Getting Ready to Roll

Spring is the season for taking care of vacuum truck maintenance. Pumpers share their inspection and repair routine.

Septic service vacuum trucks get a workout all year long, but for many pumpers, summer’s the really busy season. For many contractors, spring is the best time to give all their vehicles the thorough once-over to make sure a disabled truck won’t become an obstacle to productivity and profitability once business kicks into high gear.

While some operators take care of their own truck maintenance, others use outside mechanics to keep working wheels on the road. Either way, one handy thing they use is the pre-season checklist to ensure nothing is missed in this annual inspection and repair program.

These pumpers share what’s on that checklist in their shop or garage.

Rillco Inc. performs septic system installation, pumping and repair just west of Virginia’s Tidewater. Around late February or early March, business slows in that region. Aside from allowing management to attend the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International, this schedule is ideal for a pre-season survey of the company’s vehicles, says owner Ronnie Ledbetter.

“We check our trucks all the time, but at this time of year we go over all our equipment. We do any maintenance now, because we have our own shop to do it. We don’t like to take it to the garage, because they’ll keep it for a week.”

They’ll fix it themselves unless it’s a repair that requires DOT certification. In that case, they’ll take it back to the dealer’s mechanics.

“We check the tanks, the backup pumps, dials and meters. We’ll also check the hoses, and if those need replacing, this is when we do it.” He says they’ll often run truck checks before leaving for the Expo, where they can buy new equipment for needed replacements.

Ledbetter says they try to keep their trucks fairly new and in good shape, so there’s not a lot of interior cleaning that needs to be done pre-season. However, according to co-owner and office manager Rosalind Lacy, they do go over their “tagalong tool” list.

“We try to keep things organized because there are field service tools that we keep inside and outside on the truck,” she says. These include shovels, probes and other hand tools. They also look over supplies of chemicals to see if they need to be replenished. Any power tools like locators are checked for acceptable operation and needed battery replacements.

“We don’t just wait for spring to do these kinds of things,” she says. “We take care of this maintenance whenever we need to. But if we have major things we know we’ll need to do, we’ll put it off till this slow time if we can.”

Both Ledbetter and Lacy say that scheduling this way helps them feel confident they’ll be able to look for what they really need while they’re at the Expo rather than possibly making costly guessing errors.

Kelly Ramme and his wife, Jane Ramme, pump septic tanks along with providing salvage yard service for one of the larger towns on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In the north, they have no choice but to work through all types of weather. He drives a single GMC vacuum truck with a 3,000-gallon tank. And he does all the maintenance himself.

Ramme says he takes care of everything from minor maintenance to major overhauls and repairs in his own shop on an as-needed basis. “I’m familiar with what it needs. If I can see something major is coming up, I stay out ahead of it,” he says.

The only seasonal work he does is the annual state inspection, which he is certified to perform through the state Department of Transportation. It requires a state-designed “bumper-to-bumper” checklist, so it’s more thorough than most.

A-1 Construction & Septic Service runs two vacuum trucks in this small town about 75 miles south of Lexington, Ky. Driver Frankie Ball says the trucks are serviced in-house before the summer season really gets going. Drivers are responsible for their own truck maintenance, using three separate checklists: one for the chassis, one for pumping service components and one for tools and equipment carried on the truck.

Truck maintenance consists of standard DOT-type checks on transmission, steering, tires, engine and electrical systems. Oil is always changed, filters and fluids checked and replaced as necessary, light bulbs and switches tested. Of course, some of this type of maintenance, such as oil and other fluid changes like anti-freeze, are performed more often, mostly on a seasonal or mileage basis.

Service build-outs are also inspected. Tanks are monitored for deep dings or other damage that might affect performance or safety. Hoses are checked and valves are oiled. Oil is changed in vacuum pumps and worn vanes are replaced.

Finally, tools and truck supplies are verified, refilled or replaced. “Typically, we go through a lot of shovels,” Ball says. “So we make sure all the old, broken ones are thrown out and replaced.” And anything that might need cleaning — inside or out — is also taken care of. Then, these trucks are ready to roll.



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