How bad am I screwed?... OOS question.

Thank you everyone. I appreciate all of the help. I was just talking to another driver who is a friend of mine about needing to learn more about the brakes. Too little to late. Oh well. I should have done this long ago.

If there is someone around Coburg Or. I'm here until about 8:30 tonight when I will be taking a load to Puyallup then going home until the 13 th. After that I will be going out team where he will be dealing with dispatch and I will deal with the pre-trips. I don't want this to happen again. I hate that I ruined my own excellent record over ignorance.

 

Or just grab a box end wrench, use it to push in the lockout ring on the adjuster nut, crank it in all the way, then back off 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn. Do this to all of them and you are done. Of course if the auto adjusters are bad, then they will just go out of adjustment again anyway, which is most likely what happened with that one.

 

I don't ever check trailer brakes, it takes the same amount of time to check or adjust. I use a socket, crawl under and crank down, 1/2 turn out. 5 minutes, 10 tops.
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Just posted this on a different thread.. Far to many times I have seen someone hook to a trailer, throw the lines on and drive away without checking it over good. This can get you in trouble in a hurry. Not only can there be a mechanical issue but also a damage issue that has not been reported.. Drag that trailer any distance and it becomes your fault.

I agree with kidsdad.. When hooking a new trailer just adjust them and be done. I adjust all brakes atleast once a week (I dont rely on self adjusters).. As far as wear goes, there is a notch or split between the 2 brake pads on each brake.. If its a notch you will see its only notched so far.. if its a 2 piece pad there will be a smaller gap towards the brake and a larger gap at the face of the pad. If brakes are worn this far they are done and need to be replaced.. Do your job in reporting this and you earn brownie points.

 

Like some others have said, learn and move on.

One of the harder things to do in trucking is to put mistakes behind you. Each day is a new day, and you cant waste time going over yesterdays goofs.

Just dont repeat them and you have nothing to worry about.

 

You're kidding, right? There are a couple ways to determine if the brakes are out of adjustment. No offense driver but that kind of thinking will kill somebody some day!

 

You obviously don't know what a proper pre trip is if you think there is no way he could have known the brakes were out of adjustment

 

If you do a pre-trip inspection and you dont't discover your breaks are out of adjustment, it's
your fault.You did not do a proper inspection.That's what a pre-trip inspection is for. If you
are involved in a serious accident and your brakes are out of adjustment your in big trouble.

 

Whats amazing to me is how many drivers have no clue on how to adjust brakes.