While climbing up Monteagle today my truck over heated and went into automatic shut down, leaving me sitting on the shoulder of a very steep grade. I could see a sign that there was a rest area one mile further up the grade, and knew there was a truck stop about a mile past that.

I decided that once the engine cooled down enough I would try to limp the truck up to the rest area, let it cool again there, and then limp into the truck stop. That didn't quite work as planned.

When I slowly climbed to the exxit ramp for the rest area there was a trucck broke down right on the ramp, totally blocking it. Great. As the truck was still a tad below the shut down temperature I kept slowly climbing the grade while keeping a close eye on the temperature readout. As the temp would near the criticcal temp I would back off the pedal and allow the engine to cool a little.

It was a very slow climb up to the truck stop but I did make it. I saw the shop there and had them blow out the radiator and charge air cooler, hoping that removing the dust and dirt would allow the machine to run a bit cooler. I didn't want this rinky dink little shop touching my engine.

Once I left there I managed to make it to a Detroit engine shop in Ringgold, GA. They put the truck in and checked it out. The mechanic said that it seemed like the water pump just wasn't moving enough coolant and he felt it needed to be replaced. No guarantee that's the whole problem but it's a start.

The shop was kind enough to give me a ride to the motel. I got cchecked in, grabbed something to eat from KFC, and settled in for the night. They'll call me in the morning to update me on their progress on my ailing rig.

Same old story, different town.