Maintenance?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Some may know that I got a new (to me) Foden a couple of weeks ago. Now due to a bereavement in the mechanic’s family, he took some time off. We were stock for getting a 34’X10’ portakabin up to Glasgow, so I had a good look round the truck, had a play with the crane, and went up to Glasgow.

Drives lovely, well on top of the job, there were a few jobs that needed doing, the bed had a couple of small holes in it, the rear under run bar had been bolted up due to the catch breaking, the normal bits you would expect to find on a 9 year old motor. Anyway Dennis the mechanic took it into the garage a couple of days later, and I went back on the FL6.

The first big problem was a seized pivot bar on the arm. Where it should be free moving in both the mast and the arm, lack of maintenance and grease had caused the bar to seize in the arm. This in turn has caused the holes on the mast to elongate. The bar is thet tight in the arm that no amount of heat or even a 15 ton press will shift it. So its going down to some place in Stafford next weekend to have it lasered out and the mast repairing

Meanwhile back in the yard, Talk about go to town on it!,

6 new tyres on the back end and a couple across the front.
The body has been stripped. A couple of cross members replaced and an additional set of twistlocks fitted (up to the headboard for carrying 30’boxes) before a new kerowin (sp) hardwood deck is fitted.
All steamed down and chassis cleaned up ready for painting.
Next week will see it get the cab rubbed down and sprayed.
He’s going to fabricate a new steel box under the nearside crane controls for storing my chains (without lifting them)
It’s all been fully serviced and all defects cleared.(including 3 potential GV9’s)

Prior to us buying it had always been maintained at the main dealers and has only done 3 weeks work since it’s last mot (carried out at the dealers) Despite this it had a broken rear spring helper, no speed limiter, suspension stop rubber missing and other bits and bats that look as if they have been like that for years.

Hopefully I will be out on the road in it w/c 11/10. By then every little fault and niggle with the motor will be sorted out and the truck will be in the condition as when it was nearly new.

But why has it been run in this condition for so long, can any main dealer possibly offer the same service as in house maintenance, Is the trend of using maindealer and outside maintenance companies still growing? And if it is why?

The next thing is the training, I’m not sure how new drivers will go on with the crash box. For the time being I have stopped taking any bookings for doing the test. I think new drivers on the work experience course will benefit from it. Repton is booked in w/c 4/10, I was hoping to have the truck ready for then, but as it stands it will be in the Volvo. Still I’m sure I can talk him into coming back for a couple of days to review the Foden.

2

Its exactly the same where i work with badly maintained shonky old [zb]heaps like the one i had on friday

volvo fm7 lovely motor to drive 51 reg so quite new but what a HEAP set off down the motorway and about 15ks later a buzzer starts going of and the digi display starts flashing up an oil can sign and a red stop sign so i stopped dipped the oil again and its still on maximun so i phones the gaffer he says dont worry about it its due a service soon keep going, then later on driving along the abs warning light comes on so i phone him again yeah dont worry about it its being serviced soon :imp: :imp:

then an fl6 saturday night no headlights, only one brake light, drivers door window stuck half open and wont budge went back into the drivers room low and behold no bulbs so i ended up robbing them out of a truck that was’nt being used and putting up with the window :imp: :imp:

and yes we use outside people for our maintaince complete shower of [zb]ing [zb]

am seriously considering jacking in and becoming a full time doley as the transport industry ■■■■■ big time

simon

3

I think contract maintainance is great for accountants and when you need the truck to go onto computer diagnoses or specialised work, but you can’t beat good in house mechanics. Being able to go and get little niggles fixed before they become mayor problems and just being able to get them little jobs sorted that makes being in the truck slightly easier. You just can’t do that with contracted out maintainance.

4

In house maitainence is the best way to go for quality control

But somtimes the workshop is under greater pressure from the bosses than if it was an outside contractor who would be under less influence from the bosses

If you have only 1 motor inthe fleet such as I do then there aint much choice really.Contracting out is then the best option

5

Excuse me for going off topic, but how can you fit a 30’ box on a rigid, when the max permissable length is 33ft iirc :question:

Cheers.

6

We have 1 in house fitter who is an absolute star but he is so overloaded with work we have to use outside people mainly also the conditions he has to work in are atrocious no pit no ramps just a space in the warehouse for when its raining but its unlit so most of the time he ends up outside :cry: :cry:
also i often stay behind after work if there are minor defects on my truck (which is now dead see earlier post) just to make sure they are done proper rather than send it down the contractors garage

simon

7

Rob K:
Excuse me for going off topic, but how can you fit a 30’ box on a rigid, when the max permissable length is 33ft iirc :question:

Cheers.

I thought then length limit on a rigid was 12m :open_mouth: I may be wrong but you also allowed an overhang on he rear that is how the bonneted scanias can carry 45’ boxes. I think the overhang is 1.5m Istand to be corrected :confused:

8

Rob K:
Excuse me for going off topic, but how can you fit a 30’ box on a rigid, when the max permissable length is 33ft iirc :question:

Cheers.

About 38 feet Rob…I used to drive 18 tonners with 30ft demount boxes and sleeper cabs for New Look at one point. :wink:

9

marlow:
Repton is booked in w/c 4/10, I was hoping to have the truck ready for then, but as it stands it will be in the Volvo. Still I’m sure I can talk him into coming back for a couple of days to review the Foden.

Bah! I was looking forward to playing some tunes on that gearbox! :wink:

Paul

10

The maximum overall length of a rigid vehicle in the UK is indeed 12 metres, that is 39 feet and 4 inches.

11

Sheeter:
The maximum overall length of a rigid vehicle in the UK is indeed 12 metres, that is 39 feet and 4 inches.

Crikey :exclamation:. That’s quite a slab of truck that is :exclamation:. I’ve driven the Co-op 26 tonners and thought they were max length, but seemingly not :open_mouth: . No good trying to deliver to Co-op in Newark I know that much. Should be done in an artic, as daft as it might sound.

Cheers.

12

Is that 12m the absolute total including any overhang?

13

disable central locking = take away the remote switch
fix door catch = put window buttons back in wrong place
change seat squab = grease fifth wheel
sort out roof hatch = push radio right into its holder
sort out sliding 5th wheel = help yourself to my penknife and my box of straps

thomas’s truck rental

14

hitch:
disable central locking = take away the remote switch
fix door catch = put window buttons back in wrong place
change seat squab = grease fifth wheel
sort out roof hatch = push radio right into its holder
sort out sliding 5th wheel = help yourself to my penknife and my box of straps

thomas’s truck rental

:grimacing:

15

I’ve had my trucks maintained by the main dealer for the last 12 or so years. First it was Scania (1 dealership) and for the last eight years Volvo (2 dealerships in that time) and I’ve had no problems with any of them. Everything no matter how small that I have asked to be done has been done and little things I hadn’t noticed have also been done. That wasn’t to get more money out of me either because it has all been under contract so however much they did it didn’t cost me any extra.

I can’t fault dealer maintenance but maybe I’ve just been lucky and it depends on the dealer.

A lot could be down to the bosses though because I’ve been stood in my dealer and heard them on the phone to a company telling them what is wrong with a vehicle and then taking note of the things the company want doing and the things they want leaving. It’s usually the little things that they leave, nothing that could effect the road worthiness, but the things the driver has complained about that make his or her life more comfortable. I guess when the driver picks the vehicle up and finds the little jobs haven’t been done their first reaction will be to blame the dealer when it is the boss who has put the block on the jobs being done.

16

Coffeeholic:
A lot could be down to the bosses though because I’ve been stood in my dealer and heard them on the phone to a company telling them what is wrong with a vehicle and then taking note of the things the company want doing and the things they want leaving. It’s usually the little things that they leave, nothing that could effect the road worthiness, but the things the driver has complained about that make his or her life more comfortable. I guess when the driver picks the vehicle up and finds the little jobs haven’t been done their first reaction will be to blame the dealer when it is the boss who has put the block on the jobs being done.

So basicly neil what your saying is its the tight fisted penny pinching [zb]s that dont give a flying [zb] about the drivers and are only intrested in saving a few quid here and there :imp: :imp: sounds just like where i work

simon

PS i bet if the heating packed up in there nice cozy offices it wouldnt matter how much the repair bill was [zb]s

17

SimonRS2K:
So basicly neil what your saying is its the tight fisted penny pinching [zb]s that dont give a flying [zb] about the drivers and are only intrested in saving a few quid here and there :imp: :imp: sounds just like where i work

You put it in a much nicer way than I ever could Simon, but yes I guess that is what i’m saying. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

18

I used to drive for a firm who always ignored “minor” driver comfort defects.
One truck I used regularly had a faulty seat - the back was tilted too far back and wouldn’t move, the radio didn’t work, drivers window would stick down, cab heater faulty etc. I always told the TM and he kept telling me he had told workshop (a Scania main dealer). It always came back from checks and services with these defects still there. In the end I was so fed up I went in there and the workshop foreman told me that my TM kept telling them to “ignore such faults and just get it back out ASAP”…Needless to say I moved jobs soon after. They weren’t breaking any rules they just didn’t care about a drivers comfort :confused:

19

I used to work for a Southampton based Plumbers Merchant who did there own maintainence on their fleet, a varied fleet if ever there was one, nearly every make and size of vehicle, from car based vans to rigid HGVs, was represented. They never did anything more than make them barely road legal, they’d have Transits losing 1/2 a litle of oil a day and they didn’t care, they ran B reg. 7.5 tonners on an interbranch from Southampton, round the M25 and back every day (this was 1999)…As far as loading was concerned I think they thought a 3.5t vehicle could carry 3.5t, a 7.5t could carry 7.5t, etc!..I heard stories about brake failure, steering failure, you name it…a ■■■■■■ gave out on me (engine seized) on the A24 in South London one morning and I caused a lovely jam until I called the police to help me push it. The head mechanic was a maniac who doubled as the MD’s muscles and repo man. In the end they did buy some new Citreon Relay vans on a contract, but they got bought out soon after. The shops and warehouses they kept were similar to the vehicles as well…hell holes…I dunno how I stuck it for 3 years actually, I suppose the money was ok for a 19 year old and the people were very easy going in general I guess.