Inter-axle lock ..."Eh, you don't need it"

I just ran 30 miles down the road at a 60m an hour with my inner axle engaged am I ok or did I just ruin something. I forgot it was on . I got stuck at shippers and turned it on.

 

You didn't hurt a thing.

 

You're fine. Doing that will warm up the diff oil a bit, and wear off a bit more tread depth than normal, but that's about it.

 

In Alaska in the winter time every truck driver I know up here runs inter lock all winter long I know I sure do. No problem whatsoever maybe a little extra tire wear.
When hauling fuel out of Valdez I even used both front and rear axle lockers on Thompson's pass, just got to remember to kick them out before you hit the curve. Lol

 

It's not unrealistic. That type of lockers will cause your truck to forget how to turn so to speak. You will go straight. If you wanted to turn... its going to cost you 40 acres.

With the OP... on principle I express the opionin against the company saying "We don't want drivers to have them..." one simple response.

"I. Quit." You don't have drivers, you have babies that you do not train adequately on the equiptment no wonder your fleet breaks that stuff all the time.

I am kind of picky about axle operations in a 18 wheeler. It depends on what is available back in the day from the old iron, some of which is full lock, others is two axle drive but wheels will spin if they have to on some of them. It's still way better than nothing at all in ordinary dry highway or rain driving with everything off so you do not burn them up back there.

I am very cautious also never to engage it when wheels are spinning and always try where possible to engage when stopped. You could come over a hill hit a hollow of the road filled with hailstones at 70+ and try to gently throw the lockers back there but you already are in it up to here and hold her straight, no touching brakes and no steering until you get through it. No matter how much speed you lose trying to cross that surprise patch. (I-70 st charles comes to mind, summer storm. About 1/2 mile of ice and wet from hail and rain. What a surprise that was)

I will stop typing here. I feel very strongly and somewhat angry at the stupid willfully dense company people unwilling to A: Train, B: adequately fix the #### axles back there, C: accept that they are there to all of our benefit, so many times it's the difference between getting going or calling for a tow.

I hate that Professional Drivers are brushed aside with a really good request by people who have never ever touched a semi. Those are not the people you want to invest your precious life working for. You want a good rig with everything working so you can do battle now and then against nature in storms etc.

The way things are sounding around here from stupid idiot companies, I must ask myself, is there still trucking for old men like me? With people who actually give a #### about the company and fleet?

 

If it's not your truck no problem..