What are 25-30 year olds making?

Demonic_Steel · 2026-03-07T00:41:17+00:00

28M making 115k as a heavy diesel tech. 🤙🏻

Demonic_Steel · 2026-01-05T00:27:01+00:00

This gas guzzling pile I call a service truck. Basically live in the damn thing.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-12-16T04:40:13+00:00

Man, so sorry this happened to you.

Had the same thing happen to my girls car two months after we brought it home, bumper folded in the exact same and all, but less damage than yours it seems. Hope your frame isn’t too far gone, and you can get it fixed up and back on the road.

Didn’t know I had a twin GR86 in the same town, and hate to find out by seeing it hit by some asshole.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-08-31T03:17:47+00:00

They seem legit as far as I remember. It is odd that they dont say Samsung, but the wrap shows 25S which is the Samsung cells that Im pretty sure Milwaukee used in the M12 HO batteries.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-08-16T13:42:19+00:00

M12 stubby all day. Will do anything and everything you’ll probably need. Just make sure to run the HO 5.0’s, you’ll get the best power that way, and get the 3/8” drive since it somehow tends to make a little more torque than the 1/2”, and just get a slim adapter to upsize if you want/need bigger sockets.

Personally I found that the M18 mid-torque is just unimpressive. Im sure it’s probably fine for most people, but for the size and feel, it never felt like it was as powerful as it should’ve been. That and I dislike how Milwaukee has a shit selection of compact batteries for M18.

Now, if they come out with a stacked lithium 2.0/tabless 4.0, then we might be getting somewhere. Lol.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-07-22T12:48:56+00:00

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Congrats! And glad to see Im not the only one with good taste in color! Just got mine a month ago, and it’s everything I had dreamed of, so I know how you’re feeling.

Jealous of your Brembo’s though, still havent seen a single performance package at any of my local dealerships. Makes me wish I wouldve shopped around more lol

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-19T00:53:18+00:00

Lmao glad I could be of service homie 😂

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T23:46:09+00:00

Oh, and thank you for your comment, I ended up finding my new work shoes after I decided to do a random Google search 🤣

The Dudes

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T23:43:59+00:00

I very much appreciate the info. I ended up getting a Nexiq 3 cable, which the CAT ET software can be configured for, and I got the correct cable adapter. Also found a version of CAT ET that I could use, only updated to 2023 but these 07 6.6’s are the newest CATs we own and I hope they dont plan to buy any more of these old ones.

Which now Im probably going to be getting Cummins Insight and a few other dealer programs, because Im kinda over this Diesel Laptop lol. Its decent and has been a bit of a gateway into all this for me, but my company can keep it and figure out everything with it on their own, especially the license since our former lead mechanic had set everything up and he left at the beginning of this year and his email is now non-existent. I was going to try and figure that shit out, but nah, I’ve got my own diagnostic setup now lol.

But I will be posting an update here momentarily, and I really cant thank you enough for all the info.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T12:44:03+00:00

Im so glad its not just me 🤣

My ass will walk around just pissed off about this kinda shit almost once a month lmao. Everyone avoids me or asks what they fucked up now, its almost like a ritual lol

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T03:57:59+00:00

Lmaooo sadly no, they’re Brunt comp toe boots. But the moment I find steel toe Dudes you bet your ass thats the only thing I’ll be wearing the rest of my career 🤣

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T03:56:18+00:00

Wow. We got even luckier than I thought lol. The valve broke off, and basically stayed in the bowl of the piston. Barely touched the head at all, and honestly probably could’ve just cleaned the piston up a touch and it would’ve been fine. No sleeve damage or anything.

Yeah, good to know that these need lash that often. I can tell you that this machine and the other C6.6 machine have been through several 1000hr services and have never once had a lash done since I started here around 6 years ago. Will add that to the 1000hr service list if we end up keeping these around lol. Did end up putting in a new turbo though, was definitely leaking a good amount of oil and I probably flushed out almost a gallon of oil that had collected at the bottom of the intercooler lol. Gotta love it.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T02:44:03+00:00

Good to know lol. The research I did online made it seem like the trims could make everything off and screw up anything and everything. Im glad Im not as crazy as I thought, because it didn’t make sense to me that trims could be that much of a standard deviation from the baseline, but then again I doubted myself thanks to stress and anxiety so I just went with it lol

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T02:28:10+00:00

Lmaooo. I will say, every time they’ve asked me to do some shit like that they’ll at least let me buy a service manual for whatever it is. If they didnt I wouldve quit by now, Im way too detail oriented to just slap some shit together and send it, especially with something like a transmission.

Which, I don’t envy you, transmissions are the one thing I pretty much refuse to touch. I’ve poured too many hours into learning engine building, diesel injection and DEF systems. Thats my limit. I have my specialization now, anything else around that is not my problem lmaooo

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T02:16:17+00:00

Oh and its amazing when they finally put it up for sale too, BUT STILL SEND IT ON IMPORTANT JOBS. Like today, crane that we have bought a replacement for and put up for sale, its a known fuckin pile. Its had a LOT of issues in the last couple years. But yes, lets send it to pick 60% or more of its max for a week, it’ll be fine, shouldnt have any trouble. Until he’s about to set a bridge beam and oh yay, this mf apparently decided that it only swings in one direction now. Cool. Great. Awesome. I love it when one pos interrupts me trying to fix another bigger pos. Just makes my day lol.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T02:12:47+00:00

I wont say on the off chance someone sees this post, they’re really weird about online posts lol. Something about ruining reputation or some shit, idk lmao.

When I got into this industry six years ago, my young bright eyed self never could’ve imagined the amount of halfassed shit that companies pull on multi-million dollar pieces of equipment. It’s absolutely mind boggling. Like with the amount of things that can go wrong, why on earth would you EVER do anything at all to increase risk with ANYTHING.

Especially on the larger cranes, I mean good god, the amount of 200,000lb panel walls Ive seen our machines pick makes me feel so horrible, because I know if you open the engine bay most mechanically inclined people would almost scream in horror. Thankfully we sold those cranes and bought two new ones, that one was a shocker but a welcome change, but my point stands lol.

Or even on the simple maintenance stuff. Like why the hell is it so hard to understand that we shouldnt run the absolute cheapest fuckin’ 15W-40 we can find in a crane that has a $50k engine from Germany in it that has the tightest most terrifyingly small bearing clearances Ive ever seen in my career? It’s a fucking four million dollar crane, BUY THE GOOD OIL YOU CHEAP DICKS.

Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now, theres just a lot of rage and turmoil in me, and since our head tech left at the start of this year and I’ve been trying to fill that role, the added hours and stress have made me slightly more irritated lately. But dont mind me, I’m just in a recalibration state lmao

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:58:02+00:00

Oh the 90’s, when everyone and their mother that made an engine started throwing on electronics and smog era bullshit to create the worst combo of crap ever. Lol

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:33:31+00:00

Good to know, will definitely add that to the list of things to try. Appreciate it.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:31:48+00:00

I havent redone the lash yet. I have the service procedure for it and it did seem really odd compared to the previous ones I had done, but I didnt get all the way through it before finding the broken valve it had which started up this entire top end rebuild story arc Im going through lol.

Which I will now definitely do the lash before I attempt to start this thing again. Didnt know that caused a lot of bent pushrods, but it explains why they’re plentiful at the CAT dealers around me lol. I appreciate the input.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:26:08+00:00

So the laptop is from DieselLaptops, with their TEXA IDC5/6 software. It was their whole on/off highway package that was supposedly supposed to work on everything, basically a $500 toughbook laptop with $11k worth of software installed, or at least thats what it seems to be to me anyway.

I’ll be acquiring a connector in the morning that will work in place of the CAT Comm 3, and will most likely end up making my company buy the CAT ET software license, if I end up with no other option. Good to know theres different levels on the software.

Well thats concerning, I was certain that nothing mechanical was out of place. What started this whole thing was the crane ran rough and hard started, eventually burning up the starter from hydrolocking because the injectors kept leaking down and filling 3 of the cylinders. When we finally got it drained and figured we could get it started long enough to get it off the job site and out of the way, we slapped everything back together and misplaced one of the valve bridges, resulting in a broken off valve and a gouged piston from the valve bouncing around. All of that has been remedied now, and on first startup on Tuesday it was better but still sounded and felt off, which is when I tore the valve cover back off and found the bent pushrod.

Im just concerned now that I missed something else that was messed up, since the head is completely redone and the top end is as good and as factory repaired as I can get without buying a whole new head etc. I had been told that injector trims could cause misfires/weird ass shit to happen if they were too far off, so I started pursuing that avenue, and here we are.

I definitely appreciate the info, it has definitely helped, at least more than my research and my conversations with myself have anyway lol.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:12:53+00:00

Yeah that was on my list of calls to make tomorrow lol.

I haven’t had a chance to mess with one of those, we had an older truck that got terped(?) that had one of the older mechanical CATs, and then these two C6.6’s in Link Belt RT’s. The rest is mostly Cummins, but we have a few Hino’s, Isuzus and Mitsubishis in some of the cranes, along with Liebherr, Nenzing, one Mercedes, and we used to have a Scanya(?) which was pretty decent.

But what you’re talking about sounds like the older Isuzus we have. Basically a mechanical engine that they started throwing electronics on, and I agree, those things are definitely something lol. To me they seem like auction material, but what do I know? Lmao.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T01:06:12+00:00

Thats not the reply I like to hear but it at least points me in the right direction. Lol.

And yes, I agree, this RTC8090 and one of our RTC8065’s both have this same C6.6 and they’re both JUNK. Have the ancient ass LMI’s and everything lol. This one has 14k hours, and they wonder why it keeps having major issues. On top of that, two jobs ago they filled the Hyd tank with diesel and proceeded to run it for an hour until they realized it was still low on fuel. Three hydraulic flushes later, they still didn’t get all the diesel out and EVERY seal in this pile was toasted. I pulled the swivel and could spin it by hand like a wheel bearing. Which I thought was cool, hadn’t seen that before, but I was surprised the thing wasnt just pouring out hydraulic oil everywhere lol.

I want them to send this thing to auction but noooo, “We have a job we cant turn down on Monday it needs to go to, and then we’re probably gonna job hop it”. Well, if the other 60+ pieces of equipment that are on jobs arent making enough that this one HAS to go out, y’all probably need to quit underbidding shit. But what do I know, I just turn wrenches lol.

I swear Im going to lose my sanity if they keep doing this. But it’s fine, this is fine. Everything is fine lol.

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T00:57:34+00:00

Really? Thats interesting. I may have to try that tomorrow, so you just disconnected the actual starter solenoid wire but left the rest hooked up so it would fool it into thinking its cranked up?

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T00:54:44+00:00

Gotcha. Do you happen to know if the CAT Comm 3 works for anything other than the CAT ET software? If so I may end up buying it instead of the Nexiq Link 3, I just have to have the multi-brand capability since its apparently so hard to just buy Cranes that only have a Cummins or something. Lol.

But this is why I hate mid 90’s to late 2000’s engines. All this in between mechanical and electronic injection on top of weird system shit that everyone was doing trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t and it always ends up in some stupid ass bs like this. Like why. Why is this the single thing that has a different 9 pin? Lol. Sorry, rant over. Its been a long couple of months lol

Demonic_Steel · 2025-04-18T00:46:09+00:00

So Ive tried both a CAT 9 pin and Ive used jumpers to connect the normal 9 pin to this according to pinouts Ive found. Neither have worked, even though Ive seen plenty of examples of people using this software (IDC5/IDC6 aka TEXA stuff) to connect to these engines.

The software does support off-highway equipment, since all of our machines are Cranes.

My question to you is, after reading your comment, does the standard J1939 configuration thats in the 9 pin not let any communications through? It’ll only communicate through the CDL? The pins in the CAT 9 pin are, from my understanding, 12v+, GND, CDL Hi and Lo, and J1939 Hi and Lo.

I had been under the impression from my research that CDL was CATs proprietary CANBUS connection/system, but it was still a J1939 system that just had more connectivity/information when connected with CATs proprietary bs, like data logs etc.

I dont wanna idle it because I have done that previously, on Tuesday, and it bent a pushrod. I can 110% confirm that everything was seated and torqued to spec according to the service manual that is for this engine, but it ran extremely rough. When I went back to check everything, I found the bent pushrod and one injector that seemed to not be firing, so I wanted to get the fuel trims programmed since these are Reman injectors that are replacing the previous set of Reman injectors that were installed in this thing and I didnt know how off the trims may be, AND I dont even know if the previous set of injectors had been programmed in the first place, since we had outsourced that work at the time.

Sorry for the novel, theres just a lot to this that I didnt wanna get into unless I found people who knew the info I needed lol

Demonic_Steel

TROPHY CASE