Phantom Pre-Trip inspections.

My car meowed at the post office. I thought it over and nah, must be stressed because wife had a stray recently that I shoo'ed off.

Come to look, the #### thing got inside the engine bay and was trying not to be consumed by the alternator it was hiding on. Inside the engine belt. She had use the car last and the cat naturally sought refuge in it.

 

Jam-nut on steering pitman arm backed off loose by about 5 threads....... talk about a "holy cow" moment

 

Take a look at the rest of the linkages down below too. That is pretty holy cow, 5 threads. Talk about life on a thread. (And a prayer.)

If you want a good one, consider the following. I stopped one evening upgrade on the shoulder, it was a pretty bad day with a worse night so I plopped the thing right here on the side of the mountain pointing uphill. Flipped off the big lights and went to sleep on the steering wheel.

Woke up about 15 hours later surrounded by trucks. Foot was killing me. Turned out I never set the parking brakes at all and my service brake must have been held in place by Gabriel the Angel all that time. That was a wake up call.

 

The last 2 nights at the rail yard I had to reject 5 empty cans the customer had billed out. 2 had flat tires, one of those the entire electrical system was bonkers too. One had a bad inspection date. One had absolutely no service brakes. Just rolled clear and free when I had the trolly handle pulled down (though the trailer brake lights did work...) And one had no brakes whatsoever which was fun trying to hook to when even your fifth wheel friction pushes the trailer back.

Makes you wonder what they do with those chassis when you write them up and just what's out there on the road when you watch drivers just back under the can, attach the lines and roll.

 

It just might. When OTTO Reports a error in the brake drum on Axle two .... To dispatcher 2000 miles away. And no one qualified to touch it....

 

I am a newb as far as owner/op and I gotta say....check them slack adjusters!!! I had never had to check them in the past because I worked for others and they maintained everything really well and on a weekly schedule.

Now I am on my own and man I tell ya what you don't want to find out they need adjusted the hard way!

 

Those are easy, mash your service brake 7 times as the DOT inspector is walking (All the way to your last spot from his chicken coop....) even better, let her drift back a little bit doing that. Your slacks will kick into stroke spec hopefully.

Mash em again when he starts bawling and measuring down there.