Nearly Washed Up

Happy New Year!!!

Yes, I know it's February, and I haven't posted in a while. Well, that's about to end soon.
Look below.

Following 8 days of home time, with family and friends, our plan for Sunday, 2/1/09, was to give our truck a much-needed shower, load our gear, and be ready-to-roll for early Monday morning.

About 2 p.m., Sunday afternoon, I headed to the storage location to get our truck. Prior to leaving, I had gotten Ken Zalewski's power washer and arranged to get a hose from Dave Lawrence (thank you, boys, for lending your equipment). At the storage location, I moved our truck from its space to an adjacent aisle, and shut 'er down. I moved our car into the truck's space and returned to the truck. After starting the engine, the air pressure in the air brake tank was low, and the pressure would not increase. The air pressure was so low, the parking brake would not release...meaning the truck could not move. Great@#$^!

With Pat's help, I checked for air leaks. I didn't find any. More @#$%^%$#@ (read as Great!)

I called the storage manager, explained the situation, and said that I anticipated having a Kenworth mobile repair unit as early Monday morning as possible. Following that call, I called our fleet owner's chief of maintenance. While talking with him, Char, the storage lot manager, and Dave, her diesel engine mechanic boyfriend stopped by our truck...they were in the neighborhood.

Dave, immediately, began to assess the situation, and set about to figure out what was wrong.
He and another trucker who was nearby, first, suspected there might be moisture or ice in the air brake lines, and I was soon headed to an auto parts store, hoping to find an alcohol-based fluid to clear the lines. No luck at the auto parts store. The product would be available at a truck parts store, but those were closed on a Sunday afternoon. Yep, you guessed it...more @#$%^^%$#@, and a little ++>>.

Using some WD-40 and compressed air (from his repair truck) Dave got the internal part moving and the compressor began pumping the necessary volume of air. In short order, the air brake system was at full pressure. Outstanding!!!

The bad news...we still had a dirty truck. The GREAT news....instead of, potentially, being out of commission on Monday, we looked forward to being ready-to-roll. Yee-hahhhh!

Blog-atcha' soon.

Nick, a.k.a., The Rev