Shut it Down!

To be honest a small 300 piece kit would be a good idea to carry along. Right along with a strap type filter wrench or various sizes of filter wrenches a couple adjustable wrenches and at leas 4 sizes of regular vise grips and a couple pairs of needle nose vise grips. I do a lot of work myself. And I'll be one of the last guys you'll ever see sitting on the side of the road waiting on road service. You will learn over time what you need to carry and how to fix it. I'd also recommend carrying at least 2 cans of WD40. And a couple cans of panther piss (penetrating oil) the WD40 has a double use squeey doors, and starting fluid the penetrating oil has its obvious use. I don't like ether personally. Its like crack to a motor...LITTERALLY if you use it too often, you'll always need it to get it started and it drys out cylinder walls WD40 lubricates and it doesn't have the crack effect. Come winter always carry a spare set of fuel filters in the truck. I carry 2 spare sets winter fuel tends to wax them up a lot faster and I've had to swap them a few different times. Keep a bottle of vowels or power service in there as well so you can prime the water separator. And then you'll get the pleasure of "jacking off" your motor to get the sob primed so she'll start.

Breakdowns don't happen as often as you would think. I have never had a problem strand me out in BFE that I couldn't get my truck limped home for. To this day I've lost a brake can, blown an oil seal on my air compressor (pumped out 2 gallons of oil in 5 hours) blown an airbag (that one almost had me on the side of the road) had a transfer pump go bad, had problems with my Jake brake, had my truck overheat, and I've had a few belts break but nothing that has really put me down for the count. Suppose the closest I came was blowing that oil seal or the airbag. Oh and I got lucky enough to have one air bag blow at freightliner one day...even the I would've taken a pair of needle nose vise grips and pinched the airline off. Rough ride but I wouldn't have been sitting. Still having blown a tire yet but I'm sure I will and I hope its somebody else's trailer that tire takes out because aluminum gets really tore up when a tire blows. Anyway that's a little bit to get you going. If you can learn to fix things and limp do it. Waiting on road service sucks and it can be hours and hours before they get there.

 

I'd do the same if I was an O/O hauling freight, being a daycab company driver I'm not supposed to do any work on the truck myself if it's more involved that adding some oil or changing a light bulb lol.
They're pretty good about getting us back on the road or towed in, usually a tow means they bring another tractor out for us.

 

Yea don't blame you if its company policy. Good thing they're good about getting you back on the road some of them aren't. I don't have time to wait for road service when I'm loaded. And I'll be ###### if I'm calling another truck in to unload my cattle onto his trailer. And when I'm empty I don't really have time to wait on road service either because I've usually got a decent size deadhead so I learned to be a jack of all trades when it comes to fixing things. Even if its just a redneck fix to get me 100 miles to someplace that can actually get it fixed I'll do it. Ever rolled a bead off a tire? I have...bottle of ether an air hose and a napkin will pop that bead back on there. Just have to use enough ether to get the beads to set but not too much because the tire will go boom lol.

 

From what I've seen of you cattle haulers at speed most of ya'll could coast at least 100 miles if you had too.

 

If you're losing air pressure noticeably, yup, pull over and shutdown. Could be any number of factors. The air brake system is actually very simple in many ways so repairs can normally be done on the roadside scales sights by any qualified tech. Brake pods will fail on the road without much warning. Hoses become brittle over time and can break. If the service line breaks, you will only notice the loss during braking application (that and the fact the trailer is trying to pass you will let you know you have a big problem). Being a bit facetious on that last point, but it will take a lot longer to stop with only the tractor brakes. There is a lot of hoses and lines under the trailer of course so keeping a line repair kit in the truck can save you from sitting on the road at 3am waiting for a service truck. These are a real simple fix that can allow you to continue on and get somewhere to get the line replaced properly.

The big thing is if you see the pressure dropping, get onto the shoulder as quickly as possible because you will get a dynamite application of the trailer brakes at bare minimum and that is not much fun. Then the fun begins to figure out why you're losing air.

 

yep. i've got a splitter kit for every size line on the truck and trailer. and a bag of crushers for the tractor trailer lines. as them dudes always break at the trailer glad hand. specially in the winter.

althought, for some reason. i've been in this truck and trailer 6 months now. and it hasn't broke yet.,

 

Rule of thumb. What ever you have in the way of repair parts will not break. For years I have carried an alternator with a pulley attached even for company trucks. This thread has reminded me to go get a cage tool for off road use only.

Even more important a student does not really need to be reading this thread. Just learning to do it by the book is enough the first year. The first year you really don't know what your brake system is capable of let alone running it at less than optimal.

Some of the things you have read on this thread can get you fined, imprisoned, killed or even shot by DOT. By the time you figure all that out it will be time to retire or at least quit driving.

 

Can you explain what the pins are? I have not heard that term before. And what are air slide tandems? Thanks.