Trailer rebuild/repair thread

Belonged to an old Pre Cast company, know this trailer, saw it when relatively new delivering Manhole Segments and storm drain bell and spigot concrete pipe. 20' was LONG for them as weight was significant to dimensional materials. And NO, I am NOT interested in it!!

Truck Shop said:

Boy, aren't you lucky inboard drums. Buy the amount of crap/oil dirt hanging inside that drum she was due for seals anyway. Typical farm equipment.

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I get all the fun jobs.

I was just getting going after turning left from a stop sign on a gravel road. Then heard a loud bang. Didn't know if I blew a tire or what was going on. Looked around but didn't see anything obvious. Drove slow and noticed the brake pedal pulsating bad when applied. Lucky I was driving on mostly back roads but limped the loaded truck to the dump site. Unloaded the sand which improved things a little and then took the truck directly to the brake shop.

I figured with the invention of automatic slack adjusters, for any driver to actually ever look at the brakes was a thing of the past, you know, that's somebody else's responsibility and problem, I'm only hired to sit behind the wheel and if something does go wrong, its their fault for telling me to pull or drive this POS not mine for never looking to find out what's needed or if its safe to drive.

Years ago now, maybe 10 or so, I was shown a set of three axles off a trailer that had no brake canisters, s cams left on it, the driver had torn them off somehow and never knew it till the rig got back home, none of the parts were ever found either. When the s cams were torn off it even took some of the pads out of the drums and tore chunks out of the drums as well. I stood there and asked HOW. Had it not been for the fact of who was doing the repairs and I knew him and also the fact I saw the trailer with the old torn up axles still under it, I'd have never believed it possible to even be done. The guy doing the repairs called the driver an "overachiever".

I know we've blown brake canisters apart before, usually from being rusted and they eventually weaken and blow, but the base is still on the axle only the s cam is hooked to nothing. After seeing a few of those rocket out of from under a trailer, it makes you very careful when you go to adjust brakes to make sure to check the condition of the chamber first before laying under it and having someone else apply the brakes so you can do the measuring.

Last time I had to escort a driver in to take a test, it was emphasized that the driver was the responsible person who would take a fall legally should there be an accident and the truck was deemed unsafe to drive. I know in a lawsuit that the big pockets are the ones going to pay for it, but the driver is going to be named as the proximate cause of the accident.

Randy88 said:

I figured with the invention of automatic slack adjusters, for any driver to actually ever look at the brakes was a thing of the past, you know, that's somebody else's responsibility and problem, I'm only hired to sit behind the wheel and if something does go wrong, its their fault for telling me to pull or drive this POS not mine for never looking to find out what's needed or if its safe to drive.

Years ago now, maybe 10 or so, I was shown a set of three axles off a trailer that had no brake canisters, s cams left on it, the driver had torn them off somehow and never knew it till the rig got back home, none of the parts were ever found either. When the s cams were torn off it even took some of the pads out of the drums and tore chunks out of the drums as well. I stood there and asked HOW. Had it not been for the fact of who was doing the repairs and I knew him and also the fact I saw the trailer with the old torn up axles still under it, I'd have never believed it possible to even be done. The guy doing the repairs called the driver an "overachiever".

I know we've blown brake canisters apart before, usually from being rusted and they eventually weaken and blow, but the base is still on the axle only the s cam is hooked to nothing. After seeing a few of those rocket out of from under a trailer, it makes you very careful when you go to adjust brakes to make sure to check the condition of the chamber first before laying under it and having someone else apply the brakes so you can do the measuring.

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My story about shooting air cans is a bit different, I was resurrecting an old Wolverine brand fertilizer spreader for a company to use as a weed sprayer, this is one of those big 3 wheeler rigs. It had 2 aluminum spring cylinders that used a short cable to pull the slack adjuster tight when you set the park brake. Of course these were corroded beyond belief and would not retract when air was applied.
So I cleared a path behind the machine and cut the cable with a torch. That was quite exciting... as soon as the cable was cut the shock/impact of the retracting spring blew the cylinders and springs off to the weeds 100 yards away. Thought about catching them in a loader bucket but I wasn't sure where they would ricochet to.

I HATED rear hanging spring cans on old dump trucks, the aluminum ones were THE Worst for corrosion and grind thru. Could almost see the spring inside where we would set up a set of Pallets covered with plywood, roll UNDER on a creeper with a gas axe and cut the retainer clamp bolt. Seldom needed a nudge and BANG Gone. The big top Wagner style were the Bees Knees when replaced. Do not know who makes the heavier cans now and aren't the newer ones sealed no bolts on spring can side?

Yeah, no bolts on the spring side. just a crimp. Gotta protect the idiots from themselves, back in the day I caged many a spring brake and replaced the diaphragms in them. If you knew what you were doing...

If you take a look on all spring brake air chambers on the spring brake side, there are small holes in that can, those are touch holes for a torch. If you are worried about a spring brake
flying apart. You can cut the springs through those holes, no more problem.

Plus a driver can not adjust or work on any part of a brake system without a brake inspector card on his person signed by a brake school instructor after completing a brake training course
from a tech school or brake component manufacture. Or hold a ASAE credit for air brake schooling. If a rig is pulled over and the DOT officer finds brakes out of adjustment even if the
owner is driving it, said person cannot adjust his own brakes without a brake inspector card-a shop mechanic will have to do it for him if it has manual slacks or auto slacks. Fact. But
it's a DOT rule that is not enforced much if at all. But it is enforced in Oregon.

RZ-Did you ever know a guy/trucker that lived in Vantage that owned a 67 Pete-Reggie Edwards? You couldn't miss him if you saw him once or ever forget him- he had a plate in the front of his
forehead that was installed after he survived a park brake can that exploded.

The name is familiar, Really familiar.

In my state according to all the DOT seminars I've ever gone to anyone can adjust the brakes and its the drivers responsibility to make sure before the truck and or trailer is moved and taken out onto any public road, the pretrip inspection was done, if not, the drivers fines start adding up fast. The driver doesn't need to be a certified tech to know when the brakes are shot, drums are shot, tires are worn to unsafe limits, wheel hardware is loose or missing, same for spring hardware or there are rust holes in the frame or suspension parts, the drivers supposed to know the wear limits and note them, if not within those limits the truck/trailer is not supposed to be driven.

Now with the invention of automatic slack adjusters brake adjustment was no longer supposed to be an issue..........

There are two sides to this theory, if the truck and trailer are driven all the time, auto adjusters might work fine, if it sits more than it runs, like is the case for many trailers, we've found they either set up with rust/crud or whatever and either don't adjust at all, or never stop adjusting and lock the wheel assembly up tight, as in, smoke it off and/or light it on fire type affair and end up doing all new seals, bearings, drums, pads, you know the whole assembly and new tires.

We run auto adjusters on the trucks and all trailers still have manual adjusters on them, we gave up trying to keep automatic adjusters working on trailers and also got tired of putting new everything on the wheel assemblies that had slacks adjust up tight as we drove.

Thanks for the heads up about Oregon, didn't plan to ever go there with a truck or trailer but now I know.

Just read up on 49CFR 396.25, as I read that then nearly every driver out there is in violation of Pre Trip inspection reports. That is part of the inspection when driving to check your own brakes. Newly revised rule from 2008 and essentially stupid as then most of the drivers out there are performing illegal tasks.

Interesting. Could it be argued (in a legal sense) that a driver is not an "inspector" as defined by the requirements of 49 CFR § 396.25..?

Also interesting. When I Googled 49 CFR § 396.25 most of the paid links on the page that I selected were to law companies that I would classify as "ambulance chasers". Coincidence..?

Yes 396.25-I knew that if I said drivers can't adjust their brakes someone would jump on it. If a driver is to
adjust his own brakes it has to be done under the supervision of a person certified as a brake inspector.
The company has to assume the liability. FMCSA

So redundant and stupid. HAVE to be qualified for Air Brakes to get your Class A license, so why such a redundancy, have to do pre and post trip inspections? Stupid, and as with Nige sets up the Ambulance chasers for lawsuit heaven.

And what of Mechanics? I never received any secondary cert for Air Brakes even as was trained on them, never had to 'Carry a Card', was based upon my Class A.

My lesson on air brakes was twenty minutes under a truck adjusting them under the eye of a growly old curmudgeon who was too fat to crawl under said trucks anymore. I suppose if someone could prove that something I did caused a wreck, I should be held responsible. On the other hand I have to wonder how many "air brake instructors" have actually crawled under a truck and adjusted a manual slack adjuster.

Do as I say, not do as I do...?

But there is another side to this that everyone on here bitches about and that is the quality of driver
on the road these days. 90% of the drivers wouldn't know what their looking at or have the ability
to properly do the job. So which would you rather have? Rigs running around with work performed
by people that have Zero mechanical experience and have junk running down the highway. Or some
silly a$$ regulations that are loosely enforced. And I carry the card.
Take your pick.

As for the pretrip and post trip inspections being stupid, they might be, but part of the reason for them is two fold, the first one for the DOT is revenue generation in the form of fines for both the company that owns the trucks and trailers and also the driver if they are not done, second is revenue when an inspection occurs and the brakes are found either out of adjustment or worse yet, too bad of shape the rig should have never been taken out on the road in the first place, as in cracked drums, missing pads completely, drums worn too thin, air chambers dangling by the air hoses or gone altogether and the lines capped, tires that are bald, cracked rims and a host of other issues that are routinely found at road side inspection, not to mention missing or undone paperwork.

The driver isn't actually required to be a brake expert or fix or even adjust anything per say, its a way to force the companies to either fix the stuff or hire someone willing to at least look at the truck and trailer before they hop and hit the key, also it opens up being able to double fine for the same offense, the driver and also the company, twice the revenue with the same effort is basically what it gets down to.

With the new points system the DOT has put out, for each inspection done the company gets points awarded to it, when they hit a certain score as in low enough of one, any time that companies trucks are seen on the road they get automatically pulled over and can no longer be charged with harassment or singling out any company, its based on safety violations, when their score and inspections are bad enough, their DOT number is revoked and their entire fleet can sit permanently.
Its already making a difference in my area, some of the worst companies are being forced to finally do something, one bought a whole new fleet of not exactly new, but newer road worthy trucks and trailers, another was shut down till its entire fleet of trucks and trailers could each individual truck and trailer passed inspection, which took months to achieve working on them 7 days a week while parked [do you think they had issues]? So maybe not perfect, its a start for some of worst companies out there.