The ill-fated truck. Trip was to be Slidell, Louisiana to Yorktown, Virginia but the trip was aborted in Mobile, Alabama due to truck malfunction.
Gautier, Mississippi Fall Colours 27th November 2019
Gautier, Mississippi Fall Colours 27th November 2019
Tour of Duty 31st October 2019 to 19th December 2019
Part VI: 26th November to 28th November
I awoke on Tuesday 26th November in Lafayette, Louisiana. I continued east in the rental car and encountered some rain. I learned of traffic problems in Baton Rouge so I took an alternate route to cut down on the delay. I took on rental car fuel in Hammond, LA. I arrived at the shipper which was actually a Freightliner Dealer and checked in and loaded my gear and did a quick inspection and found a marker light was out. I headed to turn in the rental car and got a ride back to the dealer and the marker light was fixed when I got back. I got signed off and was good to go.
Trip: Origin in Slidell, LA Intended destination Yorktown, VA 1,031 miles
Trip Aborted in Mobile, AL 116 actual miles
Make: 2013 Western Star
Model: Vacuum Truck
Transmission: Automatic
Route: Interstate 10 to Interstate 65
Maximum elevation: unknown but low
Diesel price USA: 2.999$ per gallon at Pilot Moss Point, MS
I got started and did not get far due to the stressful drive in the rental car and lateness of the hour. I stopped at the TA next door and parked there and walked over to
Raising Cane's for evening rations. Then I got on the eastbound 10 and saw the scale was closed when I entered Mississippi. I spent the night in Gulfport, MS.
Wednesday I continued east. I made a brief stop at a rest area in Gautier, MS. Then I headed to Moss Point to take on fuel and when I pulled in I saw the yellow "Check Engine" light was on. I aborted my plan to fuel and went to truck parking and shut the motor off and restarted it in the hope that would clear the code. No such luck so I phoned up dispatch and was told to fill up on fuel and DEF fluid and then park and do what is known as a "forced regeneration." I took on fuel and DEF then parked and attempted the forced regeneration but nothing happened and the check engine light remained illuminated. I got a hold of dispatch and was told to divert to a Freightliner dealer in Mobile, Alabama. I got caught in some traffic in Alabama on the 10 but made it to the dealer. To make a long story short a technician hooked up a laptop to the ECM module and got some diagnostic codes. Though I was able to get the truck into the shop on its own power had I ignored the light and continued I was told the engine would have first derated to 55mph and later it would derate to 5mph and finally the truck would break down altogether. However no one knew how long it would have been before those things happened. Just before the shop was to close and it was to be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving Holiday, dispatch made the decision to pull me off the trip and that stopped the downtime pay at that point. I got all my gear out of the truck and phoned up a hotel that had a free shuttle and took the shuttle to hotel in Saraland, AL and checked in for two nights. I had evening rations which consisted of catfish at
Wintzell's Oyster House. I spent the night in Saraland, AL.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and I was stuck with no trip. I ended up having evening rations which was a burger as no Turkey was available at
Ruby Tuesday. I spent the night in Saraland, AL.