Topics specifically for 
How Cool is this..?
Option #1
"Have you ever performed weekend maintenance on a prime mover..?"
Option #2
"Would you ever invite the G-dog for a weekend stay and BBQ..?"
Well, I would like to start out by just saying...
Most maintenance/repairs over my 30 year career have been done here in house at the...
Pookyville Cat Ranch
Maintenance and repairs such as an oil change or light bulb replacement up to and including major engine, transmission and drivetrain repairs. Other than 2 major in frame engine rebuilds and an install of the electronic control module (Brain) on my current truck which takes a high dollar software program and a dongle to connect a laptop to the trucks data port where programming the injectors and setting the trucks parameters occurs, or bearing/race replacements I take to the shop. I just do not trust myself to set bearing lash (tightness). Other than that I have pretty much done it all.
Without going into too much detail. Let us go back to the beginning. Where it all began...
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Ok maybe not that far back! Let's just start in my teens. A little closer to the beginning of my
Near 16 years of age I moved on to 4 wheel drive trucks and hot rod mustangs. Here are photos of those.
Fast forward passed my late teenage years with all the drug and alcohol abuse that came with them.
In 1992 I was 25 years old and running a pipe fabrication machine. A machine operator career that I sometimes wish I would have stayed in. But when not running that machine. I would be driving a huge fork lift unloading long lifts of cast iron pipe off of flatbed trucks. I was the best at it, So the shop foreman would pull me off the machine to do the unloading and stacking. The flatbeds that delivered the pipe were always brand new with all the bells and whistles on them. Many times the drivers would visit with us and we would sit in the cabs to get warm in the winter months or to escape a sudden summer rain/lightning storm. I just knew I had to drive one someday. And when they passed me over for a pay bump. They said My paychecks were some of the highest amounts of the 20 or so workers there. But only because I averaged nearly 100 hours a week working almost always 7 days a week. I was burned out after nearly 3 years there. So off to truck driving school in Dayton Ohio (usa) I went. Pre-hired of course and pre paid to work for North American Van Lines when they were bought out by the railroad and put on 5000 power units. (Prime Movers)
The old Cabovers. They made sure you were the first one on the scene of the accident. Not comfortable or roomy at all back in those days.
My Dad & I in the next photo of the first big truck I was assigned to.
Things turned into a nightmare from there. I was not prepared for the 3-4 weeks out with no home time. A dispatcher (driver manager) from hell, withdrawals from the party life style, and homesickness did me in after only 5 short months.
So I tried my hand at some local driving for a potato chip company in the town of Waterford PA. Where I was born and raised. Probably the ugliest old truck I ever drove. But that thing had power to spare pulling light weight loads. And it rode like a fekkin cadillac. The Smoothest ride of any I have ever driven.
Troyer Potato Chip Truck. Pictured here with Me and my nephew.
I worked there for over a year before having a fall out with the...
You Guessed it.
The Driver Manager. Dispatchers they are often called. Or just Asshole to put it nicely. It seems a good dispatcher is as hard to find as an honest car salesman or politician. Liars and thieves most of them that I have dealt with are.
But I found one with DeMarco trucking and ran all over the eastern states for a year or so with them. Pulling reefers and dry boxes. Both are vans. Reefers are refrigerated insulated box vans.
My dispatcher was a drinking buddy of mine that almost always made sure I was back in the yard by 3-4pm on Fridays to meet up with him at the Ripley Hotel just a few minutes down the street from the DeMarco trucking drop yard. Of course when Dan my dispatcher did that he always drank for free.
But as always good things rarely last. Dan went back out in a truck. And a dispatcher from hell took his place. So off I went to try driving for a small family trucking business with only 4 trucks. They had a contract hauling tomato's from Florida (usa) to Toronto. (can)
I absolutely loved it. The pay was good with bonuses. It was one of the best years of trucking I ever had. An awesome Peterbilt Prime. Shiny stainless reefer trailers. I took over driving the Pete for the families father. The founder of Sults Trucking. He had prostate cancer and would only survive the year I spent in his truck. When he passed. His 2 sons just could not agree on anything. Everything changed. So I asked them to sell me the Prime. One son Mark agreed. The other, Jim would not. So I asked for a pay bump. Nope. Mark said I deserved it. Jim said I did not... SMFH.
Time to move on.
Photo of that most awesome Peterbilt Prime Mover.
I dealt only with Mark Sults at the end. Giving 1 month leave notice. And of my purchase of the Truck pictured below.
1993 Freightliner FLD120
We now finally enter into the topic of this post.
Preventative Maintenance
Not much maintenance was done by me or really anyone on the first truck that I owned, The FLD 120.
I ran the wheels off it. Blew the engine. The warranty refused to cover the parts that failed. I told the repo man to come get it. Not a good start to my owner operator career. It has been a long uphill pull to where I am now.
The photo of my 2nd truck below is where my maintenance really started to shine and save monies.
1995 KW T600
This Kay Dubbya Prime was used and abused. It needed constant love and wrenching. It was also the cheapest truck of the 4 I have owned. Coming in at a mere $15k. I know I put at least that much more into it with parts. But not labor. You see the mechanic
Cue the weird dream sequence music in your head now.
G-Dog has just stepped out of the KrazzyTrukker worm hole for a weekend BBQ visit and to help with some...
You guessed it!
"Preventative Maintenance"
For those who may have skipped ahead and missed the topic.
We will start the weekend out with steak/chicken/shrimp ka-bobs. Soon to be followed by a fuel injector replacement on the 1995 Kay Dubbya.
Photos of Both
The next day opens with some target practice. Followed by another P.M. round of dirty hands and ratchets of air wrenches followed by cussing and laughter.
Before you know it Sunday is here and after an hour hike of the surroundings wooded properties. Lazing the sunny afternoon away in the hammocks. It is time for G-Dog to make his way back thru time and space to his homeland. Thanks to that trusty alien wormhole technology.
My 3rd truck was the one I loved to wrench on as much as I enjoyed driving it. That old school 1999 W900 KW. The 75th year anniversary edition model. We probably had over $100k sunk into it when that drunk driver hit us. A wreck I will never be able to forget. But still I try to.
Here are a few photos of it. Some maintenance/repairs with a special guest appearance by 
1999 Kay Dub ya
Fast forward to today. The 30 years has ran it's course on me. I no longer have the desire to drive the Prime. I have none to work on it either. I am seriously considering selling out and retiring from the owner operator game. I may still have to work part time. But I am just tired.
Prime #4 The Final Prime
(photo taken just now)
At this time I would like to initiate a round of applause from all Hivians that read this for our Curator.
@galenkpThanks for making me feel weird and special all at the same time.
