Driver Equipment

No it's true honest! There is an 800 number where a driver can call the US Marshals and have them come do an investigation and shut down a carrier for not giving a driver this blinker fluid!!

 

Salt Lake City,July,on a Sunday. Woke up at the Flying J. The reefer wasn't running. Code was for unable to start and charging system. I jumpstarted it but it would only run for five minutes before dying. System wasn't charging because of a bad alternator. Thermo King was closed on Sunday. They wanted over $1000 to open up and replace the alternator. I said "F THAT". I ran my 20 foot cables from my truck to the reefer. I secured the cables so that I could run like that. I got to Las Vegas on Monday and had the brushes replaced for around a hundred bucks.

 

I ran reefers. I have seen drivers sitting at docks with their reefers hooked up like that. However in all honesty do you see a company driver doing that? My post was really more geared to the company drivers.

 

I'm a company driver.

 

Well sir I highly commend you for getting that load delivered and saving your company big $$$. However the average company driver is not going to do that. Besides most company's that are in the reefer service have contracts with TK to get these reefers going 24/7. This was discussed in another thread several months ago.

 

This subject has got to have hundreds of threads on this website. However honestly today with the way these carriers are I think the only real things a driver needs is a few simple handtools, flashlight, A roll of duct tape, some bungee cords, a few replacement bulbs and/or wiper blades and some spare gladhand gaskets, both thick and narrow.

 

Jumper cables are good to have. We carry a set in every truck and they get used.
But, how many guys, especially the younger guys, would know how to hook up a set of cables from one truck to another? How about hooking from a modern truck to an older Freighliner with a positive ground? Could they jump start from a truck to a dead piece of machinery like a Cat or a grader?
Most of the guys in this thread seem pretty savvy but they're the exception to the rule. Most people would wind up creating a disaster, a fire, or burning up the electronic gizmos in the newer trucks.

 

Been there, done that!

 

This is why I made my comments in post #15. I was driving an Intl prostar in 2011 and while sitting on the scale at Campbells soup my main switch broke. I could not get the truck to crank. One of the guys there said he could get under the truck and short out the starter. I said over my dead body. Later at the place where the truck was fixed the service manager told me doing that kind of stuff is the best way there is to cause all kinds of problems with the electronic equipment. This is why I never hooked up jumper cables or attempted to short start a tractor.

 

If you don't know how it's better to leave it alone. I jumped a lot of starter solenoids over the years but they were on the old style mechanical engines.
If I were to do it on todays electronic stuff I'd want a mechanic to show me or tell me what not to do.

Any of you guys ever cross-jump the solenoid on electronic engines?