I was in a construction zone at the time, with nowhere to pull over. By the time there was a shoulder again I was almost to the receiver. The engine seemed to be running alright, there just wasn't any power, so I went on and made my appointment. I had a light load (another of the benefits of this dedicated gig I have with Electrolux is that none of the loads are heavy) but the truck responded like I had 46,000 lbs on.
It turned out that I'd blown a hose on the “air to air” system. I can't tell you what that means except that it's connected with the turbo charging of the engine. There was a small hole in a rubber hose connecting two openings into an elaborate configuration of hoses and tubes. I was relieved, it looked super easy to fix. It was just a hose, like a heater hose, and two band clamps easily accessible on the side of the engine by the oil fill spout.
Fleet Support contacted the local Cummings dealer in Fort Wayne and arranged to have it fixed. I was conferenced in on the call so that I could get directions. I heard the rep say that it would be awhile until they'd be able to get to me. Service shops are notorious for taking forever to even look at your truck, let alone fix it, so I was resolved to simply remove the hose myself and buy another from the parts department. I didn't have time to sit around like an over the road truck driver eager for a hotel room, I needed to get my load off and get back so that I could go home that night.
I checked in at the service desk and when he told me to drop my trailer in the back, park the tractor and wait in the “driver's lounge,” I said, “It's just a hose with a couple of band clamps. Can I just take it off myself and get another from parts?”
The guy looked at me for a second then turned to another guy sitting behind a desk. “Joe,” he said, “can you go look at what he's got?”
Joe ambled out and looked at my engine. “Unfortunately,” he said, “They don't make that hose anymore.” It was a shaped hose with an S bend. “They've gone to a kit to convert the fittings to accept a steel tube. Let's go see if we've got one.”
So we ambled back in and Joe checked with another guy at a computer station. It turned out that they had everything they needed to fix my truck except the actual steel tube. They could get one by the next day. I couldn't believe this, a simple rubber hose was going to shut me down for at least a day! I was about to just say that I'd drive it like it was back to Indy and maybe they'd be able to fix it there but Joe said, “Hang on a minute,” and disappeared out of the back of the office.
He came back a few minutes later and said, “Sorry, I thought maybe we'd have one of those tubes on a core, but we don't even have any cores right now.” I was just about ready to say that I'd be going when he said, “Let me check something.”
He went and talked to some mechanics, then went out to my truck and removed the hose, took that back to the mechanics for review, then proceeded to devote the next half an hour to very nicely jury rigging a piece of heater hose in place to give me a temporary fix; and he didn't even charge me or the company a dime!
Nice people and honest service are not lost from this world! I guess it's up to me now to remember my promise not to take the Lord's name in vain; or more accurately: to truly try to control my temper. As for the hose Joe had said that it should probably be fixed to specs pretty quick, but it didn't work out last weekend and I can't see a thing wrong with the temporary hose. I'm hoping now that it can last till the next B Service. I'm carrying everything that I need to fix it again should it fail.
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