STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22200: Tremonton Tribulation

April 23, 2008 on 6:30 pm | In On The Road |

As usual, there is little of consequence to report in this posting, except for a little today which i’ll get to after bringing you up to date on my goings about.

After I returned to Corinne on the 16th, I took a load to Casper, WY. It went well. Before I returned to Corinne on the 18th, I had breakfast at the nearby Perkins Family Restaurant. The return trip was equally uneventful.
My next load was a 4-stop load to Orem and Provo, UT, Mesquite, NV, and finally a backhaul in Sugarville (near Delta), UT. The weather had turned cold and windy, and I made most of the trip in an all-out dust storm. I was lucky, because Montana and Wyoming got yet another dose of winter with blowing snow and ice. Quite nasty. Anyway, I digress. I made the first 3 stops, then drove back into Utah where I stopped at the MMM’s favorite Rest Area on I-15 at mm-88. Before I left Corinne, I had put some kraut, potatoes and sausages in the Crock Pot, so I had a nice dinner then went to bed. On the 20th, I drove to the 4th stop, did the drop/hook, and drove back to Corinne. The dust storm was even worse, with gusty winds and visibility of a mile or less in spots. Before I called it a day, I did a local run to West Valley City and Tooele, UT and back. 
On the 21st, I took a load to Littleton, Thornton, and Louisville, CO. All went well both going and coming. When I arrived back in Corinne yesterday evening, I had only 4.5 hours remaining of my 70 for the week.
This morning, I decided to put my truck in the shop for a PM Service and to have my clutch checked out. It was hard to get into gear from neutral. Perhaps a bad clutch brake or adjustment. With only 4.5 hours to work today, there was little that I could do for Walmart. I got into the shop at 0700. The first thing the mechanic found was that the oil fill tube mount bracket was broken and the oil cap was missing. They welded the bracket back together and re-installed it, but the cap won’t arrive until tomorrow afternoon. I used some Ethno-Centric Engineering to temporarily solve the problem. I rolled up a shop towel, stuffed it in the fill tube and secured it with a zip-tie to keep contaminants out of the engine. They found a coolant leak, (the engine block heater gasket). They also found that one of my clutch linkages was missing a rubber bushing, which was throwing the clutch out of adjustment and not allowing the clutch brake to engage. While waiting, I replaced my air filter, which was filthy. Both the coolant leak and the clutch are under warranty, so they sent me to a shop here in Tremonton, UT which does warranty repairs for Kenworth. I arrived a little before noon, but had to wait until almost 1500 before I finally got into the shop. While I was waiting, I went to a nerarby Denny’s (YUK) for a late breakfast. After I was in the shop, I retired to the driver’s lounge with the MMM after a good walk. They settled in nicely, sharing a couch with me one on each side. A while later, the parts man came up and told me that the part for the clutch would have to be ordered and would take a week or so to arrive. I told them to just forget about it. About 1800, it was time for another walk. After that, I checked on my truck. The mechanic was just finishing the block heater gasket (it was hard to reach). When I checked about 15 minutes later, he was adjusting the clutch. I thought to myself that it was a futile effort, since the missing bushing would throw it out of adjustment again. Evidently, he was more informed than the day shift parts man, because he said that he had found the proper bushing in the parts room replaced it. COOL!!! So far, so good.

I’m pleased to find I have pretty good connectivity here with my Sprint Wireless Card. It’s about 13 miles north of Corinne. I may come up here more often. At 0800 tomorrow morning, I will have 34 consecutive hours off duty, so i’ll start off tomorrow with a fresh 70-hour work week. Back to the Salt Mine.