You don't pull the mask off the old lone ranger...

[wolfie]

... and you don't run a diesel out of fuel (apologies to Jim Croce).

Had a difficult time getting into a TA this past week - there was a truck immobilized at the side of the offramp (right at the peak of the curve), and I had to climb the curb on the other side in order to clear it. Gave the driver a ride to the TA - he was carrying a red 5 gallon can (while it may be an approved container, it's the wrong container for diesel - should have been a yellow can). Turns out the truck's owner hadn't approved fueling at an earlier stop (more expensive), and he didn't have quite enough fuel to get to the TA.

Bit of trivia - on a diesel, a number of components in the high-pressure side of the fuel system (pump, injectors, etc.) are lubricated by the fuel. He probably put a year's worth of wear on them in the last few seconds before the engine died. Not only that, but he'll face the fun time of re-priming the system.

[sms001]

I'm facing my own version of "penny wise and pound foolish" here on the landlord front, so I can sympathize with your passenger. Nice of you to pick him up. What's a "TA?" A weigh station?

[wolfie]

Travelcenters of America is a chain of truck stops - it was about a mile between the disabled truck and the truck stop. A cop arrived (presumably to investigate why traffic was slowed down) just as I got to the offramp. After picking the guy up, I heard someone on the CB saying that the guy left too soon - he had a chain, and could have towed the truck a hundred yards or so to the shoulder of a multi-lane straight stretch, where it wouldn't be as much in the way.

[sms001]

Travelcenters of America is a chain of truck stops

ah - I can see their logo in my head now that you mention it. BIG places.

[Shalom]

Bit of trivia - on a diesel, a number of components in the high-pressure side of the fuel system (pump, injectors, etc.) are lubricated by the fuel. He probably put a year's worth of wear on them in the last few seconds before the engine died. Not only that, but he'll face the fun time of re-priming the system.

Is it possible he shut it down when he realized he was dry? Might have saved the wear that way.

(You don't run an old fuel-injected S-10 Blazer out of fuel either, unless you want to creep under the frame rails and change the fuel filter, which is now clogged with all the old crud from the bottom of the tank, and likely rusted in place to boot.)