Saturday, April 28, 2012

Left Fayette, Ohio early this morning and stayed on US-20 all day.  Mostly a two lane road through every small town in Ohio and New York.  I went from red light to red light all day long!!  Out of several hundred traffic lights between Ohio and New York I got about a dozen of them green.  All the rest would change as soon as I got close.  I think I need new brakes!!  Aside from that, I enjoyed the small towns.  Most were quite quaint.  Stopped for the rest of the weekend at the Petro truck stop in Waterloo, New York. 

Friday, April 27, 2012

Left Clearwater, Minnesota before sun up.  Beat the Twin Cities rush hour traffic.  In Indiana I got on US-20 instead of paying the toll on I-80.  Drove through a very heavy Amish area.  I just don't understand their "life style".  With all the great technology around them and they still live like that, and wear stupid clothing, and not use deodorant and smell real bad.  You can try to explain it to me but it won't do any good.  I just don't understand it, and never will.

Stopped for the night at a restaurant parking lot in Fayette, Ohio.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Got on the road early this morning from Portage, WI and drove into Burnsville, Minnesota and delivered the wheel loader.  My next load was in Fargo, North Dakota so off I went.  Arrived in Fargo and loaded a Case 621 Wheel Loader.  It is going to North Syracuse, NY. 

Got back on the road and drove to the Petro truck stop in Clearwater, MN for the night. Drove 696 miles today.  Not too shabby!!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Got on the road early this morning.  The engine problem that I thought I had fixed came back again but this time worse. Stopped at Peterbilt in Bloomington, Illinois this afternoon and got it fixed.  He attached the computer to the truck and ran some diagnostics on it.  Found that there was a problem of low power to the number 4 injector.  Took off the valve cover and the problem was obvious! 

Here is a closer look.

Normally the entire wiring harness would have to be replaced.  They don't make individual sections, its all or nothing. That job takes about 8 hours.  Fortunately the mechanic had a good section from another harness and was able to splice in what I needed.  It worked great!!

Also found out that my number 2 injector is starting to go.  Will have to do that someday.  I was back on the road very quickly! 

Just north of Janesville, Wisconsin I passed a roadside Bar-B-Q.  It used to be a mini van.

That was in the middle of a five mile back up from a semi truck being towed out of the median.  The fire made a traffic mess even worse.  Glad I was going the other way. 

Stopped for the night at the Petro truck stop in Portage, Wisconsin.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

At 9 am I left Baltimore and drove all day stopping only briefly to check the load periodically.  I think I got a bad batch of fuel someplace.  The truck was not running right when it was really pulling hard going up the mountains in western Maryland.  As long as it wasn't working real hard it ran fine.  When I stopped for the night at the Petro truck stop in New Paris, Ohio I went straight for the shop and had my fuel filters changed.  That should take care of the problem - I hope.  Didn't finish dinner tonight until after 10 pm. 

Monday, April; 23, 2012

Went in to the Port this morning and unloaded the crusher screen.  My next load was not ready yet so I went back to the TA truck stop to wait.  A few hours later I got word that it was ready.  Went back to the Port to load.  Went in and checked in.  Then went and found the machine that I was to load.  Got the truck ready and went over to get the machine and it would not start.  Dead as a stump!! They had left the battery on and the key on.  I sat there for two hours waiting for them to come over and jump start the thing.  Of course it started right up.  I drove it over to the trailer and loaded it up.  I left it running while I secured it to the trailer.  It is a Volvo L180G Wheel Loader.  It is going to Burnsville, Minnesota.

 

Went back to the TA truck stop in Baltimore for the night because it was too late to go anywhere.  I'll get started tomorrow morning after 9 am.

I know you have seen those CAT Scales at truck stops and wondered what the paperwork looks like (OK maybe you didn't wonder - just humor me!!) Here is what a scale ticket looks like from one of them.  I scaled up when I got to the TA tonight with the loader on board.