708-467-7181     16425 Van Dam Rd., South Holland, IL 60473

 

  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.

 

      Whether you’re an owner-operator or a small fleet, buying a used semi-truck is much more intricate than basing your decision on a favorite make, model or cosmetic styling. When perusing used semi-trucks for sale, some important things to consider are Real Cost of Ownership , efficiency, warranty, and after-sales support. RCO expands the traditional Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis by considering both the hard and soft costs incurred over the lifetime of a running commercial truck. Hard costs are the hard numbers you get by using a calculator, like monthly diesel expenses. Other factors- like comfort, safety and connectivity options- are more difficult to express in dollars and cents; these are the “soft” costs. Both hard and soft costs factor into the real cost of owning a used truck. Once you calculate the costs and decide what truck is right for you, stop by at our truck dealership to receive an expert advice.