Profile For Dilrod

Pasta, pasta, and more pasta.

Happy Easter, He has Risen!

I just spent the last 4 days in Northern Minnesota, from Bemidji up to International Falls. Drove through three separate storm warnings.

Winter holds no further interest for me. 🥶

Here was my truck when I arrived in Bemidji Sunday night. By the time I left International Falls on Wednesday to head south, it was 10 times worse!

By the time I reached Cloquet, a couple hours south in normal conditions, on the road surrounded by clean vehicles, it looked like a well seasoned manure spreader.

Well done, keep up the good work!!

I just spent the last 4 days in Northern Minnesota, from Bemidji up to International Falls. Drove through three separate storm warnings.

Winter holds no further interest for me. 🥶

I've been on a Family Dollar account for the past 4 months, and plan to stay 2 more, so I can get on a particular local opportunity in my area that needs the experience.

I don't really have much to add, the negatives already mentioned are all true, but if you go in with the right attitude, and are careful about backing and sharp corners, it's fine.

I'm one of those guys who suck at backing, but if it wasn't for the practice I get on this account, I'd be much worse. Being aware of the career ending risk others have discussed keeps you frosty.

The rollers are ok if you keep them lubed and bring some extra things, like wood blocks and coke crates to get the right slope, so the boxes flow.

Yes, some store staff can't be pleased or depended on to do their jobs with any sense of urgency, but I've developed great relationships at many of my frequently visited stores, and they are always happy to see me. Communication and being careful with their freight is key.

The only drivers I would advise not to try this account are older people. I'm 55, an ex-farmer, ex-Marine, in half-way decent shape, and figured I had a few years of hard labor left in me. Turns out it was only a few months. My arthritis in my hands has gotten worse, and I've developed tendonitis in both elbows. One load a week is the most I can do, with a backhaul or two thrown in. If I was 40 or younger though, I'd tackle the job with gusto. The money is yours to earn.

Hi, I have specific questions at the bottom of this long, rambling mess, but if you can spare a few minutes, please read.

Last month I was summoned to the Joliet, IL terminal for a full PM on my '21 International LT, with a Cummins X15 under the hood, arriving on the Thursday night before that big storm many of you in the Midwest may recall: wet snow, followed by cold wind and a deep freeze. My truck was ready Friday afternoon, but with the weather starting to turn, I thought I'd better stay put.

I stayed in the truck all weekend, watched the frost build on the bunk hinges, ate canned Beefaroni and listened to the wind blow. Monday morning I hitched up to an empty trailer the DC asked me to bring back and headed out the gate. It seemed to be shifting a little early, but since I'd had problems with enough air pressure to make repeated gear changes when backing, I thought maybe they'd fixed that, and this was how it was supposed to shift.

About 2 miles from the terminal I slowed down to make a left turn, and heard a heck of a BOOM! It sounded like a blown tire. I got out, went around twice and thumped all the tires, everything looked fine. Idled fine, all gauges normal. I made the turn and now had a severe loss of power, so I pulled over and called it in. I didn't want to try driving back, for fear of something worse happening.

Of course, the shop was backed up with frozen trucks and who knows what else, so I was going to be stuck there for a while (12 days total, over my 55th birthday. Worst birthday since my 21st when I was in the field on a training exercise, and my 22nd when the Gulf War started, with me in it). The tow truck driver thought it was a fuel issue, and of course I'd used two bottles of antigel in each tank, but we all know fuel can still get snotty sometimes. When I told the mechanics what happened, they all looked puzzled.

While gathering some gear to take to the hotel, I noticed a smell in the cab, not really diesel exhaust, but more like that regen smell. I'd been noticing it around my truck that weekend as well, and figured it was something to do with the cold. Anyway, I got under it with a flashlight and could see that the EGR pipe was hanging loose, the bottom flexible boot had broken.

The mechanic figured it had cracked under stress from all the cooling and heating over the years, but I, as an above average shade tree mechanic, is wondering if something hadn't plugged with ice and caused this to rupture. It would take a lot of back pressure to tear that boot. I searched online, but nobody had posted an event like this, although someone had mentioned a flapper in the EGR system failing. They just changed the pipe and connections, and it was fine after that.

So, my questions for this honorable and experienced audience:

1. Has this happened to you, or have you heard of it happening to someone else? 2. Do you think a parked regen before leaving might have helped, by heating up the system and melting the ice (assuming that was the issue)?

Thanks!

Hi, first time poster, long time lurker. Rather than ask about how to dodge drug tests, or if ditching my truck on the interstate and walking home would negatively impact my career, I thought I'd share something a bit more lighthearted, and hopefully less awkward.

In October I was issued a well-used 2021 International. It looked like it had been run between two trees and it smelled like a wet dog. Someone had made a half-hearted attempt to clean the dash, but I'm pretty fussy, so I opened a big can of elbow grease and cleaned the whole interior, overhead to deck, port to starboard. Looked pretty good and smelled much better, thanks to Chemical Guys New Car Smell and Formula 409.

The remaining problem was that I kept hearing an hourly watch chime (beep beep), at 46 minutes on the hour. At 3:46, I would get a full alarm. That chime managed to wake me up just about every night. I looked high and low, couldn't find it.

One Saturday at home, my son and I went to the truck just before the appointed time. He was hoping to find a Rolex, I told him he'd be lucky to get a Timex. I had narrowed down the location from the driver's seat to the back of the sleeper. My boy took the front, I lifted the bed and we waited. Beep beep, right on queue.

It seemed to be coming from that lower cabinet next to bunk, but there was no space behind it, and nothing in it. I cleaned out the sleeper storage & pulled the mat, nothing. Then we looked in the upper driver's side cabinet, and my boy noticed a hardboard panel behind the middle shelf. I checked the top shelf, and sure enough, there is a gap between the top shelf and the wall!

I got my trim tools and popped the plugs holding the backing, and low and behold, there was a pretty nice, but grimy, Casio behind it, along with half a tube of toothpaste, a ball point pen, a pack of stale crackers and a cheap pair of cheater glasses. I have a hunch that someone was using the porthole by the top bunk to store their stuff, and everything fell back there.

Based on the copious amount of forensic evidence I cleaned out during my detailing campaign, I concluded that at least two others had driven that truck. I bet the first driver lost it, and the second driver just put up with it. Anyway, after he cleaned it up, my son got another watch.

I'd like to hear what other drivers have found in used trucks they were assigned. Thanks for reading and be safe out there.