Dipper_Dave:
At risk of sounding daft, what are Bessie Leads.
Spare yellow and red air lines. Bessie i believe if i spelt it correct is the name of the company/person who invented them. They are very quick and easy to change (2 mins) and it saves a call out charge and generally a 2 hr wait as well if you happen to break one when spinning round etc.
Thanks BB, never come across them myself, but every days a learning day on here. 
Dipper_Dave:
Thanks BB, never come across them myself, but every days a learning day on here.
I don’t think too many companies have them yet but i’m guessing in time they will become more popular.
I’m not on commision (honest) but here they are:
bessiespannerlessairlinesyst … e-kit.html
Dipper_Dave:
I’m not on commision (honest) but here they are:
bessiespannerlessairlinesyst … e-kit.html
That’s them Dave.
Pimpdaddy:
I check the badge on the front, if it’s not a Scania, Volvo, DAF, MAN, I’m handing the keys back…
If its a Scania I spit on it and swearing terribly. 
Dafman:
Rhythm Thief:
Dafman:
Rhythm Thief:
That’s why I write down the trailer MOT expiry date on the defect sheet, even though there’s no place for it officially. It shows that you haven’t just ticked the boxes if you do get pulled over. Or at least, that you’ve looked at the MOT disc.Your kidding, aren’t you, where the hell do they find drivers nowadays. The mot is nothing to do with the driver, it has been done in court cases in the past, are we all supposed to video our daily checks now for proof.
Never said it got up my nose, I have been issued with the Vosa guide to daily checks and it doesn’t mention Tax or Mot,
I think this is the most hilarious aspect of this forum.Every time someone posts anything, someone else takes issue with it and up goes the cry “where are they finding drivers nowadays?” Well, I don’t know where they’re finding them now, and I don’t know where they found most of them fifteen years ago when I started driving trucks. All I know is I like to know that the trailer has an MOT, because it’s not always a given with some operators and I’m fairly sure that if VOSA caught me driving a trailer without one, I’d be in for a bollocking, or at the very least, a long wait while it was all sorted out. Having checked it, it seems to me to make sense to write it down. Why this gets up your nose I’m at a loss to imagine.
I never said it did but on the Vosa checksheet it does not mention tax or mot. And there is a reason for that
Why would you not check the MOT disc? Whether it’s in the VOSA guidelines or not, you’ll still be in the ■■■■ if you’re pulled and your trailer hasn’t got one. Why me checking the MOT disc seems to equate with me being some sort of hopeless amateur, I don’t know.
It never ceases to amaze me the ■■■■■ that TNUK can generate on a subject as simple as a vehicle check !
As the driver, you have a legal responsibility towards the roadworthy condition of the vehicle YOU are driving. This is equally as true for the vehicle you use to get to the truck ie. the car you drive to work, & how many of us fill a defect sheet in for that?
There is no legal obligation to fill in a defect sheet, it is purely a VOSA requirement, as part of the Operators license, that there is a paper trail of vehicle defects. A defect sheet is a part (& only a part) of fulfilling that requirement.
Your legal obligation is to check over the vehicle ‘TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY’. If you don’t have a few mins of other work showing on the tacho then you’re going to have a hard time proving you did this.
Tip #1. DO NOT ever put your name to & sign a defect sheet which indicates a defect. This can only ever get you into trouble if you then take that vehicle out on the road before that defect is fixed.
Tip #2. Think long & hard about what you are competent & able to check. You are not the fitter responsible for the 6 week check. E.g. I refuse to re-torque wheel nuts until I’m trained to do so, a visual check for signs of looseness is good enough for me.
You can be fined ££’s, given points on your license & ultimately even go to prison due to the roadworthy condition of your vehicle, why not spend a few mins learning what & where to look for things that could wreck your day.
Chas:
Tip #1. DO NOT ever put your name to & sign a defect sheet which indicates a defect. This can only ever get you into trouble if you then take that vehicle out on the road before that defect is fixed
Sorry to sound stupid but if you defect a vehicle why would you then take it out on the road. 
bald bloke:
Chas:
Tip #1. DO NOT ever put your name to & sign a defect sheet which indicates a defect. This can only ever get you into trouble if you then take that vehicle out on the road before that defect is fixedSorry to sound stupid but if you defect a vehicle why would you then take it out on the road.
Maybe, because it seems that most drivers these days don’t possess the testicles to resist an instruction, however wrong that instruction may be.
Chas:
bald bloke:
Chas:
Tip #1. DO NOT ever put your name to & sign a defect sheet which indicates a defect. This can only ever get you into trouble if you then take that vehicle out on the road before that defect is fixedSorry to sound stupid but if you defect a vehicle why would you then take it out on the road.
Maybe, because it seems that most drivers these days don’t possess the testicles to resist an instruction, however wrong that instruction may be.
Maybe i’m spoilt by the fact that i work for a highly complient company therefore the driver is King.
Rhythm Thief:
Dafman:
Rhythm Thief:
Dafman:
Rhythm Thief:
That’s why I write down the trailer MOT expiry date on the defect sheet, even though there’s no place for it officially. It shows that you haven’t just ticked the boxes if you do get pulled over. Or at least, that you’ve looked at the MOT disc.Your kidding, aren’t you, where the hell do they find drivers nowadays. The mot is nothing to do with the driver, it has been done in court cases in the past, are we all supposed to video our daily checks now for proof.
Never said it got up my nose, I have been issued with the Vosa guide to daily checks and it doesn’t mention Tax or Mot,
I think this is the most hilarious aspect of this forum.I never said it did but on the Vosa checksheet it does not mention tax or mot. And there is a reason for that
Why would you not check the MOT disc? Whether it’s in the VOSA guidelines or not, you’ll still be in the [zb] if you’re pulled and your trailer hasn’t got one. Why me checking the MOT disc seems to equate with me being some sort of hopeless amateur, I don’t know.
I didn’t say you were an amateur and never would but there is only so much you can check or you will be there all day.
bald bloke:
Maybe i’m spoilt by the fact that i work for a highly complient company therefore the driver is King.
Yeah, me to.
We’re self insured with 800+ trucks & paranoid about losing the OL for our location. Problem is, transport is administered by a central & therefore remote department. There’s only 1 truck at my location so I don’t have the luxury of jumping into the spare one.
I’ve been defecting a semi-serious problem with the bodywork on my truck for over 3mths. They’ve sent out the mobile bodybuilders 3x to attempt a repair & 3x they’ve turned up without the correct parts to rectify the defect.
Apparently, this is all my fault & not theirs !
The defect doesn’t put the truck off road, to describe it would take 3 paragraphs on an A4 sheet of paper, something that I’m only prepared to do once. Yet I’m made to feel guilty by putting BODYWORK in the little box for other problems on the defect sheet . . . every day for the past 3mths.
Every 6 weeks my truck is checked by the main dealer, they’re only responsible for the cab, engine & chassis. Every 8 weeks it’s checked by the crane Co’. No one seems to care about the bodywork.
Actually you will be ok if the trailer mot is missing, I know this because I asked a vosa muppet on a spot check one evening. He said that they have all the records on their laptops so they know if it is mot’d or not.
Truckbling:
Actually you will be ok if the trailer mot is missing, I know this because I asked a vosa muppet on a spot check one evening. He said that they have all the records on their laptops so they know if it is mot’d or not.
What if it turns out it isn’t MOT will you be ok then?
We are told to check the trailer mot if it’s missing or unreadable phone central VMU and they will tell you its expiry date.
Dafman:
I didn’t say you were an amateur and never would but there is only so much you can check or you will be there all day.
Well, no, although your use of the phrase “where th ehell do they find drivers nowadays” was hardly a ringing endorsement. 
Checking the MOT disc takes all of three seconds, by the way.
i just about manage to check my mirrors but that is only because i have look out of them to pull of
merc0447:
Truckbling:
Actually you will be ok if the trailer mot is missing, I know this because I asked a vosa muppet on a spot check one evening. He said that they have all the records on their laptops so they know if it is mot’d or not.What if it turns out it isn’t MOT will you be ok then?
We are told to check the trailer mot if it’s missing or unreadable phone central VMU and they will tell you its expiry date.
Do you know that the unit has an mot on it? no, and yet you drive it without question. It is the operators responsibility to ensure that all vehicles/trailers are mot’d and it is they who will pay the penalty, not the driver.
I check the kettle has boiled and i have enough milk for a brew
Serious note tho, am the only person who drives my truck and if am away I check everything before bed usually an hour or 2 after av parked up so would notice a flat etc, of a morning I check the 5th wheel and back lights that’s it and then back in the cab bit of paper work or what ever then crack on
anything visable, im not shuffling around under a trailer in the dark with a torch like one famous member does 