cav551:
I can only really answer in more general terms, but I do know that the smaller the wheelsize the hotter everything gets and the shorter life it has. So, assuming that there is no O licence and hence no maintenance records to consult, are there any invoices you can access to give you an idea of past expectancy? So how old are these trailers and what running gear are we talking about? Are these trailers fully skirted which would mean everything gets hotter still? Can you check drum temperature with an ifra red thermometer? Do these trailers have Haldex Info Centre or equivalent you can access? What (axle) weight are these running at? This should give some indication of how hard the brakes are working.
Apart from that either wind off the brakes and have a look if needed removing the backplates or pull a drum off and have a look. You can always ring the local parts factor and enquire how thick the linings are supposed to be.
At the end of the day it is your head on the block, either the job is done properly or not done at all by you. You already seem to have evidence your predecessor went for an easy life, might that be because he wasn’t allowed to spend the necessary money or was he just plain lazy? the drivers may be able to answer that question.
Thanks Cav, to clarify some points your post made.
The wheels are fully skirted and because of the nature of race trailers, lightly load office at the front and heavy stuff at the back, the axles do tend to be near their max, and the trucks have exhaust brakes, but no proper retarder. 2 of the 3 have some system kind of info system.
They have been running under an O’licence, (restricted) but the operation has moved from one part of the Country to another, so they have a new O’licence,
The person who was acting as TM left some time ago and somebody with no background in transport was given the task, so what with their lack of knowledge and disruption of moving, the paperwork is problematic to say the least. I have inspection sheets and invoices for this year and some stuff from further back, but they are incomplete.
Talking to the bloke who drives one of the other trucks and one of the only members of staff to move with the company, he reckons that the original TM tried to keep maintenance to a minimum and didn’t get damage repaired in an attempt to impress the boss as to his cost saving abilities.
My attitude on this type of operation is you need to possibly go a bit OTT with maintenance, as a breakdown in parts of Europe can be far more costly and inconvenient than replacing a part early when at home, as well as the image side of having vehicles with scrapes and dents left un-repaired.
We now have a new O’licence and new maintenance provider, who seem ok, I’m confident they are making sure the trucks are safe, but we are getting some pretty big bills and I’m trying to work out if they’re doing more than they need or catching up on what should have been done before.
,I can feel them dragging me back which is how I like them tbh .
