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

Evidently right up until the thread gets closed,....

 

Yeah, he's a joke but what does that have to do with his comment about cotton and dirt bag flags?

 

I've started a new one.. haha.. argument that is..

 

Maybe we can get this back on topic a little.. I had a nasty situation on the road a little while back - the red air line going from my dolly to my back box exploded while on I80 in Pa causing my kite to loose air immediately and lock up. Was able to hurry up and disconnect the red line from the lead and drag the kite off the road before any incident. I called back to a driver behind me and he stopped at a terminal a few miles away and brought me a new air line. We fixed it in 30 seconds and away I went. To me, that's a lot better than sitting on the shoulder which isn't safe, while waiting for a service truck to show up.

Thank God the road was dry though..lol..

 

our mechanics are union, they would flip if they found out we made a repair... plus i have specifically been instructed not to do any kind of repairs on the equipment as its not my job as a driver, but i understand where your coming from

 

It has pro's and con's on either side.. No matter which side, it sucks when a red line blows locking you up in the middle of I80..lol.. The trailer I was pulling as a back box had to be tagged for 4 new tires since they were down to the threads by time I pulled it off the road - the dolly locked also so 4 new tires were needed there too. That was well over a year ago now but it still enters my mind every few days when I realize how lucky I was..

 

I see the original topic digressed into the typical driver stuff - line 4 vs line 1 and Yankee vs Rebel (it should be a white piece of linen hanging off a stick.. haha) arguments.


All kidding aside, I used to say it has round tires and a few lights so let's go. I saw too many drivers here loose kites so I started checking my hook better which lead to a better pre-trip all around. I drive the same truck nightly so I have a good idea of what's going on there, but I've found broken springs, cut blue air lines which you won't notice till you hit the brakes hard, flat inside tires, missing dummy glad hands - big issue if you like stopping when you hit the brakes, and doors that were not latched all the way - the Whiting latch was latched to air twice.

Once you get a feel for the equipment you're pulling you'll notice when something just isn't right. For instance, pulling doubles for an LTL company you'll get pups that lean - you'll see the top marker on your kite in your mirror which you won't see with evenly loaded trailers. It happens and sometimes it's not a big deal but there will be times where you can see your marker light and 4" of white so something just isn't right. We have a policy that drivers are not supposed to break sealed trailers, when I see 4" of white behind the marker light I break the sealed trailer. One time I had a lead that was leaning bad and when I broke the seal and opened the door I could see why - 20,000 LBS of drums were not braced and had slid to the back and right side of the trailer. Now anytime I have a one bill trailer that's heavy, I crack it open to make sure it's loaded right - maybe against company policy but I'm pulling it so it's on me once I leave the yard. To me this is the most important part of a pre-trip once you have a feel for your equipment - if it doesn't seem right it probably isn't..

 

when pulling doubles i double or triple check both 5th wheels, the pintle hook, the safety chains, the air lines and the landing gear...seen quite a few guys start pulling out of the yard with the landing gear dragging on the rear box


me or no driver i know does the full pre trip that you have to do to get your CDL...

 

I know that's right. Nobody does the full inspection every single day every single time. A lot of them don't even check much at all though lol.

 

That would be the accepted practice within the industry....but it is NOT the way to log it if your goal was to be 100% legal. There's a difference.

...and that is your employer's decision to make...after all, it is his truck. Some of the places I've gone, service trucks wouldn't be too thrilled with trying to find me. In those cases, ya gotta use what you have to piece together enough truck to limp back to civilization so a service truck can get to you.

Absolutely. I carry enough tools, parts, and fittings that if that air line was salvageable, I could have repaired it and limped it to the shop. Heck, I've even wrapped air lines with duct tape, added a few zip ties (as hose clamps) and got a hole in an air line to quit leaking so I could make it to a shop for a proper repair. Duct tape works on blown turbo hoses and radiator hoses, too...gets you off the side of the road and to a shop.