Departing the fuel station, it's just going to be Jack and I for this leg. This is our tire delivery and we don't want to delay either of the P4U convoys to make it. The delivery point is in Lviv though, so it's not like it's too far off our track.
Driving through brings back memories of the first time I drove back from Dnipro with Mrs. Hungary in the truck. it was our first Christmas run and the snow was falling as we drove back through (the truck's cooling system would later freeze solid in Poland). As I look around, I can see that snow has fallen here recently, but the roads are all clear.
In the vehicles, we're making good use of those hand radios to allow Jack to pass traffic. If you've never driven a RHD vehicle on the right side of the road, it is IMPOSSIBLE to see around the vehicle in front of you to make a pass. So I wait until a large gap in traffic and pull out into the passing lane. I maintain radio contact as to the road conditions and Jack is able to follow. (that's some trust right there, as misplaced as it might be).
We haven't made it even 20kms though and that damn drivetrain noise is back. It's LOUD too. Loud enough I'm getting very nervous. The vibrations are intense enough that it will tickle your feet if they're flat on the floorboard. The place we're dropping these tires off is next to a tire shop, so I'm thinking we might have a mechanic look and see if he can just cut the darn CV joint out of the equation. Not a "fix" by any means, but something that will allow us to continue.
Then, as fast as it started, the noise goes intermittent before disappearing completely.
Strange, but it stays that way until we get to our delivery point.
The guys at the tire shop have no idea what we're doing there, and the language barrier makes it impossible for us to communicate so eventually we message Viktoria for instructions. There's a silver Mercedes parked nearby with a red cross on it. We're to put the tires and everything in there. A short search of the adjacent parking lots follows, but eventually we find our spot.
After our drop, we decided to swap all the boxes over to the van. It was a requirement to keep them in the Mitsubishi at the border because you register your vehicle in your humanitarian aid declaration, but now that we're across it makes more sense for them to be dry and safe (rather than in the bed of the pickup).
Driving on, the noise comes back and I immediately regret not asking someone to cut that darn half-shaft out of the truck. This noise though flies in the face of how I thought 4x4 hubs worked (even auto-locking ones). I thought the wheel would turn independently of the half-shaft until 4wd was engaged. Once 4wd was engaged, the hub would "lock" and be married to the half-shaft again. This makes me slightly worried that it's going to be a wheel bearing....
But then again, I could be wrong. I dismiss the wheel bearing idea as I'm not getting any feedback through the steering wheel.
This noise staying as long as it is this time, I have a chance to play with it a bit. I find that it's non existent under 60kph. Its the WORST at 80kph, and it smoothes out around 100kph to 120kph. It disappears again, and then comes back. I try to reassure the truck by patting its dash and telling it that everything will be ok.
For the next 2 hours, I have the chance to overthink this problem (while it gets worse) before it clears completely.
The P4U group chat is alive though, and they're estimated to arrive near Rivne around 1620. It turns out we're only slightly behind them with an ETA of 1645. Jack was surprised and I inform him I was counting on our 2-car convoy to pass more traffic more quickly than their larger 4 or 5 car convoys. It looks like it paid off.
Rivne though, is a pretty big place. Maybe I'll look for a mechanic there instead...
