Pre-trip, enroute and post-trip inspections! Surprises?

Earlier this week I hooked onto 4 different empty trailers before I found one that I was satisfied with. First one had a bulging tire that just screamed blowout coming. Second one reefer unit was full of fault codes and wouldn't start. Third one reefer unit dead battery and wouldn't come alive. Fourth one looked promising. Reefer started, tires good, lights intact and shining, I thought I was golden. Started to pull out of the yard and said to myself "this trailer rides like a tank". So I stopped and sure enough the air bags weren't airing up. Turn around, try to find another. 5th one was a charm. For me, a PTI includes making sure the reefer unit starts and cools before heading to the shipper. That same day, I swapped my empty for a preload, backed under it and everything checked out. Went to raise the gear and only one side came up. Crawl under and found a broken cross pipe connecting the two jacks. It had sheared off at the bolt hole location on the curbside. So, I called the trailer shop and they sent breakdown out to replace the pipe. A frustrating day, but you'll have days like that.

 

A basic set of tools...wrenches, vice grips, and a small claw hammer...and a couple screw drivers. Those and a few miscellaneous air and pipe fittings and you'll greatly reduce the number of service calls you'll have to make.

If the brake chamber has a ruptured diaphragm, knowing whether it is on the service side or the spring brake side determines how you "fix" it to allow you to limp to a shop. If it is on the service side, either pinch the service line to that chamber with vice grips, or disconnect the line and plug it with a pipe fitting. If the problem is on the spring brake side, pinch off that line with the vice grips or disconnect the line and plug it with a pipe fitting...and then manually cage the brake to release it.

For sliding tandems when the brakes won't hold, it makes more sense to adjust the brakes than it does to use wheel chocks. You will STILL need them adjusted before you can roll down the road, since you'll want to be able to stop if something happens ahead of you. Know the different kinds of slack adjusters that are in use on your companies trailers and how to properly adjust 'em. Once you know how to adjust 'em, you can adjust your own trailer brakes faster than you can place a call you your company's road service...let alone wait for them to show up to do anything.

Now I do understand that some of the bigger carriers don't want you anywhere NEAR their trucks with tools...and in that case, you'll have to make the calls to road service for the minor repairs....which sucks big time because you could be waiting (with your 14 hour clock running) for a couple hours waiting for someone to show up to do a 5 minute job.

As far as air leaks (or any other problem), even if your company does not want you "working" on the truck, try to find the exact source of the problem...find the air leak to point it out when you bring the truck in. The shop people will appreciate it because it wastes less of their time searching for a vague problem when the driver writes up "truck leaks air" with no further details. Even tire leaks, I try to find where the tire is leaking from and mark it. It's a rare occasion when I don't know exactly what is wrong before I call the company or bring the truck/trailer into a shop. Saves them time looking for the problem, and it saves me time waiting for them to find it.

 

A pipe wrench might have allowed you to raise that other leg (if there was enough sticking out of the other leg to get the pipe wrench on) to get down the road to a repair shop (at your convenience).

 

Yup we're not supposed to mess with the brakes and I don't know how to tie the lines off but it would be helpful to know some of that stuff. I'm not completely mechanically illiterate but when it comes to brakes, I'd rather someone that knows what they're doing do what needs to be done. Most of Swift's trailers have the auto adjusters (another reason to do the brake tests to help the brakes self adjust).

Most of the time when I had to call breakdown was because of eletronic ####. The Freightshaker kept losing the accelerator (they never figured out why even after changing out the throttle position sensor)and the International kept giving me false warnings to shut the truck down (that turned out to be a faulty sensor). Believe it or not, the Volvo never gave me any problems.

As far as any minor repairs that I could do safely; I did. But I'll leave the more important stuff to the pros.

 

That's a good idea, I'll add a pipe wrench to my tool bag. However in this case it wouldn't have worked I'm afraid. Backing under the trailer didn't pick it up any, and the weight was still being supported by the leg, so there was too much pressure on the gears in the leg to raise it, if that makes sense.

 

I always check to make sure my kingpin is still locked in the fifth wheel every time the truck stops. Never know what kind of evil stuff people will do when you are not watching.

I watched a co-worker one morning try to leave the yard, and unfortunately checking this was not part of his pre-trip because he knew it was latched when he parked it. Thankfully, mine was untouched, but I would have caught it regardless.

 

I did that too but never had any issue with someone pulling it. You can make it where no one can pull it out by putting it in gear and easing off the clutch a bit and apply the brakes while you're tugging lightly on it. This will keep pressure on it where you can't pull it out if you tried.

 

Thursday nigh on way in from Salt Lake, I was told to drop my trailers in the yard and pick up another set. Been having trouble with the anti-lock brakes and wrote them up and tires went below 1/32 on axle 5 right....

The next trailer whom ever dropped it to start with left it about 6" too high, found a brake can t-bolted, and no running lights. Called into our shop, & dispatch no write up. Hmmm how could someone still pulled this thing down the road. Well took another trailer did my Friday L.A. / Hollywood loads went back to the yard to get my trailers. Found them repaired but also dropped too high to hook. These trailers do not have crank ups, but use a pin and the legs just slide in, so you have to pick up the weight to remove the pin, someone being a jerk.

Left the yard, as I was pulling up in front of the house I could see the tread coming off the tires, upon futher inspection found broken welds from on the landing gear bracing.

The guy who delivered the load had back under the trailers missing the king pin and slammed his tractor frame into the landing gear, then did not write it up, like they woud fix themselves. The mechanic took pictures of my frame showing on contact between my tractor and the trailer landing gear.

But you just never know, and check everything on the pretrip.

 

By the way the spring in a brake can are strong enough to kill you..... Best idea if you have a bad brake can is send a mechanic now.

If you t-bolt your brakes pinch off airlines, etc... and you are involved in an accident you can be held criminally liable for willfully putting the public in harms way. DOT will not take a good view of it also it they see going down the highway...

Don't even think the company will not through you under the bus. FIrst thing out of there mouth will be "We would never instruct a driver to operate a truck that had a brake problem", just be aware your on your own when you modify them operate any safety item....

Be safe and watch your butt....

 

That's why I don't mess with em lol.