limeyphil:
what would you do if one of your trailer brakes locked on in the middle lane of the m6?
would you just sit there holding everyone up?
or would you get off your arse and do a running repair to get yourself to the next services?
Just sit there, and then phone up. Although i’m not convinced i’d end up in a middle lane if i got an incling a brake was siezing, i’m sure i’d get warning enough to get it over to lane one if not the hard shoulder.
I can remember when i was on class 2 work, the POS old Iveco on the “M” plate i think,
A pipe that had been leaking for some time ,burst (main feed pipe from compressor) as i was on the M1 sb the air wasn’t building up,so a case of only changing gear & using brakes to slow down only if needed
The POS had always leaked air to some extent but suddenly got worse during my journey from Preston to dagenham (old ford works) i had just left watford gap services after having a 45min break ,when i was able to hear it hissing away,and the air tanks gauges showing a slow decrease in capacity instead of building up
I nursed it as far as the southmims slip road traffic lights which i would of gone through on red but there was some cars in the way,lol so i stopped for the lights and the brakes locked on and that was it stuck, the clutch was on air so no engaging gears,the engine stop was on air too,so unable to switch off engine either, Well at least recovery didn’t have to go far,lol (based at south mims) he did a front end lift and wound off the rear springs, after first trying connecting a air line from his truck to the aux line ( near front bumper) which did zero, waited around for several hours at their garage , he had probs stopping the engine too, but sorted it by rudimentary taping up the pipe and using the aux line to get enough air built up to use the fuel cut off they managed to source a new pipe fitted it, off i went,
limeyphil:
Own Account Driver:
Hi, not posted before but wanted to ask are people talking about chopping the air line to the service port of the brake chamber and tie-wrapping if not exhausting?If spring parking portion had lost air surely you’d be looking at winding off and unless you’d got the wind off tool and spanner in the cab you’d have no chance as the tools are normally well-corroded to the chamber, assuming they’re there at all.
all you have to do is kink the pipe, and put a cable tie round it. no tools needed.
Yer, that’s what I have done before, and with a R.Premium, in fact the only thing I carry in my bag apart from food n drink bits for me is a couple of good cable ties for this sole purpose ?
Phantom Mark:
limeyphil:
Own Account Driver:
Hi, not posted before but wanted to ask are people talking about chopping the air line to the service port of the brake chamber and tie-wrapping if not exhausting?If spring parking portion had lost air surely you’d be looking at winding off and unless you’d got the wind off tool and spanner in the cab you’d have no chance as the tools are normally well-corroded to the chamber, assuming they’re there at all.
all you have to do is kink the pipe, and put a cable tie round it. no tools needed.
Yer, that’s what I have done before, and with a R.Premium, in fact the only thing I carry in my bag apart from food n drink bits for me is a couple of good cable ties for this sole purpose ?
if the brake is stuck on simply putting a kink and tie wrap round the pipe will do sod all without winding off the spring or brake adjuster, if your talking about a kink in the service line then the problem wont be the chamber anyway!
shuttlespanker:
what would the boss rather replace, the brakes on the rear of the unit which would probably need replacing anyway, or the trailer after another truck has smashed into the back of it?
Well you would be paying for the brakes yourself but the new trailer would be coming off someone else’s insurance…
Paul
waynedl:
There is the other problems though…You’re instructed to stay in your vehicle if you breakdown in a live lane
So, let’s say you get out, drop the red air line off, hit the shunt and get it to the side, you may end up getting discaplined by the company and possibly prosecuted as a pedestrian on a motorway by the police.
Worse if you get hit, say you were under the trailer cable tying the brake chamber off and another truck hits your truck, you get injured or crushed and can’t claim because you shouldn’t have been there.
If trailer was empty, I’d drag the [zb] to the hard shoulder, if it was full, I’d chill on the bunk tbh
You wouldn’t be a pedestrian, you would still be a driver who had broken down and were doing something to remedy the matter, as mentioned if your trailer was in the middle lane, there wouldn’t be much traffic flying past you.
Just look how much the traffic slows down to watch someone having a ■■■■ on the opposite carriageway
Before I had the DAF 95 drawbar (on the longest curtainsider trailer thread), I drove a FL7 4 x 2 drawbar G reg as I recall, loaded some ex army ration biscuits going for dog food, cant tell you where due to the official secrets act and besides I cant remember but I stopped at some road works, put handbrake on, lights changed to green, released handbrake and broms brake popped out, air was up wouldnt move, in the end found it was a valve on drawbar trailer so dumped air out of tanks, before the days of spring brakes and luxury air suspension, (many of you will remember, no air - no brakes and going to couple up to a trailer with no air in you just shoved the trailer backwards) disconnected air lines but cable tied them to rear of truck to look as though they were attached and drove home back to yorkshire loaded 32T.
For smashedcrabface, I realize this is was completely stupid of me, foolish and dangerous and I would never do such a thing ever again, I no longer live in yorkshire but a galaxy far far away (so dont bother looking for me Vosa), but when I worked for this small haulage firm and money was tight you did what was needed to keep going to avoid the towing fees.
The only time I have had a dealer out to me was when my compressor backplate blew off due to it snapping the compressor crank on this FL7 at Rugby and it peed the oil out but managed to save the engine much to the Volvo mechanics amazement. 
i would try to dragg it over the hard shoulder. if not i would be there and leave the ■■■■■■. noway would i sit in the middle lane!
Moose:
Phantom Mark:
limeyphil:
Own Account Driver:
Hi, not posted before but wanted to ask are people talking about chopping the air line to the service port of the brake chamber and tie-wrapping if not exhausting?If spring parking portion had lost air surely you’d be looking at winding off and unless you’d got the wind off tool and spanner in the cab you’d have no chance as the tools are normally well-corroded to the chamber, assuming they’re there at all.
all you have to do is kink the pipe, and put a cable tie round it. no tools needed.
Yer, that’s what I have done before, and with a R.Premium, in fact the only thing I carry in my bag apart from food n drink bits for me is a couple of good cable ties for this sole purpose ?
if the brake is stuck on simply putting a kink and tie wrap round the pipe will do sod all without winding off the spring or brake adjuster, if your talking about a kink in the service line then the problem wont be the chamber anyway!
its worked every time for me moose.
waynedl:
There is the other problems though…You’re instructed to stay in your vehicle if you breakdown in a live lane
So, let’s say you get out, drop the red air line off, hit the shunt and get it to the side, you may end up getting discaplined by the company and possibly prosecuted as a pedestrian on a motorway by the police.
Worse if you get hit, say you were under the trailer cable tying the brake chamber off and another truck hits your truck, you get injured or crushed and can’t claim because you shouldn’t have been there.
If trailer was empty, I’d drag the [zb] to the hard shoulder, if it was full, I’d chill on the bunk tbh
limeyphil:
Moose:
Phantom Mark:
limeyphil:
Own Account Driver:
Hi, not posted before but wanted to ask are people talking about chopping the air line to the service port of the brake chamber and tie-wrapping if not exhausting?If spring parking portion had lost air surely you’d be looking at winding off and unless you’d got the wind off tool and spanner in the cab you’d have no chance as the tools are normally well-corroded to the chamber, assuming they’re there at all.
all you have to do is kink the pipe, and put a cable tie round it. no tools needed.
Yer, that’s what I have done before, and with a R.Premium, in fact the only thing I carry in my bag apart from food n drink bits for me is a couple of good cable ties for this sole purpose ?
if the brake is stuck on simply putting a kink and tie wrap round the pipe will do sod all without winding off the spring or brake adjuster, if your talking about a kink in the service line then the problem wont be the chamber anyway!
its worked every time for me moose.
if the brake chamber fails, it is usually the diaphragm that splits and loses the air pressure required to hold the spring brake (emergency brake) off, pushing the shunt valve will do nothing to help in this situation
Phil, kinking the pipe is the way to do it, but you would still need tools to wind the brakes off, no air to the chamber, the brakes are on
if the service brake fails, then that would not lock the brakes on, that would have to be a major failure of a brake component, and it wouldn’t matter what you did with the air lines, it would not release them
shuttlespanker:
waynedl:
There is the other problems though…You’re instructed to stay in your vehicle if you breakdown in a live lane
So, let’s say you get out, drop the red air line off, hit the shunt and get it to the side, you may end up getting discaplined by the company and possibly prosecuted as a pedestrian on a motorway by the police.
Worse if you get hit, say you were under the trailer cable tying the brake chamber off and another truck hits your truck, you get injured or crushed and can’t claim because you shouldn’t have been there.
If trailer was empty, I’d drag the [zb] to the hard shoulder, if it was full, I’d chill on the bunk tbh
limeyphil:
Moose:
Phantom Mark:
limeyphil:
Own Account Driver:
Hi, not posted before but wanted to ask are people talking about chopping the air line to the service port of the brake chamber and tie-wrapping if not exhausting?If spring parking portion had lost air surely you’d be looking at winding off and unless you’d got the wind off tool and spanner in the cab you’d have no chance as the tools are normally well-corroded to the chamber, assuming they’re there at all.
all you have to do is kink the pipe, and put a cable tie round it. no tools needed.
Yer, that’s what I have done before, and with a R.Premium, in fact the only thing I carry in my bag apart from food n drink bits for me is a couple of good cable ties for this sole purpose ?
if the brake is stuck on simply putting a kink and tie wrap round the pipe will do sod all without winding off the spring or brake adjuster, if your talking about a kink in the service line then the problem wont be the chamber anyway!
its worked every time for me moose.
if the brake chamber fails, it is usually the diaphragm that splits and loses the air pressure required to hold the spring brake (emergency brake) off, pushing the shunt valve will do nothing to help in this situation
Phil, kinking the pipe is the way to do it, but you would still need tools to wind the brakes off, no air to the chamber, the brakes are on
if the service brake fails, then that would not lock the brakes on, that would have to be a major failure of a brake component, and it wouldn’t matter what you did with the air lines, it would not release them
I was just using examples as we’ve no details on why the brakes would be on, I’ve had trailer brakes come on due to a kink in the lines if putting trailer on a really tight bay, so I’d drop the lines off and hit the shunt.
It makes no difference really what you can do to do an immediate repair / bodge, you’d probably still end up getting ■■■■■■ for it.
As I said, if it was empty, I’d drag it to hard shoulder, brakes on, no probs, but if it was loaded - and I’m not talking a bit of foam or bread - then I’d sit in the middle lane no probs, but I’d be as straight as poss, so if something did hit the back end, and it was big enough to move the truck, I’d go straight and not into / through the central reservation or infront of a truck in the inside lane.
I’d try and get to the hard shoulder first while it was still moving to be honest, failing that I’d either drag or get out a put the shunt valve on, the traffic wouldn’t be moving fast if you were stuck in the middle lane. You couldn’t just sitting there and do nothing!
Saaamon:
(1) I’d try and get to the hard shoulder first while it was still moving to be honest, (2) failing that I’d either drag or get out a put the shunt valve on, the traffic wouldn’t be moving fast if you were stuck in the middle lane. (3) You couldn’t just sitting there and do nothing!
1st is common sense, sure you’d realise that you were slowing down before you came to a stop, so hazards on and try and get over using momentum etc.
2nd we’re not sure if hitting the shunt would help, but, as I pointed out, getting out in the middle lane and you are asking for trouble, seriously.
3rd why not, you’re in 1 of the biggest and heaviest things on the road, hit the hazards, the only things that could do real damage to you have - wait for it… - so called professional drivers at the wheel, so should be fine observing the situation and taking necessary action
8/10■■?
Phone the boss
phone the police
put the kettle on
get the sarnies out
get the paper out
put feet on the dashboard
chill out till help arrives
None of our vehicles carry spanners, cable ties, rope, string, wire, so i may not be joking after all. If i could get myself to the hard shoulder, i would certainly give it a go.
Any chance of someone posting a picture of where this cable-tieing would happen? As a relatively recent Class 1 I’ll put my hands up to not really understanding this. I’m sure if someone tried this whilst working for one of the big names the company would go mental with all the ‘you’re not trained or insured’ lines. Could this happen with just zero warning? I had a trailer brake chamber go on the A14 and managed to nurse it 1/4 mile into a layby before it stopped. On a M way getting to the hard shoulder wouldn’t be a problem under similar circumstances. One thing is for sure, my first action would be call for the plod/HA. No way would I consider getting in the live lane unless everything is really crawling, preferably with some flash lights behind. In the US/Cananda, isn’t slacking the trailer brakes off part of their test?
Biscuits:
Any chance of someone posting a picture of where this cable-tieing would happen? As a relatively recent Class 1 I’ll put my hands up to not really understanding this. I’m sure if someone tried this whilst working for one of the big names the company would go mental with all the ‘you’re not trained or insured’ lines. Could this happen with just zero warning? I had a trailer brake chamber go on the A14 and managed to nurse it 1/4 mile into a layby before it stopped. On a M way getting to the hard shoulder wouldn’t be a problem under similar circumstances. One thing is for sure, my first action would be call for the plod/HA. No way would I consider getting in the live lane unless everything is really crawling, preferably with some flash lights behind. In the US/Cananda, isn’t slacking the trailer brakes off part of their test?
Cut pipe, kink, tie or clamp, build air, move vehicle.
Afraid I agree with the concencus that the truck won’t have done 50mph to 0 in 3 inches, therefore will have given some form of warning as to pending doom, and I would have made some attempt to get it to safety before it stopped.
I had a red suzie fly off whilst pulling an empty flat once. Brand new trailer with very good brakes. I was in lane three and I got it to the hard shoulder before the vehicle came to a halt.
People were coming out of the cloud of tyre smoke with their headlights on!
EDIT: It happened in Italy and there were four lanes on the road. Adding that before the SARPS blue-light their way to this thread. 
I don’t know which is worst. flatspotting the tyres or leaving it in the middle lane and putting your feet up 
Ok, so a two or three axle unit that has the brakes ‘locked on’. Now, I’ve been told here that the front axle isn’t braked with the handbrake but it’s not driven either.
However, I was not aware that the driven axle of the unit could have enough power forced through it to overcome the handbrake holding it still?
