What is a "real life" pretrip?

recently did a drop and hook, while doing a pre-trip on the new trailer I discovered a large gator lodged in bewteen the air tank and axle, it hit airlines, now I get to crawl underneath, remove it and check for air leaks and damage. wouldn't you ?

 

Hell no. The Kingpin is the strongest componet anywhere on a tractor trailer. It is attached pernamently to a plate above it that is equally as strong.

If anything happens with enough forces to snap a kingpin... it's going to be enough force to make a fatal of anyone inside the truck or around it.

 

It doesn't do damage but as x1 said, lock trailer brakes, then pull the truck easily and slightly forward and look the brakes on the truck so that there is some tension on the kingpin, no one will be able to pull your jaws open, I do this but I still check to make sure it's locked, doesn't happen often but you never know, better safe than sorry.

 

"Air compressor! No air leaks! No loose or missing mounting hardware!"

 

I never do that. No reason to put a bunch of tension on the 5th wheel parts all night and wear it out quicker when all you have to do is stick your nose down there and look for 1 second sometime between waking up and taking a leak and pulling out of the parking lot. And might as well take an extra fraction of a second to look at the air lines and pigtail to make sure they're seated properly.

 

A full PM every 20 to 30k is also a MUST in my opinion......

 

Goid Luck OP ...

 

Some of it depends on the tractor you have.
If your driving something older with a lot of wear, you better be doing a very thorough pre trip every morning, cause stuff is gonna break.

If your in the more modern tractors -
1) Oil - how much oil is it using? Well after you check it every morning for a month, and your running a lot, and its not using any, maybe you check it every 3 or 4 days. My old mixer used a lot of oil, gallon every two or three weeks, I checked it every morning. My Volvo & Cascadia never used a gallon between services, so I was comfortable checking it every 3 or 4 days.

2) Coolant- Every morning. As long as your there, take the extra 3 seconds & look at the power steering reservoir. Fuel filter full? Drain it, fills back up, get a new one.

3) The rest of the engine - Is the engine still mounted in the truck? That's a good sign. Take another 3 seconds and eyeball your air filter glass. Look for leaks or streaks. Look at the belt(s). This is important.

4) Brakes- everyday. Stopping is not under rated. You will always stop, just not maybe where you needed to. I look for cracks in the pads more than anything. You drive the truck all day, if they are howling, yowling, moaning, they are out of adjustment or you have a cracked pad, that will get you put OoS at a scale or worse.

5) Air leaks- Everyday. You drive the truck all day again. When you get out for grub or just to walk around, if your bleeding air in 30 minutes, you need to take some time at the end of the day and find your air leak. Cheap set of wrenches to tighten or replace fittings. Check with ears. This another thing that will get you put OoS.

6) Tires- Everyday with a thumper, in the middle of the day with a thumper. once a week with a gauge. If you don't want to check and air your tires weekly, go work in dispatch with the rest of the #######.

7) Lights- Everyday. Number one DOT violation. And the number one is the trailer license plate light.

8) Common sense - Everyday I hope. You drive the truck all day. There's only so much that can go wrong. You don't have to spend 45 minutes with a flashlight looking at your leaf springs and fifth wheel. Look at your hubs all the time, streak & leaks man, there is a reason they occur. Look at your slack adjusters, if one is sticking at an inch further than the rest, that's a problamo. You'll see a clean spot on the shaft, its easy to spot.

Don't shine on your pre trip, or you'll regret it. The more you do it, the faster it will go. If your doing a 34 someplace for a weekend, and the truck's not moving, anytime in that weekend is a good time to do a good one, you don't have to wait until your ready to leave, common sense.

 

Tires, lights, kingpin locked, cigarettes present, Adderall taken, Sirius XM on.

Pretrip complete.

 

-Check 5th wheel and air/electrical connections.
-check steer tires with a gauge when they're cold...get some quick check caps if they don't already have them. look for visual damage to sidewalls.
-Thump the rest of the tires. You can gauge them too if you want.
-Check all lights and flashers
-check coolant, oil and fuel filter when cold.
-just do a general walk around to make sure nothing obvious jumps out at you. No massive air or fluid leaks anywhere. No trailer air lines dragging on the ground...that sort of stuff.

Assuming everything was fine yesterday that about all I'm looking for. I'll get out my flashlight and take a closer look at a trailer if I'm approaching it for the first time. I've found all sorts of stuff but 90% its going to be a light or a tire. It helps immensly if you work for company that doesn't run junk trailers.