To pumpers, a truck isn’t just a way to get around. It’s a livelihood. So it’s no surprise vehicle maintenance usually ranks fairly high on everyone’s priority list. We asked contractors about their biggest vehicle maintenance challenges, and what their policy is — if they have one — on knowing when it’s time to call it quits with an older truck and replace it with a new one. Some have policies, some don’t, and some just find it really difficult to part with an old friend.
“Brake work can get kind of hard at times,” says technician Chris Hawkinson of working on Kirley Septic and Sewer’s vacuum trucks. Located in upstate New York, the company performs all of its own vehicle maintenance. “The size of the truck can be challenging. Everything’s so big and hard to work with.” Hawkinson drives a 2006 Sterling vacuum service truck hauling a 3,800-gallon tank.
His least favorite regular maintenance job is cleaning settled solids out of the large tank. “You have to get inside to shovel out the sand and sediment, and it’s not very nice.” He says the company’s policy for knowing when a vehicle is too far gone to be worth keeping is “when it can’t pass the DOT inspection.”
Todd Anderson shares a distaste for mucking out tanks, also considering it the worst part of vacuum truck maintenance. “Just crawling into the backs of these trucks that haven’t been cleaned in awhile is probably the worst thing. You get covered in the waste or the oil that’s running the thing.”
Mechanically, he’s been in more than one situation where a truck broke down en route to or from a pumping job. “It’ll happen a couple times a year; there’s nothing big about it. You just call a tow truck and move on. There are too many other issues to worry about, and you usually can’t fix it on the road.”
He says about half his vehicle breakdowns are fixed in his shop, and the rest get towed to the dealer. “I only have the ability to do so much, and after your basic stuff, I take it to the mechanic, sometimes just to finish it up.” His crews drive tandem-axle Fords and Freightliners. Five trucks have 3,000- to 3,600-gallon tanks, including one combination truck. He says mechanically, there’s no difference between working on the big rigs or the smaller one.
He admits that he has difficulty recognizing when a truck has reached the end of its useful life. “I’m usually one of these guys that waits far too long before letting one go. I’ll just fix it and fix it and spend far too much money on it before I’ll finally dispose of it.” He says that even though he’s aware this isn’t the best way to save money, he’ll keep doing it. “That’s just me. I’m sure I end up losing money before I finally get a new truck.”
At the 2010 Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo, Steve Denney didn’t yet have a vacuum truck. He was hunting for one on the Expo show floor. But he does have several dump trucks and other heavy equipment for his septic system installation work. He finds that the tough winters in his area of central Ohio play havoc with his vehicles. And generally, it’s not a mechanical fix, but a product solution.
“The fuel systems freeze up, and we have to dump in additives. Sometimes that’s not enough, and we have to pull them apart and clean them, or replace the filters,” he says. Of course, that’s annoying, especially having to do this kind of work when all the parts are uncomfortably cold to handle. But when brake lines freeze up, it’s downright dangerous.
“You have to use additives there, too.” But he’s talking air brakes, not hydraulic. It’s not a frequent problem, but it does happen when temperatures dip into the subzero range, something that can occur several times any given winter in the Great Lakes Region.
What happens, Denney explains, is that water and even a little compressor oil may build up in the compressor’s air tanks that create the air pressure that runs the brakes. Normally, this can be drained off manually when the truck gets put away at night, or through automatic drain valves. But under circumstances of heavy usage when the temperatures are very low, this liquid can collect in the lines and freeze, keeping air from reaching the brakes when the pedal is depressed, temporarily disabling the brakes.
Alcohol-based additives are introduced into the air tanks through an evaporator system, preventing such freeze-ups, as long as lines are still drained daily.
