Update on truck

The dealership told us this morning that the truck would be ready later this afternoon.  As we were checking out of the hotel,  they moved out completion to tomorrow morning.  They are doing newly required recalls and as a precaution they will keep it tonight.  They are actively working on it so just have patience.  I don’t have any further details at this time.

Here we go again!

Howdy and if you were watching the Live Broadcast this morning when we started out for the day, you would have seen that we got a whole three miles down US Highway 24 before we got a serious emergency alarm and engine shutdown in 30 seconds warning! We got to the shoulder as fast as we could and shut things down. We did keep the stream running all the time we waited for the tow truck and even while we were attached and being towed to the Freightliner dealership in New Haven about ten miles away.  Unlinke the other dealership in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where the manager refused to even allow us to plug in our freezer, this place gave me several bags and they allowed us to store all food in their office deep freezer! The driver lounge is roomy with very nice seating and tables with plenty of plugs. Great bean to cup coffee maker, microwave, laundry and even showers for the drivers.  They started looking into the truck right away then notified us we needed a hotel for the night. They then gave us a ride to the hotel and gave us a code to save about $50! This is a top notch place with customer service and concerns in mind.

We are in the hotel for the night and as soon as I hear any news or updates, we will let ya know for sure!

Let’s keep messing it up!

Ha! Ever since yesterday and the extra pallet of products,  things have been monkey’d up. Today our current trip has been given to us and removed multiple times.  Then we finally get to the shipper and think we are finally moving forward,  and we hit yet another glitch.  Currently we are on standby waiting for instructions on how to proceed.  Basically,  we showed up and checked in to load but come to find out, this load was originally scheduled to pick up last Saturday.  No driver ever showed up and nobody notified the shipper.  Now, we show up several days later and expect to get loaded? They are so busy with truckers that show up on time, they can’t fit us in. A new set of loading appointments will be required. At this time,  I don’t know if we will keep this trip or abandon it for something else.  Stay tuned to Bigrigtravels to find out! As soon as I know the new plan,  I’ll pass it on in the blog.

Back in business – almost

Woohoo we got the truck back this afternoon. Since they had to drain all 200 gallons of fuel, the first thing we did was go right back to Love’s to fill up! Hahaha yup, I know what you are thinking…but so far no repeat of bad fuel. Ok, the total repair bill came to $8,481. Want some fantastic news? The first thing I did once I got back in the truck was to turn on the freezer and check the temperature. The biggest compartment was still reading 36F and the smaller one was reading 48F. Most of the high dollar meats were in the bigger section so all that food is saved. We did lose the refrigerator food such as vegetables and pickles, but no big deal. So, for 3.5 days the freezer stayed unplugged and yet saved the contents! Excellent insulation and build quality! Woohoo!

We tried multiple times on multiple phones to broadcast our trip down to Sioux City but we couldn’t get a data tower to connect at all. The answer might be found in the Verizon Outage Map located here: Outage maps we will broadcast tomorrow if we have a chance. If not, the trusty snowman camera does a fine job as backup in times of no data! See ya in the morning for the backroads trip to Grand Island, Nebraska

Friday Update

So today’s update has both good and bad news.

As you know, we started having problems right after we fueled up at the Love’s truckstop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and that this whole area has been under tremendous flooding this year. As it turns out, we did in fact get some very bad fuel that contaminated the truck resulting in the fuel pump and filters and every fuel injector to be replaced as well as the fuel system dumped of 200 gallons of fuel and the need to be flushed out of all contaminants. The good news is that the truck is scheduled to be ready for us to pick up by 4pm on Saturday. Yes, the company will pay for the four nights in the hotel in addition to a small breakdown fee each day.

As you know, I cook about a month’s supply of food – steaks, pork chops, chicken, potpies, everything – on the grill at home then vacuum seal and freeze so I can reheat in the truck saving tons of money from eating out at the truckstops all the time. The first day the truck was in the shop, we managed to keep the freezer plugged in to an external power source at the wall. When the truck was moved to another part of the shop, it was not plugged in anymore thus allowing all of the contents to be ruined. I had called everyday and reminded folks to make sure it was plugged in but the service manager told me that the shop and dealership is not responsible for any valuables in the truck, and that included plugging in anything. While the actual service techs were understanding and tried to accommodate me, the service manager had zero understanding and only kept repeating he would not allow me to plug the freezer in their plugs to stay operational. es, it is true that dealerships are not responsible for any valuables or contents of any vehicles they work on, but then they could have used common sense and helped me out. The service manager simply chose not to.

Because my last time off was during the Labor Day grocery store sales, I managed to get an extra large amount of meats on sale and cooked everything for the truck. Because I still had so much left this week, I was strongly considering not even shopping or cooking anything for next month! In the end, I have lost about $300+ worth of meats and groceries in a freezer all because the service manager would not allow me to keep the freezer plugged in. Can I hold them responsible? Nope. Could I have taken all the meat out brought back to the hotel? Perhaps some, but very little would fit in this baby refrigerator here. Guess we will have to just start all over with he food supply. Not happy. All it would have taken was some compassion and reality here. Oh well. Let’s hope we don’t have any more truck problems…… This can’t really be the fault of the truck since it was all a direct result of bad fuel at the truckstop.

Truck Drama Update

Well, we got a hotel on the companies dime for tonight. The preliminary findings show coolant leaking into the fuel. They will tear it apart Wednesday morning to figure out exactly what, where, and why along with how and who…. (let’s see, did I forget anything?) Not much else news tonight other than another driver is arriving to take this load on to the delivery so we are officially released from responsibility.

More news tomorrow as it comes available!

Stand by for news….

…this trip has been interrupted by a tow truck! We had just filled all of our tanks with fuel from the Love’s truckstop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota then hit the Interstate towards delivery when the engine started knocking and we lost power. A few sample restarts and the engine went into high revving mode and we shut it down quickly! Tow truck has arrived and our new truck is in the operating room at the moment. At this time we are still in control of the load and I will update you on truck information as soon as I hear anything. The drama continues from the open road!