We’re coming up on the holiday season and if you are somewhat like me your freight schedule is disrupted. I find this is a good time to make appointments to take care of any major preventive maintenance/repairs on my truck and trailer. It is important to schedule these items in advance as this is a holiday for everyone and many other truck and trailer owners have the same idea.
Here are some of the items I plan on getting taken care of while my freight is slow.
First I plan on having my trailer doors replaced. Over the years my plywood cored trailers doors have absorbed water and have begun rotting internally. I have been keeping an eye on them trying to make the trailer doors last until the holiday season when my freight falls off dramatically. I am upgrading to doors of composite construction. These new doors should not rot out like the two sets of previous doors. It is not as easy as just replacing the doors, I also have to have the vinyl wrap redone and have the Stemco Trailer Tail moved to the new doors.
Followed by a trailer wheel bearing inspection and seal replacement. In addition to the trailer repairs I plan on having the overhead run on my DD15. This overhead is going to be done 10,000 miles earlier than scheduled, however it just makes sense to have this repair completed at this time.
I have found over the years it is important to schedule these types of repairs and preventative maintenance actions when my freight volume is the lowest. By scheduling my more intensive preventative maintenance and repairs during the lowest demands for my services, this increases my odds of not being down when freight demands are high.