Ensuring Low-Cost Preventive Maintenance of Electrical Systems

In the heavy trucking industry, tech solutions enabled by the Internet of Things and Big Data are making giant strides for preventive maintenance (PM). However, the reliability of these technologies depends on the inbuilt electrical systems of the trucks.

Over the years, capacities, efficiency, and accuracy of electrical components have drastically improved to meet the increasing load requirements in the trucking industry. At the same time, these systems are prone to frequent breakdowns as well. You can remove their vulnerabilities through these processes:

Understand the Interdependency of Electrical Systems:

The electrical preventive maintenance procedures should recognize all the electrical components as an integrated and interdependent system. Due to this unification, it becomes easier to plan a PM process that can check the systems in a logical order. It helps in preventing a wrong diagnosis of the inherent issues.

Test the Batteries:

A PM process customarily starts with checking the batteries. There are a lot of components to be checked here. The preventive maintenance checks should be conducted with a voltmeter or a hydrometer to evaluate the state of charge of the batteries. It should fall between 12.4 to 12.6 volts.

If the charge falls below this level, you should immediately get it charged. An overcharged battery should be replaced after checking and rectifying the underlying causes.

Check the Load and Voltage Drops:

The batteries in a heavy truck should be fully charged and you need to perform load testing to assess the health of the batteries. Include this step in your electrical system PM checklist for an assured longevity of these systems.

Apart from this, voltage drop tests are equally important to determine the health of a charging system. They can prevent replacement of the components like alternator and starter.

Instead of relying on the results of hypocritical visual checks, you should prefer a voltage drop test to gain a better ROI from your fleet PM schedules.

These steps can help in minimizing the replacements and optimize component longevity at lower costs. If you need any help with PM checklist of your truck, contact us for comprehensive maintenance solutions