Tips and Tricks to make it easier

I can also personally attest to drivers receiving phone calls about trailers they had previously pulled and then dropped somewhere. As far as issues with trailers, here is how I see it: when you hook up to a trailer, you assume responsibility for it and any freight it may hold. That means that if the trailer has any issues, it's YOUR job to see that they're corrected. Of course, you're also required to perform an inspection on that trailer, so you have no excuse not to know if there are any problems. Choosing not to fix a trailer you know is broken isn't much different in my mind than not even knowing the trailer has a problem because you didn't check. You're simply not doing your job in either case.

But this thread is supposed to be about tips and tricks, so I'll throw out a few.

Every time I stop, whether for food, fuel, loading/unloading, or even just a quick pee break at a rest area, I do a full walk around just looking to see if anything glaringly obvious jumps out at me. When I leave the truck I walk around the passenger side and when I return to the truck I look at the driver's side. And I always check the fifth wheel handle before I climb back in and take off.

When I do my pretrips, I look at as much of my tire tread as I can see and then I move the truck forward three feet so I can see the part of the tread that was on the ground. Especially on tires that are approaching their pull points, you'll be surprised how many flat spots you'll find that you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

While we're on the subject of tires, I've had a CDL and have been kicking tires since 1997, and I can tell you that my feet are just not sensitive enough to detect the difference between 50 psi and 95 psi. I check my tires with a gauge every day---it really doesn't take long--and I keep them all at the proper pressures. Now maybe I'm just lucky, but perhaps it's worth noting that I've never had a blowout. It's definitely worth remembering that the DOT considers a tire that's more than ten percent low to be FLAT. A tire thumper can't tell you if a tire is at 89psi versus 100 psi. My gladhand tire inflator gets a lot of use out here, and was well worth the (tax-deductible) $25 I spent for it.

For you new drivers, on the trailers with the air-operated tandem slide pins, they don't work until the trailer has sufficient air in its tank. So if you're picking up a trailer and you need to slide the tandems, you might have to push in the red valve for a minute before you try to retract the pins. Sometimes you might even need to drive around the yard a bit to build up air a little faster back there.

This is also more for the new drivers: if you're on your way to pick up a load and you know it's going to be heavy--if your pick up is at Budweiser, for example, it's always going to be heavy--or you just have no idea what it is or how heavy it might be, don't fill your fuel tanks before you get there. Forget the QC fuel routing in these situations; you can always contact Missoula and get that routing adjusted. Sometimes you'll need that few hundred extra pounds off your drive axles. And CAT scales aren't always right around the corner from the shipper. In fact, they're not always even in the same state.

That's enough for now. I'm sure I can come up with a few more helpful hints later.

 

For those of you you with "Company" trucks, this shouldn't be a big concern, but should be. (You have Teflon plates)
I grease my 5th wheel everytime when I hook up to a new trailer. I have seen some of the plates greaseless and rusting. Having a properly greased 5th is not only a saftey issuse but a preventative maintance issuse. I usually use the 5th wheel grease from the TS that comes in the squezze bottle for about $11.00 (it gives you about 10 re-greases or more). The company will reimburse you for it. I also use the 1lb Mobil 1 Full Syn red grease in a can. You will have to use a paint scrapper to spread the grase around. I always have a few so if you need one let me know (they are reuseable). And those with a sliding 5th, the squeeze bottle works great for this also. If you are in need of grease the trailers front "rub" rail will have enough for a "temp fix". This is caused by not lowering your suspension when backing into the trailer. The bottom of the trailer squegees the grease off the plate.

Sliding the tandems works easier if you use and "Old time tested method". I use the bottle that the contact solution comes in for this method. (It's a white bottle about 10oz with a very small nozzle tip) I fill it up about 1/3 of the way with Dawn dish soap and the rest with water. (Windshield fluid, about 1/4 of the squeeze bottle mixed in during the winter months) the rest with water. Now the hard part. You have to climb under the trailer and squirt the rails from the backside. By using this method it gives you a little extra help in sliding and does not allow dirt to accumilate and bind the rails up more as if you used some type of spray grease or lube that will collect and hold onto dirt and grime making it harder for the next driver to slide.
Another tip. When the pins dont seem to want to go in when sliding, take a close look at the pins. Are they exactly centered in the hole? Most of the time they are pushed to either side of the hole creating alot of pressure and not allowing the pins to retract easily. That's when most will get the sledge or hammer and start banging away. If you must "bang away", look under the trailer and see where the pins are attached to. You will most likely see that they are attached to a bar/rod that is conected in the middle of the trailer to a fullcrum point. This is the point that will move both pins at the same time. If you can move (bang) these bars/rods the pins will move. It's hard to understand, but on a nice day and clean ground give a look. Now this is with the pull bar and air assist bar trailers. The full air slides never seem to be a problem.
Enjoy, more tips to follow.

 

For those with a smartphone or a laptop with internet access, the satellite view on Google Maps can be a life saver. I use it all the time if I'm going somewhere new, if the directions are sketchy, or if I don't trust what Google and/or the GPS are telling me. From the satellite you can see all kinds of helpful information, such as which entrance to a warehouse/plant is the the truck entrance, how to get to that truck entrance, how not to get to that truck entrance, or even whether the place you're looking for is actually where Google, the GPS, or the directions say it is. Most of the time, the truck route to a warehouse or plant isn't through a residential neighborhood, and it's easy to spot those neighborhoods on the satellite so as to avoid taking the truck down a street it shouldn't be on.

Another thing that's pretty handy especially in the mid-Atlantic and northeast is spotting overpasses. Often if I'm trying to get to something in say, New Jersey, I'll look for railroad or highway crossings on my route and then check those crossing spots in the satellite image to see if the road I'm on crosses over or under. If it goes under, it lets me know there may be a clearance problem ahead and maybe I should look for alternate routes.

If you're trying to find some parking nearby a shipper or receiver, just pull up the map and look for shopping centers or empty lots. Sometimes in the satellite image you'll even see a truck parked somewhere and maybe that will give you an idea. Pulling up the street level view when it's available can be pretty helpful, too.

I don't rely on Google or my GPS, because they're just part of the toolbox, not the whole toolbox, and because sometimes they're dead wrong. Other times, though, they can really help keep you from a bad situation or even a serious mistake.

 

i bang pins with air slides too. you get an old trailter that the tandems are racked nothing releases properly. I have a brandy new trailer today what do you wanna bet i drop it by tommorow. Last weeks trailer was racked so bad i couldnt see the red light at night cruzin down the highway

 

Here's another one for you new drivers. Having to write down your mileage every time you cross a state line, every time you load or unload, as well as having to keep track of every highway you travel in each state, can be a pain. It's a necessary part of the job, but it's also easy to forget to record your mileage every now and then and it can be a real pain to have to go back and guesstimate what that mileage was. You still have to know it whether you recorded it or not, as it has to be reported on your trip envelope, and believe me those details do get checked in Missoula. If your reported mileages don't match up to the company's expectations, or to the routing that you said you followed--even if you don't have any out-of-route miles--you might get a call and be told you have to fill out another trip envelope, with the correct numbers, in order to get paid for that load. I've seen a driver get that very call. The company pays annual taxes based on those mileages, so they need to fairly accurate.

I have a couple of tricks that have made it easier to remember to record my mileage at every state line, as well as make having to figure out the number a lot simpler if I do forget. Sometimes you'll have other things on your mind when you cross a state line, like traffic, directions, weather, etc. So what I do is write down my mileage EVERY SINGLE TIME I STOP and I can use those mileages as a reference if I forget to record a state line crossing. This helps me remember to record my mileages when I get loaded and unloaded, too, and it also helps to calculate my OOR mileages. I use those numbers to double-check my logbook to make sure I don't have any mistakes on it before I stuff it in my trip envelope. The safety bonus depends partly on error-free logs, and a log showing an average speed over 62 mph (on 65mph roads) is a company log violation. Having all my numbers makes it easy to see and correct any mistakes I might have made.

The other thing I do is I use the voice recorder on my phone to note my mileages while I'm driving, and it's a lot easier than trying to write it down in a little notebook on my leg. Once I'm stopped for the day I transfer all those recorded mileages to my load notebook and trip envelope. Anytime I stop for fuel or something I just go ahead and write the mileage down in the notebook while I'm parked, as I don't see any reason to use the voice recorder if I'm not driving. It's a good habit to keep your trip envelope updated at the end of every day, because it's easier to remember all the highways you were on during the day. Your bonus also depends partly on not screwing up your trip envelopes, so...

And speaking of bonuses, I've never had too much trouble getting them. I'll admit, that's partly because the trucks I've had were pretty good on fuel economy when I got them; I know some drivers haven't had such luck. But another part of it is because I take it easy on the highway. The truck is governed at 65 mph, as are lots of other trucks on the road, so trying to pass one of those trucks that may be going half a mile an hour slower can be a real pain. And you're going to come up behind those other, slightly slower trucks all the time. If you're already running at 65, you don't have any extra juice to get by that other truck so you're stuck behind that truck. This happens all day long when you're running right at 65, and it's endlessly frustrating trying to get by the other trucks that are all running the same speed.

So a couple of years ago I decided to try an experiment and see what it's like to run at 62 mph most of the time on the interstate. Aside from the obvious fuel savings which made the fuel bonus a breeze to achieve, the best part of the experiment is that it made highway driving so much simpler, easier, and more enjoyable for me. Seriously, it's so much more relaxing when I don't have to worry about passing other trucks governed at the same speed I am. Most of the time I just relax in the right lane and I don't have to worry about passing too many other vehicles. When I do need to pass I can accelerate a bit and get it done. In the right lane at 62 mph it's simple to keep a good following distance and I almost always have an out if something goes wrong. I'm sure I save the company far more money in fuel than I get back in bonuses, but what I gain in peace of mind is worth more to me than a few extra cents per mile.

Let me note here that I don't always run at 62 mph. Sometimes appointments dictate the speed at which I drive, and other times traffic and weather affect my speed. If traffic or weather conditions are such that going slower than most of that traffic is going to cause a problem, I run as close to the speed of traffic as I can. Safety is still the most important thing. And for those worrying that running a few mph slower will negatively affect the number of miles you can run, I'll remind you that W/S expects you to average no more than 62 mph on your logs anyway. And those logs are paper logs, so take that as you will.

 

you know you could also do what everyone else does and go to Helena and ask them to crank you up to 70 so you can enjoy not haveing to battle slow trucks and not waste time putting around at 62mph.

no more then 62 on the logs? My logs RARELY where below 64mph (NOTE: states with slow speed limits and 2 lane truckin does effect this average and bring it down)



American Trucker

 

That's why I carry a 5lb. sledge in my gear bags... I learned early on to be over prepared, and so far, it's worked for me. At least most of you out there have assigned rigs... I hot seat & have different trailers every load. Pre-trip is what I live by, and my post trips are my fleet safety managers head ache! At least I do my part, I don"t sweat the rest. Good Idea though, I'll bank it for one of these days. Thanks!

 

Hold up!?!? They actually still use this method instead of it being done automatically??

 

excellent info

 

Great idea, thanx for sharing that!!!!!!!!!