Soon, getting that annual truck chassis inspection should be less of a chore, as Alban Engine Power Systems brings its vehicle inspection system (VIS) right to your door.
Six months ago, Baltimore based Alban, purchased a machine from Vehicle Inspection Systems Ltd., an Australia-based company whose North American headquarters is in Louisville, KY. This system has been available Down Under for several years, but according to Alban, this marks the first time a Caterpillar dealer will offer this service to customers in North America.
Dominick Adams, VIS supervisor of Alban Engine Power Systems, described the system:
“You can put either the front or the back wheels of a vehicle on the VIS machine, simulating its motion going down the road. It’s very easy to pinpoint problems this way, when in the past, you had to manually and visually search for these problems,” he said.
“The VIS has a roller set on it that performs a functional brake test. It also has a set of shaking plates, which checks the chassis as it vibrates on the plates. All the tie-rod ends, kingpins, draglink, any steering components, crossmembers of the frame, walking beam suspensions may be inspected. It allows you to check all the straps for air tanks, fuel tanks, cab mounts, hood hinge bushings and stack mounts. Basically it shakes the whole vehicle, simulating over the road vibration felt inside the truck.”
Checking Everything But the Kitchen Sink
According to Adams, the old vehicle inspection method was to jack up the truck’s front end, stick a bar between the wheel and the hub, and pry. The VIS, however, “takes all the guesswork out and saves a lot of time,” he said.
“It might take all day for a shop to inspect your vehicle, but we can do it in about 30 minutes. We can give you a complete evaluation of the vehicle’s brake performance and other components, such as steering, suspension and chassis,” Adams said.
Another salient feature of the VIS is its ability to test and locate a wide range of potential problems.
“As far as brake measurements go, it checks the rolling resistant of each wheel bearing. It tells you how hard, how many forces it’s taking to get the wheel to start to turn. It will tell you exactly how effective the brakes are at stopping the truck. Brake effectiveness is measured, and a printout is generated,” said Adams. “The machine will tell us if we have an air delivery problem, whether it’s a clip valve, or whether we have a blockage in an R12 valve, relay valve or air ratio valve. We can take air pressure measurements from each brake chamber. Then this information is available in graph form.”
Adams also noted that a major benefit of the VIS is that the brake timing of a truck-trailer combination can be checked.
Taking VIS to a Job Site Near You
Alban has custom built a trailer so the company can bring this service portable and convenient. Eric Payne, explained the virtues of a mobile inspection system bringing it to your job site:
“Ultimately, you may be able to save money on your insurance [depending on your carrier] by having this test done and this printout verification may be used as a legal document in case of an accident. In the past, all you could say is, ’I took my truck over to the shop and they manually inspected it.’ This gives the customer an objective readout to verify braking force,” he said.
The VIS machine also is versatile. It can be used on school buses, hazardous waste carriers and construction wheeled vehicles. The machine has a high weight tolerance, accommodating most vehicles, making it a natural fit for construction companies.
Adams continued, “We do one axle at a time. The VIS machine gives you an exact weight on each wheel. That’s how you measure your brake forces on this machine. It gives you the exact weight and when it does the brake test it tells you the amount of brake force you have. Your brake force should always be at least half of what the gross vehicle weight is. Anything less than that you start looking, start investigating why.”
According to Alban, the VIS machine provides a quality, accurate, inexpensive, convenient and safe diagnostic chassis test to assist fleet managers and individual owner/operators in maintaining their vehicles above and beyond traditional methods.
For more information, call 800/443-9813 or visit www.albanengine.com.
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