dash cams and mechanics, enough to p-o the pope!!

Doubly PO'd tonight. First I had to replace the 5th dashcam since I bought it after christmas. I don't understand how they can have that bad of quality and stay in business. The first turned on ok and the video worked, but wouldn't loop on the card so after 3 hours it would just stop recording til you cleared the card. So I got a new one. The next one would just shut off if you hit a bump. The third one never worked it just locked on and squealed right from the start. The fourth one worked for a week or so then today would just stop videoing for some reason. Just got the 5th one, got one from a different manufacturer this time. Most are made by Top Dawg and it took a long time to find one made by someone else. Hope this one works better.

Second problem is with a mechanic at the TA truckstop today. Got a trailer with some lighting problems, bout 1/2 the clearance lights don't work sometimes, they kinda blink on when you hit a bump. Took it in to get it fixed and the mechanic looks at it for a sec and says "you need a new cord on the truck". I said why? He says its what is wrong. I said how can that be if half the lights work, obviously the power is getting to the trailer, but isn't making it to the back. He wouldn't even look at it unless I bought a cord for the truck first. So I said forget it I'll fix it myself, I did design and build trailers for over 20 years so I should be able to figure it out. Took about 10 minutes to pull the plug on the trailer apart and fix the loose wire. Oh, the shop charged me $50.00 for the diagnosis.

Guess I'm struggling with some anger issues right now. LOL

WOW to both topics! My back up camera on my FedEx Home Delivery truck never gave any problems, but the monitor was another story! What a piece of crap that thing was! It did not have an easy life on the road though!

Jon, after a day like that you need another funny so here you go !

P.S. Did this look like the guy working on your trailer ?

I think the guy that worked on the trailer ate a lot of re-fried beans.

If I am reading this correctly, you are saying there's a factory in "the Land of Almost Right" called the "Top Dawg Company"?

Forgive me for showing my ignorance here, but why do you want a dashcam in the first place? Not being critical, I just dont know.

Gene

From my years of truck utility mechanic, I found that most of the trailers in our fleet (about 60 of all makes and ages) light the marker lights on one side from the black wire with the tail lights (IIRC), and the rest light from the brown wire. I would check to make sure you have a good connection at the plug on the pigtail. I would plug it in and unplug it a few times. If your pigtail plugs in on both ends, do both ends. Sometimes the easiest things fix the biggest problems.
Tim in OR

I have no use for a dash cam but I was thinkin about installing one of those cameras in my tractor that looks out the back and puts the picture on a nice screen inside, CIH has been advertizing them in the local paper, maybe I should pass?? Probably just more aggravation like anything else, any body use one?? The old neck don't twist like it use to.

Sounds like Top Dawg needs to stay on the porch!
And I don't blame you for being po'd, Had it been me, the mechanic and myself both would be at the hospital, having my foot and shoe surgically removed from his rectum!

After 26 years as a fully certified NAISE mechanic one thing I noticed was that even the best of them had very little understanding of the basics of electricity. Trouble shooting intermittant electrical issues is the worst and requires mainly patience. I bet the guy was just blowing you off. On the other side most customers don't want to pay full blown hourly labor for 2 hours of probing circuits to just wind up cleaning a connection, etc.

Welcome to the REAL world as known to the rest of us.

Mike in MN, that is what was in my FedEx truck! The camera was excellent, but the monitor could not take the rough ride! This was 10 years ago, so maybe they are making a monitor that withstands the rough a little better!

The four way flashers on my backhoe quit working correctly last year. It wasn't until I had put in about a whole days time equivalent(and slept on it) that I finally fixed it.
After studying the wiring diagram(relatively simple one), phone calls to the dealer, taking a switch/flasher assembly out of another machine and trying it, and two half days, I finally discovered the factory had installed a common flasher down in the harness, for an open station tractor. Mine has a cab, and the flasher is built into the switch on the dash. The separate flasher had finally died after many years, and messed up the whole operation. So somehow the common round flasher had overridden the one in the switch, and it worked fine for many years. Fix?- remove flasher! Took about 5 minutes.
The guys at the shop(where I had called) never heard of such a thing. I discussed with them how much it would have cost to have them do it. All of us would have been mad and frustrated. And me a lot poorer!

People always blame the trucker for everthing.
Been several times that a cam would have helped me
out. Just before christmas another trucker said I
crossed the center line and sideswiped his truck.
No way that happened, and I was very lucky in that
I had what may have been the only Dart trailer
with not a single scratch on the side he said I
hit him with, but it could have been ugly. The cam
would have put that claim to rest in a hurry. Also
I bought it mostly as a lark so I could share some
of the crazy stuff I see every day. I would just
forget it but I'm too stuborn to let them off the
hook, I paid for one I want one that works. lol

Yes, Bob, this was always a common scenerio and only years of experience (and mostly a gut feeling) tells you which job to take and which to turn down. Unfortunately, no matter what, it is usually both parties who are not happy. In your example, when the cost of time is factored in, it would probably have been cheaper for a shop to rip the whole system out and install a newer up to date one. Few understand the economics there.

We sell the Voyager brand here at the New Holland dealership and they've been very good. I wouldn't hesitate to invest in one.

where i worked had a forklift that wouldnt start had to put it on a machine to find out its a safety device the warning flasher was broke

There are a few people that wreck the credibility of good mechanics.. I know a lot of really good mechanics and a very few really poor ones .. That goes with any profession.. I took my "Dump Kitty" to the vet 2 weeks ago.. This was for shots and check-up ... 110.00 there 1 day later she was showing signs of being lethargic. After a couple of days she turned for the worse.. Another Vet has seen her since.. After tests , which only cost 480.00 ..Are you kiddin' me ?? I reluctantly paid this.. Tests showed nothing.. I'll never ever take a healthy animal to a vet ever again.. Maybe I'll be lookin' at puttin' her down shortly..

That is kind of petty, I know from my experience in the past with driving, lets say non fleet trucks, for instance like when I drove for the local lumber yard, often times I did repairs myself, especially wiring, because for some darned reason mechanics, or even the shops they took the trucks to could not get it right. Even before that job, straight out of high school, I took a job in a recycling plant, that 16 trucks and trailers, I eventually became night shift foreman, those 2 drunk mechanics would give the drivers a hard time about repairing wiring, and making the lights work correctly. After my 3:30-12 shift was done, I usually had another gig at midnight had to run 50 miles north, pick up a full trailer, bring an empty for that drivers out of town route, imperative the lights work correctly! While at the lumber yard, I drove an '81 long frame R model mack, 300+ w 9 speed, nice tractor, but I am not sure what happened, they undercoated the terminal block on the firewall, and the drunk that ran the brand new truss trailer before I got it, a Dump D Matic from Texas, decided it needed its wiring fixed. Never saw so many alcoholics on the job like back then. I was on the return trip from Manchester VT at night and all the lights went out, desolate area, no cell phones in those days, only thing I could do was tape the courtesy spring loaded high beam switch to the on position on top of the dash, I did high beam everyone all the way home, no trailer lights though. Next day I took care of all of it and that was that, spent the day testing, checking and repairing, making good connections, lights worked fine afterward, I like doing wiring anyway, usually easy, unless you have a pesky ground or some hard to find problem. It was easier to do it myself, got done right, and I did not have to trust someone elses work while on the road. Drivers used to be capable of emergency repairs like these. That trailer was telescopic, long air lines coiled up, one bulged out and blew, saw it in the mirror, no problem got it stopped, made the repair so as to get back home empty, same with a brake can, bypassed that, we used to try and be helpful, get the truck back in, avoid a road call, but not jeopardize safety if it was worse. I ran a 72 autocar with a 335 cummins/ 13 spd, and one of the ranges went out, leaking air, I had a D8K on the heavy rogers trailer, headed to the Cat dealer, scary ride, but I did not use that range, held air, watched the gauge carefully, made the call once I got there, mechanic scavenged the part off the sister truck in the yard, came down, other truck was almost the same set up, he repaired it in the cat dealers yard, and I was able to complete moving the other 2 D8's, that one I could not do, but another driver could have, would prefer the mechanic to do all of this, but sometimes it falls back to if you want something done correctly do it yourself.

Part of the problem at my local shop is that they have a couple mechanics that are just flat excellent. Great reputation so they get busy and hire some young and dumbs or just plain dumbs to do the "easy" stuff.

My latest fiasco was I had a fork truck operator hit the door of my trailer and and knock it off while backed up to the dock, He tried to deny it. It's still up in the air whether the co going to stand behind it or if I'm going to have to get an attorney involved.

Any way I put it in the shop with instructions to fix the door, service it out and check everything.

I go to pick it up and it trips a breaker and no lights. "They checked everything"??!! Seems they fried some wires in the channel they heated to straight the door hinge. SOO they fix that and I go back hook it up do my walk around and head out of town.

That night lights are now blinking with the bumps going down the road. Seems the connection at the box must have gotten hot and cord is not right. I replaced cord and that resolved that. Next night I stop for coffee and do my walk around and have a clearance light out. Seems the guys cut a wire and the crimp connector was't tight. and came apart.

I get so frustrated with having to do quality control checks after repairs. I really get cross ways with mechanics in truck stops as I won't pull it out till I double check there work.

I could write a book and I've only been operating semis for 7 years & still a rookie.

A SIL drives. The first several companies he drove for had him doing simple repairs. He's driving for Kane now and because they haul fuel and other hazmat they don't want the drivers doing anything. If there is a problem he calls the company and they get someone near the truck to come out.

Rick