A night with the Kentucky DOT

Wednesday night I was heading back North along I-65 when something happened that I have never had happen before. While going through the weigh station the sign flipped to park from back to I-65, so to the back I went. This was going to be my first time having to go into a weigh station so as I updated my log and got together all the required paperwork, all I could wonder was why. For that matter why was I the second Falcon truck back there.

When I got inside I found out why, and that I forgot the trailer registration. The why was that while looking at our trucks with an infrared camera, it views heat in black and white, they noticed that one or more of our trailer brakes were cool compared to the rest of them. Watching the camera as other trucks when by, the glowing white brakes were quite obvious to see, so a dark one would be just as glaringly obvious. The paperwork check didn't take long as everything was in order, once I grabbed the trailer registration that is.

Then it was time for me to pull it into their inspection barn. It was here that I found out that all sorts of things were wrong with the underside of the truck, steering, suspension, and the two brakes that were misaligned. So I was now shut down until repairs were made and the sheet was signed off on by the mechanic. Looking at the clock it was at this point that I knew I would be spending the night here rather than at a truck stop two miles down the road, I was almost out of hours to drive, bumping the 14 hour limit.

The mechanic was there fairly quickly and got the other truck rolling just as fast, then it was my turn. As he was checking all the parts marked off by the DOT, he became more and more confused, since according to him all that he found was the brakes needed adjusting. So with a lot of phone calls to my breakdown department and his boss, and some more checks, he adjusted the brakes and signed off on the sheet that I was good to roll. By this point it was now a good hour or two after my 14 hour limit, so no driving on for me. I was stuck there for ten hours. The only thing remotely close to facilities a small porto pottie off in a corner, lovely.