Driving a refrigerated truck naturally puts you under pressure, as you’re solely responsible for perishable produce which is located in the back of your refrigerated truck. If your refrigerator stops working, you could end up providing your customers with produce which is off and dangerous, so it’s important to keep everything running smoothly! Here, we outline 8 maintenance struggles than only refrigerated truck drivers will understand!
1. Damaged air chute
It’s easy for an air chute to become damaged when you’re loading produce in/out of a trailer, and this is something which many drivers will be familiar with, with tears and rips not being uncommon. This can go on to create hot spots and cold spots in the truck, causing some of your produce to go bad.
2. Faulty hoses/belts
A reefer’s performance is undoubtedly affected by damaged or faulty hoses and belts, forcing it to work very hard in order to function as normal. This extra workload can cause later damage to your reefer, causing a whole host of further problems.
3. Leaks
A reefer contains many different fluids which could leak at the most inopportune moment, causing chaos. However, engine coolant and engine oil are the most frequent leaks, with engine coolant frequently leaking from a reefer’s equalizer tube.
4. Improperly calibrated reefers
This error is rather insidious because it’s subtle and may not become apparent for a long time, making much of the driver’s produce unknowingly dangerous to consume. If your reefer is not calibrated correctly, it may be dropping (or rising) temperatures at a rate which is harmful to your produce.
5. Condenser problems
Condensers are essential parts of your reefer, and it is not uncommon for them to be plagued with missing clamps/bolts, leaks, and damaged/broken coils, putting the integrity of your reefer into question.
6. Bulkhead blockages
Bulkhead blockages can cause changes in temperature around your truck, even causes freezing on the top boxes located near the bulkhead while simultaneously warming up produce near the end of a trailer.
7. Sensor problems
It’s not uncommon for sensors in your reefer to be improperly calibrated or simply malfunctioning, creating a plethora of issues. Sensor problems are similar to calibration problems in the sense that they are insidious and subtle, causing you to read your readings inaccurately without you even being aware of it. This can obviously lead to much more complex issues, as you use your sensor data to make poorly-informed decisions without even knowing it!
8. Damaged door seals
Regulating the temperature of a refrigerated truck requires a fully functioning seal, and damaged door seals could be allowing the temperature to “escape” and cause harm to the produce, resulting in improperly refrigerated food which is dangerous to consume. Door seals can often become damaged over time simply due to wear and tear, so it’s a good idea to check them regularly.
