Mike
Well-Known Member
Gotta say, I am experiencing the ultimate frustration of owning a truck the past few months. Not posting this to whine or complain about anything, merely to share an experience so people know what to expect in this business.
This all started at the beginning of April. What started out suddenly feeling like a bad injector ended up showing itself to be a couple leaking cups. Upon further inspection, the problem went deeper in the form of a blown head gasket. Most of this has been documented in various threads on the forum here.
In the end, after 5 1/2 weeks, I was back on the road pulling my first load.
Something wasn't right. After a couple days, truck would run really bad at an idle. Over time, this seemed to get a little better, but never back to normal. For this problem, I am feeling like some trash got into the fuel pump and simply is never going to pass through. It's an intermittent problem. Lack of fuel restriction through the filter, in my opinion, is pointing toward a pressure problem with the pump, or even remotely possible that it is some trash that found it's way through the fuel lines to the back of the head. Thinking it's probably the fuel pump, though.
Nothing good ever comes from one of these trucks sitting for 6 weeks.
Beyond that issue, all seemed well with the actual repair for two solid weeks. The truck never lost a drop of coolant, engine temperature was perfect.
Last Monday, however, things changed on a 500 mile trip out to Grand Island, NE. Arriving in York, NE (Petro) that evening, I did my daily check under the hood and immediately notice coolant had blown out the overflow. Truck never got hot, not even a little bit. Had a gallon of coolant, put it in, and it was full enough to run with. (Petro had no decent coolant on the shelves). Made my delivery, back to York, and stopped at Sapp Bros. They had coolant. Grabbed a couple gallons and topped off the truck. Took another half gallon after the initial gallon to fill it up.
And the end of the day, it was a tad low again, added less than a half gallon and it was good.
Next day, by the end of the day, coolant was pretty low again. Added over a gallon. Same thing happened the following day, with the coolant loss getting slightly worse as time went on.
Truck ran fine, and was never getting hot. Just coolant mysteriously disappearing.
Parked Thursday evening, filled the coolant, and looked everywhere I could. Checked all hoses by hand for temp, all hoses were hot, so no obvious signs of any line blockage. Checked the air tanks and purge valve for any sign of coolant that would indicate a air compressor problem, nothing there. At that point, I was figuring it had to be head related again.
Friday morning, drove a couple miles from the truck stop to make delivery. I had just topped off the coolant before leaving. After arriving at the third warehouse, which was finally the right spot to unload. I was walking out to the truck so receiver could break the seal, and seen smoke in the air. Ran to the truck, and sure enough, it was coming out of my exhaust. At that point, no sense in looking around for a coolant leak anymore.........
A couple of tests later, not sign of combustion in the coolant tank, but it's obvious where we need to go to find the problem again.
Today, the head should be off, and in the morning, I should be loading it into my pickup and taking it to Tulsa. A local shop went through the head the first time, it won't be going back there. Everything else will be checked thoroughly. Really hoping that the problem is revealed when reworking the head.
For those keeping score at home. Currently looking at over 6 weeks of downtime, on top of a $4300.00 bill for the first repair. Providing nothing else shows up beyond the head, looking at another week once time is allowed for delivering the head, getting it worked, and getting it picked back up so things can go back together. I'm personally delivering the head to and from the shop in Tulsa merely for saving time.
My my calculations, I'm down about $40k at this point in lost profit and repair costs. Meanwhile, all the costs of providing for a family of 5 still exist, as does the truck and trailer payment.
Good money to be made out here, but it is important to steadily put money back into the business. Things like the above are going to happen, and your business needs to be prepared for it. During all these weeks out of work, a paycheck still had to be deposited into our personal account to pay for the cost of living. During the two weeks I did work, money had to go out for fuel costs. When I get back on the road, after paying whatever I have to pay additionally in repair costs, there will be weekly expenses such as fuel again that money has to be there for. Money for groceries, car payment, house, as well as everything that a house full of kids need.
When you are getting into this business, see this as what may happen, before you begin to accept a cheap rate and think you are making a profit simply because there is money left over after fuel expenses and you pay your personal bills.
When the truck goes down, your business needs to have money to pay the costs of repairs, continue to pay the fixed costs, continue to pay your salary, and still have money in the reserves to pay for expenses at the point you start back running again. Because remember, when the truck does get fixed, unless you give up some of your money to be paid immediately, it will be 30 days before the checks start arriving from the brokers.
This all started at the beginning of April. What started out suddenly feeling like a bad injector ended up showing itself to be a couple leaking cups. Upon further inspection, the problem went deeper in the form of a blown head gasket. Most of this has been documented in various threads on the forum here.
In the end, after 5 1/2 weeks, I was back on the road pulling my first load.
Something wasn't right. After a couple days, truck would run really bad at an idle. Over time, this seemed to get a little better, but never back to normal. For this problem, I am feeling like some trash got into the fuel pump and simply is never going to pass through. It's an intermittent problem. Lack of fuel restriction through the filter, in my opinion, is pointing toward a pressure problem with the pump, or even remotely possible that it is some trash that found it's way through the fuel lines to the back of the head. Thinking it's probably the fuel pump, though.
Nothing good ever comes from one of these trucks sitting for 6 weeks.
Beyond that issue, all seemed well with the actual repair for two solid weeks. The truck never lost a drop of coolant, engine temperature was perfect.
Last Monday, however, things changed on a 500 mile trip out to Grand Island, NE. Arriving in York, NE (Petro) that evening, I did my daily check under the hood and immediately notice coolant had blown out the overflow. Truck never got hot, not even a little bit. Had a gallon of coolant, put it in, and it was full enough to run with. (Petro had no decent coolant on the shelves). Made my delivery, back to York, and stopped at Sapp Bros. They had coolant. Grabbed a couple gallons and topped off the truck. Took another half gallon after the initial gallon to fill it up.
And the end of the day, it was a tad low again, added less than a half gallon and it was good.
Next day, by the end of the day, coolant was pretty low again. Added over a gallon. Same thing happened the following day, with the coolant loss getting slightly worse as time went on.
Truck ran fine, and was never getting hot. Just coolant mysteriously disappearing.
Parked Thursday evening, filled the coolant, and looked everywhere I could. Checked all hoses by hand for temp, all hoses were hot, so no obvious signs of any line blockage. Checked the air tanks and purge valve for any sign of coolant that would indicate a air compressor problem, nothing there. At that point, I was figuring it had to be head related again.
Friday morning, drove a couple miles from the truck stop to make delivery. I had just topped off the coolant before leaving. After arriving at the third warehouse, which was finally the right spot to unload. I was walking out to the truck so receiver could break the seal, and seen smoke in the air. Ran to the truck, and sure enough, it was coming out of my exhaust. At that point, no sense in looking around for a coolant leak anymore.........
A couple of tests later, not sign of combustion in the coolant tank, but it's obvious where we need to go to find the problem again.
Today, the head should be off, and in the morning, I should be loading it into my pickup and taking it to Tulsa. A local shop went through the head the first time, it won't be going back there. Everything else will be checked thoroughly. Really hoping that the problem is revealed when reworking the head.
For those keeping score at home. Currently looking at over 6 weeks of downtime, on top of a $4300.00 bill for the first repair. Providing nothing else shows up beyond the head, looking at another week once time is allowed for delivering the head, getting it worked, and getting it picked back up so things can go back together. I'm personally delivering the head to and from the shop in Tulsa merely for saving time.
My my calculations, I'm down about $40k at this point in lost profit and repair costs. Meanwhile, all the costs of providing for a family of 5 still exist, as does the truck and trailer payment.
Good money to be made out here, but it is important to steadily put money back into the business. Things like the above are going to happen, and your business needs to be prepared for it. During all these weeks out of work, a paycheck still had to be deposited into our personal account to pay for the cost of living. During the two weeks I did work, money had to go out for fuel costs. When I get back on the road, after paying whatever I have to pay additionally in repair costs, there will be weekly expenses such as fuel again that money has to be there for. Money for groceries, car payment, house, as well as everything that a house full of kids need.
When you are getting into this business, see this as what may happen, before you begin to accept a cheap rate and think you are making a profit simply because there is money left over after fuel expenses and you pay your personal bills.
When the truck goes down, your business needs to have money to pay the costs of repairs, continue to pay the fixed costs, continue to pay your salary, and still have money in the reserves to pay for expenses at the point you start back running again. Because remember, when the truck does get fixed, unless you give up some of your money to be paid immediately, it will be 30 days before the checks start arriving from the brokers.
) I can hop in Sandy’s car and generate income but it’s hard to have a spare big truck. 
