2003 ISX suggestions needed

[Waterloo]

(08-04-2017 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  

(08-02-2017 )Hammerhead Wrote:  Nice to see someone new to being an O/O that has some self initiative instead of just a "I'll drop it off at the stealershit" attitude.
That mentality will take you far, and drastically increases your odds of success.
As a guy who changed injectors in a parking lot chasing ghosts, hearing someone else tackling things in a parking lot makes me smile...you sound like the kind of guy I would enjoy being parked next to for the weekend.
FYI, @snailexpress brought tools along to help me with the parking lot injector job, so you're in good company with quality people who pay it forward. There isn't much I wouldn't do for any member of this site.

Hey DD, have you read this http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1982 yet?
If you haven't done so yet, get yourself a laptop and a Chinese Inline adapter, it will pay for itself almost instantly and is literally the equivalent of a 1/2" wrench when it comes to these motors in its common use. If I'd have known then what I know now, I'd have had one years ago...

I took a short look on ebay at the chinese inline 5 you had mentioned. I have a laptop and printer in the truck already. It is kind of the next in line purchase. Just need to narrow down a good one.
It's all about making the run. I drove from Toronto to Indiana with about 4 ribs left on the belt, praying it would make it. It did, delivered and then fixed the truck. There's some stuff I know I can't do yet, and some stuff that just isn't practical to do in a parking lot. I generally will try to do most of the repairs, but some stuff I don't have the time for either. I did one kingpin myself to get it through the safety, but the other side I had the shop do when I was up north for a week. Yes I can do it but then I sacrifice some down time. I bit the bullet and paid a guy $250 to bring me coolant a couple weeks back. Blew a hose, cut it shorter and re-attached it, but only had a gallon with me. Hence wanting to add a second saddlebox. $250 for 3 gallons of coolant and 3 gallons of water is cheaper than a tow but still.
I'm trying hard to find a balance right now. Recently it's been drive all week wrench all weekend. I don't see that changing for awhile.

Like Rawze said, Welcome to the world of trucking! I can relate to the $250 coolant, happened to me too, and yes, much cheaper than a tow bill.

That tensioner pulley, I lost a couple on my 871, than the alternator and was wearing out belts prematuraly... I thought this odd so I did some research into what would cause this and discovered the Crankshaft Damper needs to be replaced every 500,000 miles, as the viscous fluid in the damper hardens over time and loses its mojo. I replaced the Damper and issues went away, along with smoothing out the motor. The Damper comes raw, you will need to paint, and I would suggest marking your timing marks in a different color, or an identifier and use some sort of acrylic or other clear coating on the timing marks. Will make your life much easier when you do your overhead. ;-)

One tool I would recommend getting is a coolant pressure tester, I picked up a Stant https://amzn.to/2Wl7Aan

You will also need the attachment for your coolant bottle, on yours I do not know which one you will need, but that is easy enough to find out. I believe Hammerhead had a list on here of the Snap On adapters. Stant make them, so you can cross match. If you have the same coolant bottle that our ProStars use, this is the adapter https://amzn.to/2Y5j5Du

Double check to be sure on the adapter.

Just some food for thought.

[Waterloo]

Rawze mentioned tools... I had a few scattered all over the place. After purchasing this truck it was quite evident I needed TOOLS, and more than just a wrench set!

In the truck I carry this set... Kobalt 154-Piece Standard (SAE) and Metric Mechanic's Tool Set with Hard Case. The case is quality, with metal hinges. I believe the tools are made by Wright Tools. https://amzn.to/2Y3PKt0

I have used this set for a few years, and it has just about everything you will need. Just add a set of wrenches and you are good to go. Includes the Torx and Star drivers that you will need. It is inexpensive at around $100 and is of good quality. I highly recommend this set to carry on your truck.

Also, for emergencies, like coolant and air lines, I would recommend purchasing at least one set of Needle Nose Vice Grips, I carry two sets and they have saved my rear end more times than I can recall. Like when an airline in the seat blows, coolant line blows, or other lines. I used to work in surgery and refer to these as arterial clamps. They can literally save your life, if not your bacon. I like the 4 inch , as they can get into the tight spots, like under your seat and are nice to clamp off a heater hose under the hood. https://amzn.to/2Y3QA98

Tools! My favorite brands are GearWrench, Neiko, Sunex, OTC and Tekton. These are all good quality tool manufacturers, not Snap On, but 100 times better than Sears. I try to stick with the Taiwanese tool makers, and stay away from the Chinese stuff as much as possible. The USA stuff is nice, but normally out of line price wise for my intended uses, I'm a truck driver, not a professional mechanic, though I wonder sometimes.

If you search around on the internet you can really save some money. Especially on the GearWrench stuff. They run specials all of the time, buy one get one free. They are out here in the market with tool trucks and are going head to head with Snap On, Mac and Matco. Their prices are a bargain when compared to the big brand tool trucks, and I have yet to break any of their wrenches, ratchets or sockets.

Here are some of the internet stores I use and recommend for tool purchases.

http://www.tooldiscounter.com

https://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.com

http://www.tooltopia.com

And of course Amazon. I normally don't buy many tools off of Amazon, as the above outfits normally have much better pricing and specials.

The battery tools, I don't have a large enough compressor for air tools... I switched from Dewalt over to Milwaukee. Much easier on the wallet and the batteries are much cheaper, with more than a few outfits making aftermarket batteries you can really save some money just buying the bare tools. A charger is cheap, around $12 and the aftermarket batteries are half of what Milwaukee charges and just as good from my experience. Just shop around for pricing.

I have filled two tool chests with tools already, call me a tool whore. ;-) But, I have found that not having the right tool to do the job has cost me more monies in the long run, down time = Lost Revenue. At that point, I may as well have taken the truck to a shop. So I try to anticipate what I will need in the future. This site will give you a good idea at what will be coming your way.

Hope this helps.

[DDlighttruck]

Thanks waterloo. That's great advice. I have a fairly complete Snap On box at the shop. It's more a question now of what tools, and how many, I carry on the truck. I was given the advice to keep the truck tool set cheap-er and then you don't worry about lost sockets or what have you. It's very hard to look at the box in the shop and pick 1/4 of it or 1/3 of it to carry. I was told leave the shop box as a shop box and then you're not chasing tools.

Like you mentioned.....the coolant pressure tester. I own one and do need to see if I have the right adapter. That is something I might carry, because it will probably be on the road when I have a leak come up I need to fix.

I broke those large channellock pliers, they need to get replaced. I should also get a larger pair of adjustables, or two, for the truck. I blew a cab air bag a couple weeks ago, vise grips was fixing that problem. My air dryer is blowing off every couple minutes again, so I'm guessing the vice grips are gone and need replacing. Well the air bag needs replacing but you know what I mean.

I'm like the little dutch boy with his finger in the dyke right now, plug one two start.[/quote]

[DDlighttruck]

(08-04-2017 )Rawze Wrote:  

(08-04-2017 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  I took a short look on ebay at the chinese inline 5 you had mentioned. I have a laptop and printer in the truck already. It is kind of the next in line purchase. Just need to narrow down a good one.
It's all about making the run. I drove from Toronto to Indiana with about 4 ribs left on the belt, praying it would make it. It did, delivered and then fixed the truck. There's some stuff I know I can't do yet, and some stuff that just isn't practical to do in a parking lot. I generally will try to do most of the repairs, but some stuff I don't have the time for either. I did one kingpin myself to get it through the safety, but the other side I had the shop do when I was up north for a week. Yes I can do it but then I sacrifice some down time. I bit the bullet and paid a guy $250 to bring me coolant a couple weeks back. Blew a hose, cut it shorter and re-attached it, but only had a gallon with me. Hence wanting to add a second saddlebox. $250 for 3 gallons of coolant and 3 gallons of water is cheaper than a tow but still.
I'm trying hard to find a balance right now. Recently it's been drive all week wrench all weekend. I don't see that changing for awhile.

Welcome to truck ownership. Getting a used truck is like getting a used house that had bad tenants that wrecked it. - Used trucks just don't generally get sold that are profitable out of the gate. It takes time and effort to get them back to some reasonable glory where they don't nickel you to death.

Keeping after as much of this as possible places as much money as possible in your pocket instead of someone else's hands. Your goals should be 2 fold...

1) To drive it like you own it, manage time very well so that you can drive the LOWEST speeds, fuel consumption, and wear in every possible way. Installing Boost and pyro gauges (on the outside of the manifold like in my videos) help you learn and be good at this. Managing time very well allows you to slow down and become more profitable too.

2) Learn to maintain and repair it yourself as much as possible. Last I checked, tools were a lot cheaper than a mechanic. Get on top of the maintenance and stay there to keep downtime and unpredictable expenses to a minimum.

Doing those 2 things well = money you can build up in the bank (I recommend for people to keep a goal of about $30k in reserve in the bank ) for that day the engine lets go, or the day you need a new clutch, or tranny, etc. You are running a business, keep it on a solid foundation and it will always be good to you. Make profitable decisions with long term goals in mind and place all the power hungry glory and typical BS aside that others do. There is no profit in that.

If you want to learn about your truck and trucking business in general, this place is a good place to learn. I don't allow false BS on here or things that will waste peoples money. This forum is about helping people as genuinely as possible and not taking something from them like other places do. That is why the site is free, and it is the thousands of members on here that have already been through the O/O hardships that can give the best advice.

Take that advice and those stories you will find here and use them to grow what you know. That is what it is all about. How profitable someone in trucking is per truck long term says a lot about the advice they try to give to others. Follow along with those people who are the most profitable per truck already and they will all say the same thing that I just did... > "Learn to slow down, fix your own s$it, and invest in the tools and equipment necessary to become as self sufficient as possible".

I should print that out and paste it on the truck somewhere. Thanks

[Waterloo]

I hear you! I agree on a separate set of tools for the truck. I carry that Kobalt set and some Craftsman wrenches. The good stuff stays at the house.

On your coolant, just a good idea to run around the truck and tighten all of the hose clamps every few weeks. In the winter is when I seem to have my largest amount of coolant loss. "Cold Leaks" is how it was described to me. Expansion and contraction... Coolant will leak out going down the road, when you stop for the night, the leak stops. no sign of coolant anywhere on the outside of the truck. I learned that the hard way, a new EGR Cooler for $2500, when all it was was a bad hose clamp.

And speaking of hose clamps, stick with the tension ones, with the bolt and spring. Those regular worm gear clamps are junk. Spend the extra dollars and get the good ones. They are much cheaper than a tow bill. ;-)

[DDlighttruck]

(08-04-2017 )Waterloo Wrote:  I hear you! I agree on a separate set of tools for the truck. I carry that Kobalt set and some Craftsman wrenches. The good stuff stays at the house.

On your coolant, just a good idea to run around the truck and tighten all of the hose clamps every few weeks. In the winter is when I seem to have my largest amount of coolant loss. "Cold Leaks" is how it was described to me. Expansion and contraction... Coolant will leak out going down the road, when you stop for the night, the leak stops. no sign of coolant anywhere on the outside of the truck. I learned that the hard way, a new EGR Cooler for $2500, when all it was was a bad hose clamp.

And speaking of hose clamps, stick with the tension ones, with the bolt and spring. Those regular worm gear clamps are junk. Spend the extra dollars and get the good ones. They are much cheaper than a tow bill. ;-)

Thats another one- spare parts. How much, which ones, etc. I picked up 10 feet of 3/8' heater hose to replace the one that blew, then have extra. Planning on doing the same with 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4 if I need to. I did notice some hoses looked to be silicone, but usually where it's air. So I don't know about carrying spares of that.

But yes thinking of looking it all over and picking out the the most common clamps for coolant, turbo, and other piping, and get a couple of each. I've started a tackle box of brass fittings, and another for electrical fittings. Zip ties, brake clean, penetrating fluid, etc already on board.

Then once the second box is on carry 6-8 gallons of coolant. Already have motor oil. Thinking gear oil and PS fluid should be in there too. So much to carry "in case".

Gonna be a service truck on wheels that pulls freight occasionally!

[Rawze]

(08-05-2017 )DDlighttruck Wrote:  Thats another one- spare parts. How much, which ones, etc. I picked up 10 feet of 3/8' heater hose to replace the one that blew, then have extra. Planning on doing the same with 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4 if I need to. I did notice some hoses looked to be silicone, but usually where it's air. So I don't know about carrying spares of that.

But yes thinking of looking it all over and picking out the the most common clamps for coolant, turbo, and other piping, and get a couple of each. I've started a tackle box of brass fittings, and another for electrical fittings. Zip ties, brake clean, penetrating fluid, etc already on board.

Then once the second box is on carry 6-8 gallons of coolant. Already have motor oil. Thinking gear oil and PS fluid should be in there too. So much to carry "in case".

Gonna be a service truck on wheels that pulls freight occasionally!

I simply have doubled-up on most of the hose clamps on my truck. That way the spares are easy to find and are used for something. No trying to find them in a tool box somewhere that way, and I can always steal one to go somewhere else, or combine 2 to make a bigger one if needed.

[stevesparts]

Don't forget about pugs for air lines or the adapters to patch two lines together(saved my ass a time or two)i carry a bunch off them. I found out how a small piece of tire can grab a line and turn it into a long night on the side of the road... some air lines you just can't block off and you got to have them working..

[Waterloo]

The most common tool(s) I use are my electrical testers. The standard 12volt lighted tester with the pointy end, Sears has a very nice one which I have, and the AutoZone $30 multimeter. A good set of wire crimpers, I have the Klein Tools one. Also, a good wire stripper, I have a pair of Klein Tools there too. Also an assortment of various gauge wire, 12ga, 16ga and 18ga along with various butt connectors and other connectors along with heat shrink tubing of various sizes and a butane torch. I bought a cheap one that uses a lighter, gets the job done and no sweat if I lose it. I use all of the above on a regular basis all over the truck. Oh, lots of electrical tape too!

And speaking of tape, a big roll of Gorrila Tape is a must have item!