The happy times are over

It happens every year. Summer turns to autumn, daylight doesn't last as long, temperatures get cooler and the crops are harvested. Today was the day I took the air conditioners out of the windows and stored them, not to be seen again until next spring. In the world of a diesel mechanic, this time of year stirs up a mix of emotions. We no longer have to worry about staying cool and working on a warm diesel engine isn't as uncomfortable as it was in August. On the other hand we know winter is coming. In a couple of months we'll find ourselves yelling at the other guys in the shop to "Close that damn door! You think it's fucking springtime out there?!" We'll also soon find ourselves working outside in frigid temperatures trying to get those damned diesel engines started. With all the technology in the world today, nobody can design a diesel that works well in winter on its own. Some idiots won't plug the truck's engine heater in or they won't put an anti-gelling additive in their fuel. Others will leave the truck's lights on without the engine running not realizing that a battery's power decreases as temperature decreases. But, that's how things go and we manage to deal with it year after year. Winter doesn't always mean bad things for a diesel mechanic, it has good points too. To us, winter means money. It's not snow that falls from the sky, it's white gold. That reminds me, after talking with the other guys in the shop I've come to the conclusion that we all think the same way about winter. Between snow and sub zero temperatures, we hate the sub zero temperatures the most. Here's a situation for you to ponder that will help make my point.

Imagine it's a Sunday evening and as you crawl into your nice, warm bed you can hear the wind howling outside. The last check of the weather channel told you that it was -20F outside and with the wind chill added in it feels like -35F. You drift off to sleep under a pile of blankets. You wake up to a ringing phone at 01:00 and have to go out on a service call. With regret, you throw off the blankets and get out of bed. You shiver as your feet touch the cold floor and get dressed. As you open up the door and head out to your car, the sub zero temperature reaches out and smacks you in the face. You get on your way to the shop in a cold car and your teeth start chattering because it takes a long time for the engine to warm up. Just as your car finally starts putting out some heat, you're only a few blocks from the shop. At least the service truck is inside the shop and will warm up quickly. You get into the shop and prepare to go out on that service call. Aside from your jacket, you leave your street clothes on. You pull on the insulated bib overalls, a hooded sweatshirt over the bibs, pack boots, an arctic work coat and top it off with a stupid looking fur lined winter hat. Complete ear flaps. After you grab your clip board and gloves, you're off into the cold, cold night. As you drive down the road toward the truck stop, snow blows across the road making it difficult to see where you're going. You keep the truck's heater turned down because you know it will make the transition to working outside less of a shock. Finally, you reach the casualty and reluctantly get out of the cozy service truck. The irony of this situation makes you smile because the problem isn't related to cold weather at all. Somewhere under the cab you can hear an air leak. This requires you to not only get underneath the truck, but squeeze between the top of the transmission and the floor of the cab. Not an easy thing to do with all that winter gear you're wearing. You find a broken air line fitting quickly and get to work fixing it. Being a small fitting, it's impossible to handle with gloves on your hands, so you take the gloves off and hurry to do what needs to be done. Within minutes you can no longer feel your hands and your knees ache from being on a solid sheet of ice. After the cracked fitting has been removed you start to crawl out from underneath the truck but can't. Your heavy jacket is caught on something and you have to mess around trying to free it. Not an easy thing to do when you can't feel your hands. You free yourself and crawl out from under the truck then hurry over to the service truck and climb inside, thankful to be in from the cold. The frozen gloves get put onto the defroster vent and the fan gets put onto "high". When the feeling comes back to your hands, you do some paperwork while warming up. Back out into the cold night to install a new part. It's the same process as before. Numb hands, getting stuck and an aching body. Once the job is complete, you get back in the service truck and fill out the bill. Hoping that this driver doesn't give you any trouble over paying the bill. This driver is an understanding person and pays without problem. You thank the driver for the business and wish him a safe trip, then your cell phone rings. Another service call. With the temperatures as low as they are, it looks like you won't be getting back to that warm bed for quite a while. You work throughout the night and finally return to the shop around 07:30. By now you have been chilled to the bone and are still shivering despite being in a warm shop. The day shift has already arrived and they know you've been out all night. Your regular shift starts at 15:00 which would give you a decent amount of sleep, but you won't get out of the shop until 08:00 at the earliest. The boss comes by and notices your drooping eyes and the shivering fits you're still having. He asks a question something like "Have a rough night?" You give a faint smile and reply "Yeah, you might say that." Being the sympathetic person he is, he says you can come at 17:00 if you want some more sleep. You take him up on his offer and head home after restocking the service truck. Even though the sun is up, you'll have no problem falling asleep. The warm bed you left seven hours ago is cold, but that doesn't stop you from crawling in. It will be cozy in no time, but you don't even notice because as soon as your head hits the pillow, you drift off to sleep. Shivering.

That was a bit longer than I had planned, but it's what diesel mechanics, towing professionals and other similar professions go through. Yep, I'm not looking forward to winter, but it won't last too long. At least I'll make some good money from all the overtime I'll get.

I'm guilty of neglect

I'm guilty of neglecting this blog. Not that anyone actually reads this thing, but if there is, I apologize for not posting frequently. But that's just me. I'm not going to write for the sake of filling space at a regular interval, that's not a good way to do things. Anyway, on to what I wanted to write about today.

I get PMs and emails from younger people who start their messages out the same way. "I'm planning on going to school to be a diesel/heavy equipment technician..." The first thought that goes through my head is something like "Oh boy, here's another one who's been suckered into believing the tech school recruiting bullshit." It's true, I'm sorry to say. The big tech schools have all these flashy videos and shiny brochures, all shown by slick recruiters who troll the high schools for new students. Maybe these poor kids have watched "The fast and the furious" one too many times and have a glamorous view of what it's like being a mechanic. By the way, I always refer to myself as a "mechanic" and not a "technician" for a reason. When was the last time you asked someone if they knew of a good diesel technician? The public refers to me as mechanic, so that's what I am. It's no different than having the title of "custodian." To the world, they're janitors. I've had both jobs, so I speak with authority on the subject. Back to the young wanna-be mechanics. Every time I get an email from one of these kids, I'm tempted to block them so I don't have to read the same thing over and over again. But I don't. I was just like them in my younger days, so I take a deep breath and answer whatever questions they ask me and give them the truth. The recruiters make this job out to be a lot better than it actually is. They'll have the kids thinking that dealerships and top notch shops will be beating down their door, begging them to work at their shop. They'll think they're hot shit and will be making $80, 000/year right out of tech school. The brochures show the school's spotless shop, filled to the rafters with the latest equipment... and everyone has a clean shirt. The kids turn into adults, graduate and head off to their first job with small, albeit brand new, tool kit. Then, with very few exceptions, the real world reaches out and bitch-slaps them in the face. The freshly minted mechanics find themselves doing jobs that any idiot off the streets could be trained to do. Changing tires, oil changes, trailer services and the like. What the new guys don't realize at the time is that no shop in their right mind, would turn a new, still wet behind the ears, mechanic loose in a working shop without finding out for sure what they can do. Truck shops don't exist to showcase a mechanic's technical prowess. They exist to make money. It's a business just like any other business and the owners can't afford to take chances with mechanics who haven't proved themselves. There's an unfortunate "Catch 22" with this process. Usually, by the time the new guys have been found worthy of moving on, they've forgotten a large chunk of what they were taught in tech school because they haven't been able to use those skills. So you can probably understand why getting these emails are slightly depressing. I know what's in store for these kids if they choose to be a mechanic as their profession. I also know that if they enjoy working on cars and trucks in their spare time, working professionally as a mechanic will probably kill their enthusiasm. One of the things I learned at a young age was that turning a hobby into a profession is a bad idea. The last thing I want to do on my own time is work on cars, trucks or even my own lawn mowers. Still, the emails come.

"I have some questions for you regarding the Detroit 60 series, Cat C15 and the Cummins N14" began one email. I wouldn't even have to read the rest of the email because I know what's coming. They will want to know which engine I think is best. Who the hell cares? All engines have their own peculiarities and there's no one engine that's better than the others. These kids think the trucking world is full of Peterbilts, Kenworths and Western Stars, all of them chromed out so much that they look stupid. They think they'll spend their days in the shop working on engines all the time, but that ain't the case. Brakes, grease jobs, air hoses, tires etc. are the day to day tasks. The kids spend too much time watching "Trick My Truck." To be fair, there are a lot of nice looking Petes and KWs out there, but what the kids will run into if they get into this field is Freightliners, Sterlings and Volvos. Freightshakers, Shortlings and Swedes are the trucks of choice for large fleets. "Why?" you might be asking yourself. Because they're cheap. Plain and simple. Lots of plastic, poor access and what I refer to ask fake luxury. I can't leave out the other trucks a neophyte wrench holder will likely work on. Heavily abused (and old) Mack dump trucks/heavy equipment haulers, lots of diesel pickups whose cocky owners think a pickup with a diesel qualifies as "heavy duty", and garbage trucks. Oh how working on a garbage truck can be a wake up call. It should be mandatory for anyone wishing to be a diesel mechanic to spend a week servicing nothing but garbage trucks. Believe me, if I had known how much it sucks to work on garbage trucks, I never would've moved from being a car mechanic to being a truck mechanic. I'd rather bag groceries. But you can't expect an eighteen year old to accept reality. No matter what profession a person chooses or how exciting it is when they start out, it eventually becomes nothing more than a job. The kids just will just have to find that out on their own.

If, by chance, you're still wondering which engine I prefer, I'll tell you... some other time ;)

Introduction

Hi there, I'm Hopper1. I'm a mid-thirties diesel mechanic from the upper mid west. I'm new here at this place, but I've been a blogger before. I had a website with a friend that we ran for a long time, and this was where I started blogging. I found blogging, which wasn't called blogging back then (I called them my "articles"), to be very therapeutic. It was a way for me to get things off of my chest when life got to be a little too much to handle. I worked very hard on my portion of that website and tried to make things as easy as possible. A couple of years ago, I undertook a major revision, from the ground up, and it tanked. Everything looked great, from the background images and navigation bars that I made in Photoshop, to the HTML. When I uploaded it to the server... none of my articles appeared. I tried and tried to find the problem, going so far as to print out the html so I could check it over on my lunch breaks. I even had other people check things over. Nothing worked, so I left what was left to wither away on the vine. I've found myself to have become a loner due to having lived alone and worked the night shift for so many years. Some relationships have also scarred me to the point where I find it best to avoid serious connections with people other than my family and a handful of close friends. Thus, I can become quite lonely at times. This occasional loneliness is of my own making so I don't gripe about it. But, sometimes a person needs to vent. The internet is where I can do it. Under a veil of self imposed anonymity. My current job creates many blog-worthy stories that I intend to write about. If I remember them... You might find them interesting or you might find them boring. Honestly, I don't care. I blog for me first and if other people enjoy it, well, that's just icing on the cake.