Never been through DOT inspection

I will tell you this.

If you give them a bad vibe or you come off as a dick or ahole to them. You can drive into the bay with a brand new Tractor and trailer he will find something if he wants to.

Tip. Have everything at hand reasy to go. My medical reg ins logs are all in one binder organized. If you are sloppy they will be able to tell youre lazy and dig harder.

 

Your kidding.

 

I'll be sure to remember that.

 

Ive had 4 so far this year.. 3 lvl 2's and 1 lvl 3.

The probability of them pulling you over depends on your Carrier's CSA score.

My carrier has been through alot, been through hell 3 times in terms of getting a shutdown letter and name change.

 

Yes !

 

Your right. Last two guys I worked for had awful DOT scores. The only reason I didn't get one in WY or CO was they run your CDL anyway, and saw I have a clear csa. They also can see what you get hit for, and guess what they will check first?
The one inspection I got in Utah, I was leaning on the guys desk and I could see his computer. It had this large red box in the middle, flashing 94 in red.
I thought that can't be good lol.

 

They do indeed check brake travel. From the brake travel a lot of different problems may be detected. It may not be, and often is not just a slack adjuster is out of adjustment.

As far as the DOT is concerned, and most companies and almost all mechanics, you should not fool around with the slack adjusters unless you know what you are doing. The DOT requires only "certified brake inspectors" mess with the slack adjusters. They do try to enforce that.

Way to many times I have run into a situation where a driver 'adjusted' a brake wrong or tried to cover up another mechanical problem by 'adjusting the brakes.' Their are several flavors of automatic slack adjusters out their and they do not all work the same.

 

At the Fly J in Austinburg, OH (I 90 exit 223).
Got a DOT bear in here doing inspections.
Ohio must be broke.....

 

A DOT person needs to be CVSA certified to check brakes and do a lvl 1. Most DOT officers can only do a lvl 2 and 3. If they want to be a D, they can hold you at a weigh station till a CVSA person arrives.

A DOT person CAN put lvl 1 points on a lvl 2 inspection but that is unlawful, if that dot officer is not certified to do lvl 1.

Ive had 3 lvl 2's this year and had some lvl 1 points in there. CVSA representative for my company took those lvl 1 points out. In the state of NJ, there is only about 200 dot people and 20 of them are certified to do lvl 1.