The Official C-D Trucking Stories Thread (mechanics, heating, running, reputation)

[StealthRabbit]

Let's hear of some screw-ups. Be honest!

Like using diesel fuel to clean the oil bath air cleaner of a Scream'in Jimmy (hint: 2 cycle engine with blower )

... that engine fired up and over rev'd VERY quickly. Time for a new head...

Or bump starting one of those engines in reverse.... whoops

How about leaving the cargo door open and dumping 1500# of newspapers on the hood of a VW bug at the first stoplight. (one of many troubles working all day then pulling a graveyard shift)

Left a very angry note about loss of brakes. Mechanic thinks I'm just complaining so goes out and has a trouble free test run, then pulls into the yard and crashes through the fuel pump and right into the bosses office.

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Like using diesel fuel to clean the oil bath air cleaner of a Scream'in Jimmy (hint: 2 cycle engine with blower )

... that engine fired up and over rev'd VERY quickly. Time for a new head...

Yeah, but didn't it run like a scalded Ape until it blew?

How about leaving the cargo door open and dumping 1500# of newspapers on the hood of a VW bug at the first stoplight. (one of many troubles working all day then pulling a graveyard shift)

How about opening the trailer doors and having a pallet of "slab" rubber fall out? Slab was about 3 feet wide, two inches thick and wig-wagged onto a pallet with an overall length of a hundred feet or better. It weighed about 2000 lbs and there it all laid on the ground.

What do you do now, Mr. Truck Driver? (I borrowed a rubber knife, cut it into pieces, and piled it back in the trailer.)

Left a very angry note about loss of brakes. Mechanic thinks I'm just complaining so goes out and has a trouble free test run, then pulls into the yard and crashes through the fuel pump and right into the bosses office.

That had to be SOOO cool to be justified in such a manner!

That reminds me of an old Transtar cabover I drove back in the early to mid-70's. The Fontaine 5th wheel on it unlocked itself and dropped the trailer on me...twice! Oddly enough, both times were at the same truck stop north of Waco, TX. Both times, I stopped in time and caught the trailer on the drive tires and, both times, the dogs were still in place. Both times, I called in for a back up tractor to finish my run.

But, every time they took it to the Fontaine shop, they couldn't find anything wrong with it and I nearly got fired for falsifying a break down.

After the second time, I flat refused to drive that truck again, so they gave me a rental unit and made that one the yard hostler.

Fast forward a few weeks. The yard guy pulled a trailer from the dock and that damn thing dropped it right on the asphalt. The boss came out and looked at it, noting that the dogs were still locked, yet there the trailer sat, nose down.

"Well," he's reported to have said, "I guess he wasn't lying after all."

No...I wasn't!

[Gunluvver2]

Screw ups? I remember almost all of the screw ups other drivers around me have made but I conveniently forget mine LOL.

One I do remember though. I had picked up a load of Caterpillar parts in Illinois going to Fort MacMurray, Alberta. I was pulling a flatbed behind my 1974 Pete with the 1693 Cat motor. A legal load. It was a nice but cold December day but no snow falling. After driving straight thru from Peoria, IL I pulled in to a truck stop at Sioux Falls, S.D. I was dead tired so as soon as I lined up and parked I set my parking brakes and crawled in to the bunk. The parking lot was a solid sheet of packed ice and snow from several winter storms. Although I was not a rookie I had made a stupid rookie mistake. The next morning I got out of the bunk and hit the ground to do my pre-trip inspection and then go in to eat breakfast. That is when I noticed that all of my tires had melted through the packed ice to pavement. Think having a chock block snugged up against every tire on an eighteen wheeler. I got out the swamp pipe and started chipping ice. Fifteen minutes of hard work later I had the streering axle tires freed up. An enterprising wrecker driver noticed my predicament and came over. I offered him $20 to throw his hook on me and winch me out. He countered with $20 and breakfast was on me. DEAL. Five minutes later he has me out. Over breakfast he told me he didn't own the wrecker but he could depend on winching three or four trucks out of a parking spot each week but most of the drivers were NEW hands. My answer was that we all make mistakes when we are tired. I never made that one again.

GL2

[Gunluvver2]

I just remembered another screw up. I think I was in Edmonton, Alberta and I had rented a Motel room for a Saturday night. It was a typical Cold Winter night but the motel provided electric hookups for block heaters etc. I turned the motor off and plugged in ALL of my heaters. Late the next morning my truck fired right up but another driver that was leased to my company couldn't get his Detroit to fire up. He gave me a can of Ether (starting fluid of that time) and I shot a couple of squirts into his intake. It fired off fairly quickly and smoothed out. We were both loaded to go to the same coal mine near Jasper National Park, West of Edmonton. It was a nice but cold winter day and his wife wanted to see the Mountains so we took off. We both had our winter fronts zipped up so the heaters would get warm but just going across town the motors were not very warm yet. We finally got out of the city and were able to get some speed up. I was leading the way when I saw a huge fireball coming from my buddies truck. We both stopped and had our extinguishers out but the fire was out by then. Evidently I had put the can of starting fluid on top of his engine and forgotten about it. When the can of Ether finally got so hot it exploded. It scared the crap out of all three of us but other than a little bit of scorched engine paint there was no damage. His wife reminded me of that every time I saw her after that. She even called me the Mad Bomber.

GL2

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

Screw ups? I remember almost all of the screw ups other drivers around me have made but I conveniently forget mine LOL.

One I do remember though. I had picked up a load of Caterpillar parts in Illinois going to Fort MacMurray, Alberta. I was pulling a flatbed behind my 1974 Pete with the 1693 Cat motor. A legal load. It was a nice but cold December day but no snow falling. After driving straight thru from Peoria, IL I pulled in to a truck stop at Sioux Falls, S.D. I was dead tired so as soon as I lined up and parked I set my parking brakes and crawled in to the bunk. The parking lot was a solid sheet of packed ice and snow from several winter storms. Although I was not a rookie I had made a stupid rookie mistake. The next morning I got out of the bunk and hit the ground to do my pre-trip inspection and then go in to eat breakfast. That is when I noticed that all of my tires had melted through the packed ice to pavement. Think having a chock block snugged up against every tire on an eighteen wheeler. I got out the swamp pipe and started chipping ice. Fifteen minutes of hard work later I had the streering axle tires freed up. An enterprising wrecker driver noticed my predicament and came over. I offered him $20 to throw his hook on me and winch me out. He countered with $20 and breakfast was on me. DEAL. Five minutes later he has me out. Over breakfast he told me he didn't own the wrecker but he could depend on winching three or four trucks out of a parking spot each week but most of the drivers were NEW hands. My answer was that we all make mistakes when we are tired. I never made that one again.

GL2

Yep! Hot tires + cold ice = problems.

I pulled into Art's old truck stop in Cheyenne, WY one day and had a different problem related to that.

I'd jumped back into the bunk to change clothes before going inside for supper, and the hot tires suddenly began sliding on the cold ice pack! The parking lot on the north side of the building at Art's was downhill and the damn thing was gaining speed REAL fast, so I bailed out into the drivers seat in my underwear, put it in a high gear and floor-boarded it to get ahead of the slide.

I got it under control and finally found a fairly level place to park, but what would have happend if I'd have just gone on inside?

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

I just remembered another screw up. I think I was in Edmonton, Alberta and I had rented a Motel room for a Saturday night. It was a typical Cold Winter night but the motel provided electric hookups for block heaters etc. I turned the motor off and plugged in ALL of my heaters. Late the next morning my truck fired right up but another driver that was leased to my company couldn't get his Detroit to fire up. He gave me a can of Ether (starting fluid of that time) and I shot a couple of squirts into his intake. It fired off fairly quickly and smoothed out. We were both loaded to go to the same coal mine near Jasper National Park, West of Edmonton. It was a nice but cold winter day and his wife wanted to see the Mountains so we took off. We both had our winter fronts zipped up so the heaters would get warm but just going across town the motors were not very warm yet. We finally got out of the city and were able to get some speed up. I was leading the way when I saw a huge fireball coming from my buddies truck. We both stopped and had our extinguishers out but the fire was out by then. Evidently I had put the can of starting fluid on top of his engine and forgotten about it. When the can of Ether finally got so hot it exploded. It scared the crap out of all three of us but other than a little bit of scorched engine paint there was no damage. His wife reminded me of that every time I saw her after that. She even called me the Mad Bomber.

GL2

I'll bet that was an eye-opener! LOL And, I'll bet younger drivers are wondering just what a "winter front" is and why you'd need to zip it up?

I got drunk at a bar within walking distance of Burns Brothers in Troutdale, OR one night and stumbled back out to the truck to sleep it off. Sometime during the night, one of my drankin' buddies wandered by and zipped up my winter front as a joke.

It was about daybreak when I woke up, bathed in sweat and with the sheets oozing water. Hell, it was pooled on the floor! I don't doubt that it was 120 degrees in there!

[stillkit]

Who here has used Coca Cola to clean bug juice off the windshield?

[Gunluvver2]

When I was an O/O hauling heavy equipment and oil field I was leased to H.J.Jeffries out of OKC. Some of the other companies we competed with were C & H ( Cold & Hungry) & B.F. Walker. When you were out on the road you might run with drivers from the other companies and spend time in some of the same bars. I spent a week end in a Motel bar in Great Falls, Montana and there were several C & H drivers there also. Two of the C & H drivers had fallen in love with the same lady. The driver that lost the contest for her affections was rather P.O. ed about it. He drove on up to Shelby late Saturday night to wait out the rest of the weekend. Late Sunday evening the other C & H driver had left the Lady of both of their affections to go to Shelby and wait to clear customs first thing Monday A.M. The spurned driver noticed the other drivers truck parked with the engine running and the other driver sleeping in the bunk. He wanted a little bit of revenge so he lit up a fusee and placed it on top of the fuel tank of the other C & H drivers. After a few minutes the fusee had melted through the Aluminum tank and set the truck on fire. The driver survived with a few burns but the truck and freight was a total loss. The other C & H driver was arrested in Alberta by the R.C.M.P when the Montana Highway Patrol put out a warrant for his arrest.

GL2

[stillkit]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

When I was an O/O hauling heavy equipment and oil field I was leased to H.J.Jeffries out of OKC. Some of the other companies we competed with were C & H ( Cold & Hungry) & B.F. Walker. When you were out on the road you might run with drivers from the other companies and spend time in some of the same bars. I spent a week end in a Motel bar in Great Falls, Montana and there were several C & H drivers there also. Two of the C & H drivers had fallen in love with the same lady. The driver that lost the contest for her affections was rather P.O. ed about it. He drove on up to Shelby late Saturday night to wait out the rest of the weekend. Late Sunday evening the other C & H driver had left the Lady of both of their affections to go to Shelby and wait to clear customs first thing Monday A.M. The spurned driver noticed the other drivers truck parked with the engine running and the other driver sleeping in the bunk. He wanted a little bit of revenge so he lit up a fusee and placed it on top of the fuel tank of the other C & H drivers. After a few minutes the fusee had melted through the Aluminum tank and set the truck on fire. The driver survived with a few burns but the truck and freight was a total loss. The other C & H driver was arrested in Alberta by the R.C.M.P when the Montana Highway Patrol put out a warrant for his arrest.

GL2

Boy, that must have been some barfly to provoke that kind of revenge!

I don't know if the issue was a woman, but a guy I worked with got PO'd at another driver over something and what he did was classic. We were all mostly home every weekend and when this guy came in Friday night, there sat the truck of the fellow he was mad at, so he found a cat, force-fed it 2 or 3 Ex Lax, tossed it into the truck and shut the door. After being locked in there for a couple of days, you can imagine what the truck looked like when the other guy got ready to leave on Sunday night.

[Gunluvver2]

Paybacks, practical jokes and unintended acts can be a b**ch.

A lot of our drivers were married. Most of the guys were true blue to the little lady at home but others had a reputation for catting around. One of the drivers was a great guy and he would never cheat on his wife in a million years and every other driver knew it. He had a long nose Pete with a huge walk-in sleeper. One week end a bunch of drivers were at a terminal and this driver took another driver and his wife to the laundromat in his truck. A few days later the true blue driver goes home. His wife is cleaning out his truck when she finds a pair of Ladies Blue Jeans. She knows they do not belong to her. She accuses her husband of running around on her on the road. Luckily she knows the wife of the other driver and when her husband explained that they probably belonged to her his story checked out. He said that if he had ever thought of cheating on his wife he changed his mind about it after that. He didn't realize how mean his little woman could be. She scared him straight.

GL2