Prepare Your Truck for The Summer

Summer is almost here and for many, that means that the roads are getting busier and the sun is getting hotter. While it is important to prepare your truck for the winter weather conditions, it’s just as important to prepare your truck for the summer weather. With 3.4 million trucks on the road, truck upkeep is vital to the success of our economy—along with safe driving.

To help drivers prepare for summer driving, Bobtail Insure has gathered some of the best practice tips for maintaining your truck and trailer before the heavy traffic months ahead. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Check Tire Pressure and Spares

Running the correct tire pressure is always extremely important but even more so in the summer months with the relentless heat of summer. Everyone knows that the tires get hot in the summer but they can easily reach explosive temperatures if they are under inflated or over inflated. Excessive speed and weight also contribute to high tire temperatures. Assuming no injuries occur during a tire explosion, they almost always cause collateral damage, sometimes very expensive damage. While refilling tires, take time to ensure spares are also filled to the correct pressure and rotate and balance your truck’s tires consistently for even tire wear.

2. Check Battery

Typically, summer heat kills batteries 33% faster than winter cold, causing more batteries to fail in the heat of July than in the cold of January. Heat speeds up the natural chemical processes that take place in lead acid batteries, which will cause the battery’s electrolytes to evaporate. This increases the likelihood and severity of sulfation, which creates corrosion on the battery’s plates and robs a battery of its energy capacity. Maintaining your batteries and your preventative maintenance checks are just as important in the summer as the winter. Also keep your battery terminals and wire ends clean, to ensure a strong connection.

3. Inspect Fluid Levels

Maintaining fluid levels in your truck is essential to peak performance driving, in any season. Dirty and low fluids can lead to breakdowns and unsafe driving conditions if not properly inspected. Before busy summer driving months begin, it’s important to inspect all your truck’s fluids, in addition to refilling and refreshing them at regular intervals. Remember to inspect the following truck fluids:

Engine oil

Transmission fluid

Brake fluid

Coolant fluid

Windshield wiper fluid

4. Inspect Air Conditioner

Sitting in a sweltering truck isn’t much fun. This time of year is a great time to check your air conditioner for leaks in your valves and hoses. Any small changes now help keep your drivers comfortable, cool and happy as they drive this summer.

5. Replace Engine Belts

Like many of these items you should inspect as part of your pre-summer maintenance program, engine belts are often overlooked. They just keep going round and round, racking up an astounding amount of mileage with all those revolutions. And they have to flex as they’re rotating. That’s a lot of wear, yet we don’t give it much thought. Compare that to tires – you might get as much as 100,000 miles from them, but you always aim to replace them before they fail.

Replacing your engine belts is far cheaper than repairing your engine, so it’s smart to inspect all your belts for cracks or other wear indications.

6. Review Your Emergency Kit 

Have you checked your supplies lately? It’s usually in a poor situation that you find you’ve forgotten something—or didn’t replace needed items after the last use. Most kits include a standard first aid kit, along with the following: food, water, and cooking items; extra clothing; money; self-defense items; emergency radio and/or batteries, and tool set.

Wherever your travels take you and your truck during your busy season this summer, you’ll travel more confidently and more profitably if you take the time to follow these truck driver tips for preventive maintenance.