Winter Driving Tips

RE: Frozen Brakes

Any company SAFETY DEPT. would have a conniption fit for me posting this, and just remember every driver is responsible for their own trucks, but most people when they park for the night, they set their tractor brakes, but they don’t set their trailer brakes. It’s kind of hard for the brakes to freeze when they aren’t engaged. Again, do so with your own risk. After being on my back, pounding brake drums with a 5 pound hammer Anytime I am connected to the trailer. This will likely be standard practice in subzero temperatures.

Sorry Zen Joker I just saw this. You’re actually totally fine to not pull both brakes the vast majority of the time and I’d be surprised if your safety department threw a fit over it. I almost never pull both brakes and have been following this practice since I got my cdl (most of my instructors recommended only pulling the tractor brake most of the time). It’s actually recommended to NOT pull the trailer brake in freezing temps for the exact reason you described. The only time I pull both brakes is if parking on a serious incline while loaded or if I’m actually dropping the trailer.

I do have a good friend that pulls both brakes every night but he’s not the norm honestly. One reason I actually don’t like pulling both brakes is that with air ride trailers as the air dumps out of the air bags it will randomly make your truck inch forward a couple times before the air is completely out and it’s unsettling getting woken up by that lol.

My company sent a message recently to be aware of snow packed on trailers but didn't say what to do about it. The only customers I can think of that have one of those scraper/removers for that are some Target DCs. So I'm not sure what I'd do if I encounter one that bad. I suppose send in a message and maybe they'll send someone out with equipment to remove it like mentioned above.

When I'm parked overnight, the Secondary is usually quite low afterwards. I've been told it's from a leveling valve but I'm not sure. I drive a 19 Volvo for reference. So if I don't pull the trailer brakes, it'll eventually get low enough and pop out anyways. When it was extremely cold recently I idled all night as my way of preventing frozen trailer brakes. I'm interested in other drivers' takes on this situation and if there's a better remedy.

The safety people at my company would probably have a collective heart attack if they caught me climbing on top of my trailer. If I needed snow removal I would call it in and wait for the Calvary to arrive.

I’ve been parked in Wisconsin since Monday with my trailer brakes released and the red button has not popped out. So I’m wondering if Sandman has his popping out, maybe a small leak? Gladhand seals?

I don’t have the ability to idle my truck for more than 3 minutes. Another driver told me if I disconnect the red hose that it will idle longer. This sounds suspicious to me but I’m going to try it to see what happens. Has anyone else heard of this? I am skeptical, but what the heck, easy enough to find out.

I don’t have the ability to idle my truck for more than 3 minutes. Another driver told me if I disconnect the red hose that it will idle longer. This sounds suspicious to me but I’m going to try it to see what happens. Has anyone else heard of this? I am skeptical, but what the heck, easy enough to find out.

There’s a misunderstanding in there somewhere because that won’t make any difference.

Sometimes companies will have their trucks set up to idle indefinitely as long as the tractor brakes are not set. You can see where this is going… If you pull the trailer brake and push in the tractor brakes you might be able to idle indefinitely IF your company sets their idle shut off like that.

I’ve had a lot of trucks where that didn’t work and they would shut off whether the tractor brakes were set or not. It’s worth a try

BK, there's an override to prevent idle shutdown, on Volvos at least so I'd imagine other makes might be the same.

Try youtube-ing 'idle shutdown override for (your make). For mine, it is something like wait for it to go into shutdown with the countdown, turn cruise control on then slam the accelerator to the ground. When I've tried, it usually took several attempts, but I've gotten it to work.

BK, there's an override to prevent idle shutdown, on Volvos at least so I'd imagine other makes might be the same.

Try youtube-ing 'idle shutdown override for (your make). For mine, it is something like wait for it to go into shutdown with the countdown, turn cruise control on then slam the accelerator to the ground. When I've tried, it usually took several attempts, but I've gotten it to work.

Good point. Still it’ll depend on if his company has disabled the override. A lot of companies do

Its really dependent on how the company programs the truck.

My first KW had the 5 min shut off between 32 and 68 degrees. Nothing would override it. I finally learned that taping two hand warmers to the ambient temp sensor on the bottom of the drivers side mirror housing and insulating the assembly with a beanie over it while simultaneously turning on the heated mirror would be good for about 10 hours of idle time in 40 degree weather.

My current truck, luckily never was reprogrammed, so I just simply hit cruise control on at idle and then the set button. It will raise the rpms to 800, then press the down button and it will idle indefinitely at 600 rpm. Idle usage at .5 gallons per hour though. Notwithstanding, I almost always make my fuel bonus at 7.1 to 7.3 mpg on all dispatched miles for the month. It nets me an extra 800 to 1000 for the month, so it's worth getting.