Couldn’t believe it when I was handed the keys to this unit today, posted some thought of todays events on my blog.
Snippet…
OK, so lightning does strike twice in the same place. Today I did a ‘small’ job as I had a spare day. Turned up at Allport and sat in the waiting room for about 40 minutes. Then was given a job and told that the unit and trailer are on the bay. X Reg DAF with a splitter box, started to do my checks and found the Air pipe (red) when plugged in made a horrible hissing noise. It sounded like a snake got loose, obviously there is a problem here. Stopped everything and told a manager of the problem, ‘can you go to our depot in Southall and get it fixed’ he asked. Well why not, got there and the mechanic changed a washer and that was that, or so I thought. Got back and started to couple up and guess what, the ABS cable was totally smashed, the wires were pulled out of the socket. VOR the unit I thought, reported that as well and the question came up straight away ‘can you go to DAF and get another’. At this time it was 2.5 hours since I started work and actually done nothing but go and fix the unit. Back to the depot and got tipped, asked where do the units and trailers go and got a sarcastic remark so decided to leave it on the bay
Amazing unit, bloody hard work driving it, my left arm feels like I’ve been pulling the trailer on my own, changing the gears was to say interesting.
Felt like a mechanic doing all those runs to the workshop and back.
Lol, did neither you or the fitter think to look at the other lines whilst seeing to the Emergency line? I hope you didn’t pull an ABS/EBD equipped trailer without the ABS suzi plugged in? That’s a big no-no, you know
I wouldn’t have taken the trailer if any of the cables were doggy, took the unit only to have the problems fixed. What amazes me is that the management were slow to react and still keep such old units on the road. When I do my checks if I find something wrong then it gets reported straight away and nothing moves till its sorted. The reason I stopped where i was with my checks was that I plugged in the red line first and thought it waranted immediate attention.
Paul-H:
I wouldn’t have taken the trailer if any of the cables were doggy, took the unit only to have the problems fixed. What amazes me is that the management were slow to react and still keep such old units on the road. When I do my checks if I find something wrong then it gets reported straight away and nothing moves till its sorted. The reason I stopped where i was with my checks was that I plugged in the red line first and thought it waranted immediate attention.
It’s a shame that those that actually check for defects are few and far between. Certainly seems that way with me. In my company, I’m for ever seeing drivers hook up to a trailer and just head straight out with it, without doing a single check. The condition of my old 06 plate puts the drivers of 08 plates etc to shame in my company at times
Drivers and screw drivers.
P.S that wasn’t a dig at you, just those that let motors get into that kinda condition
Thats the same as the army base at bicester (DSDA) it has some right old dogs in there too and they are daf 85 as well. I drive a ERF rigid last year on a V plate but it did drive very well considering its age
Paul-H:
Amazing unit, bloody hard work driving it, my left arm feels like I’ve been pulling the trailer on my own, changing the gears was to say interesting.
Felt like a mechanic doing all those runs to the workshop and back.
But still like driving a Rolls Royce compared to some of the stuff on the road 20 years ago and older.
It ain’t so bad.
