Question:
Today was not a good day. I delivered my load this morning and went to my next load at a brewery. I finally got my loaded trailer and had a pain in the azz trying to get my service lines hooked up. Well, i thought i hooked it up real good and left the shipper. I went about 200 miles and passed my first weigh station with no problems... All is well, i went through greensboro and got on the west side weigh station and got pulled in. I was slowing down and i didn't "feel" my trailer brakes. My tractor brakes were the only ones working and of course i smoked the HELL out of them. BUT I stopped. It was a close call. I thought nothing about it since i was my first time pulling a heavy load with my new tractor. I leave the scale and go down to the nearest T/S and i find that my glad hand (service line) fell apart and wasn't working.
Do the vets have any idea on how to fix this?? The actual metal parts are in perfect condition but they both have "lips" on them that doesn't let them seal correctly.... Travelling without the trailer brakes with 44,000 in the rear was no my idea of fun....
Also when i parked the truck the mud flaps got stuck between the wheels and the curb and got torn off. Not also was the mud flaps torn off but the bracket is bent and rubbing on the wheel of the trailer. I know how to attach the mud flap but how do you get the bracket "unbent" or straightened out?? I tried a crowbar and got it from really scrapping the wheel and i'm holding it back with a strap.
Any suggestions....
Thanks
Nick

Answer:
The glad hand is an easy fix. Just get a flathead screwdriver and you can just pop the "lips" off the air line. You can buy new ones at the truck stop,they come in 2 in a small pack and just squeeze the new ones back into the air line.
It won't even take 5 mins. As for the mudflap bracket, you need to unscrew the bolts and pull the whole bracket out. Hope this helps.Disclaimer:Pick too ugly to post at this time,LOL.

Answer:
Nick, you can usually straighten out the mud flap bracket with a crescent wrench, you may have to borrow a flatbedder's pipe for a bit of leverage.
You can also use a small 2" portable strap that flatbedders use to pull the bracket back by attaching one end to the bracket and the other end to a cross member towards the rear of the trailer. This will pull the bracket both up and towards the rear of the tire away from the tire it's rubbing against.

Answer:
...and don't back your rear tanem axel into any more curbs. ...hate it when that happens.
I don't understan how your blue (service) line to the trailer disabled your tractor brakes. I' do a thorough slack adjustment maintenance. If they are auto adjusting -- perform this recommened procedure from the cab:
1.
Release the parking brakes and apply maximum service brake pressure of 100+psi. Hold for a few seconds, then release.
2.
Repeat 4 or 5 times. Wait for pressure to build to 95psi between applications.
This supposedly re-sets auto slack adjusters.
Either way, may be a good time to set them fresh.
Your trailer may be set tighter than the tractor.

Answer:
no no no. The service brakes gland hand (on the truck) had a little "lip" on it and made it impossible to fully seal on the trailer gland hand for the service brakes. I was able to get it halfway on it and just wrapped the connection with alot of tape which worked... Mechanic fixed the gland hand which is another story...
the mud flap bracket is on solid piece of metal stretching to both mud flaps. the right side was messed up... the bungee cord i used to hold it back worked until i got to a mechanic.
if you have any other quick fixes i would like to hear them...
nick

Answer:
Ok, I'm lost.
When my airlines will not connect correctly and I can not get them to work because their broke they either get fixed by a mechanic right away or I don't move. I never for any reason take a chance with brakes and will never for any reason attempt some quick temporary fix on air lines.
Always always always think safety first above anything else. Smoking your brakes because you took a chance or thought it was ok is crazy. Wrapping your airline connection with tape to make it work is plain outright stoopid. I'm sure you want to live and I'm sure those people in vehicles around you want to live also.
Please don't take short cuts or attempt quick fixes on things that your life and the lives of others depends on.

Answer:
you can move a trailer with just the emergency air lines hooked up. I never had this problem happen before so forgive for asking advice Billy big rig super trucker.
Ummm, i always do.
I took a chance and thought the connection was safe. every trailer i pulled before was just fine...
i NEVER wrapped an airline. if you actually read my post I said i wrapped the Gland Hand, there is a big difference. Also i worked until i got to the closest mechanic and it was fixed.
any person wants too and i think i drive pretty safe. I may not be the safest person on the road but i try.
No $h!t

Answer:
Yes you can move a trailer around a parking lot at slow speeds with just the red airline hooked up. That is alot different than taking a chance and hauling it at highway speeds. Only an idiot would take that chance.
Actually you don't always as shown by this thread. Hopefully you have learned a little.
Thats exactly right. You took a chance and a completely irresponsible one at that.
The Glad hand is as much a part of the air lines as any fitting on them. Yes you took a chance and was lucky enough that you made it with nothing happening. That is a completely irresponsible chance to take.
You didn't try to be the safest driver on the road that time. Not even close actually. Taking chances with your trucks equipment is one of the most irresponsible things you can do.
Next time call the company and let them get it repaired right then and there. Don't move until it is repaired correctly. That load is not worth the lives of others or yourself. Playing Billy Big Rigger and trying to get r done is completely irresponsible and a chance any one with common sense would not take.

Answer:
Ok...I missed the clue in your first post.
The "lip" on the connection you're taliing about is a special design used to distinguish the red connection from the blue service line. The idea (apparently) was to make it impossible to connect the red hose where the blue should go, and vice-versa. Only similarly "lipped" gladhands would connect.
Well...of course when these special parts got mixed-up in shops and transfered from one hose to another or installed on the red instead of the blue by folks who didn't know they were only compatible in matched sets.......you get stuck going, "why the hell is this lip on here and why won't this thing turn to connect....?"
I had the same thing happen a year or so ago. I finally snapped the lip off with my vice-grips and the connection slipped together normally -- the cheap pot metal isn't hard to break.
The whole design idea was well intened -- but unnecessary. If you connect the hoses backwards, releasing the brakes dumps all the truck's air and it still doesn't release the trailer brakes in the meantime anyway... You ain't going anywhere if the hoses are backwards
Your smoking trailer may have been due to air escaping from your red connection which caused the trailer brakes to not fully release, or to progressivly close as you drove...??? In any event -- if the problem connection wasn't the trailer's red pressure line, the smoking trailer brakes were caused by something else. A leaky blue line would under-utilize the trailer's brakes, not burn them up.
I understand you just wrapped the gland hand to keep it from turning and coming off, since the lip prevented it from turning all the way to the closed position. That's different than wrapping an air leak, of course. Never the less (and without the holier-than-thou attitude) I have to agree it's risky to take it on the road if the parts aren't connecting properly. The simplest solution would be to unscrew the offending gladhand from the trailer, and bobtail it to a mechanic. (yet another use for those vice-grips ) There's a time and place for on-road service, but this wasn't it.
But don't ignore Stuffs advice just because he's acting like a jackazz. "I took a chance" and "safety" don't mix, and his core point is valid -- especially with brake systems.

Answer:
stuff's posts are completely meaning less to me. he has no idea of what he is talking about.
Shuffler thank you for your insight on the"lip" i had no idea what is was for and now i know. Also i know how to fix this problem with out needing to go to a shop thus saving time.
Thanks shuffler for your useful post.
Nick

Answer:

I too, didn't know about the lip...Never had a problem though, but I will look closer next time I hook up. (Company has some new Great Danes that might have this feature)
Thanks!
Answer:
I hope you people carry extra glade hand seals with you.

Answer:
Hmm, I'm acting like a Jackazz, really. This knothead took a chance on an airline and thinks of it as safe. Some times you people are simply brain dead. Suppose his chance taking didn't work out and he hit some one. Would you be as helpful then? Suppose it was a car full of kids? Would you be as polite to him then? Oh I know, it could of happened to any of us, right?
When a person states he took a chance he is saying he doesn't care about anyone or anything. No ones life is important to them.
This is of course newbies forum and teaching them to take short cuts on truck repairs is rediculous. I hope there are some who are actually smart enough to figure out for themselves this type of thing is simply not smart. Never do like this guy and take a chance. If you don't know what your dealing with don't move your truck. Learning what it is and asking about it after the fact could be fatal.
Hopefully this driver will have learned some thing by smoking his tractor brakes into a scale house (luckily it wasn't another vehicle) and will not take the chance again.
I am curious. Perhaps one of you polite posters could explain why it is worth it to take a chance. Is the load worth it, saving time, getting there for an appointment. What exactly constitutes worth taking a chance?
No Dak1 they do not carry gladhand grommets (seals). They carry duct tape.

Answer:
you know what super trucker billy big rigger. you have never made a mistake in your whole entire trucking career, or lack there of.
So i say to you the following.
Your message board incompetence is an inspiration to botched lobotomy patients everywhere. Your ineffective imitation of good posting style only serves to illuminate your lack of substance, good taste, and decency.
You read like a gimpzoid teenager splashing spit onto the monitor. Don’t you ever have a point beyond giving your fingers some exercise by dancing them randomly over the keyboard? Clearly, the full area of your ignorance is not yet mapped. We are presently only exploring the fringes of that vast expanse. Well, you're certainly thoughtless; I just wish that you were keyboard-less, too. As Ellen Glasgow once remarked: "He knows so little and knows it so fluently."
Reading your post is less interesting than watching paint dry. If wit was spit, your mouth would be drier than a shallow well in an African heat wave. I bet you thought it was just coincidence that your parents had the same surnames before they married? Maybe you wouldn't come across as such a jellyfish-sucking mental midget if that pimple on your (edited) hadn't turned out to be a brain tumor; if your weren't so fat that your local 'All-You-Can-Eat' buffet had to install speed bumps, or if you didn't have a face so ugly that Peeping Toms break into your house and close the blinds. Who am I kidding? You would.
Anyway, I'm not really good with fools.

Answer:
So, let me get this straight.
If a driver does a proper Pre Trip Inspection before taking off:
He is a "Super Trucker Billy Big Rigger".....Amazing!!
I have a 21 year clean MVR.
I must be a "Super Duper Pansy A$$ Trucking Billy Big Rigger",,, WHOA!!
And people wonder why I don't want Truck Driving School Wonder Boys behind the wheel of my "Cookie Cutter Truck"...(Yes, I had to add that)...LOL