Well...I didn't get much done or get very far today.
After camping out at the Tulare yard, I managed to deliver the sugar load in Hanford this morning. It turns out that the load was a bunch of damaged bags and boxes. The place I delivered to opens all the bags and boxes, then pours the sugar into gaylords that get shipped back to the mill. Well, let me tell ya, there was sugar all over the floor of the trailer. I tried to sweep it, but there was just too much. I headed back to Tulare to get the trailer washed out. Which cost $35. The guy thought it was gypsum (they don't wash out gypsum trailers), but I assured him it was in fact sugar. So, a few minutes later after he washed out the trailer and verified funds on the check I gave him, I was off to Madera to grab a load going to Apple Valley, California. Which was backed up by a load picking up in Victorville going to Tempe, Arizona for delivery tomorrow night.
Let me preface by saying the truck started doing this a couple days ago...
The trucks engine fan is belt driven, but spins freely until the fan clutch engages when the temperature gets to whatever the set point is...180 degrees I think. This is an old school set up. Anyways, a couple days ago while in Oregon, when the RPMs got to about 16-1700 the fan belt would squeal while the engine fan is engaged. Then stop when either the fan would disengage or the RPMs would get lower due to upshifting.
Today the squealing started at 1300 RPMs, and got worse as the RPMs got higher. I checked the belt during my pretrip(s) and it looked fine...no excessive wear or threads showing, nothing. It looks fairly new. However, it's slipping. So, that only leaves the spring in the tensioner pulley. It's a common thing with serpentine belts. This truck has 175,000 miles on it. I bet the pulley is original. The inspection lane guy wrote up a couple drive tires when I went back to the yard for repairs.
The service writter told me "we are short handed and over booked...swamped". He continued, "I might be able to get you in tomorrow. Come check in with me at 8am". So, I've been sitting since 11:30 this morning waiting for tomorrow. I just stayed in the truck...I didn't feel like "mingling" with the other drivers. Blah...
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