Break Down
I've been gingerly nursing the truck along; taking only short runs. I knew the truck could remain running if started cold, but the second I turn it of and restart it would discharge.
I took my annual trip to the transfer station. I was two months overdue. It was a good load for 14 months and I feared breaking down on the old Youngs Bay Bridge with a load of trash, but I made it to the dump and left the truck running as I off loaded. Since then I've been driving it for about a week when it finally discharged on a cold start. I watched it happen. I got a digital voltage meter that plugs into the cigarette lighter receptacle and I watched the voltage slide downward from 13.5 volts down to 9.5 when it died. Triple A came swiftly with a flat bed to haul the truck to the shop. I thought that it might be cheaper in the long run if I had the driver take the truck to the dump, but I do need to have some loyalty to my vehicle.
The funny thing of it all is that I for the last two weeks that the truck was headed towards a break-down, and when it finally happened I was actually relieved. I'm just glad I wasn't loaded with trash, hay or horses when it happened.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
4 Comments:
Or bees. Could you imagine breaking down with a truck load of bees? You'd be stuck there forever!
Alternator?
Sometimes I miss driving total beaters I had no attachment to. Knowing you only had a few hundred bucks invested in the purchase of a vehicle takes a lot of pressure off when it comes time to walk away leaving it dead beside the road. I did that once. Paid $150 for a toyota truck, put thousands of miles on it quick hauling a lot of heavy loads. It blew a rod right through the block about 8 months after I bought it. Since I'd never bothered registering it in my name I just left it sitting there, got on the bus and went home.
Darev, it happens and it's even worse when one of those big bee trucks rolls over.
g, Yep and now the battery, too and replace the serpentine belt.
Anon, I was talking with the tow truck driver about people that do that. They impound them and get the title and sell them. You're pretty brave not to register it.
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