An incomplete list of truck failures
As we’re going up North, our adventures continues. “Moderna”, the company that prepared our truck for the trip, left us a lot of unpleasant surprises. Therefore, Giedrius and Zilvinas had not only to become a long-distance drivers but also resourceful mechanics. They were going all over the truck, diving in the fuel and looking for the ways to fix the bugs almost every day.
After the flat tire was fixed the marathon of other failures continued. First of all the heaters of fuel pipes burned them and the fuel started to run through the holes under the truck. Giedrius and Zilvinas were taking a fuel shower while trying to fix all the system. After that the smell of diesel is our companion.
The other day Tatra refused to go at all. After we reached Kansk, speed started to drop until we completely stopped and couldn’t move at all. The reason for that was a pile of metal cutting left in the fuel tank.
After fishing it out with a magnet, we were able to go further and finally reached the winter road, called “zemnyk” in Russian. It was a late night already as we noticed that the fuel tank was drifting away and we almost lost it. It happened just right before a very steep hillside, where a couple of trucks were stuck because of the slippery trail. A dream team of tuff truck drivers helped us out with the fuel tank and quickly fixed it back to its place. In return we pulled them up the hill.
The temperature outside was -34°C the next morning and the fuel pumps refused to work. As the temperature outside reached -41°C it’s now impossible to lift up the cabin. Because of the cold some other different problems occur. The guys have to use their imagination and find ways to warm up the truck from the outside to make it work.
5 of 8 truck lights blew-out, heaters in the house constantly stop working and we’re expecting new unpleasant surprises every day, though it’s getting harder to really surprise us.
Despite all that, we’re still enjoying our trip and are impressed by well prepared winter roads and good quality Antarctica fuel. The best of all is still the wild nature of Evenkia.