U-Hauled...
Good Lord what a day!
Trixstir and I have been in Calgary for the last few days, getting back into Shaunavon around 7:30pm last night. While we were in Calgary, I got a call from U-Haul Traffic saying that they needed to come and take all of my trucks because they were desperately needed in Regina. I reminded them that I was closed until the 30th, because I was out of town on business; They've known this for several weeks now. I also had a trailer rental and a 26' truck rental scheduled for today.
I arrived at the shop at 8am (2 hours before my official opening time) to get things prepared: Even though the shop was still officially closed, customers started dropping by while I was working on the trucks because they saw the big roll-up door was open. Of course, as always happens, everything would occur at once and I'd have customers in the shop, the phone would be ringing, and the U-Haul crew is trying to get the trucks sent back to Regina. I finally got them sorted out and gone around 11am, and then the customer for the trailer showed up. Fine and dandy, but it turned out that the electrical connector on their truck was totally corroded!
Again, as I tried to work on getting that fixed, customers kept coming into the shop, and phoning, and dropping off machines to be repaired or asking me to find parts, etc. As a result, it took three hours to get that trailer on the road! In the meantime, the customers for the 26' truck arrived, and I had to get them sorted out as well. The truck that they were taking had arrived with an auto-transporter, and after seeing it, they thought they'd like to take that as well. That would be fine by me, as it just earns me a bigger commission. Checking the stats on U-Haul's website, it said that the transporter should be able to handle their Jeep Cherokee without trouble. Except... Turns out that their beastie with its 20" tires was just a wee bit too big! It fit on the trailer just fine, but the wheels were so large around that the wheel-straps were just a couple inches shy of being able to clamp down around them. Secondly, this machine had 4-wheel independent suspension, and thus there was no rear-axle per-se to attach the safety chains around. So, no-go on the transporter. Ah well, the commission will still be a nice fat one, as this truck is heading all the way out to Vancouver island. Ironically, this truck and trailer combination just arrived from BC, and now it's heading back there again! ;)
I spent pretty much the entire day (from 8am to 6:30pm) working on U-Haul stuff, except for the brief interludes while I sold things to other customers, or wrote up work-orders for the items they dropped off to be fixed. :/
Another customer dropped off a dead mower for my scrap-yard. He had mentioned in earlier, and said that he had over-torqued the spark-plug and stripped out the threads, so the spark-plug literally blew out of the mounting hole! After he dumped the machine in the boneyard, I had a closer look at it. I had expected a run-down machine, but what I found was a rather new Sears Craftsman mower, which appeared to be in decent shape other than the blown-out spark-plug. That's then it dawned on me that all it needed was a new cylinder head (and gasket) and it should be fully functional again. I've got plenty of extra cylinder heads on other dead engines, and swapping out the head on one of these is pretty quick and easy. It would take me less than an hour (assuming I can get some uninterrupted time) to fix this thing, and I should be able to get at least $100 for it easily!
My stomach was continuing to give me grief all morning, but it had settled by the afternoon and now it seems to be fine. We shall see if this lasts, or if I'll be awake at 3am again with my gut on fire like it did all through the time we were in Calgary.
Trixstir and I have been in Calgary for the last few days, getting back into Shaunavon around 7:30pm last night. While we were in Calgary, I got a call from U-Haul Traffic saying that they needed to come and take all of my trucks because they were desperately needed in Regina. I reminded them that I was closed until the 30th, because I was out of town on business; They've known this for several weeks now. I also had a trailer rental and a 26' truck rental scheduled for today.
I arrived at the shop at 8am (2 hours before my official opening time) to get things prepared: Even though the shop was still officially closed, customers started dropping by while I was working on the trucks because they saw the big roll-up door was open. Of course, as always happens, everything would occur at once and I'd have customers in the shop, the phone would be ringing, and the U-Haul crew is trying to get the trucks sent back to Regina. I finally got them sorted out and gone around 11am, and then the customer for the trailer showed up. Fine and dandy, but it turned out that the electrical connector on their truck was totally corroded!
Again, as I tried to work on getting that fixed, customers kept coming into the shop, and phoning, and dropping off machines to be repaired or asking me to find parts, etc. As a result, it took three hours to get that trailer on the road! In the meantime, the customers for the 26' truck arrived, and I had to get them sorted out as well. The truck that they were taking had arrived with an auto-transporter, and after seeing it, they thought they'd like to take that as well. That would be fine by me, as it just earns me a bigger commission. Checking the stats on U-Haul's website, it said that the transporter should be able to handle their Jeep Cherokee without trouble. Except... Turns out that their beastie with its 20" tires was just a wee bit too big! It fit on the trailer just fine, but the wheels were so large around that the wheel-straps were just a couple inches shy of being able to clamp down around them. Secondly, this machine had 4-wheel independent suspension, and thus there was no rear-axle per-se to attach the safety chains around. So, no-go on the transporter. Ah well, the commission will still be a nice fat one, as this truck is heading all the way out to Vancouver island. Ironically, this truck and trailer combination just arrived from BC, and now it's heading back there again! ;)
I spent pretty much the entire day (from 8am to 6:30pm) working on U-Haul stuff, except for the brief interludes while I sold things to other customers, or wrote up work-orders for the items they dropped off to be fixed. :/
Another customer dropped off a dead mower for my scrap-yard. He had mentioned in earlier, and said that he had over-torqued the spark-plug and stripped out the threads, so the spark-plug literally blew out of the mounting hole! After he dumped the machine in the boneyard, I had a closer look at it. I had expected a run-down machine, but what I found was a rather new Sears Craftsman mower, which appeared to be in decent shape other than the blown-out spark-plug. That's then it dawned on me that all it needed was a new cylinder head (and gasket) and it should be fully functional again. I've got plenty of extra cylinder heads on other dead engines, and swapping out the head on one of these is pretty quick and easy. It would take me less than an hour (assuming I can get some uninterrupted time) to fix this thing, and I should be able to get at least $100 for it easily!
My stomach was continuing to give me grief all morning, but it had settled by the afternoon and now it seems to be fine. We shall see if this lasts, or if I'll be awake at 3am again with my gut on fire like it did all through the time we were in Calgary.