Tomorrows Truck and the Repair Industry

    Looking back over the last twenty years (or so), I think about the changes that have come about and also about what the near future will bring. When I first started work as a truck mechanic, all diesel truck engines were mechanically injected. Cabovers were more common than conventionals, and many trucks and probably most trailers still rolled on spoke-type (Dayton) wheels. Bias ply, tube type tires were still common, as were multi-piece wheels (split rims). 

    All these things have changed. All vehicle engines (at least those built in this country) are electronically injected, and a cabover tractor is a rarity, at least in most areas. There are probably a few railroad trailers still running bias tires, but those too, are very rare. Multi-piece wheels are no longer seen at all.

    To anyone who longs for bygone days I will say that either you weren’t there or you have a very short memory. Things are better now for mechanics as well as drivers. Trucks are much more comfortable and easier to drive, more economical, and there is no comparison as to sleeper accommodations. For mechanics the situation has improved even more. Modern trucks require much less periodic maintenance and run more miles to overhaul. Of course, they are also much more complicated and when they do need work, harder to work on than trucks of the past. That said, I will take today over yesterday without hesitation.

    I still occasionally hear someone talk about “the good old days” of being able to fix an engine by the side of the road with just the tools in a small carry box. I say that is like stating that a model T is better than a modern car because it could be started with a crank. I remember long days and nights out on the road or in the shop in subzero weather, starting (or attempting to start) trucks with gelled or frozen fuel. Nor do I really miss steel spring replacement, breaking down and reassembling split rims (after patching the tube), doing brake jobs on spoke wheels, or diagnosing and repairing series/parallel electrical systems. All these things were common when I started out, and good riddance. 

    Ok, I will get off the soapbox and talk about what I see coming in the near future. Technology is driven by economics, and fuel economy, driver retention, and cost to repair will continue to be challenges. We as mechanics are concerned with the last factor. I believe that the repair field will become more stratified as time goes by. What I mean is that I think there will be two groups of technicians; diagnosticians who are highly trained (and paid), who will figure out what needs to be done and how to do it, and another group of lesser skilled techs who will basically change parts and do services. This division has always been present to some extent, as some techs just have no desire to learn new technologies. They will have work but will never make top wages or advance to the top of the field. The problem is that according to all information, there will be a shortage of qualified mechanics as the workforce ages. This is happening now. I don’t know what the average age of a mechanic is nowadays, but I visit quite a few shops and everybody is starting to look decidedly gray around the edges.

    What I am leading up to is that economics will drive truck technology ahead at an ever increasing rate. Soon, your truck will communicate with the manufacturer every time it is started up and will continue to communicate while it is running down the road. The manufacturer may detect a problem before the driver is even aware of it. The driver will get a message to visit the nearest dealer, and will be sent that dealer’s location and directions to get there. When he arrives, the job will already be scheduled and a repair procedure in place. All operating parameters not sent in real time will be gathered at the dealer and sent to the manufacturer via wireless or internet. The manufacturer will be involved in repair and diagnosis of the individual truck to a much greater extent than at present, and Artificial Intelligent systems will do much of the diagnosis without human intervention.

    Vehicle systems will use wireless, Bluetooth-type systems to monitor tire pressure and the reefer environment. Communication between vehicle computers and sensors will be done by two-way RF (radio frequency) transmission, so that engine temperature, pressure, and position sensors will communicate with the computer without needing wires. All these things are possible right now with present technology and all are certainly being worked on. 

    Future trucks will also look different from those made today. As fuel gets more and more costly, aerodynamics will play an even greater role in design. Gap enclosures on the rear of tractors have been used for some years, to keep moving air out of the space between tractor and trailer. Hoods have become lower and grills smaller. In the last few years, air control add-ons have become common on trailers. Side skirts deflect moving air from under the trailer, and boat tail add-ons have recently been seen on road trailers. Trailer manufacturers will soon integrate these elements into their designs and extend the concepts to include wheel enclosures, rounded corners, and tapered rear ends. Skirts have already smoothed the sides of modern tractors, and further use of integrated skirting and wheel enclosure will be seen. Some time soon, one of the tractor manufacturers will come out with a design that puts all of these elements together and looks as radical to our eyes as the Kenworth T2000 did a decade ago, and other manufacturers will follow suit. The next step would be the integration of tractor and trailer, the two being designed to work together, if not actually being comprised of a single unit.

    The obvious question is how a shrinking and aging workforce will change to keep up with the technology to come, how training will change with the times, and whether wages will keep up with everything else.

    According to the May, 2011 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the average Diesel Engine Mechanic salary is $42,250.  http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes493031.htm  This compares to $32,344 in 2000, so wages are almost keeping up with the cost of living. Whether this trend will continue in the face of change remains to be seen, but indications are that formal training, and probably better training, will be ever more important in the future. If I am correct in my assessment of the increased stratification outlined above, real wages in the field could actually go down relative to the cost of living. The increased wages of the top diagnostic techs may be offset by the larger number of lower paid positions. I have not seen any information supporting this scenario, but if you look at other fields, you can see parallels. Today for instance, Physician Assistants perform much of the work traditionally done by doctors. 

    At any rate, it is obvious that an untrained hopeful entering the job market will be at more and more of a disadvantage in finding a good position. Shops of all types will be increasingly reluctant to hire and train techs who don’t have the skills needed to fix modern equipment. Training will need to encompass not only traditional core mechanical skills, but knowledge of computer, internet, electronic, and communication subjects will become more necessary. Techs will need to know how to pick up new information efficiently and quickly if they wish to advance. Specialized bachelor-level degrees will form for the highest level of technician training.

    All in all, the next ten to twenty years will be a very interesting time to be involved in the industry, and who knows, truck mechanics may finally get the public respect they have long deserved.

Bruce  12/31/2011

The VEHICLe diagnostic process

Today, I would like to present a process for diagnosis I call VEHICLe. This is not intended to allow a layperson the ability to diagnose and repair his or her own vehicle, but to provide a beginning or novice professional with an outline or a framework for general diagnosis. The panel below outlines the process:

The VEHICLe process for mechanical diagnostics.

 V: A visual check often finds the problem in the shortest period of time, and should be done every time. For example: For drivability diagnostics, check for leaking fluids, connections to sensors, loose hoses and components. For electrical problems, look for loose or rubbing wires, loose connections, broken wires, loose grounds. For vibration or steering issues, check for low tires, rubbing suspension parts, bent parts. Look for recent repairs for possible clues to the present problem.

Next to your brain, your eyes are the most important diagnostic tool you have. Whenever you are looking at a vehicle keep your vision wide, looking AROUND what you are looking AT. Develop the skill of seeing everything in the area you are looking at. Don’t go under a truck to look at a low tire and miss the broken brake caliper that is right in front of you.

E: Make sure you check the easy things very early in the process. Don’t tear into a wiring harness until you know the fuses are good and the battery is hooked up. Don’t check a fuel pump until you know there is fuel in the tank. Don’t check a turbo or exhaust system for a power complaint until you have checked the air filter. These things may seem obvious, but the simple things are the answer in probably 3 out of 4 complaints. Checking them first will save a lot of time in the long run, and is a good habit to get into.

H: If the problem is with a system monitored by the vehicle computer, you should scan for codes, even if the check engine light is not on. Make sure you write them down right away, so you have them to look at without going back to the scantool. Even stored codes can sometimes give you a clue to the problem. Sometimes a code will lead to a solution, even if the problem seems to have nothing to do with that code.

If a code does address the problem at hand, this is a good time to hit the book or the online source for more information. You may find an update, a field change, or a service bulletin that takes care of the problem. You can almost certainly find a diagnostic tree or chart that will tell you how to proceed.

I: Isolate the problem to part of the whole system. This is one of the basic procedures in any diagnostic process. In fuel and electrical systems there is usually a way to eliminate part of the circuit as the problem. For instance, if the lights are blowing fuses because of a short, there is usually a harness connector in the middle of the vehicle somewhere to see if unhooking the rear lights will make the short go away. If A truck fuel system is sucking air and returning bubbles to the tank, you could take the fuel line off before the filter or pump and run the engine from a bucket of fuel to see if a tank connection or tank pickup is the problem. The harder a problem is to nail down, the more necessary it becomes to isolate it until the solution is found.

C: As you check things looking for the problem, don’t waste time checking something more than once. Check what you need to, check it properly and thoroughly, then move on. Don’t check it again unless you do something that may affect it. This again may seem obvious, but sometimes the tendency is to recheck things just to see if maybe you have moved something that made a difference. Avoid this temptation, as it just wastes time. All I am saying is don’t recheck unless you are pretty sure you found and fixed something that will make a difference.

L: The last step in the process is to verify that the vehicle is indeed fixed. Do not take this step lightly or skip it, even for a simple repair. Verification infers that you know exactly what the problem was in the first place, and that requires that you experienced the problem firsthand. This usually means you must have test driven the vehicle yourself, or seen the problem manifested, yourself. It is often impossible for another person to adequately describe a problem to you so that you can determine when it is gone. When the problem fails to appear under the same conditions as were present when you saw it before, you have done all you can do to verify the repair. 

As you can see this process is non specific, and won't necessarily help with any one particular problem. It is intended more as a general starting point and an outline. This set of rules is, however, universal to any diagnostic problem, and is sound practice to cultivate as a habit. 

Thank you for reading,

Bruce 

P.S. as this is original material, kindly cite me as the source if you use it.    

    

Electrical systems part4: resistors make control possible

  Hello, and welcome to the latest installment of electrical system posts. Resistors are basically components that reduce the voltage within a circuit. They are used to control the speed of motors, to allow a computer to read switch position inputs, and in sensors to read temperature, pressure, and fluid level. So circuits for cab climate control blowers, windshield wipers, and gauges, all contain resistors, usually more than one.
  A resistor is a component made of a material that resists the flow of electricity. In reality, all materials are somewhat resistive, but carbon, and alloys of nickel and copper, or nickel and chromium are common resistor materials in the automotive industry. An important property of a resistive material is that, for a given cross section area, resistance is proportionate to length and cross section area. If you have two wires of the same diameter and material, a wire 4" in length will have twice the resistance of one 2" long, but a larger diameter wire will have less resistance than a smaller wire of the same length. This may seem wrong, but think of what would have more resistance to water flow, a large or a small diameter hose? A longer hose or a shorter one?

  You can easily make a resistor and test these principles. The following could also be fun for kids to help with. Take a piece of paper and a soft lead pencil, and draw a long, thin rectangle on the paper. The rectangle should be as dense and consistent as possible for the best results. If you now take a multimeter set to Ohms and touch one probe to each end of the rectangle, you will get a certain resistance reading. If you move one probe to about the middle of the rectangle, the Ohms reading should be about half. Even more interesting is to take that same rectangle and a AA or AAA battery and check the voltage drop through your resistor. First, measure the voltage of the battery with your meter and remember it. Now set one end of the battery on one end of your resistor, put one of the meter leads on the free end of the battery, and touch the other lead to the opposite end of the resistor. The voltage reading should be less than the battery voltage. Now move the meter lead from the end to the middle of the resistor, and the voltage should increase. You have just simulated exactly how things like fuel level senders, pressure sensors, and throttle position sensors function. The computer sends a 5volt reference to the sensors and the amount of voltage that comes back from each tells the computer the position or pressure of that sensor.
 Watch this video to see me do it.     
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB8SNQnNagg
The same idea of a voltage drop through a resistor can also be used to give cab blower motors multiple speeds by using a selector switch to direct power through different resistors and then to the motor. This same method gives wiper motors intermittent settings when different voltages are sent to a circuit board or a computer.
  Thanks for your time, and continue checking this site for the next installment.
Bruce