Truck driving in Sweden, in winter!

Deaf ducks are cool, that’s for sure. But now let me share another interesting thing I found. The other day I found this video-blog or “vlog” that was posted online by a truck driver who drives in Sweden. Think about that … driving a semi-truck on frozen, icy roads in Sweden in winter.

You might ask … “Ann, how in the world did you come across a video blog of a truck driver in Sweden?” Heck, I can’t remember. 🙂 I was surfing along online one evening, just minding my own business, when the link to the vlog popped up in a list of other vlogs.

Ok, I said to myself, I’ll take a look. Whoa, this one is terrific!

The truck driver in this video has some vlog postings about other things too, but here (below) is the very first video about driving truck (from February, 2019) … it’s great.

And yes, the video is about “driving truck” … we don’t say it’s about “driving a truck”. 🙂

Turn your sound on before you start the video. And click on the little box in the lower right hand corner of the video to make it play in full screen view. You can also click on the “Watch on YouTube” link on the lower left. I usually do that. Best not to watch these videos on a phone, you won’t see much.

Let’s go truckin’!

Pretty cool video, eh? 🙂

Yes, someone stole fuel out of the diesel tank, but there’s more trouble afoot than just having not much fuel left.

This truck driver (Cassie) chose NOT to have heat in the morning, not to run the engine to have heat in the cab, and so not risk running completely out of fuel. The trouble with running out of diesel fuel is … if a gasoline engine runs out of fuel, you simply put more in the tank and the pump is self-priming and then the engine starts after you crank it a bit. No sweat.

But for most diesel engines, if they run out of fuel, you’re up the creek without a paddle, as they say. Most diesel fuel pumps are NOT self-priming because of the mechanics of how the whole system works. Most diesel engines, if they’ve run out of fuel, then have an air lock inside each fuel line which prevents the fuel pump from sending fuel to the engine. Someone has to bleed the air out of the diesel fuel lines. Ordinarily, a mechanic lies on top of the engine (I’m serious here, no joke) and loosens the fitting to each diesel fuel injector, one at a time, while lying on top of the engine, while another person is in the cab of the truck and simply holds the key “on” so that the engine cranks continuously, and the engine bucks and jumps and rattles like you can’t believe since it isn’t running properly. Keep in mind that in order to reach those fuel lines, the mechanic is usually lying on that earthquake of an engine. As soon as diesel fuel spits out of the first loosened fitting on top of the engine (and of course some diesel fuel sprays all over the mechanic), then the air has been bled from that one line and the mechanic tightens that fitting … and then the mechanic moves on to the next fitting … etc. You might assume, correctly, that there will be eight fittings on an eight cylinder engine.

Not surprisingly, when the mechanic is done bleeding all eight lines, the mechanic is covered in diesel fuel, and is cold as ice (since the engine is cold having not been run for several hours), and the mechanic is nervous from lying on an engine that’s bucking and jumping, and … well, is not very happy. Hence, our truck driver in this video made DARN sure that there was still a bit of diesel in the tank … she did not use the last of the diesel for heat.

If you, as the truck driver, allow your truck to run completely totally out of diesel fuel, and you need to call a mechanic to come and “bleed” the air out of the lines … even in good weather … you will owe that mechanic big time. In the winter? When the engine is now ice cold? You would not be popular.

This woman truck driver was smart … and knowledgable. Her boss had more fuel delivered to her to add to the small amount that was still in the tank, and then she knew she had plenty of fuel to get to the nearest fuel station, without needing to bleed the lines.

Many years ago, when I was a FedEx truck mechanic, I had to bleed an 8-cylinder diesel engine … in the middle of winter … in a snow storm … outdoors. The FedEx semi truck was parked at the end of the Federal Express building where I usually worked, in Kent, WA. The regular driver didn’t know what he was doing, so he ran the engine in order to keep the cab warm, but he didn’t make sure he had enough fuel to do that. You guessed it, he let the tank run dry. And so, as the mechanic closest to the location, I got the call to go bleed the air out of the lines. As mentioned, the truck was outdoors in freezing weather, in a snowstorm. Lucky for the driver who let the tank run dry, he had left the area by the time I got out there. Or maybe he knew he’d better hightail it out of there before I got there. But another truck driver (Jessie) was on site and I asked her to sit in the cab and crank the engine while I bled the fuel lines, after I added several gallons of diesel fuel to the tanks. She was happy to help, and I knew I could trust her. While I was lying on top of that jumping and rattling and rocking semi-truck diesel engine, she knew to watch me! With my fist in the air, she kept the key “on” and kept that engine cranking … if my fist fell, she shut the engine OFF! We got that engine started in excellent time, with no problem. And I headed home to take a shower, change clothes, and do laundry.

Here’s a photo (below) of a semi truck engine, with the hood open. The cab is to the left, out of the photo … the hood is to the right, up in the air. When the engine is taller than you are, you can see that one would have to climb up in there, ON the engine, to access the fuel lines that go to the top of the engine. And for sure, most engines are no where near as clean as the engine in the photo below.

All of this mechanical stuff is perfectly safe, with knowledge and care. And yet, we all know accidents can happen. My feet were well braced on top of that engine, but if my foot had slipped and I had fallen in beside the engine … well, that was when I wanted someone like Jessie to be there in the cab and shut the engine OFF. I was paid well for my work for Federal Express, and my fellow mechanics really liked me, as I did them. All of us did the same work and all of us were good at what we did.

And so! That’s why this really super truck driver in Sweden elected not to run the engine, and elected not to have any heat on the morning that she discovered someone had stolen most of the fuel from the tanks. She knew what having NO fuel in a diesel system meant. Not only would a mechanic be really unhappy about having to bleed lines in freezing weather, but also it would take many more hours for Cassie, too, to get home and get warm.

I’m looking forward to more of this woman’s stories. The link to this woman’s vlog is here … https://www.youtube.com/c/Razorkittn/videos. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of videos and start there if you want to start from the beginning. I’ve been skipping the non-trucking videos.

Safe journeys! See you around the next bend! 🙂