Brakes out of adjustment?

No, they don't run enough down here on a regular basis. He won't base a truck here.
I am considering an attempt on that market once I'm up and running though. I have contacts and I know the business fairly well.

 

I guess I never thought of that scenario, Brickman. And now that begs the question... how do you do a pretrip without taking it to a shop? The DOT has to know you can't get under there to check the brakes on a daily basis--especially in the case of the scanner trailer like MM used to pull.

 

you actually think anything out there gets checked daily? even with manual djusters once a week is more than enough. Like I said I guarantee 90% of the new drivers out there don't know how and it probably only gets checked when the truck gets serviced.... if then

 

My tractor... maybe not daily--I gave it a once over to check things like belts,fluids, nothing hanging, etc. But the trailer? After my scary ride down Black Mountain, I checked the brakes with a fine tooth comb on every new trailer I picked up.

 

don't blame you there. you never know what you are getting into when you drop and hook.

 

Even a brand new slak (auto,Manuel,working or not?) will not make up measurement wise to sloppy systems(cams,bushins,pins,ect,ect,ect,ect,ect,ect,ect.) Trust the Califonia dot.your brake adjustment is excessive.They should know.This is soo low tech man!

 

This subject really brought up some good points. I too never did trust the self adjusting slack adjusters but I would never try to adjust them myself. I used to run the brakes before every trip I made while pulling triples (try adjusting all those brakes) but they were manual and when I went to gasoline hauling the company did not want us under the truck. And that's where the self-adjusting brakes were.

Someone ask how often do you check the adjustment and I can find no place where it says you check them at a specific time. I did find where California states that when you take the exam for your CDL you must be able to explain to the DMV official how to check for the adjustment of the brakes but I didn't find anywhere the instructions on how make the adjustments. But I did find this and it was very disturbing.

The NTSB has issued a warning about adjusting the self-adjusting brakes. They go on to say that the brakes will not stay adjusted if you do this. They got involved when they determined this practice caused a fatal accident from a runaway dump truck. The statement goes on to say that this is a very DANGEROUS PRACTICE. Please read their warning. I had no idea and I'm sure there's very few people who do. If I was still driving (I'm retired now) I make a copy of this report and keep it in the truck.

http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/journalist/lessons/LL_truck_air_brake.txt

 

Excellent find, GasHauler! That really hits the nail on the head. It all boils down to knowledge of the whole system. If you don't know what you're doing, don't mess with it. And just because you *think* you know what you're doing, doesn't always make it so.

When I worked on the line, building steering columns, I sometimes had a hard time with newbies who didn't understand the reasoning behind some teardown policies, number one being:

If a steering shaft had been rotated after installation of the SIR coil (Supplemental Inflatable Restraint system) and before the ARP pin was installed, the column had to be torn down, and the SIR coil had to be discarded. They'd say, "What's the big deal, it only turned a little bit. Why throw it away?" The 'Scrooge' in them wouldn't let them pitch a $20 part. They saw it as waste, rather than the safety concern it was.

Problem is, they didn't really understand the system. The SIR coil has a ribbon of wire in it which only turns so far in either direction. When it's initially placed on the column, it's centered. When the column is rotated out of the vehicle, with nothing to prevent it from turning too far, the wires could be broken--disabling the air bag. I'm sure you wouldn't want to find this out after you hit another car head-on and the bag don't pop.

The same is true for an automatic slack. If you don't really understand the system, it's best to leave it alone.

 

Yep you can adjust auto slack adjusters. and yes it seems they only work correctly when they installed with a complete brake job.I have past a dot brake the day after I adjusted a junky set of brakes so it does pass the travel check deal.

 

I can crawl all under, over, through, and around my truck. I guess being a starving driver has its perks.

I have to set up my brakes on the tractor every other day and it has self adjusting. The trailer doesn't so you end up locking the trailer up because of the extra pressure applied to make up for the crap brakes on the truck.

I don't even want to go into the maintenance (really sorry ### lack of) on my truck. Just not enough time to explain and I would be in a horrid mood afterwards.