Mulberry’s Chamber of Commerce bills it as the phosphate capital of the world, and the traffic backs that up. The city had 3,952 residents in 2020, yet the highways through it carry truck volumes that belong to a much bigger place. Mosaic’s Nichols mine is about 2 miles east of town, and CSX’s Mulberry Yard sits where the railroad’s phosphate lines come together. RDI Power has no shop in Mulberry. When a diesel stops here, a technician drives out from our Brooksville shop with the tools to diagnose it and, whenever the job allows, repair it on site.
SR 60 through Mulberry: 1 vehicle in 4 is a truck
FDOT’s 2025 count on SR 60 between SR 37 at Church Street and Bonnie Mine Road comes to about 25,000 vehicles a day, and 6,350 of them, 25.4%, are trucks. SR 60 runs west toward Brandon and east toward Bartow and Lake Wales, and CSX reaches Mulberry Yard by a wye across it. Church Street, Bonnie Mine Road and the Mulberry Phosphate Museum, housed in the city’s original railroad depot, all make good reference points when you describe where a truck stopped.
Rail in the median of SR 37 at Mulberry
SR 37 leads north toward Lakeland and south toward Bradley Junction. About half a mile south of SR 60, 2 rail lines cross in the median of the 4-lane highway, and the CSX Achan Subdivision runs from central Mulberry 7 miles south to Bradley Junction. FDOT’s 2025 count between SW 4th Street and SR 60 at East Canal Street shows about 18,000 vehicles a day, 3,798 of them trucks.
Rail and heavy trucks on the same road call for extra care. Never stop a truck on a crossing or in the median between tracks. If a truck quits anywhere near the rails, getting people clear comes before anything else.
Heavy-duty repairs at Mulberry job sites and roadsides
If your trucks work in and around the mining district, these are the heavy-duty repairs a technician can take on beside the truck:
- Air systems. Leaking lines and fittings, air dryers, governors, brake chambers and slack adjusters.
- Cooling. Hoses, clamps, belts and fan drive problems on trucks pulling hard in Florida heat.
- Electrical. Batteries, starters, alternators, chafed harnesses and corroded connectors.
- Fuel. Clogged filters, water in the fuel and lift pump faults.
- Sensors and aftertreatment. Faults that cut power, found with a heavy duty scan tool rather than a guess.
The technician confirms the cause before replacing parts, and the work is written up as a digital vehicle inspection with photos. Our mining page covers the trucks and duty cycles that work in pits and around aggregate operations.
Older Caterpillar and Cummins power around Mulberry
Heavy trucks with older mechanical and early electronic engines are still earning a living, and they need a technician who knows them. RDI Power is Caterpillar certified, and engines such as the Cat 3406 are familiar work, as are Cummins, Detroit and Volvo heavy-duty engines. On site, that experience shows in the diagnosis: a fuel delivery problem, an air leak in the intake or a failing sensor on an early electronic engine can be pinned down with the right tests rather than a parts guess. Our write-up on common Caterpillar 3406 PEEC engine issues covers one engine family in detail.
What to tell us from a Mulberry job site
If the truck is down at a job site or yard around Mulberry, start with access: which entrance to use, whether there is a check-in or site safety briefing, and who will meet the technician. Then the truck: year, make, engine, hours or mileage, and what happened before it stopped. Mention whether it is loaded, whether it is parked on firm ground, and whether anything nearby, such as rail track or moving equipment, affects where the technician can work. Those answers decide which tools and parts come along.
Shop work for Mulberry trucks
A Caterpillar engine that needs an overhaul or a transmission that needs rebuilding is bay work, not roadside work. When a Mulberry call ends there, the technician explains what failed, and we plan the move to Brooksville with you: timing, transport and parts. Because the diagnosis is already done, the shop starts on the repair rather than the investigation.
Mulberry breakdowns after hours
RDI Fleet accounts have roadside assistance 24/7. Other customers can call (352) 433-3800 Monday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We give a straight answer on when a technician can be in Mulberry.
More on how on-site service works, in Mulberry and across Central Florida, is on mobile diesel repair. Fleets that would rather plan maintenance can read about fleet maintenance in Mulberry, and trucks working east on SR 60 are covered on our Bartow mobile diesel repair page.