Learn Which Vehicle Equipment Areas to Inspect Carefully

People don't just drive around without having large pump motors bolted on! Major companies wouldn't let a 100 gallon sprayer truck drive around if the tank wasn't bolted down! You assume these things to be true and while we certainly don't think they'd practice these scenarios consentingly – we've seen situations like these come into our repair shop. Unaware that their once upon a time bolts had rusted off or we're hanging on by "a thread." 

Take 10 minutes to inspect the company trucks to ensure everything is properly secure, not just the little tools. Add it to the company mechanics quarterly vehicle inspection. Now we can't speculate any better than anyone else what would have happened if trucks like these had been involved in an accident. Would parts have gone flying out? Chemical spilled? Hundreds of pounds of equipment ejected from truck beds? Nobody can say, but we can make you aware that just because it was bolted on once doesn't mean sun, water, stress and vibration of driving and time hasn't done a number on the bits and pieces causing them to fail. 

We cannot stress enough how important it is to inspect large equipment in your truck beds and make sure those and the little pieces are properly secured. 

Be sure to check out some of our next video featuring some of our Technician "Hall of Shame" stories!

Andrew Greess: What I want you to check for equipment security, I want you to check your hand tools, things like B&Gs, and gas cans, and small stuff, and backpacks. Those are things I think that tech should be checking every day.

The bigger stuff like toolboxes, tank straps, skid sprayers, that's the company's responsibility, and they need to be checked maybe quarterly, when you get the oil changed, or annually, something.

I don't think that tech needs to be getting under a truck every day to be checking to see whether the skid sprayer is attached, but someone needs to do that. Here is an example of small tools that are secure.

There is a B&G in a security rack, and there is a backpack in a security rack, so if this person does get in an accident it's not going to go flying.

Here are some other examples. This is a Honda engine with a pump. It's what we call motor mount assembly. This got brought in for service. It got brought in for us to service the pump, but our technician saw that there was a problem. The motor mount wasn't attached very well. It was attached with one or two very loose bolts on one side.

This is a big company. You would know they have their own full-time mechanic, and this still happens. My concern is, what happens if this truck gets in an accident? Is that going to hold? I don't know, but it's not worth the risk to find out.

This assembly with a steel plate and a pump and a motor has got to weigh 50 or 60 pounds. It's got to, and if it comes loose, does it go flying? Does it just damage? Does it leak gas? I don't know what happens, but this is, to me, an unacceptable risk.

We should not be assuming this kind of risk, and you need to be checking your equipment for this kind of thing.

Here's another one. This is a tool box on a sprayer that was brought in for service, and we noticed that the bottom was rusting out of the bottom of the toolbox.

When you bolt your toolbox down to your truck, everything is fine, but after 5 years or 10 years, if it's metal, or plastic, or fiberglass, the material around that bolt can disintegrate and again, it might be fine under normal conditions but if you get in an accident, this is not going to hold.

This is the scariest one. This was, a customer brought in a 100-gallon sprayer and said, "I want to switch this sprayer from my old truck to my new truck." We got a guy under the truck so we could take the bolts out, and what we saw was, there was these three bolts, completely rusted out, no nuts.

This guy is driving around Arizona, our town, with a 100-gallon sprayer that's not attached. I don't know about you, but my daughter is driving in this town, and my wife is driving in this town. This scares the hell out of me. Just think about that.

If he had been in an accident, I'm not trying to create a nightmare scenario, but if this is your company and this happens to you, you're going to have a problem. Does that make sense? Hopefully, I'm getting some attention out there.

If you missed the first 5 videos in the series, please check out those blog posts here:

Spray Equipment Safety Training Seminar Introduction

Rules for Spray Equipment Safety Seminar Discussion

What are the Safety Risk Seminar Topics?

Vehicle Equipment Security: Protecting Your Driver and Others

Vehicle Equipment Security Securing Your Backpack, Gas Can, Hose Reel

You can also check out the slides from the Spray Equipment Safety Seminar here:

For more information on Andrew Greess, visit https://www.qspray.com/