Breakdown!

Pictures of a lonely, broke down truck in the middle of "no where" Wyoming.

Well, it finally happened. When you spend day after day, week after week and month after month driving, it is bound to happen. Mechanical things fail.

We were headed back to Salt Lake in the final few hours of our trip and discussing what we wanted to do on our day off. It was also right at the time we were getting ready to change drivers. I had put in my full 11hrs with the left door shut, and puttin down the miles to get us home, when I all of a sudden I felt a shudder . Initial thoughts was I had a flat tire. I immediatly completely focused my attention on all my senses, slowing the truck down, headed for an exit just in front of us. While doing that, I noticed it didn't really FEEL like a flat, but I smelled rubber. Hmmmm,,keep focused, get this thing off the road safely, also got to remember we have hazmat. Nothing exotic, just flammible paint, and some pressurized cylinders. So I need to stop in a safe place.

I hit the exit which was a raise to go to a crossover road. At the top, I stopped and asked Kim to get out and check tires on her side. As I was setting the brakes, etc, she told me no flats. I got out and noticed coolant coming from under the hood. I told Kim we didn't have a flat, but come up and look. UH OH, this doesn't look good! I moved the rig on over the top to an area just off of the on ramp side. Another truck that had stopped at the top came by on their way back to hiway to check on us. They just wanted to make sure we had a phone, and drinks, etc. Thanks guys, we really appreciate that kind of caring for fellow drivers.

I popped the hood open, and immediately saw what the rubber smell was. It was the fan belt off the pulleys and wrapped around the pulleys. The top front pulley from the water pump had separated from the engine, and the fan and the entire assembly went forward into the radiator, punching holes in it.

It was quickly deducted (I am pretty smart that way :) ) that this was pretty serious and not going to be a quick roadside fix. I called roadservice and told them what was going on. They contacted a shop in Rock Springs, Wy (about 20 mi back) that had 24hr repair service and wrecker service to arrange a tow and repairs. I also had to call the fleet manager to arrange something to get the load taken care of. After a few minutes we got a message on the Qualcomm that a relay was set up and scheduled by 9pm. This was only about 5:30 now so we are going to be here awhile. We had already been an hour, so with nothing to do now but wait, we fixed dinner, listened to the radios, and waited.

Our relay team showed up about 8pm and we both decided we were not going to unhook where I had parked the truck. It was on the side of the on ramp, but was leaning pretty good. It will have to wait till the wrecker got here and pulled me out onto the flat road surface of the on ramp.

About 30 min later the wrecker showed, hooked up to the front of the truck and dragged us up onto the ramp. We unhooked from the trailer and the other team hooked up and took off back to Salt Lake.

The wrecker then came around to the rear of the tractor, and extended a boom under the frame, lifted the rear duals off the ground, chained it down, and pulled us back to Rock Springs. After getting the ticket written up to get the repair started tomorrow morning (Monday), the driver took us a few blocks to the local Best Western Hotel.

We had initially thought we would spend the nite, get some rest, then see about renting a car today and going on to Salt Lake and home since it will be a couple or 3 days. After getting here, it is a nice hotel, a pool, a nice room, cable tv, fridge, quiet,,,hmmm,,and no young adult running around making all kinds of noise,,,,this might not be so bad after all. So we decided to stay put and do nothing for a couple of days. If it looks like it will be longer, we'll see about getting home.

We have lost our first load out of Salt Lake tomorrow morning, so now we are done till Friday morning. Kinda nice, but the pay check will only be half for this week.

Oh well, stuff happens, make the best of the situation, and go on.

Till next time, keep it safe out there,,,,and waive at those big rigs on the side of the road, you never know! :)