Tips, Tricks, And Techniques For Rookie Drivers

Twas just brought up on another thread....always scale with brakes released.

Where were you when Aaron NEEDED YOU yesterday!?

This a good thread for rookies thought I'd give it a bump to bring it back up. I found that painting my 5th wheel jaw a safety red makes checking that the jaws are closed correctly. OK might not be important for all you young guns out there with the young eyes. Still it is a lot easier to see.

Why is it bad to scale with breaks on? (Trainer doesnt scale he relys soly on right weigh system.)

Why is it bad to scale with breaks on? (Trainer doesnt scale he relys soly on right weigh system.)

If you have your brakes applied it can introduce tension into the system and throw off the weights. For instance, when you hit the brakes the trailer brakes will grab first before the tractor brakes. So the trailer is dragging on the tractor and then the tractor stops. That's can easily change the weight sitting on the different sets of axles.

Having your brakes on can also put tension into the scale itself. The scale platforms float. I'm not sure if they're on air bags or springs or what, but they're floating individually. When you apply the brakes you're putting force into the scale platforms, causing them to move out of alignment. This can throw off the weights being recorded on each of the platforms.

So when you roll onto a scale you want to keep the truck in neutral (or have the clutch in) and keep the parking brakes released while they're taking your weight.

Why is it bad to scale with breaks on? (Trainer doesnt scale he relys soly on right weigh system.)

If you have your brakes applied it can introduce tension into the system and throw off the weights. For instance, when you hit the brakes the trailer brakes will grab first before the tractor brakes. So the trailer is dragging on the tractor and then the tractor stops. That's can easily change the weight sitting on the different sets of axles.

Having your brakes on can also put tension into the scale itself. The scale platforms float. I'm not sure if they're on air bags or springs or what, but they're floating individually. When you apply the brakes you're putting force into the scale platforms, causing them to move out of alignment. This can throw off the weights being recorded on each of the platforms.

So when you roll onto a scale you want to keep the truck in neutral (or have the clutch in) and keep the parking brakes released while they're taking your weight.

Oh thank you very much.

Bump.

Yeah, I bumped my own thread. But I like the thread for any new people out there lol

When you are given a king pin lock to put on, don't remove the bag it's in, if it's handed to you in a [plastic] bag; the grease will keep the bag adhered to the lock. That way the person who removes the lock will keep their hands reasonably clean, and it can be returned in the same bag that it came in.

Bump.

Yeah, I bumped my own thread. But I like the thread for any new people out there lol

Oh, we have a self-promoter here!

I totally approve. This is a great thread. I'm going to go through this and might even make an article out of it in fact. Great stuff!

Funny, I was just going to start a post about my rookie mistake yesterday. Not my first but certainly one I made a mental post-it for. I got to the gaurd shack at the same time my DM calls me back about the load I'm suppose to pick up there. He says I'm sending you the preplan now. The guard lady hands me my paperwork back and says "drop your trailer in slot # 3015 and hook trailer # 12620 in slot 5211." Sweet! Thanks. So I do my drop and hook and meanwhile my preplan pings on the qualcom. I do a pretrip of the trailer (always do one) but for some reason this time I totally left out checking the reefer and the seal. Then fill out pertinent info on qc except for BOL #. Roll up to the guard shack, thinking, sweet another light load, guard comes out, I hop out to follow him thinking he's going to verify the seal and then I notice the reefer isn't on, the trailers super light, there's not going to be a seal I should have checked that damn it. Sure enough no seal and when I open the doors I'm hit with a belch of hot stale air. So I go to the window give her my pick-up #, which now I have but didn't when I first got there, and then drive down, turn around (fortunately they have a space along the driveway to do this) go in put empty trailer back where I got it and get the right trailer. So... 45 minutes later I'm annoyed. I must have hopped in and out of the truck a dozen times in 99° heat sweating like mad and then it also occurs to me to leave the darn truck running with the window up to keep the ac going (trainer had me shut truck off every single time to conserve fuel) screw that. Takes 30 seconds and it's an oven in there. So don't just assume that because guard said take such and such trailer it's the right one. Have load info ready if taking a load out.

Yeah, checking the trailer is definitely important. We've got one mega farm we pick up from a lot that leaves the trailers unsealed, but has a row of probably 40 of our trailers waiting to be picked-up. One time I was picking up a load there, was told one number in the load info from my company, but the guard and shipping told me a different one. Red flag! But a red flag that would be easy to overlook given how inaccurate our company load information tends to be(I know drivers that do nothing but get the address and phone number off them, call for appointment times, and deal with none of the rest of the info). So, when I have the bills in hand and am backed up near the trailer they say, I open the back and it's entirely different product. Thankfully I had the trailer number from the company and managed to win the lottery with them being right for once, so when I checked that it had the right product. As you can imagine, though, getting the paperwork adjusted, even with just a handwritten notation, was still an ordeal but MUCH less of one than if I'd ran the wrong product hundreds of miles in the wrong direction.