That is what the maintenance coordinator and my dispatch supervisor tell me. I drive in Illinois and have plenty of experience with icy roads where trailers fish-tail and and the drives can spin out from under.
I discovered my IDL was not working last week when I got stuck in ice and observed that only one wheel was spinning. To my surprise, the lady who sits in the office with no mechanical training or driving experience told me that: "we don't want drivers to use it because they break and we don't want to repair them". ...Wow
According to Teamrunsmart.com (Freightliner's forum for authoritative answers about their equipment) what causes damage is not engaging the lock and allowing one axle to spin out.
Dispatch and Maintenance strongly resisted my efforts to make an issue of this and would not, at first allow me to speak with anyone in authority about my safety concerns. But I persisted. I put in writing "for documentation" that I was not being allowed to get a repair, that I was pressured to drive into a blizzard with out this safety feature and included authoritative citations from Freightliner.
The next day I got a call from the owner of the company who said, basically, "yeah, go get it checked out". He is no slouch on Freightliners - he owns 600 of them and specs the truck himself - but called his Meritor rep to get clarification on the info i provided and advised me how to have it properly tested. I feel better now.
As I pointed out to my dispatcher: In the office, safety is an administrative concept; in the truck, safety is a personal and immediate reality.
Inter-axle lock ..."Eh, you don't need it"
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by dogtrucker, Jan 26, 2015.
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spindrift, Gearjammin' Penguin, jethro712 and 6 others Thank this.
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Well if it worked in the first place, then you would not be talking to a dispatcher who has no clue what they are doing. Yep, tow truck time there.
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dog-c Thanks this.
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Kudo's to you for holding their feet to the fire and sticking to your guns , any such issue should be resolved not matter the cost.
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When you were spinning one wheel, did you have the locking drive axle control activated? Even when turned on, And do not activate it unless the wheels are all turning at a slow speed or stopped. Turning it on when spinning, can produce a result you will not like! And even when turned on, it only locks the two differentials together, but unless you have full lockers, like positive traction, one wheel may spin on the front axle and one on the rear axle. Only with full locking differentials will the axles spin both wheels together and then the interaxle locking ties the two axles together. When all axles are in locked position, you will have a problem in turning.....
x1Heavy, Lepton1, HDFatboy and 1 other person Thank this. -
I was told that forgetting it on and running highway speed can blow it out to. -
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Why don't they just make all the drives all wheel drive all the time, or is pulling a trailer with 30k+ pounds of freight unrealistic with all wheel drive?
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What they said^^
With it locked in, two wheel positions will spin, one on each drive axle. IE: Front Left and Rear Right -
To the OP: Do they expect you to chain up?
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