Broke down in Saskatoon :(

[nhunter]

My father in law is on Catalina Island and he said he almost needs a light jacket on the beach.

 

[truknutt]

In Florida when it's 50 degrees they break out the fur coats.

...and heat the trees!!!

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Well, now I get told today the parts won't get here till Monday, at this rate my hotel bill will be higher than the repairs on truck. I probably should have flown home till repairs were done, but who would have thought it would take this long. Saturday will be a week since it got towed to the shop.

 

[2010augusta]

Well, now I get told today the parts won't get here till Monday, at this rate my hotel bill will be higher than the repairs on truck. I probably should have flown home till repairs were done, but who would have thought it would take this long. Saturday will be a week since it got towed to the shop.

That is why I had to fly home when my car broke down in Michigan, the repairs took close to 2 weeks by the time the parts got there.

 

[geeksrus]

Well, the cold got the better of my Volvo. I woke up at 3 am freezing to find truck no longer running. I tried starting it, code came up , " Low engine oil ". I get up get dressed go to put some oil in, and low ande behold all my oil is laying on the ground. So I called Volvo care. volvo dealer closed till Monday and no vendors in the area that do mobile repar, according to Volvo.
There I sat in the truck in minus whatever it was ( cold ) Had my boots on that are good to -40, layered clothing, sleeping bag wrapped round me. All I can say is , " I have never been so cold in my life :. I sat there freezing till almost 8 am, when the people I was delivering to got there. I think they got there just in time, I couldn't stop shaking from the cold. Their warm rental suv sure felt good.
I finally got hold of the local Volvo dealers on their emergency number after numerous call's and messages left. Probably 9 hours after the first call to them, was when I got them.
They helped set up for a wrecker to tow it to their shop, guy came in to open shop and put truck in. They seem to think that it may be the crankcase valve frozen ( Never heard of that valve before ), and maybe then cracked because of the cold. Will find out for sure Monday when they open up after the New year.
Well, we had to get that satelite communication systems off, so I go to use my lift gate on back of trailer. Guess what.. The hydaulic fluid was froze, I could get the lift to go down and up, but cylinders that make it come out from under the back of trailer were froze solid.
Well, these guys that flew up here from MD to install this stuff are getting impatient that their 7+ million $ equipment is still on the trailer. Well, I had to go out and rent a truck with a lift gate. Guy in charge of install went with me, he said opening in back of truck has to be such in such tall, so I take my tape measure along, he measured the height, says good they'll fit through that opening. Wrong we ended up taking the elecronic banks off the pallets, all in all a 1 hour job, turned into an all day ordeal in freezing weather.
So now I sit in a hotel, till Monday, but I am going to help the installers move equipment around tomorrow, more for something to do than anything else.
1 consolation in this deal is I didn't break down in the middle of BFE, if that had happened no telling what my outcome would have been.
You can keep this COLD..... I have hEAT in room cranked as high as it will go.

Sorry for been long winded. Needless to say DW is not to happy, she says" she could have lost her old man to the cold ".

The Guess Who had a song Runnin' Back to Saskatoon.. you might want to play it while you lay low:angel:

Eh!

 

[CrazyScotsman]

As long as I may be here I am thinking about trading in my Brit passport for a Canadian passport.
I don't think I would run back to all this ice, may slip and end in hospital, that would probably extend my stay even longer, but hey maybe Canada NHS would cover my health care for me.

 

[yondering]

Ken, you could probably use a laugh right now. Hope so anyway, A trucker I know once told me how to make a small fortune in the trucking business. He said it was very simple, you just start out with a LARGE fortune, anyway, best wishes to you, we have added you and your family to our prayer list. God Bless, Al & Dee Weaver

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Isn't that the truth Al.

 

[wyleyrabbit]

Ken,

Are you STILL in Saskatoon?

Chris

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Afraid so Chris.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Welcome to the Great White North, glad yer safe.

Running up there in the winter, you need to be prepared for survival. The shear cold makes metal brittle and along with the rough roads will cause parts to beak.

I carry boots rated for -78F, Carhartt Arctic Extreemes bibs and jacket, fleece backlava, gortex gloves, army surplus arctic mits, arrmy poly pro long johns as well as the new army "niinja suit long johns which are really thin, a couple blankets and an army surplus winter sleeping bag.

I got caught in that -40 cold snap up there a few weeks ago with a bad batch of fuel that had a lot of water in it and to top it off my thermostat decided to stick open making for a cold ride. What a PITA.

Been sitting at home since before Christmas. Right now I'm at home installing Arctic Fox fuel heaters, a block heater, insulating my fuel and coolant lines, installing heated mirrors and installing a new winter front as well as doing a few mechanical repairs.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Well, hello Mike, I have been wondering if you fell off the face of the earth, not seen you post anything in a while.
I know what you mean about being prepared for coming to the cold cold North.
We run Canada quite a bit, but been a couple of months since I was last up here. After this little expensive ordeal it may be a while before I come back.. LOL If DW has her way I would never be up here in the winter.
Last Canada run I had was up to St Johns in NL. Now that was a great trip. Don't think I want to it this time of year though.
I should be heading South tomorrow if everything goes OK. I have spent most of the day fighting with Volvo on what they were charging me.An Area Service manager for Volvo in US, told me that total hours on what they done should have been between 12-14 hours, Took them 22 hours . I got them to come down a bit, after ASM from US called up here and *****ed them out. I still think they should cover all the repairs, because they were caused by the turbo, going South. The turbo on the Volvo D16 engine has been a nightmare for Volvo, they have had more problems with it than they know what to do with it. Cummins makes the turbo for Volvo.
Good to see you post again Mike, maybe see you on the road up this way. Take care pal.

 

[sunflower]

I would be very surprised if Cummins actually makes the torbo,I have had 3 cummins and none of them were made by Cummins.Glad to hear you are finallyn able to go home.what an ordeal.Good luck.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Sunflower .
Cummins only make the turbo for the Volvo D16 engine, I don't know who makes it for the other Volvo engines, of course it's made to Volvo specs.

 

[sunflower]

My bad I see Cummkins now owns Holeset,those were the turbos I had.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

No biggie Sunflower, at least your man enough to admit it.

 

[pmmjarrett]

Been busier all get up patching the truck up and running hard. Was doing 5-1/2 day 3600 mile turns from Goshen IN to Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer for 6 weeks before coming home for the Holidays trying to fatten up the bank account a bit........ Now that I'm almost broke it's time to go back to work LOL. last week was the first week I did absolutly nothing all year. Rest of the year was work hard then come home and put a bandaid on the truck and go back out.

Had good freight all summer and right up to Christmas and we are still a wee bit behind and expect good running this year.

That Arctic blast before the holidays caught me off guard a bit as I wasn't expecting those temps until this month. And this is the time of year they will want us to run into Yellowknife NWT and White Horse Yukon.

Good ol Holset turbos..... Yep, just got a new wastegate actuator in for mine and picked up my exhaust manifold from being resurfaced at the machine shop today.

I might be doing some radical restructuring on the F800 over the next few months to either make it more comfy with the $10k 52" Roadmaster sleeper I just picked up for $700 on evilbay or set it up to haul the FEMA trailers by chopping off the bottom of the sleeper I already have so I can tuck the trailer tounges all the way to the back of the cab.

Also considering just building another truck.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

What happened with getting a Freightliner Argosy ?
I saw one for sale the other day on some concert lighting companies web site, It was a straight truck with a box, only had 100,000 miles on it, for the life of me I can't remember what web site though. Duhhhhhhh
Anyhoo Mike, be careful out there, may see you on the road one day.
Cheers... Canadian Ken.. not for much longer.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Mike... I found that Argosy again, it is an 05 with 100,000. It can be seen at www.circuitlighting.com Under truck for sale. It has a lot on it that when you take box off you could sell, Like a lift gate, they are not cheap.

 

[sunflower]

How do you like the weather this past week and the next week,a little better.Maybe you can get out a bit more now.