Truck Garage with Living Quarters
Several years ago, I wrote an article stating that if you are a young owner operator, think about building a garage for your truck and other equipment, however, make it large enough to build living quarters on one end. Situate it so if you get married and she wants a house you can build one on the same property, either attached to the garage or not. Several years later a young owner operator by the name of Chad Tennant from Spearfish, SD took my advice and built a 50’ wide by 90 ‘deep garage. On one side he built living quarters 15’ wide by 60’ long and 2 stories high (1800 sq. ft.). For a single guy, that’s plenty of space. Then he got married and children were on the way, 4 daughters to be exact, and of course they need a home. On the side of the garage he built a 2000 sq. ft. home and attached it to the existing 1800 sq. ft. for a total living area of 3800 sq. ft. This guy lives large! Now, so as not to share his man cave with his wife, he built her a 2-car garage on the far side of the house. This guy is sharp! He builds a shop for his toys, gets married, has children, and does not have to give up anything because the wife wants a house, how cool is that? His father says his truck and trailer are spoiled; they get to stay in a heated garage. And even when on the road, the engine never starts cold thanks to a Webasto engine pre-heater. Chad drives an older truck that he purchased new, a 2009 386 Pete that he has since put 1,540,000 miles on her. She is in great shape and producing 630 horsepower. He is in the process of purchasing a spare truck, a 2016 579 Pete powered by an X-15 Cummins. It will spend some time at our shop getting a ported and polished ceramic intake and exhaust manifold, Diesel Force cleaning, DPF cleaning, sensors cleaned, performance tuned, valves adjusted, OPS by-pass oil filtration, FASS Fuel System, Fleet Air Filter, torsional damper and mercury filled engine balancer, and 2 dump switches for the rear suspension. Needless to say, he will have a super truck as a spare. I would venture to say the spare truck becomes the main truck, time will tell!
On most DD engines there is a rubber bladder in the SCR system that acts as a pressure regulator for the DEF injection system. Most people don’t know it exists, but it needs to be filled to the right PSI periodically to operate correctly. Because of the nature of this part, it’s likely to lose pressure overtime or break. Replacing it is not a difficult job, but neither is re-inflating it. When it fails it will cause a CEL related to the SCR system. The common code for a malfunction of this part is “Under Pressurized Diesel Exhaust Fluid System”. First locate the DEF pump. The air bladder is attached to the DEF pump and has a schrader valve on it for re-inflating. Most applications will need 40-46 psi of air, but you may want to check to make sure that is correct for your engine. You may also want to remove the bladder to inspect it’s still in good condition.
How does a lifetime warranty on your DPF sound? It probably sounds too good to be true, but we’ve partnered with DPF Alternatives to provide customers with a no-hassle DPF warranty program. You will never have to pay to get your DPF cleaned again. You can find the specific requirements for the program at dpfalternatives.com, but basically you will need your DPF restored with their proprietary ultrasonic cleaning and then maintain the aftertreatment components with Max Mileage FBC. The warranty is not limited by time or mileage so it truly is a lifetime warranty. Even if you’re not interested in the warranty, DPF Alternatives provides some top notch service for all your emissions system related needs. Their high tech equipment is designed to wash out the soot and ash from the system without any harm to the catalyst element. That honeycomb structure in your DPF and DOC can become brittle overtime so you don’t want to risk taking it to an inexperienced shop. Visit their website for more information and to find one of their 40 nationwide locations.
Written by;
Bruce Mallinson
Andrew Wilson
Pittsburgh Power Inc.