I'm sitting here at a truck garage in the boonies of TN waiting for them to repair my truck.
I got up nice and early this morning, had my coffee and did all the morning stuff so that I could get rolling right after the sun came up. Pulling an oversized load you have to make the best of the daylight.
After about two hours of riding I noticed my voltmeter was only reading 12.3 volts instead of the normal 13.6 that indicates a healthy charging system. Ut oh. I quickly killed all the lights except for the amber flashing beacons on top. Technically when running an oversized load you're supposed to keep all the lights on as well as running the beacons but I figured as long as the beacons were running the cops would likely leave me be.
I made a call to our shop and let the shop manager know what was up and that in all likelyhood I was going to need to put in someplace for repairs. His (stupid) response was for me to just keep running and see what happens. Ummm, duh, eventually the batteries will go down too low to run the truck. I don't get paid to argue with him.
I called the office and spoke with the boss and let him know what was happening. He asked what the shop manager's response was and I told him. He flipped his top and a few minutes after I hung up with him the shop manager called me back to ask what route I was taking so that he could locate a repair shop along the way.
A few minutes later he calls again and tells me where the place is and that it would be a good idea i I stopped there amd let them check it out. I'm sure in his mind I'm just a driver and couldn't diagnose a system problem to save my life. But this ain't my first rodeo.
Sure enough, a quick test determined exactly what I had said from the beginning; the alternator had gone out. Duh.
They have removed the old one and now I am waiting for the guy to return with a new one and install it so I can be on my way again. I had planned on spending the night in Columbia, SC tonight, but now I am starting to wonder if I'll make it there before dark. It's about 4 hours from here so if I can be rolling again within another hour or so I should make it, otherwise I'll have to plan on stopping elsewhere.
Being as tomorrow is Friday leading into a holiday weekend I really would like to stick to schedule and get reloaded out of there, otherwise I'll likely be sitting until Tuesday. That would not make me a happy camper.