Pre trip mistake

Lost the oil cap once.
Zip tie and zip lock bag worked great.

When adding coolant if I spill any, I always rinse it off with water after putting the cap back on. This way it won't be dripping coolant only water.

 

Don't feel bad, our shop forgets the oil cap on a regular basis. They lose them all the time. They have also forgot to tighten the oil plug a time or two dropping a fresh pan of oil on the ground, and causing a major tow bill because they didn't realize the loss of oil pressure was from the plug until after they got it to the shop. Thankfully the guy who does tires didn't skip lug nut day

 

Not pretrip mistakes.... But....
I forgot to put the DEF cap back on 2x.... Leaves a nice chalky white streak down the side of the truck.....
Had a car pull next to me and a lady in the passenger seat was yelling and pointing at something below my window. I pulled right off onto the shoulder of the highway.... And there was my keys hanging in the door lock.... I always leave a key in the ignition so I didn't even miss it...

 

Saw a all-ah transport peterbilt driving down highway 99 with his reefer doors wide open.mnut not open enough where he could see them in the mirrors. I,couldn't catch him the speed limit is 55 in caliche was doing like 70 lol.

I forgot to close the fuel cap on Volvo once but didnt lose fuel I caught it after I grabbed my fuel receipt.

I left my strap tightening bar on the passanger side step on my tractor 220 miles later it was still there.

I drove off with my hood unlatched fueled got sidetracked got to the stop sign the wind got a hold of it and it opened up lol.


Little things that could have been bad but, I haven't made a mistake in a long time thankfully

 

I guess a lot of us have 'misplaced' (well, forgot to replace) the oil cap. I did, once.

Here's a tip.
A bit of tin foil will make a nice cap until you can get the correct replacement.
It will seal pretty tightly, and it won't melt like plastic might.
I used a couple of pipe cleaners to help secure it, as the crankcase can put out some pressure.

(Pipe cleaners are those little things to clean out tobacco pipes, for all those that don't smoke a pipe or are out of the loop.
They are wire wrapped in a felt-like material, and are useful for many things.)

 

Hmm, Lets see, over the last 20 yrs..........
1-I left off a fuel cap, luckily it was chained.
2-I left my keys in the door & drove awhile before a brother trucker told me about it.
3-I've left sideboxes unlatched & flopping in the wind, didnt lose anything tho.
4-Left hood unlatched,
5-didnt lock the slider bar, scares the crap out of you when you brake & the tandems slide forward & stop with a big BANG!!!
6-Locked the keys in the truck, lucky it was an old Int'l with that little window in the door (I cant remember what they call that window) but I took the window & unlocked the passenger door. That little window was very handy for the thief that broke into my truck at the Super 8 in Corbin, KY.
7- And I cannot count the number of hammers & flashlites I've left on the ground & ICC bumper.

Has anyone hooked to the wrong trailer & get aways down the road before somebody notices? I havent done that one.

Before Qualcomm when you talked to dispatch on the phone for load info, a buddy of mine went to the wrong town in NC. He thought it was Marshville but it was Morrisville, I'm surprised that didnt happen more often. those Alabama boys withtheir thick southern accent. I always asked dispatch to spell shipper/recvr names as well as street names & city names so thered be no confusion.
Anyone else back into a loading dock & forget to open the trlr doors? My very 1st load solo, I struggled & struggled to get into the dock then had to pull back out to open the door & there wasnt enough room to pull out straight so I struggled again, so embarrassing.
So the moral of this story is #### happens, if you dont cause any damage or hurt anyone dont sweat it, these things happen to everyone. Welcome to the wonderful carefree world of trucking .

 

The trick is to always...

TAKE YOUR TIME!

Never be in a hurry to do anything, so you have the time to think about what you need to do.

 

Be truthful now, you really checked the frame rail for corrosion and the battery cables for hairline cracks, didn't you? People like you are the reason why cameras under the hood to watch the pretrips will be the next big thing in trucking...

I was driving an International 4700 once, before I got my CDL (26k truck) and forgot to relatch the hood. I was fine until I came onto the offramp, one of these ones where you have to slow down really quickly and then a hairpin curve.... Believe me, you can't see where you are going very well with the hood up, and it does not make the hairpin curve very easy.

We had a driver pick up the wrong trailer from a DC once. Same set of trailers got rotated through every few days, sometimes get a different one if something was being serviced, but always 53 foot dry van with the lift gate. So some how he comes the 200 miles in from the DC to the meet point and never notices that he's pulling one of those intermodal trailers with a 40 foot shipping container on it. Somehow the guard at the gate didn't notice either....

 

nope I never did any of that! is it getting deep here????

 

Slow is smooth~smooth is fast.