Sitting In Eastern Montana With A Broken Truck...

The company has me working on a pipeline job in eastern Montana. Hauling 60' pipe from a pipe yard about 100 miles one way and stringing it on the right of way. Not a bad gig... set flat rate pay per day even if we're shut down due to weather, paid motel, guaranteed home for Christmas.

Pipelining is kinda fun. You spend just as much time off road as on. The right of way goes from point "A" to point "B", generally making no deviations for little obstacles such as hills, canyons and rivers. A lot of the time is spent chained to the back of a bulldozer getting dragged up and down those hills and valleys. Right through wheat fields, pastures, cotton fields, etc. The ROW is generally anywhere from 50' to 100' wide. You cannot go beyond the boundaries. Period. You have that much room to work. Due to the snow and slick conditions, this job has cut extended turn arounds every 1000', giving you room to go outside the boundary to get turned around.

Yesterday was the first day that the temperature was above freezing, so we had to throw chains on our drives and one steer to help maneuver through the mud and snow. We've been dealing with -20 temps and 18" of snow. Trucking along (if you call 15mph "trucking") when a cross chain on my left hand drive chain breaks. Tears the heck outta my mudflap. Grrrr... It was an old set of chains and I thought about swapping them out, but didn't. Maybe I'll listen to myself in the future??? LOL!

On my way to the ROW, I noticed a slight vibration in the truck. It happened about 60mph, under acceleration. Not recognizing this wobble (Isn't it interesting which noises and wiggles are "normal" and how easily you can pickup on something out of sorts?), I slowed my speed and continued to the jobsite to string my pipe. Unfortunately, on this stretch of road, there are no real shoulders or places to pull 75,000 pounds and 90' of truck over safely. After I unloaded, I babied the truck back to town and started looking for the source of the vibration.

I was expecting to find mud or snow/ice build up in the wheels, but that wasn't it. So I crawled around checking the drivelines and U-Joints. They all seemed okay. Moving up to the transmission, I found the problem; the oil seal on the yoke went out causing the bearing to fail. The wobble I could feel was the yoke moving side-to-side. Crap!!!

Got a ahold of our shop foreman and explained the situation. He figured I got it shut down in time to save the transmission as there was still oil leaking out and it hadn't run dry. Being a Sunday afternoon, there wasn't a lot that could be done. Hang tight at the motel and wait till morning.

I got the call today that the company is sending our rescue toter up with a replacement truck to use until we shut down for Christmas. He'll take my truck back to the shop and they'll drop the box and get it fixed up for me.

Hey! I'm sitting broken down too! Though my problem isn't as serious as yours.

What a great story. I was in Montana not long ago and it was -25 during the night. According to my thermometer, it got as low as -40 on the mountains. I was thrilled to get into ND.

I was thrilled to get into ND.

Said only ONE PERSON, EVER!!

Said only ONE PERSON, EVER!!

Awesome one Guy!!!

Oh man, Flatwater...the dreaded "replacement truck". Sad, sad trucks those can be! Hopefully you'll get a decent one.

I've driven dump trucks quite a bit and spent lots of time hooked to chains being pulled through the mud. Makes you feel kinda like a little kid whose toy couldn't play with the big boy toys.

I too, am broken down. Not as serious and for sure in probably better weather. But no fun being down over the weekend with repair hopefully completed tomorrow.

New reality TV series, " North Dakota Truckers" spent friday night east bound from Williston, didn't stop for the night till east of Fargo in MN. one of the other Tanker drivers ended up broke down in ND. a 4 day drop and hook round trip ended up taking him 10 days to get home. he was in Williston the night it hit -35 below Zero, he had a hotel room so when he came in the morning he found that the APU had shut down, the truck was an Ice cube and would'nt start. it was 4 days before it was towed into a heated garage to thaw. they said they found Ice in the fuel filters. he hit the road and about 300 miles later in Jamestown it quits again , another couple days in a hotel, then Penski brought him a day cab so he could get the Tanker and Him back to Chitown, the tractor's still in Jamestown. But like they say you gotta go where the money is $$$

Day Cab:

A tractor which does not have a sleeper berth attached to it. Normally used for local routes where drivers go home every night.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

One time years ago I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming and it was -25 degrees actual temperature. Man it was nearly impossible to keep the coolant warm enough to heat the cab! I had to grab an old blanket, pop the hood, and throw the blanket over part of the radiator to get the temperature up a bit. It worked. Luckily I had heated fuel tanks so no problem with the fuel gelling or anything. But man, the wind was blowing steady at 50 mph making the windchill over 70 below. When you walked into the truck stop your eyes wanted to freeze up! And I'm born and raised outside of Buffalo, NY so it isn't like I'm not familiar with the cold. But -25 with 50 mph winds is brutal!

Last week I delivered a load of pipe about 25 miles east of Watford City, ND. On my way up, I ran into one of our company drivers on the side off the road. I flipped around to help and his thermostat was stuck open. The engine couldn't get warm enough to run. I gave him all the diesel treatment I had to prevent any further fuel issues and gave him a ride to a motel in the next town. Truck wouldn't run, heater wouldn't run, and at -23 below it wasn't a night to camp out in the truck. I went on to the drop yard and unloaded the next morning. I got a call the next morning saying, "Dave's truck is still froze up. Go find him, get his trailer and deliver it. A tow truck is coming." They had to tow him all the way to ****inson, ND for repairs.

We've had several nights up here where the temperatures have been -50 below (with the wind chill effect).

If the temp is forecasted to be blow freezing, the truck doesn't get shut off. I've been very lucky that I haven't gelled up. Yet... LOL!!!

I was just up in Minot on Friday. Temp was -4, wind chill about -30. Sure was cold. Good thing I had purchased a set of insulated coveralls. Kept me warm, but my face was not covered so did not take long before I had to go inside to warm up before I had frostbite.

That was the load of JLG boom lifts I took up to a rental place.

Ernie

Flatwater, I hope the company appreciates the depths you went to in order to find the problem with the truck, and the fact that you found it BEFORE it did the big buck damage...Knowing your truck is so very important...GOOD JOB DRIVER !!!!!