mwilson
TDR MEMBER
Last edited:
-
TDR Magazine subscribers receive more than the magazine! You also gain additional forum privileges!
Details here: TDR Privileges
Subscribe to TDR Magazine here: https://www.tdr-online.com/
Best Sob Story (Ends May 31, 2011)
- Thread starter TDRadmin
- Start Date
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies To the point: Click this link and check out the Front Page News story(ies) where we are tracking the introduction of the 2025 Ram HD trucks.
Thanks, TDR Staff
In 2002, a moment in time occurred that will never be forgotten. Words spoken by a voice so small, so innocent, that the truth of them could never be doubted. That year my family purchased our very first diesel truck. Tucked ever so safely within its cab, my wife by my side, my young sons in their car seats I felt true joy when from behind me I heard my son speak.
With the sweetness only a child has, he said, “Dad, turn the radio off, I want to hear the sound of the diesel. ” The memory of those words is bittersweet, since now my son is a teenager. The sadness of time lost to the past is not the typical sob story, but one that I feel deeply and wanted to share.
With the sweetness of youth now replaced with silence of the teen years, has me hoping to be the winner of the MBRP performance exhaust system. It will be my son who helps me install it. Giving us time to bond and talk once again and maybe, just maybe, recapture a moment in time when listening to the diesel engine was a special moment between father and son.
With the sweetness only a child has, he said, “Dad, turn the radio off, I want to hear the sound of the diesel. ” The memory of those words is bittersweet, since now my son is a teenager. The sadness of time lost to the past is not the typical sob story, but one that I feel deeply and wanted to share.
With the sweetness of youth now replaced with silence of the teen years, has me hoping to be the winner of the MBRP performance exhaust system. It will be my son who helps me install it. Giving us time to bond and talk once again and maybe, just maybe, recapture a moment in time when listening to the diesel engine was a special moment between father and son.
I do not know if this is a sob story or just a face palm story.
Now my son and I have dealt with the Cummins ticks and idiosyncrasy's since 2004, when we had purchased our first Dodge with it. He was always there when the crank seal, or vac. pump had to be messed with. I thought I was teaching him how to talk to it, and listen for what it was telling him was wrong.
In 2007 I no longer had a need for a diesel and let him talk me into selling it to him. This is a '98 12V with an automatic. Now I knew that a teenager with a diesel was going to abuse it. Just figured that he knew how to fix it when he broke it.
He did, has kept it running after all the rear ends and other stuff that a teenager thinks is bulletproof, and are astonished and shocked when it breaks.
In January my son (20 year old) had found himself in a jam. The wife and I helped him out with money. He was not able to pay it back and traded me this:
#ad
He trades me this truck saying that he bought it in Oct. of 2010. Had ran it about 200 miles before it started having a hard start, run rough condition. He told me that it was the fuel return line.
Now having never seen this truck since he lives across the state, I believed him.
Why not, I had taught him, right?
I get him to trailer it to me. I am all excited about my new diesel. I get to do some easy work to it and then get to go cruise. I was bouncin!
Drop it in the shop, open the hood, and stop bouncin, after seeing the exhaust manifold bolts sheered off. OK. No big deal, new exhaust manifold and bolts will be good to go. Just need to get to that darn fuel hose to replace it and hear this beast start up.
Replace the hose, bleed the lines, get it to start, and it is running ruff! OK, have air in the line, no big deal, right? I crack the injector lines. #1 and #2 do not change the engine sound when cracked. AH hell! Pull the injectors, get them tested. BAD. Run a compression test. #1 and #2 show up at 10 lbs. AH hell!
Start to tear down the engine. First off remove that shrunken down exh. manifold. Have 4 bolts broken off. The first comes out with a left handed drill bit. Things are looking up. The next the left handed drill bit does not budge it. The easy out will get it out. SNAP! After cussin alot, I was able to finagle the broken easy out, out. Drill it to a bigger size, easy out, SNAP! Not able to get this one out. "OK, OK, you have to have head work done anyway just take it to the machine shop and have them get them out. " Is what I tell myself.
#ad
Get the head off, #1 and #2 slugs are rocking back and forth in the sleeves. You are able to see the valve slap that was going on with these two.
#ad
Conclusion, I don't know what hurts worse. That I am going to pay more to make this truck run than the kid had owed me in the first place, or that the kid did not learn a thing from me.
OR do I just have to be proud that he might make a fine politician one day?
Now my son and I have dealt with the Cummins ticks and idiosyncrasy's since 2004, when we had purchased our first Dodge with it. He was always there when the crank seal, or vac. pump had to be messed with. I thought I was teaching him how to talk to it, and listen for what it was telling him was wrong.
In 2007 I no longer had a need for a diesel and let him talk me into selling it to him. This is a '98 12V with an automatic. Now I knew that a teenager with a diesel was going to abuse it. Just figured that he knew how to fix it when he broke it.
He did, has kept it running after all the rear ends and other stuff that a teenager thinks is bulletproof, and are astonished and shocked when it breaks.
In January my son (20 year old) had found himself in a jam. The wife and I helped him out with money. He was not able to pay it back and traded me this:
#adHe trades me this truck saying that he bought it in Oct. of 2010. Had ran it about 200 miles before it started having a hard start, run rough condition. He told me that it was the fuel return line.
Now having never seen this truck since he lives across the state, I believed him.
Why not, I had taught him, right?
I get him to trailer it to me. I am all excited about my new diesel. I get to do some easy work to it and then get to go cruise. I was bouncin!
Drop it in the shop, open the hood, and stop bouncin, after seeing the exhaust manifold bolts sheered off. OK. No big deal, new exhaust manifold and bolts will be good to go. Just need to get to that darn fuel hose to replace it and hear this beast start up.
Replace the hose, bleed the lines, get it to start, and it is running ruff! OK, have air in the line, no big deal, right? I crack the injector lines. #1 and #2 do not change the engine sound when cracked. AH hell! Pull the injectors, get them tested. BAD. Run a compression test. #1 and #2 show up at 10 lbs. AH hell!
Start to tear down the engine. First off remove that shrunken down exh. manifold. Have 4 bolts broken off. The first comes out with a left handed drill bit. Things are looking up. The next the left handed drill bit does not budge it. The easy out will get it out. SNAP! After cussin alot, I was able to finagle the broken easy out, out. Drill it to a bigger size, easy out, SNAP! Not able to get this one out. "OK, OK, you have to have head work done anyway just take it to the machine shop and have them get them out. " Is what I tell myself.
#adGet the head off, #1 and #2 slugs are rocking back and forth in the sleeves. You are able to see the valve slap that was going on with these two.
#adConclusion, I don't know what hurts worse. That I am going to pay more to make this truck run than the kid had owed me in the first place, or that the kid did not learn a thing from me.
OR do I just have to be proud that he might make a fine politician one day?
Got one for you all, Last Summer my wife and I were driving north on I-5 on the way from San Diego to Disney Land. I was cruising pretty good at about 75 in the fast lane. We started the trip early so that we could beat rush hour, but I looked up ahead and notice that trafic was slowing down. So to take the truck out of cruise control and slow down I touch give the brake petal a slight tap. To my shock the truck comes to a screaching stop and the truck will not go forward. I try everything to go forward, put it into low gear, unsuccessful, put it in 4 wheel high, nothing. Now I am getting worried. I put the transfer case in neutral and shift through all gears and don't get any unusual noises. I got out of the truck and looked under it to make sure that I wasn't leaking transmission fluid. All this while I had cars behind me honking and flying by at 80 MPH. I shifted the transfer case back to neutral and decide to try reverse. Now the truck actually started moving. So I shifted it back to drive and could actually move. I put my blinker on and slowly inched over to the shoulder. Every time I touched the brake the truck would stop and I had to start the process all over again. Eventually I got over to the shoulder and got to examining the under side of the truck. I found out that the bottom bolt that holds the brake caliper in place on the passenger side has fallen out and everytime that I hit the brakes it would wedge itself on the inside of the rim. Luckily we were close to a dodge delership and were towed there after a 2 hr wait. Once we got there they said the truck was not going to be available until late the next day. Unfortunately for me and my wife we were stranded in who knows where and our plans for Disneyland shot to hell. Across the road is an Enterprise car rental. The only thing they have available is a 2010 Dodge Ram 1500(gasser) So we rent that and head up and go to Universal Studios that day instead of Disney Land and then go to Disney the next day. The only problem is we would have to leave mid day to go back to the Dodge dealership to pick up my truck. Luckily I was not charged labor for the fix, but I was charged the part($36. 00) But the kicker came with the rental, $110. 00 for the rental, so it actually came out to be $146. 00 total(for ONE, yes that is ONE bolt). Sometimes even the best planned events can be go crazy from the smallest things.
So you will NEVER believe the day I had a while ago. I was out in the onion field when the wife called and asked me to run to the store to grab some beer. Apparently we were out, and why wouldn’t we be, I had already had quite a few that morning. I took my gasser because I was about to sell my brother in law my diesel. I wasn’t sure if the transmission was going to hold up to another one of my spirited outings. I had already rebuilt the darn thing twice and I had to dump it before I put any more money into it. As they say, there’s a sucker born every minute and my wife’s brother is that guy!
I needed to go to the gas station because the gasser has a hole in the tank that I had neglected to fix. I found it was much easier just to add some gas then to fix it. After all, it is the wife’s truck. It’s usually her problem. After filling up, I headed to the store. I grabbed some cold ones and as I come out of the store, I see truck on fire! Guess I shouldn’t have flipped that lit cigarette under the truck before going in. Well the only thing to do was to call 911 and sit down in the lot and start drinking the beer. I had to keep the shakes away. The first six pack goes down and I call my idiot buddy because I realize I need wheels. It takes another six pack but he finally arrives to drop off his POS Ford for me to drive. So now I’m on my way home, feeling quite nice since the beer is kicking in again, when some guy in a nice looking grey pickup appears right out of nowhere in front of me. Wow what an impact. I T-boned him totaling his truck. I wanted to feel bad for him but I had a little headache and I was a little bit drowsy. It seemed though as my luck was changing. I saw a random bed in the lawn right across the street so I laid down for a little nap. Well my luck didn’t last too long. My phone rings and it’s work calling (the onion farming doesn’t pay the beer bill). I have a part time job as a tow truck driver and some guy says he’s stuck in the woods. So I tell him I’ll be there soon but as we all know on this site, the only way to keep a hangover away is to start drinking again and I still have 12 cold ones left. I call my daughter for a ride and she tells me she can’t pick me up because some black truck just ran over her Honda. By the time I get someone to pick me up, I totally forget about this dude. He calls like an hour later asking where I’m at so I make up some BS story like an IRS audit or something like that. I can really remember. Sometimes I black out. Anyway, I finally get into the woods and I find this guy looking all sorts of angry and he’s got a bloody leg. Just so you know, I’m not English, I mean he’s really got a bloody leg. I start to get the guy out but I realize that I need some overtime and I still have 6 cold ones in the tow truck. I pretend to have a few bad ideas and try a couple, all the time running back to the truck for a quick sip or three. After about an hour or so, it might have been the beer talking but I really feel bad for him with his bloody leg and all and tell him this one’s on me. Guess what, the guy pulls out a fifty and hands it to me anyway. Woo Hoo!! Guess it’s Miller Time! I hit the store once again for another case of cold ones and on the way I go. Well weather seems to take a turn for the worst on the way home. On the interstate, some guy is flashing his lights and beeping his horn at me. I give him the one fingered salute and continue on my way. With all the snow, I guess I got on the wrong way. I’m almost home when I see flashing lights behind me so I pull over. That guy called the cops on me. Now I don’t feel at all bad about giving him the finger. Normally I’d be worried but today I’m not. As the officer walks up to the car, I lower the window down and say, “Hi honey, I got the beer you asked me to get!”
I needed to go to the gas station because the gasser has a hole in the tank that I had neglected to fix. I found it was much easier just to add some gas then to fix it. After all, it is the wife’s truck. It’s usually her problem. After filling up, I headed to the store. I grabbed some cold ones and as I come out of the store, I see truck on fire! Guess I shouldn’t have flipped that lit cigarette under the truck before going in. Well the only thing to do was to call 911 and sit down in the lot and start drinking the beer. I had to keep the shakes away. The first six pack goes down and I call my idiot buddy because I realize I need wheels. It takes another six pack but he finally arrives to drop off his POS Ford for me to drive. So now I’m on my way home, feeling quite nice since the beer is kicking in again, when some guy in a nice looking grey pickup appears right out of nowhere in front of me. Wow what an impact. I T-boned him totaling his truck. I wanted to feel bad for him but I had a little headache and I was a little bit drowsy. It seemed though as my luck was changing. I saw a random bed in the lawn right across the street so I laid down for a little nap. Well my luck didn’t last too long. My phone rings and it’s work calling (the onion farming doesn’t pay the beer bill). I have a part time job as a tow truck driver and some guy says he’s stuck in the woods. So I tell him I’ll be there soon but as we all know on this site, the only way to keep a hangover away is to start drinking again and I still have 12 cold ones left. I call my daughter for a ride and she tells me she can’t pick me up because some black truck just ran over her Honda. By the time I get someone to pick me up, I totally forget about this dude. He calls like an hour later asking where I’m at so I make up some BS story like an IRS audit or something like that. I can really remember. Sometimes I black out. Anyway, I finally get into the woods and I find this guy looking all sorts of angry and he’s got a bloody leg. Just so you know, I’m not English, I mean he’s really got a bloody leg. I start to get the guy out but I realize that I need some overtime and I still have 6 cold ones in the tow truck. I pretend to have a few bad ideas and try a couple, all the time running back to the truck for a quick sip or three. After about an hour or so, it might have been the beer talking but I really feel bad for him with his bloody leg and all and tell him this one’s on me. Guess what, the guy pulls out a fifty and hands it to me anyway. Woo Hoo!! Guess it’s Miller Time! I hit the store once again for another case of cold ones and on the way I go. Well weather seems to take a turn for the worst on the way home. On the interstate, some guy is flashing his lights and beeping his horn at me. I give him the one fingered salute and continue on my way. With all the snow, I guess I got on the wrong way. I’m almost home when I see flashing lights behind me so I pull over. That guy called the cops on me. Now I don’t feel at all bad about giving him the finger. Normally I’d be worried but today I’m not. As the officer walks up to the car, I lower the window down and say, “Hi honey, I got the beer you asked me to get!”
July 2005, I sign the paperwork for my new 2005 2500. First Auto, first diesel, first 4x4. I hook up with a couple other TDR members and get some gauges installed and I am off to the 2005 Fall Brawl. Once there I pick up a tuner from then SB Diesel and jump on the dyno. 360/670 I think were the numbers, head out to the hiway to make the celebratory smoke (haze really) trail.
There was a black jacked up truck parked at the intersection waiting on traffic to turn left. I stopped in the right lane behind him to check traffic, didn't see anyone and pulled out. I didn't see the Dodge 3500 dually coming and he side swipped me and I went spinning into the right shoulder.
Caved in my drivers door and fender, took off half the bumper and grille. I messed up his dually fender and side steps, did some other cosmetic damage to him.
I called my insurance company and they said that I never bought the new policy, just called about a quote.
But being USAA they stood up and decided to cover me anyway.
It took till christmas to get my truck all the way fixed.
By the time my truck was six months old, it had a new grille, bumper, tie rod, fender and door.
There was a black jacked up truck parked at the intersection waiting on traffic to turn left. I stopped in the right lane behind him to check traffic, didn't see anyone and pulled out. I didn't see the Dodge 3500 dually coming and he side swipped me and I went spinning into the right shoulder.
Caved in my drivers door and fender, took off half the bumper and grille. I messed up his dually fender and side steps, did some other cosmetic damage to him.
I called my insurance company and they said that I never bought the new policy, just called about a quote.
But being USAA they stood up and decided to cover me anyway.
It took till christmas to get my truck all the way fixed.
By the time my truck was six months old, it had a new grille, bumper, tie rod, fender and door.
OK, this assignment proved too difficult (snicker) for some, but others were up to the challenge.
After much consideration, the winner of the new MBRP Exhaust System is:
- dclassens
And the crowd cheered.
Two winners of exhaust tips are:
- RDeFayette
- BarryG
And the crowd cheered again!
To all who dared to post, thank you.
Call or PM me to coordinate your prize. Phone: (888) 440-8371 or (770) 886-8877.
After much consideration, the winner of the new MBRP Exhaust System is:
- dclassens
And the crowd cheered.
Two winners of exhaust tips are:
- RDeFayette
- BarryG
And the crowd cheered again!
To all who dared to post, thank you.
Call or PM me to coordinate your prize. Phone: (888) 440-8371 or (770) 886-8877.
Last edited:
best sob story
Thank you Robin and all the TDR members.
It is only to bad that anyone should have a story that we could write for this.
Wouldn't it be much better if we didn't?
Thank you again and everyone have a wonderful weekend. :-laf
No incidents for this topic this weekend!
Thank you Robin and all the TDR members.
It is only to bad that anyone should have a story that we could write for this.
Wouldn't it be much better if we didn't?
Thank you again and everyone have a wonderful weekend. :-laf
No incidents for this topic this weekend!
Issue 128 – Digital Version
Digital Magazines
FREE!
TDR Test Drive - Digital Edition
Renew
Subscribe
Gift Subscriptions
Back Issues
Subscription Status
Address Change Form
Buyer's Guides
Ram Diagnostic Trouble Codes
The Perfect Collection
The Perfect Collection Vol. II
TSB Updates
Dodge/Cummins Historical Overview
Cameron Collection
What Makes Us Tick?
Product Showcase
Advertising
Turbo Diesel Register
Issue 128 – Digital Version
Digital Magazines
FREE!
TDR Test Drive - Digital Edition
Renew
Subscribe
Gift Subscriptions
Back Issues
Subscription Status
Address Change Form
Buyer's Guides
Ram Diagnostic Trouble Codes
The Perfect Collection
The Perfect Collection Vol. II
TSB Updates
Dodge/Cummins Historical Overview
Cameron Collection
What Makes Us Tick?
Product Showcase
Advertising
