Tire pressure drops with the temperature, and Hwy 1 finds out before you do
Every ten degrees of cold takes pressure out of a tire. The blowout happens at the first long pull, not in the yard. The tires were fine in the yard. Two hours later, on the long grade west of Canmore or the flat run past Bassano, a trailer tire lets go. This is the pattern […]
DEF freezes at minus 11. Here is what that does to your truck in an Alberta January
Frozen DEF is normal and the truck is built for it. The problems start with heaters that fail, jugs in the cab, and fills from the wrong tank. DEF is two-thirds water, so it freezes, at about minus 11 Celsius. Every truck built since 2010 expects this. The tank has a heater, the lines are […]
What a derate countdown actually means, and what to do in the next hour
The clock on the dash is not a suggestion. Here is what triggers it, what clears it, and why erasing the code does nothing. You are eastbound on Hwy 1 past Strathmore and the dash puts up a message: engine derate in 4 hours. Nothing has changed in how the truck drives, yet. That hour […]