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
   

 

 

If you buy a used semi-truck Operating Costs Are Lower. Consider doing so!

Operating costs are simply the fees you need to run the truck, such as gas, insurance, registration, etc. Typically, with used semi trucks, operating costs are lower. One main reason for this is because the truck is worth less than a newer model. For example, if the truck is totaled in a car accident, the insurance company will pay less to cover the cost of the truck if it is used vs. if it is new. Therefore, your insurance premiums are usually lower with used trucks.

One operating cost you may struggle with is gasoline. Gasoline is an operating cost, but in this case, newer vehicles may actually be better thanks to all the advancements in technology and fuel efficiency. That doesn't mean you can't find a used truck that does have excellent gas mileage. You'll simply need to stop by at our location is South Holland to find your perfect used semi-truck. New doesn't always mean better. By buying used, you can find the exact truck you need for less. Plus, you own the truck, so you get all the benefits.

 


Trucking isn’t just a career field for men. There are more than 200,000 female “long-haul” truckers in the United States.
The average small business semi truck driver can cover over 125,000 miles per year. That is more than 3 million miles over the average trucker’s career.
In a single year, American truckers throughout the nation can travel as many as 200 billion miles. Combined, they could have trucked to the sun and back around 1,000 times.
Owner-operators are the safest truckers on the road and experience fewer crashes than anyone else in the industry. Maybe it’s because they are responsible for their own repairs?
In the United States, the average length of a semi-trailer without the cab is 53 feet, and with the cab is about 70 to 80 feet. The maximum these trucks haul is 80,000 pounds. In Australia, however, “road trains” roam the roadways. Road trains are tractors with four trailers that are capable of hauling more than 300,000 pounds!
You had better be geared up to drive the big rigs, because these babies have an average of 10 forward gears and two reverse gears. Some trucks, however, have as many as 18 gears.
It takes approximately 55 feet for a large truck to flip a U-turn. In other words, it might be a good idea to be familiar with your route and pay attention while driving the big rigs.
Approximately 1 out of every 14 American jobs are in the trucking industry. That’s equals out to about 9 million workers.