Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/56062
Bill and Robyn Taylor keep replacement lights on their Western Star, leased to FedEx Ground. and tools. It's simplest if you can minimize the types of lights and use products that have long lives. Before Zehrer switched from standard incandescent bulbs to a Sylvania halogen high-low light for his headlights, "I replaced five a year," he says, a frequency that is now much reduced. The stop-tail-turn lamp in the Grote CSA light kit is an LED model with a much longer life expectancy than an incandescent. Many fleets have attempted to minimize outages of lights on the difficult-to-access top rail of the trailer by installing LEDs, says Grote National Accounts Manager Mark Blackford. LEDs are also used in other hard-to-reach areas of the truck. Owner-operator Bill Taylor, who drives team with his wife, Robyn, leased to FedEx Ground, has outfitted their 2007 Western Star 4964EX with LEDs. "My light problems are minimal," he says, except for occasional corrosion in the plugs, which he'll replace. He carries spare headlights, among other lights, in his bag of replacement parts for "all the normal stuff that goes out," he says. Taylor consults regularly with ATBS Maintenance Management Consultant Bill McClusky, who advises ATBS owner-operator clients to carry electrical contact cleaner and dielectric grease to prevent corrosion. "Say you've got a marker light and connection corroding," McClusky says. "You can dip them in that and keep them from becoming corroded." NECESSARY EQUIPMENT • Tire pressure gauge • Tire tread depth gauge • Air hose with an air chuck on one end and a gladhand on the other that would connect to the emergency line on the back of the truck. "If you need air," says ATBS' Bill McClusky, "you just connect that hose to your red line/ gladhand off the back of the truck." • Plug kit • Needle-nose pliers. Owner-operator Taylor ran out of luck on a Friday the 13th in Kingman, Ariz., where his truck sustained a steer tire blowout. It was a freak incident for Taylor, who calls himself a "stickler" on preventive maintenance. "A roadside breakdown can absolutely cost you Tires everything you've made this week and the following," he says. The Jan. 13 blowout cost him $1,400. Closely monitoring tire condition will not alleviate every tire-related emergency, but it will catch many and pay off in other ways. Many of the most common tire violations carry a high severity weighting in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC's safety ranking system, meaning they will disproportionately impact your or your carrier's overall CSA ranking. Among the top 12 most common violations, only one – having tire tread depth less than 2 32 -inch – involved tires. But operators cited for it racked up a hefty eight negative points toward their carriers' or their own Vehicle Maintenance BASIC ranking. Furthermore, if you narrow the list to just out-of-service violations, three relate directly to tires, says J.J. Keller and Associates' Thomas Bray, who supplied the list of the top 2011 violations for this article. 24 OVERDRIVE MARCH 2012 CSA-proof your rig