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2:38 am EDT 70°F (21°C) in Waterfall, PA
Calendar of Updates | Somebody (or multiple people) within my company really need(s) to get on the ball regarding the maintenance of trailers. Twice in the last five days, I have hooked up to a trailer with a totally flat or severely underinflated tire. Further testing of both tires in question (using an air hose I have that connects to one of the tractor brake lines) showed that neither tire was damaged to the point at which it needed to be replaced. This means that some lazy-ass driver(s) or mechanic(s) never bothered to put an air gauge to the valve stems, perhaps for months, before I discovered the flat or low tires. On one of the two trailers, the fully-inflated tire next to the flat one (we're talking about dual wheels at each axle end) appeared to have suffered serious long-term heat damage from overloading; I am guessing that the flat tire must have been flat for quite some time before I put 90 psi of air into it. Both tires in question proceeded to hold on to full pressure (90-95 psi) after I re-inflated them, meaning that there were no air leaks from cuts on the tire or loose valve cores — and that the problem was the direct result of somebody's extreme laziness. As if that wasn't enough, the trailer I picked up on my current load probably didn't even belong on the road, at least in the shape I first found it in. In addition to a low tire, it was missing both mud flaps, and one of the doors of the refrigeration unit was about to fall off (and did fall off when I later went to try to fix it). Fortunately, that was a pretty simple fix involving nothing more than both hands and a three-pound sledgehammer (to pound a little bit of sheet metal into shape). I ought to have more time to make a longer update in a few days. |
