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ABF | Change Of Operation

DCM_Doc said:
Many years back there were two sleeper teams, (not ABF), left their domicile together & a few miles out, a drive wheel assembly came off of the the lead team's tractor. That driver did not lose control & pulled off on the shoulder but the team in the rear crashed. That driver ran off the shoulder, overturned & the rig caught fire. Both of the team members were killed in the fire. Some speculated that driver was distracted by the lost wheel.
The widows sued every company that had a connection to the tractor/trailer. Those that were sued were Freightliner, Stemco,( the wheel seal was Stemco), Timken, (the tractor had Timken bearings), Rockwell, (the Freightliner was speced with Rockwell axle assemblies, the tire manufacturer(s), I think there was a combination of tire brands on the tractor & trailer & the trailer had Bandag caps so they were also brought into the lawsuit. The maintenance records on the wrecked tractor/trailer were also used in the trial.
Anyway all who were sued had to hire an attorney to prove their product was not at fault. See how complicated doing business with anything pertaining to trucks can be? I don't remember how the jury ruled but an engineer, was hired to represent one of the product manufacturers. That engineer proved the product of the company he represented did not cause the wheel assembly to come off.
Many times however, a company will pay a settlement just to rid itself of liability.
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And,...like the example I gave,....when the lawyers get involved,...you'd better have some sort of written language saying the company subsumes your Liability Exposure,...if you were performing your job duties in a legal manner.

If not,......your life might become a Liability Hell,.....especially if your company feels you've become "too expensive" in a Lawyerly way.

There was a small town in our area that changed access for trucks over 25' for their downtown area........Cops had a crackdown and a "surprise" sign limiting access one day....Many tickets written. Union attorneys showed up with Union drivers,....non-Union drivers stood there by themselves.
Guess who paid fines......
 
seabreeze said:
One night, I lost a set off a 45' on old US 25 (a crooked mountain road) between Ashville N C and Greenville S C.
They were never found.
When I started driving, wheel bearing failure was a common occurrence.
With the oil bath hubs, such as the Stemco, bearing failure is rare as hen's teeth today.
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True about the Stemco as long as someone occasionally looks to see that they have oil in them. I check the hubs on my tractor steering axle before every trip. That's the place I definitely don't want to have a wheel fall off. Sometimes the grunge I have to wipe off to see the oil level is fairly thick. Hmm, what does that say?
 
seabreeze said:
One night, I lost a set off a 45' on old US 25 (a crooked mountain road) between Ashville N C and Greenville S C.
They were never found.
When I started driving, wheel bearing failure was a common occurrence.
With the oil bath hubs, such as the Stemco, bearing failure is rare as hen's teeth today.
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ABF for many years successfully ran steer axle bearings & trailer axles in grease because hub seals at the time leaked oil on brake shoes constantly. Steer axle bearings for most fleets ran in 90 Wt. gear oil, later 85W-140 oil as did the drive axles which was what was in the differentials. As I remember Amoco had a very good extreme pressure chassis grease that held up well & stayed in the hub & off brake shoes. ABF bought it by the barrel. ABF lost very few wheel ends due to bearing failures. Bearings however can not be ran as tight in chassis grease as gear oil & bearings had to be adjusted accordingly. New trailers were speced with chassis grease & the manufacturers had adjust to bearings differently. I remember one fleet of trailers, I think it was Trailmobile just before they closed, adjusted the bearings with the same preload as bearings that ran in oil. Most of those trailers had wheel bearing failures & ABF had trouble getting warranty payments because those trailers were the last ones manufactured by the soon to be out of business manufacturer. Now most fleets now are running Conmet sealed hubs which have a very good warranty.
 
Triplex said:
True about the Stemco as long as someone occasionally looks to see that they have oil in them. I check the hubs on my tractor steering axle before every trip. That's the place I definitely don't want to have a wheel fall off. Sometimes the grunge I have to wipe off to see the oil level is fairly thick. Hmm, what does that say?
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It means that the (contracted-out..) mechanic doing service...didn't want to disturb the Protective layer of Grime and Filth.....
 
DCM_Doc said:
ABF for many years successfully ran steer axle bearings & trailer axles in grease because hub seals at the time leaked oil on brake shoes constantly. Steer axle bearings for most fleets ran in 90 Wt. gear oil, later 85W-140 oil as did the drive axles which was what was in the differentials. As I remember Amoco had a very good extreme pressure chassis grease that held up well & stayed in the hub & off brake shoes. ABF bought it by the barrel. ABF lost very few wheel ends due to bearing failures. Bearings however can not be ran as tight in chassis grease as gear oil & bearings had to be adjusted accordingly. New trailers were speced with chassis grease & the manufacturers had adjust to bearings differently. I remember one fleet of trailers, I think it was Trailmobile just before they closed, adjusted the bearings with the same preload as bearings that ran in oil. Most of those trailers had wheel bearing failures & ABF had trouble getting warranty payments because those trailers were the last ones manufactured by the soon to be out of business manufacturer. Now most fleets now are running Conmet sealed hubs which have a very good warranty.
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I've had several switch to oil bath hubs on their boat trailers.
Can't say if there is a big difference on repairs, too soon for judgment.
Saltwater, non-synthetic grease, and Chinese bearings, not a good combination.
Mention preload, they think it's something you throw in back of your P U truck.
 
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