Keeping Tractor Trailers Running in Winter



Posted: Thursday, April 07, 2011

by Welmer Van der Wel

Steve Rober, Executive Sales Director for Schaeffer Manufacturing wrote a quite useful article not a month back about the various methods one could use as preventative measures to keep one’s truck running over the winter months.

In it, he outlined nearly a dozen differing solutions that included advising that one test for bacteria proliferation not only in the tanks of your truck, but in any storage tanks that your company uses. The bacterium that can possibly grow in fuel is normally kept in check by the sulfur in most diesel fuels, but the recent trend towards ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels can potentially cause problems. Additionally, using a moisture control treatment on your fuel storage can cut down on the excess water that is necessary for a bacteria-hospitable habitat to form.

Another major point that Rober brought up is the necessity for drivers to manually ensure that all their truck’s tires are properly inflated. The often drastic differences in temperature, in addition to altitude differences can cause problems with a myriad of truck systems, including (but not limited to) framework, alignment, traction, steering and braking. Regularly determining the age and wear of one’s equipment is never a bad idea, as even something as simple as a dead battery can cause not-so-simple difficulties for both driver, and vehicle alike. His recommendation: to replace a battery if it has been in use in excess of 72 months.

Segueing nicely from Rober’s previous suggestion, he notes that tracking and evaluation of each truck in a fleet’s mileage and usage should be compiled on a regular basis, if for no more reason than to ensure that proper preventative maintenance is followed…

Maintenance such as ensuring that the fifth wheel assembly and kingpin are both properly lubricated, which (in addition to enabling easier turning in snow, ice, or slush) can help to reduce kingpin degradation due to road salt. This relatively simple measure can work wonders in ensuring that one can avoid kingpin replacement, which is not only a time-consuming process, but also can cause potential problems with the bolster plate’s stability, or even (due to damage to the cross-brace the kingpin is welded to) increase the potential for accidents in the future.

Ensuring that your trailer kingpin has minimal wear can prevent the nightmare scenario of the kingpin shearing due to a sudden swerve or brake, and causing a massive accident, and while a kingpin removal and replacement of a worn kingpin may remove the problem temporarily, there is a chance that related problems could arise, due to the fact that when removing a kingpin, one must by necessity, perform a procedure that could conceivably weaken a bolster plate, or even the cross-brace that the kingpin is anchored to.

The answer to such a dilemma is relatively simple: instead of a kingpin replacement, consider a trailer kingpin refurbishing, such as those provided by the Kingpin Repair Specialists, which are less costly, and have been proven to hold up just as well as a factory-direct replacement.
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