Susies: snagging susies lines and breaking susies rails off

[macplaxton]

Second day and when reversing towards a goods-in, I heard the loud hiss of doom. Yes, I managed to tear my red susie clean off!

Now being a resourceful bloke and not wanting to make a “Sorry Boss…” call at the start of day two, I had a look around and found some tools on board. I really could have done with a knife, but 3 adjustable spanners, a set of pump pliers, a hacksaw blade, a L-shaped Torx key and a hammer (not exactly a comprehensive toolkit), was enough for me to get the olive and ferrule on the airline and only lose a few coils. The only other problem is the susie rail came clean off too… Found two bungees and worked out a way to hang it roughly in position.

After getting mobile again and losing not too much time, I called the boss who wasn’t happy, but at least the wheels were turning to soften the blow. (Which is what I had in the back of my mind).

I’m paranoid now about making sharp turns particularly to the left as that side of the trailer still has it’s original handle intact for the curtain tensioner. It’s the sodding bend in the ratchet release handle that is acting as a perfect hook to catch the susie on.

This also doesn’t help my confidence with manoeuvring in tight spaces as I’ve having to jump in and out the cab all the time to check things. A few times this week, I’ve had the bungee ping off as the line has caught. I’ve rethreaded the end of the bungee through the coiled hook and rebent the retaining wire that stops the bungee pulling through (at least until a certain level of force is applied.)

I’ve got 4 susie rail mountings which I going to stick on and bend the bent side support for said rail, back into position. In my defence: a) I didn’t think I had that much angle on it too cause problems (which I obviously realise now, you don’t need to have); b) I’m more used to pulling boxes with nice round edges; c) The last bloke driving snagged an electric susie and broke the mountings on one side of the susie rail so it had some tie-wraps on that side.

I wouldn’t normally go and fix things, but I also feel that as I wrecked it, I should do something to remedy it. It’s a small firm and I don’t want to fall out over things just yet. I’d don’t think there’d be a problem for the boss to fix it, but the other reason I’d like to fix it is that it would actually get done quicker too. Might get the soldering iron out and do the wiring to one of the side marker LEDs as it’s been out all week.

What is the best way to bungee up my susies to avoid the bottom corners, when going around corners?

[howatsi]

Hiya mate,
We’ve all done this I caught my ABS lead on the front corner of a trailer once and they are expensive to replace had to call our mechanics out with a new one!!!

You don’t drive a Scania do you as these are notorious for catching your lines, unless you have an A frame fitted? Best thing to do (imho) is to get the lines as high up the back of the cab you can using bungees, I used to have one across the back of the cab and then hang the other bungees down from this, try to spread them out a bit, one airline in one top corner and the other in the other top corner, stops them tangling and turning into “spaghetti” You’ve got just make sure you leave enough length in your lines for doing tight turns obviously, another benefit of this if that it keeps your lines free of grease as they don’t wipe themselves on the front of the trailer plate.

Another thing to do if you doing alot of screwing around in tight yards (NOT in a public place) is to either disconnect your lines or probably a better bet is to do a few shunts at a lesser angle if there is enough room.

At my current place guys are always ripping lines off as they don’t use bungees (some guys don’t even know what they are used for and take them off -doh!!!) and are always screwing around the units in the yard.

Hope it’s some help!

[dieseldave]

macplaxton:
What is the best way to bungee up my susies to avoid the bottom corners, when going around corners?

I’d suggest hooking the bungees onto the framework for the cab-top wind deflector.

Besides that, I’d go with what howatsi said, cos it’s very good advice IMHO.

And, yes I’ve been there too.

[malcolmj]

when i worked for ND we wernt allowed to chaange ang broken suzies we were told its a yes you guessed it "health and safety"they didnt want us falling of the cat walk or doing it wrong
before this was in place we did our own running repairs till one day i was in the yard and i’d had to put a new air line on in germany
the vechile fleet manager called me over and asked why i had 2 yellow airlines?
so i told him i had to swap one on the trip and i only had a spaire yellow
he went mad!!! at 2 airlines the same colour ,when i pointed out that when the truck was new they were both black
can anyone tell me if it is illegal to have 2 yellow or for that matter 2 red air lines fitted

[gardun]

We’ve had some “condoms” for our suzies. They are a sort of lycra cover which goes over the lines and stops things from catching in the coils.
They are good on new lines, but if they have been stretched a bit they don’t work so well. Can’t be all that pricey 'cos we got a load of them
Sorry, don’t know where they came from or what they are called, but can find out.

[rob_k]

Agreed with others - use bungees. A lot of guys on here having nothing good to say about them but I don’t understand why at all. I’ve always used them whenever possible and think they’re a God-send. Keeps them clean and also stops them from snagging on the curtain ratchet handles.

If they’re still snagging after bungeeing them up then you need to learn how to reverse to turn round instead of screwing the trailer round on its axis. This is 9 times out of 10 the reason why they get caught in the first place.

[wheel_nut]

Have a look at another truck when he is overtaking, see how they are hung up. buy a bag of bungees from a car boot sale and keep them in your dinner bag.

No problem having black, yellow or green suzies as long as you know which is which. C type are idiot proof, palms are generally marked.

Generally though the red line will be on the left as you look at the trailer

Before curly suzies were made and polyamide invented, the air lines were just rubber hose with a jubilee clip.

[macplaxton]

Thanks guys I did actually do a lame bungee job (a bit higher, but not as high as I could) on them this morning, but the susies were totally covered in grease before I got to the lorry on Monday so it’s manky having to step over the lines if I had to (and I had to because I was changing the bobbins holding the rail on and I couldn’t be bothered disconnecting everything.

I haven’t done any screwing around of the trailer, but the times I have caught them have been when having to do a sharp left hand turn, or reversing hard left. (As said, LHS still has full handle).

howatsi:
You don’t drive a Scania do you?

Give that man a coconut! Yes it was! :lol::lol:

I’ve been out to County Kildare and some of the roads are a nightmare, even worse than the stuff I had to do on my test north of Glasgow. (And no, I wasn’t using a sat nav. I’m an old school map merchant. Complete waste of time anyway as all the mapping is well out of date).