explain what i found on pre-trip

so i did my pretrip on a tranker i was picking up to load at the farms...... i found a tire right off the bead no air, ok a little strange but whatever. i take the tanker to the mechanic. i stopped looking the trailer over the minute i found the bad tire, as i had no intention of taking it anyways. upon further inspection all of the brake components are missing from that wheel assembly. there was NO drum, no shoes, nothing. i dont deliver the loads and am picking up an empty that someone else pulled last. HOW the heck does that happen. drums are large heavy objects that are secured by the many studs running through it. HOW does that go missing? anyone else ever see this type of thing? its a good thing i look my equipment over because this could have been a very bad day.

 

if that assembly came apart, how did it not make a god awful noise?

 

so in other words this trailer was in for service and they forgot to put brakes on it and some dummy took it without looking at it?

 

really? i turn the lights and hazards on, i check the lights for function; i look at the brakes and slack adjusters; i look at the tires; also make sure the trailer doesnt have any broken springs. i open the cabinet and check to make sure the wash tag is current (dairy regulations allow 4 days), and that the trailer was actually washed. i also look that pump motor bracket make sure its not cracked (i had a bracket fail motor fell inside the cabinet. this destroyed the motor housing. i pull forward a few feet and pull the "spike", this tests the service brakes. i check to make sure the bolt on the front of the 5th wheel is fully retracted (that is an indication the 5th wheel is fully locked)

in short i have to look things over before i leave.

 

we had one older volvo and a freightliner classic they are restoring, everything else is 100% pacar peterbilt and KW. recently every new truck he has been ordering has been a T880