OK to leave trailer brake applied without a trailer?

When the job is pretty good overall and there are easy workarounds to the inevitable hurdles and challenges they throw at you, looking for a different job isn't high on my list of solutions. With that said, if the right stopper presents itself, I'm gone. For example, if the company decides to install driver-facing cameras, or if some night dispatch clown forces me out of a truck in the middle of the night so it can be re-assigned to a new hire. (The latter actually happened to me a couple years ago. I like to name the screwed-up company when I mention it, too: Eagle Express Lines.)

 

I have one of those air-up hoses. I understand that it would serve the same purpose as a plugged glad hand, providing resistance so the compressor doesn't keep churning away, but I don't understand what you mean by "once you unplug the red air line." Why would I unplug it? Seems like the red air line needs to stay hooked to the air-up hose (or plugged glad hand) the whole time the engine is running and the trailer brake is released.

I like your suggestion to also crank down the landing gear when a trailer is hooked.

 

Didn't think of that. Good point. The PSI must gradually keep dropping until it's so low the brake pops out. I've never tested it to see how long it takes, but I bet it's no more than about two minutes or so.

 

Tried it just now. Only took a little over a minute. So the question in my original post should have been "how do you plug the red air line when it's not hooked to a trailer" (but I wouldn't have asked that question, because I would have come up with an answer on my own, if only I'd focused on it instead). The question about compressors was still a legitimate one to ask in general.

 

Oh I see what you're saying. Now that you mention it, it occurs to me that instead of going out and getting super heavy duty wheel chocks, wish I'd thought of simply unhooking the red air line and plugging it somehow---with an air-up line or a plugged glad hand, as we've discussed---as that's much simpler than messing around with chocks. When you unhook that red hose, that trailer isn't going anywhere! And since your tractor is hooked to it, it isn't either! Wow, too easy!

Glad I asked my question. I'm thoroughly convinced now that the very best way to achieve my goal is to get a plugged glad hand to attach to the unhooked red air hose (glad hand seems more solid than an air-up hose). I see no reason to bother with chocks or cranking down the landing gear. Again, that whole rig is going nowhere with the red air hose unhooked from the trailer!

The bobtail scenario calls for wheel chocks though, so they'll come in handy if I ever happen to be parked bobtail overnight in the desert heat.