day.  It is work to write something interesting, take interesting pictures, and edit everything to create a post.  Salena has certainly put in the time and effort.  On her blog she mostly talks about anything she chooses.  I've thus far reserved this blog to strictly trucking related topics, but rest assured that I too have my own opinions about life and the people in it.  Writing about trucking is laborious in that there's repetitive topics discussed to no end.

Trucking publications have paid writers who will cover the same material week after week.  This information is important to the life of the magazine or newspaper.  To me, however, writing about trucking is just me writing what I consider to be common sense.  My post about being careful when driving around back alleys where wooden pallets are strewn about so as not to blow a tire on a nail for instance.  This is an example of what I consider to be common sense, yet many publications would routinely run this type of article over and over again, week after week.

I don't know who they are talking to with their repetitive articles except new people to trucking.  And there are a lot of new people that come into the trucking industry.  In fact the turnover rate did hover around 100% for many years.  These people most likely wouldn't know that the magazine about trucking they were reading had the same material in it from 2 months ago.  The fact is that trucking is simplistic in its end goals, yet complicated in its regulations for so many reasons.  Most of those reasons have to do with money.

To move to the topic of money, this blog doesn't make any money.  It exists for two purposes.  One is that it may educate people who are considering coming into the industry or are already in the industry.  The other reason is simply entertainment for myself.  Some people see that Salena and I drive for a carrier.  The idea that I write this blog to advertise for the carrier is false.  I have driven for several companies and I am simply not working with them at this time.  Had there been blogs around when I was working for those companies, I would have had one.

This is a post about me to some extent and it really has little to do with trucking.  I could easily make it about trucking.  I could go into a rant about the lack of professionalism that exists in the industry today.  I don't see the point in that though.  I don't see the industry ever changing to favor those who have the highest of ideals.  It will continue to spiral downward in regards to the quality of the training of truckers.  The numbers of experienced operators will continue to decline thanks to electronic on board recorders and oppressive regulations.

But thanks for reading my blog!  Keep on coming back. I'm not going anywhere. 

Oh Yeah!!!!!!!

780,000 Miles

The turbo on our engine started leaking oil into the air filter.  As the turbo started leaking, the ECM computer on the engine was displaying codes on the dash in the cab that referred to the turbo.  Each time the engine was revved to 1400 and above RPMs, the oil seal in the turbo would fail allowing oil to seep into the air filter. 

I think that 780,000 miles is a good run for an original part from the manufacturer.  This turbo was made in 2006 and lived to the ripe old age of 10 years old.  It had a good life.  Let's all have a moment of silence for our recently deceased turbo.  But wait!  Since I turned the turbo in as a core, it will be rebuilt and live again! 

Now we're using a rebuilt turbo and hopefully we'll get years and years of trouble free service out of it.  The new turbo has really improved the throttle response of the engine.  In addition to the turbo, I had the engine brake rebuilt and a valve adjustment.  The truck is running like new and it just recently passed a DOT inspection with flying colors. 

Oh yeah!!!!

The Maintenance Game

Keeping an older truck on the road is vital to a small business with few trucks in its fleet.  To do this, you need to know what is failing on the truck as soon as it fails or before.  Sometimes this is impossible, but most of the time it's as simple as keeping good records and following a maintenance schedule.

All trucks have a maintenance manual.  In this manual is a schedule of what is to be repaired and when.  Usually this is based on how many miles are on the truck or by how much time the truck has been in use.

Just about all of the parts on the truck wear out in unison, but there are some parts that wear out faster than others.  Because most of the truck's components rely on each other to work properly, when one used part is replaced with a new one, this action may cause the related parts to fail soon afterwards if they are not replaced at the same time as the failed part. 

So, for example, if a hood has two hinges and one of them fails, it's best to replace both of the hinges.  The components of the truck that rely on each other and work together should be replaced together.  The truck as a whole has its own lifespan.  This lifespan is dictated by the life of each of the truck's components.  This is more plainly stated as the truck's "life". 

The truck's life is spelled out in the manufacturer's warranty.  Usually the warranty periods for each component can give you an indication of just how long that truck will "live".  For example, if the transmission has a 750,000 mile warranty, at about the time the transmission reaches 750,000 miles, you should be even more vigilant about the maintenance because the warranty implies the end of  that component's life.  Once the component's life is near the end, it's time to start thinking about rebuilding or replacing the component. 

This is when the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" becomes relevant.  It's important to stick to the maintenance schedule and monitor all of the truck's components for any signs of early failure. The earlier the failing component is spotted, the better.

The inside of the engine is especially difficult to monitor for failure.  One way to try to catch internal failures in the engine early, is through sampling the oil and sending it to a lab for analysis.  Sampling the oil is useful, but not always perfect.  The lab will look for contaminants in the oil which indicate which internal component is failing based on the level of the contaminant.  There are bypass oil systems that utilize extra filtration which filter contaminants out of the oil beyond what the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) designed but it is still a good idea to change the oil a couple of times a year in my opinion, because when oil degrades, this causes failure. 

Internal engine component failure is systemic as it causes multiple components to fail. Once the internal parts start to wear out, it's near impossible to catch them before they fail completely. You can tear down your engine regularly but that's really unheard of by most truckers as the practice is cost prohibitive.

Historically, oil changes occur every 15,000 miles.  At that time the oil filters and fuel filters are also changed, in addition to the chassis being greased.  Normally at this time, in addition to the anti-freeze, the quality of the fluids in the transmission and both differentials are checked for quality as well. 

Modern day engines with better oils and filtration are scheduled for this typical service every 50,000 miles.  And many of the components that require grease, have become greaseless utilizing new technology. 

Even if you are driving older technology, you can install automatic greasing systems and bypass oil filtration to stretch out service intervals.  However, regardless of which type of truck you have, you must be proactive in catching failures early.  I cannot stress this enough.

The bottom line here is, when the truck is nearing the end of its lifespan, its important to stay on top of maintenance.  This practice can allow the return on investment to grow as opposed to having to buy a new truck.  It's important to put in the time to know the truck's lifespan and focus on maintenance as a daily practice. 

So if you have an older truck, keep it new, and it will last for years and years without payments or a substantial repair bill.

Oh Yeah!!!!