Yesterday about noon I pulled into a rest stop in Rifle Colorado. There was only 1 truck there when I pulled in and he had a mobile service truck sitting next to him. I did the great Bill Engval, Here's Your Sign statement and asked, "truck broke?" before thinking about it.

The driver told me he had stopped and slid his trailer axles but was unable to get the brakes to release afterward. At 11:30 PM I looked out of my truck and the repairman was still trying to get the brakes released. He was a young kid and was on the cell phone with the boss trying to figure out what was going on as he obviously had no clue how the brake system worked. I really don't know what time the repairman left but when I got up at 8:30 this am I noted that the truck was still there. Upon my return from the call of nature to my truck, the other driver told me that they hadn't had any luck and that the owner of the roadside repair was coming out shortly.

I jokingly asked if he had made sure the Johnson Bar was released. He asked what a Johnson Bar was, I told him that that was the hand brake to set the trailer brakes. He cursed a bit, stepped into the cab, released the Johnson Bar, released the trailer brakes and drove forward a few feet.

Explain that one to your maintenance department! I know the roadside had been there at least 14 hours. EXPENSIVE SCREW UP!

 

Comatose.

.

 

That stuff happens to the best driver out there. I don't understand why after 14hrs no one thought about checking the Johnson bar???

One time i just dumped a load of rock and i was pulling out of the job and down the road. Anyway i kept on hearing this F-ed up noise. It was getting louder with the higher RPMs. So i called my boss told him about it. He said to bring it into the shop ASAP. Well on my way to the shop i look at the dash and seen i still had the PTO on. I felt like an azzhole when i had to call my boss back to tell him LOL.

 

The first clue that the "Johnnie Bar" was engaged should have been the brake lights lite up on the trailer. Second clue...for a qualified mechanic, should have been that the service brakes on the trailer were activated, and not the parking brakes.

:lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2:


Rookies.

 

Dump truckers NEVER accidently leave the pto engaged :smokin::smokin: and I didn't accidently leave the diff lock in when I left one of the plants last week eitherops: I had to lock in the rear end to manage to get up a rocky as hell hill for fill dirt and much to my suprise I glanced at the dash when I had left the plant and thought "OH SH#T" and flipped the switch.

 

You suggesting that the mechanic was no better than the driver??? :lol: :lol: :clap: :clap:

 

Funny, but not funny. Sad, but humorious.

I guess it happens to the best of us, but still... You'd think that the machanic would have noticed..
I'd hate to see that bill from the services..

 

I had to have road service come out for me once in IN. My alternator mounting bracket sheared off the bolts. The guy used a drill and extracted one, but messed up the other two. Even broke off his easy-out in one. My mechanic was able to get one out, but the other one was just screwed up too bad. I ended up welding a nut to the end of the easy-out, then used a megnetic drill to make the hole oversized. Re-tapped it and when I put a bolt in, I used sleeve-lock to secure it in place, then drilled and tapped the original size back again. When I got rid of the truck, it had all the bolts in again. But, no thanks to the guy that had been doing road service for some years. Yes, he did get me going, but it took quite a bit of work to fix what he screwed up.

If I were still running my own truck, I would have tools so that I would have to call road service only for something major, and then it would be a wrecker. Like when my air compressor quit on me. That one cost me $1,560, including towing.

 

Now......Why would you think that??? :smokin::smokin:


I get so tired of these guys that are pretending to be mechanics, then get indignante when I ask what the BOOK says the repair time should have been. :hellno::hellno::hellno:

I think the mechanic in your post, was actually WORSE than the driver.

:clap::clap::clap::clap: :lol2::lol2::lol2:

 

:lol:
I agree. Ya know, if the trailer brake lights are on, it's usually someone with their foot down on the brake pedal. Or, the trailer hand brake is applied.