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

Fuel tank strap Caught it during a fuel stop. Mine are behind fairings and I noticed they had "slid".

 

Freebird and I work for the same company,....

If breakdown wants me to fix something to limp it in I will work as directed,....They have not asked me to yet,.....

I have no problems with a service truck finding me up here in the sticks,....The vendor the company uses is the same one my former employer uses and know the guys at the shop well and they always take care of things in a very timely fashion,...

 

...when I say "in the sticks", I'm talking directions that involve turning off roads like this onto paths that are less vehicle friendly



These "roads" aren't marked, and they aren't on any maps. If you don't know what you are looking for, it's easy to miss them.

 

I have found a few things during a walk around inspection, yes. Five lug nuts loose on a wheel, a broken fuel tank strap, a slip joint between the two rear ends loose and worn out, a pneumatic blower mounted backwards by a dyslectic mechanic who didn't know "come here from sick 'em". Broken oiler caps, missing tags, out of service tags, reefers with empty fuel tanks. A dead and abandoned calf left in a Wilson cattle trailer, missing (swiped) fuel caps. Marker lights, turn signal and head lights out. Cracked springs, flat tires, air bags that wouldn't hold air....these are just a few of the things I have found wrong with trucks that I did a proper pre-inspection on.

I have also found tools that idiot mechanics left on my truck because they were in a hurry to get off work. Load locks left on an empty trailer that another driver was too lazy to go back and get. Bonus! Current log books left behind by drivers when I was slip seating. Not to mention a case of cigarettes that another driver whent to all the trouble to steal, but was in too big a hurry to retrieve at the end of his trip.

It pays to be observant. It also pays to know a little something about the equipment you will be operating.

June 19 yesterday, I noticed that there was a strong sulfur smell coming out from under my truck while I was unloading my tanker. I did some investigating around my battery box and found that there was battery acid boiling out of one of my batteries. That told me there was a dead short inside the battery and I was going to have to get that changed quick.

Now I could have let it go like most of the drivers where I work and made that cold beer that was waiting for me more important than my job, but I didn't. If not fixed, Monday, June 21 at 12:00 midnight, my truck would be waiting for me with dead batteries and I would be setting at home waiting for dispatch to call me letting me know My truck is ready at about 12:00 PM. Instead, at that hour I will be miles down the road.

It pays to take the DVIR seriously. The brake check may see a little redundant to some of us old timers but any leak will show up if you do the brake check. Any driver who thinks that checking out his truck is a waste of time hasn't been driving long enough to have had the ^&^%&&^%$ scared out of them by having something fly apart while going down the road at 70 MPH.

I have.

 

Funny, that is the same view I see all day long, the south end of a northbound bulldog!

 

The company I work for would fire me if I went down a trail like that!!!,...

In cases like that the customer meets the truck at the road,...

 

"Make a right onto BFE road XX, turn right at the 23rd telephone pole, turn left after the dead cow..."?

By the way, that pic looks like the werner drop yard in Greensboro, NC. You can't even see it from the road. Directions said "near crest of hill, looks like an empty lot, turn left onto gravel rd". It's below the main road to the point that you cant see it from the main road...

A couple of years ago a CRST driver who was using a GPS did that. Ended up getting his landing gear hung up on what looks to me to be a dirtbike jump. The wrecker who came to get him got stuck........................

 

Hauling salt water from a gas well gets you into areas like this.

 

Yep, I've heard that from more than one person who's been around the block so to speak. One of 'em even promised to kick my ### if I didn't take the advice and ended up in a pickle. He also mentioned something about crappy weather being no excuse to rush a PTI. It's amazing how loud a few words from a soft spoken man can ring in your ears when the temperature is below zero and the wind is howling. Combined with the out of adjustment brakes I discovered after 'not' taking that advice seriously enough keep me checking things thoroughly now.

Nothing life saving and nothing the I would call a complete surprise. Broken leafs, out of adjustment brakes, low/flat tires, lights out etc.

Besides the mechanical stuff look closely for cosmetic damage. I'm sure swift has detailed policies for reporting damage, don't get blamed for what the last guy did. A good flashlight is one of the most important things when hooking a trailer at night for checking that stuff. It's also great for looking underneath, even in the day light.

 

Almost all rivet heads sheared off trailer king pin apron on both sides of trailer.(How would like a heavy load with that trailer), brake, chambers litterally falling off the trailer. Leaking trailers,Tires with no tread, off rim, etc. Lights, Chunk of rubber out of steer tire. Bolt buried in drive tire. Leaking compressor, leaking governor, leaking fan hub, leaking air dryer.

I always figure a trailer probably has something wrong with it, so I go over them pretty good and they usually have something even if minor that needs repaired.

Just a suggestion, Keep two straps for holding the doors open, often trailers door catches are broken or wont stay hooked.


Blew a steer once in a construction zone (Not fun).

Most of the time when I park my truck even for a short time, I turn the steer all the way one way or the other so I can more easily check the inside walls of the steer tires for any damage.. It only tales a few seconds, and it only takes a few seconds to get killed or kill someone if one blows.

PTIs are important, but i admit somethings I dont check "as often" on the tractor since our co. shop goes over them pretty good every month.

I absolutely will not drive a truck if I have any concerns about the steer tires and my company backs me up. The shop boss at our North Little Rock, AR yard will tell you to "Bring it in" if you even mention the words "steer Tire". He does not mess around. We had a total loss of of truck and a House once ( No one hurt) because one shop refused to change the steers because they could not find anything wrong after the driver had complained on two separate occasions that something just did not feel right. Steer tire blew, sending truck with student across median into oncomming trafic, across lane through guard rail and finally through a house.

Steer tire = 300 bucks each fleet price, or Truck and House destroyed = 1.5 million