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SAIA | Decision making day

runawaytrain said:
This happened halfway through my shift. I did a proper pre-trip dumb ass. I've been dong this 45 years and I know what the :censored: I'm doing. Does a blowout of a steer tire mean you didn't do a proper pre-trip? It probably happened when I made a hard right turn. Something's just wear out dumb ass.
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If you bothered to look at the grommets you can see what shape they are in.
Ive been doing this for 31 years and rubber grommet that were in good shape have never started leaking to the point it was draining all my air, after i checked them for leaks. I inspect them upon my pretrip and if they look worn or beat up i replace them. And then i check for leaks.
Try it, it works. Lol

Also scraping grease from the lip of the trailer onto them can stop most leaks.
 
othertrucker2001 said:
Not

Not so. I’ve had many rubber seals go bad during a trip. You can unhook the gladhand and wipe the rubber grommet with a gloved hand, spray it with wd40, or even spit on the grommet. Sometimes literally anything you do to it will temporarily stop the air leak.
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They were most likely in bad shape before you left.
 
DeTrucker said:
They were most likely in bad shape before you left.
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That’s only a 50/50 chance. If a driver drives the same truck most of the time, he/she will keep check on it. Otherwise it would be the trailer. By the way. Did you check all, ALL, EVERY valve stem cap on your set last trip?
 
othertrucker2001 said:
That’s only a 50/50 chance. If a driver drives the same truck most of the time, he/she will keep check on it. Otherwise it would be the trailer. By the way. Did you check all, ALL, EVERY valve stem cap on your set last trip?
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I knock the tires and check for leaks even from valve stems.
But i do not remove the caps on valve stems.
 
DeTrucker said:
If you bothered to look at the grommets you can see what shape they are in.
Ive been doing this for 31 years and rubber grommet that were in good shape have never started leaking to the point it was draining all my air, after i checked them for leaks. I inspect them upon my pretrip and if they look worn or beat up i replace them. And then i check for leaks.
Try it, it works. Lol

Also scraping grease from the lip of the trailer onto them can stop most leaks.
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I know all the tricks. Sometimes the grommets look good but for whatever reason they go bad. Your acting like your perfect. My main concern on pretrips are Tires ... Lights ... Brakes ... Fluids ... Flaps ... Placards ... Leaks and so on. Sometimes the little things might slip through the cracks. Maybe I didn't take a microscope to the grommets like you Mr. Perfect but I most certainly looked at them and they appeared in good order. Maybe it's a good thing I always keep plenty with me.
 
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runawaytrain said:
Yes, and even after you do everything by the books. :::shit::: still goes wrong. That's just trucking.
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It sure does....without a doubt. I just never had the grommet leak as bad as what you first described after looking good and not leaking during the pre trip. But after that you added that the glad hand was leaking where it connects to the hose. That is a little different and makes the situation more understandable.
 
DeTrucker said:
It sure does....without a doubt. I just never had the grommet leak as bad as what you first described after looking good and not leaking during the pre trip. But after that you added that the glad hand was leaking where it connects to the hose. That is a little different and makes the situation more understandable.
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I should have been more specific from the beginning. That's on me. Sorry brother.
 
DeTrucker said:
I knock the tires and check for leaks even from valve stems.
But i do not remove the caps on valve stems.
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If don’t put your fingers on EVERY valve stem cap to check for loss of air and check for tightness, you didn’t complete your pre/post trip inspection. To the best of my recollection, there is a fifty dollar ticket per wheel that the valve stem cap is missing. Two stem cap violations per day could set any company back. Do the math just to see how far. (go company wide)
 
seabreeze said:
We were required to change the worn out air in each tire every 500 miles, each driver had their own hand pump.
Changed more often on dirt roads.
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See. That’s a big miscontraption.(pun intended) Air is not good for that long. If it was, scuba divers could stay underwater forever.
 
DeTrucker said:
If you bothered to look at the grommets you can see what shape they are in.
Ive been doing this for 31 years and rubber grommet that were in good shape have never started leaking to the point it was draining all my air, after i checked them for leaks. I inspect them upon my pretrip and if they look worn or beat up i replace them. And then i check for leaks.
Try it, it works. Lol

Also scraping grease from the lip of the trailer onto them can stop most leaks.
Click to expand...
Like I said. Most anything at all will stop a air leak temporarily. How do we know this was not done by the driver BEFORE train? We ALL get a bit relaxed at some point in time.
 
othertrucker2001 said:
Like I said. Most anything at all will stop a air leak temporarily. How do we know this was not done by the driver BEFORE train? We ALL get a bit relaxed at some point in time.
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And for that very reason is why you have to check the equipment around here. We have too many with the leave it for the next driver mentality. Watch em every night just hook up and go, they don't even walk around the trailer to make it look like they are doing a pre-trip.
 
othertrucker2001 said:
See. That’s a big miscontraption.(pun intended) Air is not good for that long. If it was, scuba divers could stay underwater forever.
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This is a fuel mileage thing, 21 mpg on fresh air, EPA stopped us releasing old air into the atmosphere.
We started using helium to carry the weight and tires would last forever, no wear.
 
seabreeze said:
This is a fuel mileage thing, 21 mpg on fresh air, EPA stopped us releasing old air into the atmosphere.
We started using helium to carry the weight and tires would last forever, no wear.
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Yeah. That old air is depleting the ozone layer that keep the aliens out. Helium is good but you need to run helium/nitrogen combination(helium in one tire and nitrogen in the next) in order to maintain that fuel mileage quickly. (nitrogen runs faster than helium) Be sure to keep the truck balanced.
 
othertrucker2001 said:
Yeah. That old air is depleting the ozone layer that keep the aliens out. Helium is good but you need to run helium/nitrogen combination(helium in one tire and nitrogen in the next) in order to maintain that fuel mileage quickly. (nitrogen runs faster than helium) Be sure to keep the truck balanced.
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"You been drinking, haven't you?"
I'm going back to bed!
 
Ummmm...why is a driver changing those grommets? Isn’t that a job for a mechanic? Should’ve just called th shop and got a tow.
 
bigbuck said:
Ummmm...why is a driver changing those grommets? Isn’t that a job for a mechanic? Should’ve just called th shop and got a tow.
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In hindsight I should have done that. But with the extra grommets I always keep and a pair of pliers I made a judgment call to fix it myself. In my mind at the time I didn't want to bring back all my deliveries and wait hours for a tow. My mistake. Going the extra mile is obviously not appreciated anyway.
 
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