Greasing question.

These are all great recommendations! Also, I carry a small squirt can with synthetic oil to put on hinges of tool boxes and the such. You said your a new owner, whatever you checked while driving those other trucks, you need to do twice as much or more. you need to make you a check list as you find, and think of things to check. Then do them till they become second nature. You don't need to become a master mechanic, but getting very familiar with stuff and how it works, sounds and feels, will save you money and headaches down the road. Good luck and Be safe!

 

S-Cams. Find out what manufacturer your trucks uses. Some require a small amount of grease as mentioned. Some are sealed, no normal greasing required, but they do have a plug that can be removed with an Allen key and a grease zerk can be installed after the first year or two.
Some require full grease. Mine says to pump it in there until it comes out at the end inside of the slack adjuster.

 

I tend to bring a few red rags under the truck with me. This way as you grease each part, you can wipe off any excess and keep the grease end of the grease gun clean from outside debris (I do a lot of greasing in dirt parking lots.... poor planning). Also a bottle of soapy water (dawn dish soap works great) to spray down the underside of the motor, trans, rear ends, and anything that may look dirty. This way you'll be able to notice easier if you develop a leak. Takes longer doing it this way, but you have a clean undercarriage!

 

That's what I need to start doing with mine. Need to take a wire brush and emory cloth and go through and scale off some of the rusty areas like the leaf springs and paint them, chassis rails, axles etc.

 

My rear pumpkin needs to get wire wheeled very soon. Somewhere along the top it cracked and made a mess of things. I sealed it up when I saw it, but I need to clean them and repaint them. I use to wash under the truck every week, lately I have lost that luxury so the grime is slowly building up. I am very anal about cleanliness on my truck. The only part that's still nasty is under my fifth wheel. Mainly from the u joints slinging grease all over. When I rebuild it, I'll take some steaming hot water and that dawn dish soap and make it spotless.

BTW it's a pain in the ###... trying to stay clean

 

A "tub o towels" or similar wipes product helps , as does disposable latex gloves.

Let's see $30/tractor, $15 trailer. $45.

Every 7500 miles.

100,000 miles/year - 13 grease jobs.

$585. That'll buy your cordless grease gun, several boxes of grease tubes, gloves , rags, wipes etc, in 6 months - and then you'll be saving money. Plus you get to find little problems and fix them before they become big $ items.

And you'll get to feel like a REAL TRUCKER. Grrrrr.

 

+1 on the gloves. Harbor freight has them for cheap.
...
However feeling like a real trucker, I must have missed that memo. I feel more like a grease monkey half the time

 

My goal these days is how to do it and stay clean as possible - I'm considering those hair net things to keep my long flowing locks of love out of the piss filled earth at the truck stop.

 

Don't forget most air ride seats have grease zerks also. Peterbilts usually have a collection of fittings near the left front frame rail that have attached hoses going to clutch,and other zerks on the transmission, all in one spot. Many slack adjusters do not come with grease zerks, you have to take out the threaded plug and screw in a zero, then grease it.

 

What I have done is carry some 2x4s, place 2 of them next to the wheels with 2 more slightly offset and drive up on them. This gives 3 inches of extra clearance under the truck and makes it so much easier to get under with a creeper.