Proper battery maintenance during the hot summer months is just as important as it is during the frigid winter months. Your truck battery powers your business. Follow this checklist to extend the life of your battery:
Preventative Maintenance
During scheduled preventative maintenance (PM), check and confirm the following:
Battery connections are clean and free of debris
Battery connections are tight
Hold-downs are properly secured
Battery pack is fully charged
Battery Inspection
Inspect the truck battery pack as part of your regularly scheduled vehicle inspection, any time the operator is experiencing ‘hard starts’ or the truck is being used for shorter runs with hotel loads. When the battery pack is tested, look for the following factors:
State of charge of the battery pack
Full charge is 12.6 volts for flooded batteries and 12.8 volts for AGM batteries
Hold-downs and battery connections are securely fastened
Batteries are fully recharged and tested with either a load or conductance tester
Evaluate what loads are being used and how much power is being taken by the additional use of air conditioning during warmer months
If the battery pack is 2-3 years old, the user may want to consider replacing batteries to reduce the risk of a no-start situation or emergency repairs.
Conductance Testing in our Truck Repair Shop.
Conductance uses the battery’s response to a very small signal in attempt to predict the effects of a much larger current. Conductance testing is ineffective on a discharged battery. If the battery is known to be discharged, or if the tester tells the operator to charge before testing again, the battery must be completely recharged.
State-of-Charge
State-of-charge is estimated from the open circuit voltage (OCV) and is used to determine if the battery is in a testable state or to estimate how long charging will take. Worth noting:
Battery design varies
Typical values are shown on the charging time tables
A true 75 percent or better charge state is needed for most testing
New semi trucks aren't always the best option. You can get so much more out of buying a used semi truck. If you are a driver who wants his or her own truck, you really should consider both the obvious and not-so-obvious benefits of buying a used semi truck.
Save a Lot of Money
Used anything usually means big savings when you are ready to buy. You can save tens of thousands of dollars off the new price for a used semi truck. This factor becomes even more important if you want to buy a doubly-large semi cab with double the sleeper space. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the price, but when you buy used, you can buy much more truck for the price.
Know What Is Wrong with the Truck Before You Buy It
We have to put the trucks through a major inspection before they can list the trucks for sale. Just as a car dealership has to find everything wrong with a vehicle before selling it, so we do. We will ensure you know exactly what to expect if you buy one of their vehicles. There is an official sale inspection sheet on every truck that shows what has passed inspection and what is not currently working on the truck. They cannot sell anything that has some majorly dangerous dysfunctions, which helps you feel safer about what you buy. Stop by at our used semi truck dealership to see the entire used semi truck collection.
Everything Is Road-Ready
You know all that greasing, oiling, filling, and checking you would have to do with a new truck? You do not have to do that with a used truck. During the truck's intake inspection, the used truck mechanic makes sure everything is oiled, flushed, filled, greased, inflated, and cleaned to make sure it passes inspection. As soon as you pay for it, you can drive it.
We have financing options available
If you cannot afford to buy the used truck outright, you can lease to buy. In fact, we will allow you to put money down as though you are going to buy the truck. Then you lease it, putting monthly payments toward the possibility of buying the truck.
Truck History That Helps You Determine Sources of Future Problems
Every used truck has a history. As long as the other drivers and owners of a truck have accurately reported accidents, it will be on a truck history form that the dealer can access and print off for you. Even though all used trucks MUST pass inspection, you cannot find tiny imperfections that were caused by an accident until they break or need repair.