Cage a brake

They have a plastic or rubber plug in the caging hole when new. Yes you can still cage them.

 

My company takes the bolts off on new trucks/trailers and when they replace chambers. If one locks, make a call, and bank overtime lol

 

So do they pay for the bubble gum?

 

No but I can go to the rest area and get another piece off the bottom of a picnic table.

 

By the published CVSA standards OOS requires 20% or more of the service brakes to be non-functional/degraded. BOTH steer axle brakes MUST be fully functional.

That being said, you got real lucky because one non-functional or out of adjustment brake is still a defect and you should have gotten at least a warning and definitely not gotten a sticker.

 

Hi Keith, My '72 Pete ( avatar pic) didn't have steer axle brakes. I was told, if it didn't have brakes originally, it was grandfathered and didn't need them. I wonder if that's still true.

 

I think its stated in the regs about meeting the standards for the year of production.

About a month ago I chatted with a Sammons driver pulling an rgn with a 54 kw. really cool unrestored rig. Wonder if it has steer brakes

 

Steer axle brakes were good it was one of my trailer brakes and I was empty. May be that is why he gave me the tolerance.
He gave me a verbal warning. First sticker in 20 years. That was in 2012, Not that I don't pass inspections They just don't give me stickers.
I don't care If I get them or not. Just give me a clean inspection.

 

When you cage a brake, it only affects the spring brake by manually releasing it. The service brake still functions as it normally would. In other words, if you rupture a diaphragm, blow an airline, or have any other spring-brake-side failures, you can safely cage the brake and get back to the shop. § 393.41 states that "The parking brake shall be capable of holding the vehicle or combination of vehicles stationary under any condition of loading in which it is found on a public road (free of ice and snow).". In other words, if your tractor is like mine and has spring brakes on all 4 drives, caging 1 or 2 of them is still perfectly OK because most trucks only have spring brakes on 1 axle. If you are driving one of those trucks, you've still got the spring brakes on the trailer to hold you. The service brakes still work even with the cage bolt in there, so there is no danger in operating like that to get the truck back to the shop...and as long as you still have enough spring brakes to hold the truck if stopped, an officer would have no reason to place you OOS due to a manually released (caged) brake.

 

And they say truck drivers are a dime a dozen.