How 4WD (4x4 - Four Wheel Drive) Works - 2H, 4H, 4L, LSD, Centre Diff, Diff Locks, Traction Control.

A complete and thorough video on how four wheel drive (4WD) 4x4 systems work. This video will look into depth on how part time and full time four wheel drive systems work, operate, what to expect and when to use it. It will cover in depth the following: - Drivetrain Fundamentals - Part Time 4x4 - Full Time 4x4 - Open Differentials - Locked Differentials - Torque Distribution - Torque Multiplication - High Range - Low Range - Transfer Case - Crawl Ratio - Limited Slip Differentials - Brake Traction Control - Wind-Up Phenomenon - Diagonal Wheels Phenomenon - Free Wheeling Hubs

Equipping a Truck for All Seasons

 

Derek Broderick (center) stands in front of BlackHawk Works' office with his wife and daughter. The company has equipped a F-250 with a snow plow and a F-450 with a chip box. Photo courtesy of BlackHawk Works.

The bitter cold of winter is an excuse for many businesses to shut down. In Alaska, it’s merely the time to switch gears. To continue working through winter, Derek Broderick’s tree removal company added snow plows to two of its trucks.

“The weather here in Alaska dictates a lot of your working season,” says Broderick, owner of BlackHawk Works in North Pole, Alaska. “Everyone is frozen in time in the winter and then everyone comes out in the construction season during the summer.”

After retiring from the military, Broderick started his company with a Ford F-450 used for stump grinding and tree removal during the summer and snow plowing in the winter. Currently, he uses an F-250 and F-450 for snow plowing.

“I use Boss snow plows,” says Broderick. “I can use both plows on either truck since they have the same mount. If one plow goes down, I can flip-flop the plows and use the other one.”

As of last year, he had hired three full-time employees for the summer season. “As I was growing my business, I was working at another company. After about three years, we had such good growth that I decided to focus solely on my business. From 2014 to 2015, we grew by 52%.”

In addition to covering jobs in North Pole, Broderick’s trucks travel to Fairbanks, about 12 miles south, and as far as Delta Junction, about an hour away.
Multi-Use Trucks

Based on its motto “We Grind, We Plow, We Clear,” BlackHawk Works can complete all of these services with its small truck fleet.

After purchasing an F-250 for snow plowing, Broderick added an F-450 with a dump box on the back; it became the company’s chip truck. When he bought a second F-450, Broderick added a custom-made chip box.

“The chip box sits on top of the F-450 flat bed,” says Broderick. “We designed it and the auto body shop built it. It also contains shelving units to store chainsaws and blowers.”

For big jobs requiring two trucks, the F-450 with the dump box can also be used with a temporary chip box. When not used as the second chip truck, this F-450 pulls the stump grinder and stores other equipment for tree removal. The stump grinder is transported by the truck and then self-propelled on wheels, he says.

In addition to trucks, BlackHawk operates several pieces of equipment including two chippers, two stump grinders, and a Caterpillar 299d used for land clearing.
Seasonal Schedule

BlackHawk uses the off-season to maintain its vehicles and equipment. Broderick takes his trucks to his local Ford dealership for routine maintenance checks. Although the vehicles and equipment are still fairly new, there is some wear and tear, he says.

The off-season also gives Broderick and his employees time to rest. The summer season is prime construction time, and Broderick and his team work long hours to take advantage of the longer sunlight hours and warmer weather.

“We go and go since we have so much daylight in the summer,” says Broderick. “On summer solstice, we have 22 hours of sunlight. After summer solstice, you start losing daylight each day up to winter solstice. The prime construction season is usually May through September.”

Source: http://www.worktruckonline.com/channel/operations/article/story/2016/05/equipping-a-truck-for-all-seasons.aspx

Tire Blow Out Reaction Tips

Tires are the most important part of your vehicle and unexpected blows outs happen almost everyday! Watch this video to find out the two key steps to keep you safe in the event of a tire blow out.

How Do Traffic Lights Work?

Traffic lights are an essential part of our road infrastructure, but have you ever wondered how they work? 

 

Traffic signals are those three lights that tell you when to stop, when to go, and when to proceed with caution. If these traffic lights weren't used, our intersections would be chaotic! 

Automatic Emergency Braking in Large Trucks

A new IIHS study finds that automatic emergency braking systems in large trucks are reducing rear-end crashes by over 40 percent.

We Install and Repair Liftgates - North Bay Truck Center

 What is a lift gate?

One commonly overlooked service to add to shipping your freight is a truck with a lift gate service. What is a lift gate? A lift gate is a fold away metal platform that mounts to the back of a dry van trailer or a freight truck, when the lift gate is extended out from under the truck it acts as a platform to lift freight from the ground level up to the height of the bed of the trailer. This allows the freight carrier to use a pallet jack to move a palletized load from the trailer of the truck, down to the ground through the use of the lift gate, then into the business or destination of the freight. This is especially useful when the cargo or freight being transported is too heavy to be loaded or unloaded by hand.

While the use of the lift gate is essential for a lot of companies, and pretty much any residential shipment, there are some instances where a lift gate service is not required. Companies with a shipping dock don’t require a lift gate because the truck can back the trailer right up to a platform, then the freight can be unloaded from the trailer using a forklift, pallet jack, or other types of machinery. But the lift gate service is designed for companies that don’t have a shipping dock or access to a fork lift. When making arrangements with a shipping company it is important to know if the destination you are shipping your freight to is equipped with a loading dock or a forklift, if not then you will need to add the lift gate service to your shipment.

Article Source: https://www.freightratecentral.com/blog/lift-gate-service-important-know-need

Photo Source: http://www.tommygate.com/liftgates/flatbed-and-van/

4 Questions About Brake Violations

Some brake violations are easy to understand. Brake adjustment can be confirmed by marking and measuring a push rod. Others can be baffling.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Brake Safety Week last fall saw 12% of the 43,565 commercial motor vehicles inspected placed out of service for brake-related violations.

With more than one out of every 10 trucks operating with brake-related violations serious enough to take it off the road, we talked to Kerri Wirachowsky, the director of CVSA’s roadside inspection program, about some of the recurring questions she faces regarding brake violations.

1. How can I be put out of service for one service brake violation? The last time it happened, I was allowed to continue my trip.

The out-of-service criteria for service brakes is broken into two parts. You have service brakes over the entire combination, but there’s a separate section just for the steering axle brakes.

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Steering axle brake violations are more critical than those on the rest of the combination. If you have a brake on the left and you don’t have a brake on the right, it’s going to pull to the left. So if you have an inoperative brake on the steer axle, that truck is automatically put out of service.

If that same inoperative brake is on the second or third axle of a tractor, that one inoperative brake will not exceed the 20% calculation for the out-of-service criteria. [No more than 20% of the vehicle’s brakes can be defective.] Therefore, that truck will leave with an inoperative brake violation on the tractor, but it is allowed to continue to its destination.

If I also have a brake out of adjustment or a contaminated lining somewhere else in that combination, the inspector is going to use that inoperative brake as one defective brake towards the 20%. Now I have two service brakes that are in violation, and that, too, will place the vehicle out of service.

2. How can I receive multiple violations for the same brake?

Let’s say you’ve got a contaminated lining, and it’s inoperative, and the brake is out of adjustment – it’s bottoming out, and the linings are not contacting the drum.

That will only account for one defective brake. I have three violations, and they’re all going to be documented on the inspection report. But it’s only counted as one defect towards that 20% out-of-service calculation. The driver can go and repair that at his final destination.

If I find another brake that has a violation, now he’s out of service for two defective brakes.

All of those violations get documented, and all of those have to be repaired.

Source; Read more here: https://www.truckinginfo.com/10142523/4-questions-about-brake-violations

We will Service Your Motorhome at North Bay Truck Center

North Bay Truck Center is becoming the go-to place for motor home chassis work. That is because if you take the shell off of a motor home--take the body off of it--let’s say, for example, a diesel pusher. It’s really a bus chassis. It’s really built by the truck and bus chassis manufacturers. Many that built the motor home chassis also built big trucks, and Freightliner is an example. For us, if we’re under the motor home or we’re looking into the engine compartment, we’re really looking at the same picture as we are if we’re looking on a Class 6, 7 or 8 truck. We are well versed on the platforms of engines that they use. Primarily, they use Cummins or Caterpillar engines on some of the older ones. For the diesel pushers, we’re very well versed on those engines. We have the computer software to plug into them. We’re familiar with the Allison transmissions that are most all of them use. The braking systems on a lot of them are air brakes, similar to that of a Class 6 through 8 truck. They also have suspension components that are shared. They use air ride suspension on the front axle a lot of times, which is found on the newest class 6 through 8 trucks. We’re very familiar with the chassis of the diesel pushers. North Bay is also going to be able to look up maintenance schedules on those as well. Motor homes generally will come with all manuals in a big binder referring to your refrigerator, your heating system, air conditioning. If your vehicle is new, you should have the Cummins manual for the engine and in the case of the Freightliner chassis, a Freightliner chassis manual with maintenance intervals for that chassis as well as the engine. Again, we can help look those things up if you don’t have the manuals available. On the diesel pushers, we have a facility large enough to bring the biggest unit into the shop. Even a 45-foot 3-axle diesel pusher can fit inside our shop and be kept under cover. If it does require to be outside for a time, we have surveillance cameras outside our shop and you can rest assured that our facility is locked down and that the cameras are working 24/7. We're also very familiar with the smaller coaches that are built on a gasoline or light-duty diesel chassis such as Ford or Chevrolet or GMC, or even the Sprinter chassis. Again, these are truck chassis or cutaway van chassis that we work on every day. We service almost anything related to the truck chassis part of the motor home, including, axle bearings, tires, the rear differential, transmission, steering components, including the air conditioning on the chassis. We do not work on the roof mounted air, but we can help direct you to who can help with that, and other internal aspects of the motor home. Everything to do with what makes it go down the road and stop, we can take care of for you.  Tires on motor homes can easily develop flat spots from sitting too long, and the air and UV rays deteriorate tires over time whether they are being used or not. We can help with tires because we sell tires for all trucks and buses and can balance and install them so that your coach rides smooth again and is perfectly safe in your travels. North Bay recently purchased six Mohawk pedestal lifts that will allow us to lift the largest diesel pusher up in the air outside of our facility to facilitate faster and more efficient repairs. Our goal is to get you back on the road on your travels very quickly, and insure that the repairs are done right. You can count on us with your motor home.

Driving Emergency - Tire Blowout

                                                    Driving Emergency - Tire Blowout

How to Set Trailer Brake Gain | BetterWeigh™ Mobile Towing Scale

This video describes how to use the Trailer Brake Gain feature of the CURT BetterWeigh™ mobile towing scale. With this feature, you can easily set up your brake controller without the need for traditional methods of taking multiple passes and guessing at the optimal gain setting.

The CURT BetterWeigh™ #51701 is a Bluetooth-enabled OBD2 device that wirelessly syncs with your smartphone to provide a variety of vehicle and trailer weights. This includes vehicle weight, GCW, payload, tongue weight and pin weight, as well as weight distribution setup and trailer brake gain.

To begin setting up your trailer brake controller with the CURT BetterWeigh™, find a flat, open area to park your vehicle. Select the Trailer Brake Gain option from the home screen. Then, follow the screen prompts and enter your trailer weight and combined weight. Select your trailer type.

Next, calibrate your towing setup. Set the brake controller gain to 3. With the vehicle in gear and at a complete stop, fully activate the manual override on the brake controller. Then, accelerate in a straight line to 15 mph. When the progress bar fills up all the way, BetterWeigh™ will provide the optimal gain number. If wheel lockup occurs, tap the Lock-Up Occurred button and start again, adjusting the gain to the BetterWeigh™ recommendation.

If you increase the load on your trailer, enter the new trailer weight and BetterWeigh™ will automatically provide a new trailer gain number.

BetterWeigh™ is compatible with Apple and Android phones. Download the BetterWeigh™ app from Google Play or the App Store.

Cummins On Highway Electronic Engine Features - Load Based Speed Control

Load Based Speed Control or LBSC is an electronic feature that is programmable on the Cummins ISX15 and ISX12, and ISX12 G engines. LBSC encourages the driver to shift into the next gear as soon as possible and is active in all gears except the top two. LBSC turns off when applications are above 100,000 lbs GCVW, during tire scrub events, and when grades exceed 2%. To set up or adjust LBSC trim settings, download PowerSpec, a free computer application, and talk to your local Cummins representative to receive free licensing rights. For more information, visit the feature description section of http://cumminsengines.com/powerspec.