I had a little breakdown yesterday, but it had a pretty big price tag on it. I had just loaded 5 coils in Sharon, about 45,000 lbs, and was on 376 just a little ways south of I-80, heading for Lynchburg. Then the alternator light came on and the volt meter dropped. I was pretty sure what it was, another broken belt. So, I pulled over on a ramp, opened the hood, sure enough, the belt was off. I made a flip on the ramp and headed back north to 80 and went over to Youngstown Kenworth at Hubbard. I went in and told the service manager I needed a belt, and asked if they could stick it on for me. I could do it myself, I put a couple on the Cat in the Peterbilt, and one on this Paccar on the side of the road- two of those times were at night by flashlight. But they could do it in less time than it would take me to think about how to get started, so I let them do it. They said they could get it pretty quick, so I went back outside to wait around. I looked at the belt again and it wasn't broken, it was separated between the little ribs. So I said "hmmmmmmm-why would that belt separate like that?" So I checked all the idlers and they turned freely, alternator spun free and easy, AC compressor- locked up tight. So the belt had been just spinning on the AC pulley until it finally gave out. I went back inside and told the service manager what i'd found. They checked to see if they had a compressor, which they did. They put a new one on, recharged the AC, installed 2 new belts, topped of the radiator- which was barely low, might have held half a gallon- used some new O rings, some clamp ties, and a few more small miscellaneous items. The bill came to a little over $1100. I called headquarters and got a Comcheck number and went back inside to pay. Then I got in the truck, backed it out the door, and was just fixing to pull around to hook back up to the trailer when I noticed that the amp gauge was almost over to 100- normally it's just a little past zero. Turned on the lights, heater fan on high, sleeper fan on, and the needle never dropped a bit. So I cut it off and opened the hood again and the alternator was so hot you could only touch it for a few seconds. So I told the guy that had worked on it I had a problem, and told him what it was doing. He said "well all we did was take it off and put it back on- i'll check it." He got a little hand held tester and put it on the alternator. It didn't even have a meter to show the volts or amperage, it just had a red light that lit up if it was over charging. The light never came on. He said "ain't nothing wrong with it, it's probably just because it's working to catch the batteries back up because you drove it here with the belt off". I called Jimmy, our head mechanic, and asked him what he thought. He said if I didn't feel comfortable with it to get them to put an alternator on it, it would be better than having somebody have to put one on it down on rt.39 or 20 in West Virginia. So I told them to put an alternator on it too, because "this one's gonna burn up before I ever make it to Lynchburg". So they checked the batteries first and found one completely dead and shorted out- the one that the alternator went directly to. They repaced the battery, then rechecked the alternator. The alternator was bad, way over charging still, so they put an alternator on it. They said the bad battery might have ruined the alternator, and I said "or the bad alternator could have fried the battery". "Very possible" they said. Anyway, it was $780 more dollars. I couldn't get anybody at headquarters on the phone by then, it was about 10:30pm by then and i'd been there about 9 hours. All i'd had to eat all day was 2 bags of bacon cheddar potater skins, a bag of bugles, and a pack of donuts out of the vending machine. So I told the service manager that I could go over to Truck World and get something to eat and go to bed and call for another Comcheck number in the morning. I'll leave the trailer here I said. They didn't like that plan, so I paid with my Visa card and left. Only got down to the West Virginia line on 79 and went to bed on the on-ramp at exit 1. Left there at 9 this morning. I dropped my trailer in Lynchburg and bobtailed to the shop. Randy- that's dispatcher Randy, not Randyp, Randym, or Randy y- said "you can back that trailer in the shop, take your tarp off, get a van, go to Dillwyn, load a Chester, W.V, then go load at McKees Rocks coming back to Lynchburg, that'll put you back in here Friday". So I said "OK, i'll do it tomorrow", then got in the pickup and came home...after stopping by the bank to deposit the check they wrote me for $780.