Cargo can tire pressure
- Thread starter Hamman77
- Start date
Was talking to a fellow (O/O) who drives for the same carrier I do. Bought a new Sprinter and it was chewing up steers every month. Took to dealer, nothing found. I asked him if it had the correct load range tires. He said they replaced with same tires as factory.. I'm thinking it had wrong tires to begin with. Anyway, he had too much shop time and returned Sprinter back where he bought it. Got his money back, now drives has a IC for same fleet owner as I do.. Glad to hear you've had no problems like that. Now if you just send a load my way???
No, I've never driven for a fleet owner, I've always had my own van. Yeah, of course I've had problems. Belts and pulleys, like all wear parts, need to be replaced regularly. We put on about 5 years worth of miles every year out here, and we need to do about 5 years worth of maintenance every year, as well. In my case, which is unusual, my belt tensioner gets replaced at about 60,000, either just before it fails, or right after.
I run nitrogen in my tires and make sure they're properly inflated. I admit that I don't rotate them nearly as often as recommended. Rather than every couple of months, or 10-20,000, I rotate them every 6-8 months, or if there is any wear difference between front and rear. It's one of the few things that I don't do maintenance-wise on any kind of set schedule. Bad, I know, but for me and this van it works OK.
I do keep a close eye on tread wear differences, and if the front starts wearing oddly, like too much on the inner, outer or center of the tire, I'll rotate them and then figure out what is causing them to wear like that. Wheel bearings beginning to go bad can cause it, so can ball joints. Or front struts. Or any number of other suspension or steering problems. The fronts will tend to wear a little more rapidly than the rears, because they do more work in steering, and there's always a significant amount of weight on the front.