[thebaldeagle655]

Started out the week, headed to Wichita Ks, got unloaded with no problem and headed to Lawton Ok to get loaded. When I got into Lawton I had about a 4 hour wait until my load appointment so I dropped in on my daughter who lives 5 miles from the pick up point. As I pulled onto the shoulder of the road where I have parked numerous times my left front tire dropped out of sight and I ended up with a $150 wrecker bill to get me pulled out. Missed my appointment but did have a nice evening with my daughter. Tuesday I got loaded right off the bat and headed for Colorado. Passed though Denver with no problems, no chain laws in effect YET and headed up the pass. The higher I got (in the mountains, not from my cigarette) the worse the weather got.

As I pulled up to the Eisenhower Tunnel, the traffic was stopped and ended up on the steep grade at a dead stop on ice and snow with scattered patches of sand. Traffic started up, I had already kicked in my diff interlock but with little traction I barely moved with 4 wheels slowly spinning when all of a sudden, the right front drive wheels caught traction and SNAP, drive axle broke. Now, I'm in traffic, on ice with only one axle slowly turning and a loud clunk in the rearend. I was able to get the truck and trailer moved to the side and about 15 minutes later CDOT arrived and pushed me to the Haz Mat turnout. 1 1/2 hours later, I was enroute back down the mountain on the hook of a heavy wrecker enroute to the KW dealer in Denver. I arrived at KW at about 1 PM and upon checkin was told 4 -5 hours at the most to get the front diff pulled, cleaned out and reinstalled.

About 5 PM the service manager told me that they had the diff ready to be pulled but he didn't have anyone on the first shift he trusted to do the work and that someone from second shift would pull it when they came on at 7. Promised to have it out by 10. I have pulled at least 50 diff's and this is well within the time frame that it should take, 3 - 4 hours at the max! At 3:30 am, they finally got the truck ready. Seems there was not a service man that worked for the KW dealer in Denver that had ever pulled a diff before! I was a bit ticked and not so politely asked the night service manager why in the heck, when they knew they had no one to work on it, they didn't tell me before I had it towed 90 miles in a snow storm and icy roads. That if I had of known that, I would have gone to Junction, 90 miles farther but with better road conditions and they could have gotten me taken care of. His reply, "we wanted your business." I let him know he wouldn't get any more of it!

Oh, yes, now a missed delivery time!

Headed off and got to the delivery point a mere 24 hours late (had been on phone, and they were aware, no problem there.) Got unloaded and reloaded rapidly.

Get to the Weight Scales on I-76 in Colorado, 1300 lbs overweight. Luck is changing though, he allows me to knock snow and ice off trailer and throw away some of my good oak 4x4's to get within weight and then allowd me to go on 440 lbs over. Sure with I had not have just fueled up!

Rest of trip went fairly uneventful. Got loaded with brick and headed to San Antonio, Monday delivery, home for the weekend. Maybe next week will be better!

But NO ONE GOT HURT!! so the whole week was great!

[Jackrabbit379]

Dang, baldeagle, sorry to hear that. Well, it's good to hear that you were ok, and everyone else around ya. Stuff like that never happens when it's going good. It's always right there in the middle of traffic, or bad weather. I'm glad that you were still able to get unloaded, and got out of there. Got a Monday drop off? That's gotta stink much bad when payday is Friday, and you get paid if paper work is in by Friday. That reminds me of my buddy. He has his truck leased to WESTAR. He has a guy who drives it for him. Anyway, he told me that he had only 2 loads last week. Last Wednesday, his driver was over somewhere in Mississippi, and unloaded. Picked up in Mississippi, took it to Armadillo, but couldnt unload till today. Doug was hot! He went up there on Friday to pick up his check. He had his daughter with him. One of the dispatchers asked his daughter if she got a good report at school. She told the dispatcher that she did. He asked her if "dad" gave her something for it. She said that he didnt. The dispatcher said, "Well, dad, why didnt you give her something for the good report." Doug told me that he looked at him and said, "Well if dad had a dispatcher that could get his driver unloaded by Friday, dad would have more money to give his daughter something." He said that the dispatcher just sat there with a blank look on his face. :lol:

[One]

Wow, how easy was it to break that drive shaft??? how much power did you have down? i.e how many rpm were you doing when you caught traction?

[thebaldeagle655]

Originally Posted by One

Wow, how easy was it to break that drive shaft??? how much power did you have down? i.e how many rpm were you doing when you caught traction?

Was on an ice patch with sand in it, really didn't think I was giving it too much, it hit a dry patch and wham, knew what it was instantly! Probably only running 1200 -1500 rpm in 2nd. It was slipping oh so slightly forward at the time when it hit traction.