maulcruiser
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2005
- Location
- Bladenboro/Wilmington, NC
Tuesday, I left Wilmington Fire Department at 5 AM driving a Quint (smaller ladder truck for all non-FD people), and one of our mechanics following in an F250 with the other parts of the truck. My destination was Hilliard, OH. It was being taken in for specialized repairs that only Sutphen Corp. can perform. The trip up was uneventful for a 2001 truck with a lot of city miles on it. The steering is on the loose side, it was completely stripped of equipment and water so the suspension was overly stiff, it was missing an additional 300 pounds of weight off the rear (see photo of damaged bucket that had to be removed prior to the trip), has flotation tires on the steer axle, and the cooling fan was apparently permanently engaged. My route was I40 to US 52, then I77 to US 35, and finally I64 to I270. Total trip up took 12 hours and ten minutes, with two stops for fuel in a truck that holds 65 gallons of diesel.
We dropped the truck off, then found a hotel. The next morning, we drove an additional hour to a second Sutphen location in Springfield, OH to pick up our 100' aerial that had been in for repairs. They supposedly did roughly $175K worth of work to the truck. The mechanic asked for particulars of the repairs, and they set out a list of all the stuff done. He then asked, "is the driveline ready to go?" They said yes. We depart and make it Charleston, WV before I need to refuel. On the trip down, I noticed a slight vibration, but chalked it up to the lugs of the flotation tires and them running in and out of phase. While refueling, I glance under the truck and notice gear oil pooling under the pump gearbox (think transfer case, but it disconnects the rear drive and instead powers the water pump). I call the mechanic over, he determines it's been overfilled and is blowing out of the vent, then tells me to drive it. He's the expert, so I roll out without incident. The next stop puts me 40 miles west of Wytheville for food. Before departing there, he checks the gearbox again, claiming that it's no longer dripping and looks drier. I claim, "Yeah, because it's empty now." We depart again.
Now, I'm looking for a fuel stop, as the exit we were at didn't have a fuel pump I could access easily. Just before the I77 exit east of Wytheville, the vibration that I've been feeling come and go got slightly more intense, but subsided. As I'm approaching the interchange, the turbo on that Cummins diesel spools up and sings for one more hill climb, then catastrophic failure occurs. I glance out both mirrors to see parts scattering on the concrete in clouds of dust and sparks, and the mechanic taking evasive action in the F250. I turn back to the gauge cluster to discover that I've lost my speedometer, the tach is back to idle, but every other instrument is normal. Apply some throttle, RPM's rise, but a no-load scenario. I hit neutral on the transmission control, flip the hazards, and coast to the shoulder. Mechanic beats me to the truck before I can get out, asking, "What the f*(k?!" I respond saying I lost propulsion, and we begin investigating. As soon as I round the cab and see the exhaust pipe, I already know I don't want to crawl under the truck. It's now at an awkward tip angle and sitting higher on the chassis. Crawling under, the worst was confirmed. The output housing on the pump was gone, along with the yoke and entire driveshaft. On it's departure, the driveshaft smacked the primer for the pump, broke several cooling fins off the gearbox, flattened the exhaust pipe, and broke a PVC pipe from the relief valve back to the water tank. That's when I found part of the driveshaft, wedged between the tank and frame.
Call Sutphen, and they state they'll send a tow truck. 20-30 minutes later, one arrives, we take what we need, and head towards Mt. Airy for the night, then come home today. The truck is heading BACK to Ohio on a flatbed, where it will be evaluated and repaired, then returned to us on another flatbed. Supposedly Sutphen is going to take care of all of that since they had just put new bearings in the gearbox and replaced universal joints in the driveshafts. I'm just glad we made it off the road relatively unscathed, and that it didn't occur further back on the 5% grade.
Moral of the story, trust your own judgement. I should have refused to drive it any further when I saw the gear oil.
The damaged truck I was taking up before the bucket was removed.
More damage.
The truck I brought back.
What the output SHOULD look like.
We dropped the truck off, then found a hotel. The next morning, we drove an additional hour to a second Sutphen location in Springfield, OH to pick up our 100' aerial that had been in for repairs. They supposedly did roughly $175K worth of work to the truck. The mechanic asked for particulars of the repairs, and they set out a list of all the stuff done. He then asked, "is the driveline ready to go?" They said yes. We depart and make it Charleston, WV before I need to refuel. On the trip down, I noticed a slight vibration, but chalked it up to the lugs of the flotation tires and them running in and out of phase. While refueling, I glance under the truck and notice gear oil pooling under the pump gearbox (think transfer case, but it disconnects the rear drive and instead powers the water pump). I call the mechanic over, he determines it's been overfilled and is blowing out of the vent, then tells me to drive it. He's the expert, so I roll out without incident. The next stop puts me 40 miles west of Wytheville for food. Before departing there, he checks the gearbox again, claiming that it's no longer dripping and looks drier. I claim, "Yeah, because it's empty now." We depart again.
Now, I'm looking for a fuel stop, as the exit we were at didn't have a fuel pump I could access easily. Just before the I77 exit east of Wytheville, the vibration that I've been feeling come and go got slightly more intense, but subsided. As I'm approaching the interchange, the turbo on that Cummins diesel spools up and sings for one more hill climb, then catastrophic failure occurs. I glance out both mirrors to see parts scattering on the concrete in clouds of dust and sparks, and the mechanic taking evasive action in the F250. I turn back to the gauge cluster to discover that I've lost my speedometer, the tach is back to idle, but every other instrument is normal. Apply some throttle, RPM's rise, but a no-load scenario. I hit neutral on the transmission control, flip the hazards, and coast to the shoulder. Mechanic beats me to the truck before I can get out, asking, "What the f*(k?!" I respond saying I lost propulsion, and we begin investigating. As soon as I round the cab and see the exhaust pipe, I already know I don't want to crawl under the truck. It's now at an awkward tip angle and sitting higher on the chassis. Crawling under, the worst was confirmed. The output housing on the pump was gone, along with the yoke and entire driveshaft. On it's departure, the driveshaft smacked the primer for the pump, broke several cooling fins off the gearbox, flattened the exhaust pipe, and broke a PVC pipe from the relief valve back to the water tank. That's when I found part of the driveshaft, wedged between the tank and frame.
Call Sutphen, and they state they'll send a tow truck. 20-30 minutes later, one arrives, we take what we need, and head towards Mt. Airy for the night, then come home today. The truck is heading BACK to Ohio on a flatbed, where it will be evaluated and repaired, then returned to us on another flatbed. Supposedly Sutphen is going to take care of all of that since they had just put new bearings in the gearbox and replaced universal joints in the driveshafts. I'm just glad we made it off the road relatively unscathed, and that it didn't occur further back on the 5% grade.
Moral of the story, trust your own judgement. I should have refused to drive it any further when I saw the gear oil.
The damaged truck I was taking up before the bucket was removed.
More damage.
The truck I brought back.
What the output SHOULD look like.
