Dumb Driver!

After loading this morning, the drive axles were a little over 30,000 lbs. and the trailer axles (at the rear of the trailer) were 35,000 lbs. NOT good. They can't be over 34,000 lbs. So I needed to slide the trailer axles further back to take some weight off of them.

I went back in front of the axles to release the pins that hold them in place. Sometimes it is a pull lever, and sometimes an air release valve. I saw this air valve right there ... and didn't immediately see a release lever ... so I pushed the air valve ... the pins didn't move ... air was hissing out ... and the trailer started lowering. OOPS! Wrong thing. Stopped that quick! Found the camouflaged lever and pulled it (releasing the pins).

The knobs that control the air brakes for the tractor and for the trailer were pulled up while I did this. I went back to the tractor, released the tractor brakes by pushing the yellow knob down, rolled the tractor forward ... pulling the trailer ... while the trailer wheels stayed locked in place. Went back to check and found that just a little bit more forward pulling and they should lock into a hole (I released the lever so the pins could do that). Sometimes there is a lot of resistance pulling the trailer with the wheels locked ... and what happens is that the wheels actually roll. There is an additional trailer brake lever that you can pull to lock the brakes so they won't roll. I pulled the lever down, rocked forward, then rocked backward to ensure the pins were fully extended ... let go of the lever and it flipped upward. When I pushed the red knob down to release the trailer brakes, there was still some resistance. I fiddled some more with the brake knobs ... and then scaled the load ... 32,520 lbs. on the drive axles and 33,120 lbs. on the trailer axles. That's legal.

I headed down the road, but noticed it wasn't accelerating . I was checking in the mirrors and noticed a puff of smoke. I IMMEDIATELY pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. The trailer brake pads were smoking. I sprayed water on the pads and drums to cool them ... spit, sizzle! I was wondering what the heck I could do to remedy the problem. My cell phone doesn't have service over there ... I was totally on my own. I'm sitting there holding onto the rear bumper and looking at the brakes ... wondering what I can do ... when it popped into my head that I could get the 11mm wrench and back the brakes off mechanically. Duh! So I backed them way off. (the 11mm bolt head is in the middle left area of the foto, near the bottom of the dark greasy thing). Then I was running down the road with no trailer brakes, air-cooling the pads & drums ... so the tires don't catch on fire. About 6 miles down the road, for some reason I looked down and noticed the hand lever for the trailer brakes ... I pushed upward on it ... and discovered that it hadn't been all the way up!!! No wonder the trailer brakes had been rubbing and gotten hot. Dingie.

A few miles further down the road was a place for trucks to park. I stopped. Went back and checked the temperature of the tires (warm but not hot). I touched the outer rim ... cold. Touched the inner rim ... no heat s I got close to it with my fingers ... it too was cool to the touch. So I adjusted the brakes all the way in ... and then backed them off to their proper setting. This time everything was working fine. What a ditz.