Pre-trip/Post trip Inspections

Oil, coolant, obvious leaks or loose stuff.
Lights, tires, lugnuts, hub oil levels.
Brake chambers, hoses, lines, leads.
Permits, fire extinguisher, triangles.
Mudflsps, stuff stuck in between tires.
Just a real good looky look.

5th wheel handles not pulled - in case I have been mouthy on the radio that day - I know - hard to believe, right?!

 

Walk the whole truck , look for damage , flats , do a complete light check etc.
Look underneath for anything out of order
Make sure logs are in perfect order before rolling out,etc.
Where i work if something goes awry out on the road and they suspect a pretrip
could have prevented it , they will hit the driver with 'points' .
Enough points and your unemployed.

 

Don't worry about the others.....you continue to do proper pretrips. How long does it take to open the hood, turn on the lights and check the truck and trailer out?

 

Keep looking at your truck/trl. Don't fall into that hole of just driving and never walking around your truck.

A very large portion of the rubber on the road, is from drivers driving hundreds of miles or days with a flat. Eventually that good tire is going to get hot and give out.

The percentage of drivers that get fuel or come out of the truck stop and never walk around the truck is amazing.

 

Get yourself a good air pressure gauge, the kind with a dial. Check the air pressure on every tire on pre trip, your 30 minute break, and post trip. Keep tabs on how the tires increase in pressure after rolling a while. Once you get the hang of it it only takes a couple more minutes to KNOW what your tire pressures are instead of simply thumping the tires and GUESSING.

Whenever you hook up to a new trailer always check air pressure. It's surprising how often I'll hook to a trailer with tires as low as 60 lbs psi. Learn how to to use a 40' air line to add air to low tires.

As you drive take note of all the scraps of blown truck tires scattered all over the freeways and highways. Those are generally cleaned up every day. I call those scraps "Tire Thumper Debris".

 

While there is no substitute for a tire gauge, if you've been in this profession for any number of years, and you are astute enough, you can tell, by thumping, the sound of a fully inflated tire versus one that has 60psi. I know I can. What I laugh at is the guys who just kick (most of the time wearing sneakers) the tires instead of even thumping them. In that case, you cannot tell if a tire is underinflated.

 

I thump my tires with a 3 pound sledge with a 10 inch handle. like Voyager1968 said you can tell the diff. It's the same hammer I use to "thump" a frozen brake drum