Off topic about a Semi tractor turbo and blown motor

[Don87]

Bad call on my part, as my dispatcher is on vacation and the lady trying to do his job wouldn't have a clue about it, and although I thought about it after the fact, had no clue that something like that could or would have happened. I really hate that my lack of knowledge about a truck related incident could have cost the company that much money. Being in trucking for as long as I have, would have (should have!) given me a clue as to shut that thing down when the turbo went and it started smoking! Unfortunately I have not been exposed to run away motors in the past, to even consider the causes and reasons. The old saying "too soon old, too late smart" sure applies to this one.
David from jax

None of this was your fault.

I see trucks with blown turbos going down the road at least once a week..........they just keep an eye on the oil till they get to a repair facility.

Yours was an extreme situation............kinda like a 'one-in-a-million' thing.

Being a half mile from the terminal..........and calling a wrecker(at a $500 minimum charge), doesn't make sense.

You did everything right..........and anyone that says different is dead wrong.

I worked on 'em before i drove 'em............been drivin for 11 years now.

 

[sandman2234]

I caught the VP out in the yard, heading for his car I think, as I was leaving out on a run, and explained it all to him. He said not to worry about it, things happen and it was probably just time for the turbo to go.
Not sure if he realized that the motor went along with it, but he said it was in the shop and they would know something sooner or later.
Due to y'alls imput, I feel a lot better about it.
Thanks, David from jax

 

[Don87]

I caught the VP out in the yard, heading for his car I think, as I was leaving out on a run, and explained it all to him. He said not to worry about it, things happen and it was probably just time for the turbo to go.
Not sure if he realized that the motor went along with it, but he said it was in the shop and they would know something sooner or later.
Due to y'alls imput, I feel a lot better about it.
Thanks, David from jax

Your welcome. And as I said, what you experienced was a one in a million thing. It's not your fault, and there's very little you could have done.

 

[sandman2234]

Well, that clunk I heard as the high reving motor came to an immediate halt, apparently wasn't the motor coming apart. They put a turbo in the truck and put it back on the road. I drove it to the panhandle last night. All is well...
David from jax

 

[The Haymaker]

Well, that clunk I heard as the high reving motor came to an immediate halt, apparently wasn't the motor coming apart. They put a turbo in the truck and put it back on the road. I drove it to the panhandle last night. All is well...
David from jax

Hmm...... Tranny slap? Odd. At least it was a findable issue, not like the electronic gremlin my 8600 has had. Our "Master Mechanic" (spoken VERY loosely with max gvw of sarcasm) has fixed the issue no less than three times. (Right) Truck would momentarily shut down going down road from the computer loosing power momentarily. Wednesday night, in a Nor'easter, it died for good. Truck broke at 1730, tow truck showed up at 0100, I punched out at 5am, 22 hours after punch in. Only thing worse than breaking a truck 120 miles from the barn is picking the second most remote corner of Maine to do it in.

Good news is this time the issue is permanent and the 2k towing bill, while our brand new tow attachment sat unused in the shop, is sure to catch some attention.

 

[pilot-werx]

My volvo 880's seem to like a new turbo every 300k. So much, that we keep one on the shelf... Never heard of one taking the motor though? Cannot imagine what it would cost to replace a D16!

 

[sandman2234]

Hmm...... Tranny slap? Odd. At least it was a findable issue, not like the electronic gremlin my 8600 has had. Our "Master Mechanic" (spoken VERY loosely with max gvw of sarcasm) has fixed the issue no less than three times. (Right) Truck would momentarily shut down going down road from the computer loosing power momentarily. Wednesday night, in a Nor'easter, it died for good. Truck broke at 1730, tow truck showed up at 0100, I punched out at 5am, 22 hours after punch in. Only thing worse than breaking a truck 120 miles from the barn is picking the second most remote corner of Maine to do it in.

Good news is this time the issue is permanent and the 2k towing bill, while our brand new tow attachment sat unused in the shop, is sure to catch some attention.

Sounds like something some of our people would do, then say "I didn't know the tow attachment was for broken trucks, I thought it was for the boss's tow boat.
David from jax

 

[5030]

Pretty good attack on the OP.

Now since you've shown your butt..........maybe you should read the first post again.

The situation arose "after" he left the terminal. Which would be after a pretrip.

Read on.....

Fourthly; It is "Ensure" not "Insure".

As long as we're pickin' nits we might as well get the smallest ones we can (-:

My only comment is, if you critique spelling and grammar on this site, you might as well go elsewhere because you'll be at it..... forever.......:laughing:

My other comment is, I'm in fleet maintenance and safety and compliance for a medium sized private carrier and I'm also a State and Federally certified examiner/trainer and I deal with drivers and their supposed 'pre trip' inspections everyday, most of which don't occur as required, even though the drivers are 'supposedly' doing them..... and our fleet is no exception though it is getting better because someone actuallly watches and disciplines accordingly.

Want a job, perform the required tasks necessary to insure your employment longevity....

Finally, it's a very simple matter to ascertain if the driver or in a slip seat operation, which drivers didn't properly pre-trip a vehicle because every engine built after 2002 has an onboard data recorder in the engine management software package that allows a complete download of all operating parameters. Early engines only record the previous 7 days but late model engines record up to 60 days of parameters like low oil level, low coolant level, engine overspeed, engine underspeed under load, braking force in 'G' force, lateral G forces, excessive idling, cold start overspeed and a whole raft of other, very incriminating evidence that's accessable by just plugging into the harness.

It's much like the on board data recorder that airplanes have but it's built into the engine management system.

It's common practice after a wreck, for the insurance company to offload the data recorder to compare to the driver's actual account of the incident and determine the factors leading up to the crash.

We use the data recorder to ascertain if we have a negligent driver when a major mechanical proplem arises and yes, I've terminated drivers in the past for pre-trip inspections that weren't.

We run $150,000 dollar tractor trailers. When a driver can't even do a proper pre-trip (and it's something that we instruct our new hires in because we realize that with experience, drivers become lax in procedure), the only option is discipline or termination, if need be.

We have 100 plus drivers in 4 locations. After all the years I've been doing this, I pretty much know who does what they are supposed to and who don't. Those who don't play a game where the company holds the aces and they have the joker.

That's how it works. It's the real world and it's espensive equipment.

Finally, I'm not a college, white collar office type guy that drives a Beemer. I have over 40 years of over the road driving and heavy equipment hauling and I owned a small fleet at one time. I hold every endorsement that the Department of Transportation issues and I drive a Ford 350 diesel pickup...with a gun rack in the back window......

No, I didn't speel check this post. I'm sure you get the drift.....

 

[sandman2234]

First off, the 'red motor' is an ISX C Cummins.

Secondly, it's air to air, charge air cooled, not intercooled.

Thirdly, the seal on the cold side of the turbocharger failed, allowing oil to enter the air-to-air cooler in front of the radiator,

When the ata unit filled with oil and the oil reached the return air outlet, the engine started sucking oil with the charge air and it ran away, not on fuel but lube oil.

Nothing to do but let it self destruct. Usually the overhead fails first, they drop a valve or break the valve bridge casting...

If you had done a proper pre-trip inspection instead of being a steering wheel holder, you'd have caught either the low oil level, the wetness around the coupling boot on the intake side of the turbo or blue smoke coming from the stack.


Drivers like you insure that I have lots of work.....

Well, the oil level was at just above a half gallon low, where it has been for the past 3 weeks. There was NO oil seepage on any of the couplings, before or after the turbo went out. (note I checked all the clamps when I pulled over, after hearing the "pop".) There was not any blue or white smoke coming out of the stack when I did my pretrip inspection, only after I stopped down the road to check after the "pop", and it was blue. I only moved the truck under dispatches request. Drivers that listen to the radio while driving probably would not have heard that noise, as it was not very load, did not repeat itself.

As far as keeping you in lots of work, if your making money from drivers "like me", then your going to starve to death. Our safety dept routinely puts tags on various parts of the trucks, ranging from brake shoes, lug nuts, tire valve stems, radiator caps, dipsticks, permit books, trailer paperwork boxes, landing gears, or where ever they can think of to check to see if a driver did his pretrip. If you find the tag, it has a phone number to call, and claim a $5.00 reward. HOWEVER, once you leave, and you haven't called, you are written up, and a letter goes into your file. As of today, I am the company's highest earner of the safety awards tags, and have NO letters in my file saying I failed to do a proper pretrip inspection.
On the other hand, FMCSA only requires a single vehicle inspection per day per unit, and a post trip is required, so why am I even doing a pretrip inspection? Guess it is because I am a "steering wheel holder"...or maybe because I love my job!!!
In the recent past, the VP I mentioned above overheard that I had a brother, and said "there is another one like you? He asked our safety/recruiter why he hadn't hired him...
My favorite saying is... "Good help is hard to get" and comes into play way too often in todays business. On my last job, it really came true, as the local people tried to save my job, but N.J corporate wouldn't hear of it, thinking I was going to loose my license. So I was terminated, and when my boss put in for them to hire two new employees, they balked. They hired one, and a week later finally listened, and hired a second one to handle the work I did everyday.I didn't loose my license, was deteremined not to be at fault, and was called to try to get me to return to them, but had already decided I wanted to work for somebody who has my best interest in mind. I currently run right up to my 70 hours, AVERAGING well over 3k miles a week, several hundred consistant miles more than any of our other drivers. I am the driver who gets tossed into a "sticky situation" when there is a customer problem or possible problem because they know I do what it takes to smooth over an irate customer, or make reasonable judgement calls. I know my job, and am good at it (as long as I have been at it, I should!!). I am easy to dispatch, just send me an email or make a call. I NEVER refuse or balk at dispatches, nor have I been late on ANY loads that "could have" been made by any other driver.
If you think I am beating my own drum, send me a PM and I will give you names of the people I work for and you can ask ANY of them what they think of me.
My dispatcher and I have an agreement. If the company had 6 of him and 60 of me, we could run the company into the Fortune 500.
David from jax

 

[The Haymaker]

Well, the oil level was at just above a half gallon low, where it has been for the past 3 weeks. There was NO oil seepage on any of the couplings, before or after the turbo went out. (note I checked all the clamps when I pulled over, after hearing the "pop".) There was not any blue or white smoke coming out of the stack when I did my pretrip inspection, only after I stopped down the road to check after the "pop", and it was blue. I only moved the truck under dispatches request. Drivers that listen to the radio while driving probably would not have heard that noise, as it was not very load, did not repeat itself.

As far as keeping you in lots of work, if your making money from drivers "like me", then your going to starve to death. Our safety dept routinely puts tags on various parts of the trucks, ranging from brake shoes, lug nuts, tire valve stems, radiator caps, dipsticks, permit books, trailer paperwork boxes, landing gears, or where ever they can think of to check to see if a driver did his pretrip. If you find the tag, it has a phone number to call, and claim a $5.00 reward. HOWEVER, once you leave, and you haven't called, you are written up, and a letter goes into your file. As of today, I am the company's highest earner of the safety awards tags, and have NO letters in my file saying I failed to do a proper pretrip inspection.
On the other hand, FMCSA only requires a single vehicle inspection per day per unit, and a post trip is required, so why am I even doing a pretrip inspection? Guess it is because I am a "steering wheel holder"...or maybe because I love my job!!!
In the recent past, the VP I mentioned above overheard that I had a brother, and said "there is another one like you? He asked our safety/recruiter why he hadn't hired him...
My favorite saying is... "Good help is hard to get" and comes into play way too often in todays business. On my last job, it really came true, as the local people tried to save my job, but N.J corporate wouldn't hear of it, thinking I was going to loose my license. So I was terminated, and when my boss put in for them to hire two new employees, they balked. They hired one, and a week later finally listened, and hired a second one to handle the work I did everyday.I didn't loose my license, was deteremined not to be at fault, and was called to try to get me to return to them, but had already decided I wanted to work for somebody who has my best interest in mind. I currently run right up to my 70 hours, AVERAGING well over 3k miles a week, several hundred consistant miles more than any of our other drivers. I am the driver who gets tossed into a "sticky situation" when there is a customer problem or possible problem because they know I do what it takes to smooth over an irate customer, or make reasonable judgement calls. I know my job, and am good at it (as long as I have been at it, I should!!). I am easy to dispatch, just send me an email or make a call. I NEVER refuse or balk at dispatches, nor have I been late on ANY loads that "could have" been made by any other driver.
If you think I am beating my own drum, send me a PM and I will give you names of the people I work for and you can ask ANY of them what they think of me.
My dispatcher and I have an agreement. If the company had 6 of him and 60 of me, we could run the company into the Fortune 500.
David from jax

Nice to know there are other professionals out there that "get it". Nice job.

Any chance you're in this video somewhere?

http://www.xr650r.us/video/ntdc%202007%20lowres.wmv

E