checking and adjusting trailer brakes

If you have automatic slack adjusters you should not have to adjust them. If they do need adjusted, they are faulty and should be replaced. But they still need to be checked regularly for slack. We also haul 80k locally, and rarely do we need to adjust them. But when the brakes are replaced so are the slack adjusters

 

Checking and adjusting are two different things. Out of adjustment brakes need to be brought to specifications before you drive. Not weekly, but before you drive(hint hintretrip) Automatic slack adjusters needing chronic adjustment need to be replaced. FMCSA regulations require you to check/inspect your brakes before you drive(hint hintretrip). Adjustments are to be made by an individual who is credentialed as a brake adjuster. Many drivers adjust their own, many companies don't allow drivers to do adjustments.

 

Self adjusting brakes need inspection ( most trailers are equipped today has them) you could be given a ticket for improper adjustment because you were too lazy.

 

if they don't adjust. they are bad. eND of duscussion.

mine are adjusted daily. when I have a trailer or truck that isn't working.

I don't put up with loose brakes. and I'm certainly not getting put out of service. Cuz you never know when you might get inspected.

 

He is more correct than you. As mentioned, they are supposed to self adjust but many times they do not because:

1. Lack of grease
2. Driver doesn't use the brake hard enough or often enough
3. They are just plain broke
4. Linings may be worn

You can get in the habit of checking your drum temp every once in a while. Drum should be more or less the same temp. If you have a cool one then something is wrong and you need to look further.

However, you can adjust them manually as a temporary fix. One time I got inspected in NY. DOT cop measured and told me that I had too much stroke on one brake chamber and he would have to put me OOS. I asked him to let me crawl under there and manually adjust it to spec. He let me do that and instead of charging me with too much stroke and putting me OOS, he was a good guy and changed the charge to "non operating auto slack". Still a ticket but not OOS. Way better.

 

In conversation with a DOT inspector once he remarked that the most common ticket he wrote was for brakes out of adjustment where the automatic slack adjuster had quit being automatic and nobody checked. Checking brakes every day is a good idea. Back before auto adjusters everyone crawled under their truck as a matter of course. It was part of the job. Automatics should not need adjusting if they where properly installed to start with. Once set up they maintain adjustment based on stroke length not on how hard you apply the brakes. If a brake with an automatic slack needs adjustment then the slack adjuster needs to be replaced. Period. And proper installation of automatic slack adjusters is critical in order for the slack to work properly. The manufacturer puts that instruction sheet in the box with the slack adjuster for a reason.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MPNOnszOO8#aid=P7FCsPME8mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8fm1l0so5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPtnssNzAZM

 

If it were up to me there would be no auto-slack adjusters... Only manual, and like the old days, drivers would be responsible for adjusting them or having them adjusted. With auto you are supposed to replace them if they are not adjusting properly...There's nothing easier than manual slack-adjusters, it just takes someone with a little bit of sense to adjust them; but then again, that's asking a lot in today's trucking industry.