Would you roll with a headlight out?

It's not so much about saving the boss money. I like to spend as little as possible. It's days before I get reimbursed. I much prefer to keep more in my pocket at that point in time. Plus, the trucker path will pretty much tell you which Walmarts are a go. Most of them will let you shop, but parking for the night is a no-no. I've started to memorize which ones will work. Only in the Northeast and Florida is when I have the most problems parking at Walmart.

 

Had one go in the middle of a local run. Stopped and replaced. Why invite scrutiny over $20 and a few minutes time? How much time does a level 3 take?

 

Depends on the availability of the bulb.

 

100 watt, H11 is $3.99 w Free Shipping on eBay

 

$20 for 3 years (~290,000 mi)
I think that's acceptable to have it immediately...

If your company really cared they'd order a bunch of them for cheap and distribute them... instruct driver to fix as needed. Then again they'd probably sell them for $10-$15 in the parking lot to owner operators lol....

 

The Walmart in Wagonner, OK (US 69) has recently put up a pallet barricade keeping trucks out of the east side lot where they used to could [kind of easily] park. It's catching a lot of truckers off guard and putting them in a bind and have to drive through the back alley to salvage the situation.

They are using that ENTIRE east lot to support their Order Pickup program. Like Waggonner is full of lazy people who are going to swarm in by the dozens to all load all their goods, all at once.

Now, trucks are parking all willy-nilly all over the main parking lot

I think this Order Pickup phenomenon is going to be like the Tesla Charging Stations and Clean LPG fueling stations that are all over but going to waste, literally. At least in many markets. For some reason, I don't see the people of Wagonner, OK really supporting Online Ordering and drive-up pickup to the extent they are planning for. And this is going on at virtually every Walmart across the nation.

 

The truck doesn't care if its a 60 or 65w bulb. You are required to have two functioning headlights and so if you report it and run it, you're admitting you're driving a vehicle you know is not legal to drive. That's asking for a ticket.

Far better to NOT report it and say that both were on when you did your pretrip and it must have just gone out when you were flashing an oncoming driver to warn them that they had their high beams on.

If you are ready to take the risk of being put OOS on the side of the road and given a ticket, run it. We had a driver a few years ago that had a headlight out. He was pulled over for it. The DOT was a jerk and wound up giving him a level 3 inspection right there on the highway. He got pinged for a couple of other things.

Moral of the story: Don't do something that will attract the attention of the DOT. Like running a truck with a headlight out. That's easy to spot from a half mile away. You should have replacement bulbs for your headlights and side marker lights in your truck along with a set of wiper blades. Don't go across the country unprepared.