How Do Winter Maintenance Practices Differ For Trucks Compared To Other Vehicles
Freight trucks are built to carry large loads over long distances, often enduring harsher conditions than typical passenger vehicles. During the cold winter months, freight trucks need to undergo frequent maintenance checks to ensure that they are operating correctly.
Maintenance practices for freight trucks differ significantly from regular vehicles as they require specialized needs due to the scale and complexity of the components inside of the truck.
Maintenance practices for fleets require specialized tools and expertise.
Understanding these differences is crucial for drivers, maintenance teams, and fleet managers to ensure the efficiency, longevity, and safety of the freight trucks and drivers in the harsh weather conditions that winter can bring compared to everyday vehicles.
Maintenance Practices
Like passenger vehicles, freight trucks need to have the battery, tires, lights, heater, wipers, and fluids inspected. However, trucks require maintenance more frequently due to the wear and tear they endure during every journey.
Although annual inspections are mandatory, during winter, pre-trip inspections are much more common.
Battery Inspection: Cold weather can be particularly harsh on truck batteries. If the battery is showing signs of weakening, replacing it is the best option.
Before a trip, cleaning any corrosion from the battery terminals ensures secure connections. Batteries are an essential component, as they allow the engine to start and provide power to the dashboard.
Tire Checks: Inspecting tires before a trip, and even in between stops, is a crucial part of ensuring safe maintenance practices. Cold weather can cause the pressure in tires to drop, which can decrease the effectiveness of the tread.
Winter tires are vital for trucks to be able to operate in snowy and icy conditions. Properly inflated tires ensures safety and stability when on the road, and it is easy to check and fix while en route to a pickup or drop-off location.
Test Heater and Defroster: In cold weather, testing to make sure both the heater and defroster are working properly can help maintain visibility and comfort while on the road.
Fluid Checks: Freight trucks require different types of fluid to ensure that the engine and other internal components can run efficiently. Checking the engine oil, brake fluid levels, and transmission fluid levels is an essential step in pre-trip inspections.
Antifreeze levels are an essential fluid level to check and maintain. Antifreeze, otherwise known as coolant, helps prevent engine freeze-ups in dropping temperatures. A 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze is best for winter conditions.
Visibility on the roads is critical in winter conditions. In the winter months, fleets use winter-grade windshield washer fluid to help prevent freezing and to better clean the windshields of any dirt buildup.
Additionally, ensuring that the wiper blades are not worn or damaged before long-distance road trips is another vital part of truck winter maintenance.
Check and Clean Lights: Moreover, checking to ensure headlights and brake lights are working correctly is a crucial component of safe travel. Headlights allow drivers to see ahead of them, especially in dark or wintry conditions.
Brake lights allow vehicles behind a semi to know when they are slowing down or coming to a stop – these are essential in preventing accidents.
Cleaning the lights to make sure they are used to their maximum potential is a necessary step in winter maintenance practices.
The Differences For Fleets
Freight trucks have different internal components compared to regular vehicles, so there is additional upkeep that fleet managers, drivers, and maintenance teams need to be aware of and take care of.
Some winter maintenance practices that differ from cars or small trucks include:
Service Fifth-Wheel Platform: A fifth-wheel platform ensures stable conjoining between the trailer and the truck and is a critical piece of the trailer connection system.
Regular inspection of the fifth-wheel platform is important to ensure top performance while driving in wintry conditions. Typically, maintenance includes applying high-quality, winter-grade grease to locking mechanisms , moving parts, and pivot points of the platform.
Use Adjustable Winter Fronts: Removable winter fronts are used to control airflow. Fronts block the natural flow of air and add tension to the fan hub because the hub cannot draw the air volume it requires.
Monitor Engine Temperature: During the colder season, maintenance will check on the cooling system and fan hub to prevent overheating, extend engine life, and reduce fuel consumption.
Check Clutch Pedal: A clutch pedal allows the truck driver to smoothly switch gears and prevents jerking or stalling. While driving on icy roads, the clutch pedal is vital to avoid sliding, skidding, or accidents. Inspecting the clutch pedal regularly ensures that there are no signs of leakage, wear-and-tear, or any malfunctions.
Prepare Emergency Kit: Another step in winter maintenance practices for semi trucks is ensuring that each truck is equipped with emergency kits. Although this is essential year-round, it is imperative during the winter months, as the harsh weather can bring unexpected challenges and prolonged delays.
An emergency kit typically includes items such as non-perishable food, water, blankets, a first aid kit, flashlights, sand or salt for traction, and a shovel for the sand or salt. An emergency kit can guarantee a driver’s safety on the road.
All vehicles, whether passenger or freight, require maintenance during the winter months. However, winter maintenance practices for trucks require significantly different practices and more frequent inspections.
Winter weather can bring along harsh conditions, freezing temperatures, delays, and unsafe road conditions, so additional attention to maintenance is crucial not only for the top performance and longevity of fleets, but also for the safety of truck drivers and others on the road.
