Maintaining Your Semi Truck – Part One

December 31st, 2009

When it comes to the maintenance of an asset like an expensive semi truck that earns your livelihood, most people think of oil changes and grease jobs. While oil and grease is the key to keeping your truck running trouble free for years, there are often small items that are overlooked but key to keeping you running and helping you to retain the best resale or trade in value possible down the road.

Here is a list of items that are often overlooked and most items can be done yourself for very little cost or no cost.

• Keep all of  the aluminum in good condition. Polish it at least once a year, while it is not a fun task it will preserve the truck’s appearance. Once all the aluminum wheels, fuel tanks, Peterbilt grille and step boxes have been acid washed it is expensive and very time consuming, if not impossible, to reverse the damage to polish it again.

• Rotate your drive tires. Did you know that your rear drive tires wear faster than the fronts. Rotating your drive tires may be a cheap way to extend their life by 60,000 miles.

• Paint the frame. You can extend the life of the paint on your frame by carrying a can of spray paint and whenever you see a spot around a huck bolt starting to rust hit it with some paint. If the frame has been neglected beyond a simple touch up it is money well spent to have it sand blasted, primed and painted with a good quality paint. A quality job does not have to expensive to be good. Get a reference or two from a body shop and make a couple of calls to see how their work stands up.

• More tips to come!

Tags: aluminum, paint, tips, tires • Posted in maintenance • No Comments »