Align between seasons, not in the middle of one
For a fleet whose work peaks at harvest, the busiest weeks are the worst time to take a truck out of service for anything that is not broken. Alignment is the classic casualty: nobody wants a tractor in the shop for most of a morning when the produce is moving, so it gets put off, and the truck runs the whole season slightly out.
That is expensive in a way that does not show on any single day. A tractor out of alignment wears its steer tires unevenly, burns a little more fuel, and is a little more tiring to drive. Over a long season, at the mileage a busy truck covers, that adds up to tires replaced early and money spent that never appears on an invoice as alignment.
A simple calendar
In the weeks before the season. Align every tractor that will be working hard, along with its trailers where they are due. Every unit starts the busy stretch square.
During the season. Only what has to happen: a truck that has had front-end or suspension work, hit something hard, or is visibly chewing a steer tire comes in. Everything else waits.
After the season. A look at the tires that came off. Their wear patterns are a record of how each truck tracked all season, and they tell you which units to look at first next year.
Booking ahead also helps the store, which can plan bay time for a group of trucks instead of fitting them in one by one during the rush.
Do the trailer too
A trailer out of square pulls the tractor off line, so aligning the tractor alone can leave half the problem in place. Trailer alignment is at this store, and a vibration that is not alignment at all is tire and wheel balancing. The national heavy-duty truck alignment page covers what the measurement includes.
About this store
The Yuma store runs seventeen services and is managed by Sean Quintanilla.
See the national heavy-duty truck alignment page for all 40 locations.