How many trucks can one mechanic keep going?

[Old Doug]

It seems like i have a hard time keeping up. They are all second hand rangeing from 200.000 to a million miles on them. Half are run 6 days a week but never go over 100 miles away. I do every thing from tires to replaceing cabs. How many should i be able to keep going?

 

[lantraxco]

Two, given the average driver these days and used trucks.

 

[ship660]

Little hard to answer, what broke, how long before parts can arrive, what are your capabilities, Do drivers help maintain and are they good drivers not abusive of there equipment, what kind of PM schedule are you using? These are the kind of questions I would ask myself. The answers should give you an honest opinion of how many you should be able to keep on the road a day.

 

[Jonas302]

I have plenty of work keeping 6 older trucks on the road of course I have other work to do also the trucks don't get back to the shop until 5 and weekends very rarely do I get to keep one during the day unless its raining

 

[GregsHD]

It seems like i have a hard time keeping up. They are all second hand rangeing from 200.000 to a million miles on them. Half are run 6 days a week but never go over 100 miles away. I do every thing from tires to replaceing cabs. How many should i be able to keep going?

If you're finding it hard to keep up I would be farming out the tire work, that's what tire shops are for! They can have it!
I've had to work with drivers that would keep me busy day in day out on two trucks. It can get stupid after a while..... It's like they think they're doing us a favor????

 

[Wes J]

Impossible to say. If it's a fleet of Maxxforce powered Internationals with self adjusting clutches and rookie drivers, maybe 1. If it's a fleet of pre-emission Peterbilts with 60 series Detroits and experienced drivers, maybe 15+.

 

[msllc]

I was hired as a (fleet repair mechanic, not retail / customer focused) foreman at a local paving company, then I found out that I was the foreman of MYSELF, with a helper that was too busy stealing to lend a hand / do his job. I tried to keep a small fleet of dump trucks, pick ups, heavy equipment going all by my self; including repairs & PM services, too. The only real work I sent out (every time) was the tire work. On occasion, I sent out a dump truck ac job & a trailer light issue, but every time I did send something out, the owner kept track of it & then later used it against me. I got very tired of the double standard of "do more, do more, do more, but do not keep killing payroll every week with over time". I was told that I was the highest earner of ALL hour employees. The worst part is learning that a mechanic is always helpful to any company, but more times (than not) the mechanic is viewed as an expense versus being an asset, which is what most mechanics are at repair shops. It is kind of hard to explain in just a few lines, but I would suggest working at your own speed that you feel comfortable with. It is also a juggling act between which job takes priority. I liked to fix the small things first that kept a truck from going out first thing in the morning, then moving onward to the bigger jobs next. By doing that, more trucks get in the road faster & lessens the downtime of trucks due to small repairs. I had to do things that way or else NO trucks would ever make it to the jobsite, ever.

I, also, have always tried to avoid "double-work" by going a little further beyond every time I would do something, at all. As an example, when I would replace old / rotted hydraulic hoses, I'd replace the blown / bad one, along with the next one (or more) that was right beside it. By doing that, you end up replacing all of the most likely hoses to cause you to go back to the same machine in one week's or month's time. That ends up making more of a complete repair versus just doing one hose & possibly having to replace the other hose on the same piece of equipment. While I was on the road replacing hoses, I would go get two hoses for the exact length & size that I needed & then I would have two other hoses made up that were 12" longer & 12" shorter, just to have a hose on hand in the future. Doing that helped me build up a stock of hoses I had on hand, plus it cut down on running around during a high stress moment. I found that it helped me out by speeding up the repair.

If the owner of the company is profit oriented, then try asking him for a helper or having a driver help you out every so often. Even if all these guys might know how to do is change engine oil or grease a machine, that is still something you will not have to do later on. If the owner / manager is more difficult, try explaining to him / them that you are trying to reduce operating cost by having a helper doing the easier things & you doing the more complex / complicated to do things that demand more of your time.

All in all, working for someone else will always be a challenge. The only thing you can do, is try to knock out the small stuff ASAP first. Beyond that, it will all come in due time. Learn what you can, practice what you learn, teach others, become the best that you can become. Being a mechanic is a thankless job. If I had known that when I was younger, I would have never gone into this field of work. Maybe you are young enough to consider another field of work, if all else fails.

 

[RobVG]

I totally agree with GregsHD. Let someone else do the tire work if your'e finding it hard to keep up.

 

[Ruger_556]

Have someone else do the tires, I kept a fleet of ~ 15 trucks and 40 trailers running by myself and most of the trucks had 750K + miles. Totally depends on what trucks they are though and what drivers you have. That was a fleet of Freightliner FLD's with Series 60's and M11's

 

[Jonas302]

I am surprised you guys farm out tire work its a gravy job Do you even send out flats? Maybe on highway trucks that would work out better but tire work is a big part of keeping the bellys running its no surprise to change a couple tires in the morning before they leave With the nearest tire shop 8 miles away it would take up all my time and then paying retail on new tires.....

 

[Ruger_556]

I am surprised you guys farm out tire work its a gravy job Do you even send out flats? Maybe on highway trucks that would work out better but tire work is a big part of keeping the bellys running its no surprise to change a couple tires in the morning before they leave With the nearest tire shop 8 miles away it would take up all my time and then paying retail on new tires.....

Usually the tire company will come do onsite work, stock your tire inventory, etc...

 

[hetkind]

The last time I was a full time paid mechanic, 35 years ago, I kept a fleet of 35 International School buses running, with an helper to do the fueling and daily checks. When I took over the garage, it was the last year of the contract and step one was to catch up on lubrication and fluid changes, while filling in as the garage manager, ie spending 3/4 of my time dealing with drivers since the actual manager, the owner's son was out drinking. Needless to say, it was a disaster...and I eventually packed up my tools and went back to school for a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Since basic maintenance has been neglected, just getting grease fitting to take grease again could be a bear, plus things like dozens of seized spring bushings, dry steering boxes, rear ends full of tar like grease, and half the engines with dead cylinders. You end up spending days just getting one vehicle in decent shape, just to see it sidelined with an issue you can't readily fix.

But the number of machines you can maintain depends on condition, miles driven, type of use and of course, type of machine.

Howard

 

[GregsHD]

I am surprised you guys farm out tire work its a gravy job Do you even send out flats? Maybe on highway trucks that would work out better but tire work is a big part of keeping the bellys running its no surprise to change a couple tires in the morning before they leave With the nearest tire shop 8 miles away it would take up all my time and then paying retail on new tires.....

Must be some nasty stuff you're running on! If I had a situation like that I would stock several spares on rims ready to go, then at lunch or the end of the day drop the duds at the tire shop to get repaired/swapped for the next day, or if things were going smooth, you could always do them yourself on site, the trucks would still be running so you could do it at your leisure.

 

[Jonas302]

Ha well I guess our guys are pretty good at finding things to shove though the tires thats where highway work would be a lot different. I do keep about 10 tires mounted of different tread height to match whatever is flat. I did spend 15 years in a tire shop so I guess I forget not everybody is good at tires its really pretty easy and you get to find all kinds of other things to fix when the wheels are off. I would much rather send out engine work or things we dont have equipment for

Must be some nasty stuff you're running on! If I had a situation like that I would stock several spares on rims ready to go, then at lunch or the end of the day drop the duds at the tire shop to get repaired/swapped for the next day, or if things were going smooth, you could always do them yourself on site, the trucks would still be running so you could do it at your leisure.

 

[kshansen]

I did spend 15 years in a tire shop so I guess I forget not everybody is good at tires its really pretty easy and you get to find all kinds of other things to fix when the wheels are off. I would much rather send out engine work or things we dont have equipment for

Jonas, you hit some very good points there! First is having the experience of doing the job for many years. Next is the seeing other problems while removing and installing wheels. That right there is one of the main reasons I liked washing a machine personally that I was going to work on especially before doing a basic service job. And last is the having the equipment to do a job. Just about every job can be easy if you have the right tools for the job and the experience from having done it many times.

Back when the place I worked had dozens of the old Mack trucks with those twin stick Quadraplex transmissions it was an easy after noon to strip two of them down to the small bits. Spend some time washing parts and just walk out to the parts trailer and grab the parts off the shelf and call the bearing store for a kit of the bearings. Depending on what was junk and what we had on the shelf in parts could have one ready after lunch the next day. Now days it would take a week or more to do the same job if parts were even still available! All the special little tools and pullers I had are either lost of buried some place and the little parts I always kept stocked up on like detent balls and springs and such are long lost. Same for many other jobs we did all the time. Something as simple as having a complete gasket kit for a few of the main engine and transmissions can save untold time when you find a leak while doing service.

 

[GregsHD]

Ha well I guess our guys are pretty good at finding things to shove though the tires thats where highway work would be a lot different. I do keep about 10 tires mounted of different tread height to match whatever is flat. I did spend 15 years in a tire shop so I guess I forget not everybody is good at tires its really pretty easy and you get to find all kinds of other things to fix when the wheels are off. I would much rather send out engine work or things we dont have equipment for

I hear ya! I don't work on much for hwy trucks anymore, closest would be a customers lowbed unit, but it goes everywhere, including landfills and the tractor logs oversize loads off hwy in winter. Pulling wheels is a necessity, but I would rather spend all day chasing wiring gremlins then fight with a pair of irons popping rubber off rims. One more thing, this is a different point of view as i'm a subcontract mechanic, it probably costs the customer more for me to dismount/mount rubber then it does for them to just take to the tire shop. And i'm fine with that! :drinkup

 

[Truck Shop]

I have been around many drivers that could tear-up an anvil. If your working for a company that has poor drivers, you have an up-hill battle
to begin with.

Truck Shop

 

[Old Doug]

They have 20 trucks and 7 trailers. They dont have a good shop or tools.

I have been around many drivers that could tear-up an anvil. If your working for a company that has poor drivers, you have an up-hill battle
to begin with.

Truck Shop

There is alot of this going around to. I thought this would be a good deal for me because it would be part time but its turned in to more than full time. They have 2 maybe 3 good drivers that will be retireing or leaveing in the next year i dont think i will stay if things dont change.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Doug.. IF it was a part time gig.?? treat it as 1.. don't let THEIR problem become your problem.. and explain THAT to THEM..
I've been rebuilding injection pumps for over 35 years and left a company I was with for 16.. came back after 3 and everything I had set-up was destroyed or lost and all the test equipment was in shambles..
I harped and bi**hed for 2 months about needing this and that.. just to do a proper job.. nothing got done..
THEN I GAVE UP.. I started putting out work I was less than satisfied with and the units started coming back for rework..
The boss came up and asked whats the deal?? I said.. you know I'm capable.. BUT I'm only as good as the equipment I have to work with..!!!
It MUST HAVE hit a nerve cuz by the following week there was about 100k worth of NEW equipment for me to use.. and I haven't had a redo in over 9yrs..

 

[theironoracle]

It seems like i have a hard time keeping up. They are all second hand rangeing from 200.000 to a million miles on them. Half are run 6 days a week but never go over 100 miles away. I do every thing from tires to replaceing cabs. How many should i be able to keep going?

Old Doug,
Like the other guys here are saying it totally depends. Beer delivery trucks probably 12, dump trucks in/out of quarries probably 5-6. Hopefully your appreciated by the owner or manager? Your skills can walk out that door and find work anytime. Don't kill yourself at work and enjoy life.....TIO