Caring for torque wrenches
With proper care, a high-quality torque wrench should provide accurate measurements for many years.
Jump start cautions for starters and alternators
With the onset of cold weather, it’s even more important to protect starters and alternators. The Technology and Maintenance Council has provided the following advice for fleets.
Get the most value from batteries
When a truck has battery issues, a fleet normally replaces all the batteries and gets the truck back on the road. Recharging these batteries and putting them back into service is a huge savings to fleets.
Don’t judge a coolant by its color
Proper understanding of coolant types and adherence to vehicle manufacturers’ requirements are essential to ensuring that antifreeze effectively maintains engine temperature and helps protect the cooling system from rust and corrosion.
How to treat trucks right
With routine checks, preventive maintenance and simple replacements, fleets can help prolong vehicle life and performance.
Electrical cable choices are key
Find out why you should be concerned about the cables that connect the parallel batteries in multiple battery systems.
Run cool when it’s hot
Summer heat can take its toll on the performance of vehicles, but conducting a few simple checks and maintenance steps can help keep them performing their best.
Maintaining cooling systems
Reliable coolant products are an absolute necessity in order to prevent rust, dirt, scale and other contaminants from creating engine-damaging “hot spots” in a vehicle’s cooling system.
Battery maintenance tips
While cold weather is often blamed for the preponderance of battery failures, it’s heat that is the main culprit. here are several maintenance suggestions to beat the heat and ensure optimum battery performance.
Used oil analysis best practices
A good used oil program helps fleets figure out, with the help of the sample reports, exactly what is going on in the engine and also can provide a working history of engines.
Selecting the correct size electrical cable
In vehicles, the grounded return system is used almost exclusively. In this system, a single wire is run from the battery through switches to the load and the vehicle itself provides the ground or return to the battery. It is important that all electric components have a good ground.
Maintaining fifth wheels
Fifth wheels are almost maintenance-free, but there are a few critical points to keeping them in good shape.