Passed a scale.

Do you like being on the road with truckers who aren't qualified to adjust brakes but drive down the road with out of adjustment brakes??????

If they aren't qualified. GET QUALIFIED. I'm sure there's 100's of youtube videos to show how. I don't care if the company allows it or not. DO IT anyways. NO ONE is going to put you OOS for having adjusted brakes. EVERYONE will put you OOS if they AREN'T. And we won't go in to the conversation of IF they kills YOU or someone else by chance.

It takes ONE wrench and 2 minutes to adjust the brakes. It takes 2 seconds and 2 eyes to see the brakes aren't adjusted.

I don't know about the rest of you all. But i'm TIRED of being the only trucker adjusting the brakes. IN THE WORLD. (maybe not the world but that's sure what it feels like) 4 companies i worked for OTR and not one driver adjusting the company brakes.

 

It's been clubbed into my stubborn skull that the top of a mountain downgrade was the place to adjust brakes as well as check for heat, air leaks etc. BEFORE you descend. Ive been literally beaten over the head until I made that my own cornerstone for lack of a better word.

Ive also learned how to mash the air at a pop up surprise inspection with the newer auto adjusters to kick em into some semblance of adjustment but it always shows up when the DOT man hands me a list of stroke distances measured and it's a range of a inch or more across the board. Ugh.

Now.

I worked for Razorback here in Arkansas a while when I first moved here partly to learn the new area roads etc. Which was a pretty intense time with a very large map on the batch man's wall by the concrete mixer plant.

A time came up to adjust the brakes on the Mack Mixer and I dove under. They started hollaring you aint certified you *&^% gtfo out of there. That started a shouting match that lasted some time.

To this day I don't mind the certification so much as I minded the implied insult that the prior 20 years worth of brake adjusting was no good to these hogs...

That gave a door a crack to a 1st circle of hell to where I might simply shrug and say ok mr shop You adjust them. If they aint adjusted in the morning, I go back home. No problem.

 

What confuses the heck out of me is this "certified" thing. Your CDL and air brake endorsement is all the certification you need (at least in my neck of the woods) to adjust your brakes.

 

I don't know why the certification. Don't really care about it. Didn't need it when i was a mechanic. Didn't need it when i started driving. Why do i need it now?

Unlike teh majority of LAZY truckers out there. i like my brakes to work.

 

I used to do everything except engine rebuilds at my first job. Five years of driving and working on all of there trucks got me exactly zero raises. So why should I do two jobs and paid for one? I'd sure love it if my plumber would also cut my grass for free but I don't see that happening.

 

Well according to some you're just lazy. I bet they shine the boss' ...uh.. shoes for free too.

 

Gentlemen, I am going to a Community College next month to earn my CDL (300 hours) and I am worried about all this conflicting talk about brake adjustments. Will I be shown how to do this in class (Should I be trained on this?). I want to get a decent job and be able to run many miles, but SAFETY is my first priority, second is my license and third is my paycheck. I just hope I am trained properly at school as I am getting confused by all the differing posts on Truckers Report. Maybe I should stop reading here until after school? Thank you and be safe!

 

The choice is yours. Do you want to be a steering wheel holder or do you want to be educated and know the ins and outs of the industry you're choosing to work for? Knowledge is power. If you choose to be dumb and then come here and complain about it don't expect a whole lot of sympathy.

 

You'll be taught the components of it and how to check it, but no you wont learn how to make the adjustment. Unless the instructor shows you.

 

What the %$^# is wrong with some of you people? I ask a simple question LOOKING for the knowledge and a lot of what I get are ^%$&-offs with attitude responding. Why not just keep it to yourself if you can't be helpful? By the way Einstein, knowledge is not power...the USE of knowledge is power.

Should I also get a diesel mechanic certification before I go drive for 40-50k first year? Did you? Not gonna happen.