Friday the 13th for weeks

It's not ever Friday the 13th but our luck at works SSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But this morning may take the cake.


We have 4-5 trucks on the road every day. At least 3 curbside/commercial trucks every day and either a fourth curbside/commercial truck or a hooklift truck running as well, sometimes both.

A couple weeks ago we were having problems (again, we almost always seem to have a truck with a problem, but this one is much worse) with a truck not running right. We had it towed to the mechanic we use. They started trying to figure out the problem. The tube that suctions the oil from the pan to the head had broke off. At least one piston and rod are shot, and the crank needs turned. We have been trying to find a used motor, but it is just a different enough truck that no one has been able to come up with one.

Then yesterday, one of our drivers calls in saying that his truck is losing water and fast. We told him to take it to a shop in the town he was working in. But since the truck was a cab-over style Crane Carrier, and the lift cylinder had been taken out so it could be replaced, this shop wouldn't work on it. Damnit.

So we had to get it towed to the shop where our other truck was already being worked on and Dad and I headed to the Quad Cities to get a rental truck. Expensive as hell.

Then this morning, we get a call from the mechanic and there is a problem with the truck we just towed in. The part was to be delivered overnight and they were going to have us up and running first thing this morning, but sometime during the night the engine had a short and caught fire.

Yessireebob, fucking truck caught on FIRE!!!!

Burned up lots of stuff on the engine. Hoses, wires, oil lines. Filled the shop with soot all over everything. Shorted the wiring in the overhead doors of the shop. Melted light fixtures in the shop. Luckily, the shop didn't burn to the ground. The truck is totaled. We think we have found a cab and chassis that we will be able to mount the box off the existing burned truck onto.

On top of everything else, I thought the folks were going to have a meltdown.

Frankly, I am surprised it hasn't happened already.