WQ2014

Went on a service call for the first time on Saturday. A Schneider National driver had been parked overnight waiting for IK truck repair to come back but could not raise them on the phone and finally called us out at 9 am. The spring brake valve was routing all the air into the service side through the anti-compounding hose. When I arrived the hose was crimped off at the valve but the service side was left open. IK wanted the driver to follow him back to the shop like that (Uh'... No service brakes!) but the driver said no because he runs electronic logs and couldn't leave his route.

I pulled the valve off and headed back to the shop to match it up. Parts guy be like, "we don't stock those". We carry a Sealco replacement valve that matches up to the SR-5 Bendix but I was hoping to not have to re-plumb the back of the trailer to make a different valve work. I found an SR-4 in the parts room which looks almost identical to an SR-5 valve minus a drilled hole in the flange. Smart phone to the rescue to see if it was compatible... The answer ended up being no. The Bendix website crashes all of our computers at work but runs fine on my phone and I was able to find some information.

An SR-5 uses an external reservoir supply hose and the tractor's supply to release the spring brakes as FMVSS 121 doesn't require the trailer reservoir to supply air to the spring brakes anymore.

An SR-4 uses an internal passage to supply air to the trailer reservoir but uses the trailer's supply to release the spring brakes.

Alright well I guess I'm stuck using the Sealco and ended up having to reroute some hoses under the trailer http://www.sealcocvp.com/tech/sbv/techvlv05.htm

Week: 42 hours