In a time-sensitive industry like trucking, an inspection can consume a significant amount of time that could have been spent on the road.
It’s no surprise that inspections lasting only 10 to 15 minutes are common.
As if that weren’t bad enough, some drivers aren’t paid for the time they spend on inspections, despite the fact that it’s part of their required day.
If you completed a CDL training program at a reputable truck driving school, you should be familiar with all inspection requirements.
In fact, you should be able to perform one that far exceeds the bare minimum.
Regardless of how diligent you believe you are. We all miss a few details from time to time.
So, if you want to know how to do an in-cab inspection for a CDL test, then this blog is for you. It will go over each and everything that must be a part of the inspection.
Being one of the most important parts of the CDL test, in-cab inspection involves checking various nitty-gritty things that make a big difference.
Checking Mirrors
Starting from one side and working our way to the other, we will double-check the mirrors. Our mirrors should be clean and properly adjusted.
Our glass should have no cracks or pits and must be larger than a quarter.
Everything must appear to be in good condition.
Clutch and Gauges
Going ahead, we’ll move down to the gauges.
The first step is a safe start.
Make sure the truck is in neutral, press your foot on the clutch, your other foot on the brake, starting the truck.
Then double-check that the truck is not moving.
Release the clutch slowly.
If it’s an automatic then there is no clutch.
After that, look at all of your gauges.
Let’s start with the ABS light when you turn your key back on.
Make certain that it turns on and off. In addition, we should check the DEF gauge to ensure that you have enough diesel exhaust fluid.
The engine oil pressure should be sitting in the safe range. The coolant temperature gauge should be rising slowly.
Before you start driving, double-check the speedometer and tachometer.
Make sure you have enough air pressure by checking air pressure gauges.
The last thing to check here is voltage. Many newer vehicles may not have a voltage meter gauge, but it might be hidden in the computer portion of the dash.
Next, turn on the wipers and washers to make sure that they’re working.
Heater and Defroster
To check your heater and defroster, set it to heat and set it to defrost.
Make sure it’s blowing, not just on top of the dash but also on the floor.
That double-checks the heater and defroster.
Even in the dead of summer, it’s required that the defroster works, so you need to inspect it.
Horn, Indicators and 4-way flashers
Both the city horn and the air horn should work.
Indicators or turn signals are important, especially for big vehicles. Check all of your indicators, left turn, right turn, high beams.
Don’t forget to check 4-way flashers.
The switch might be either under the turn signal, or it might be a button on the dash. If it’s under the turn signal switch, the way you cancel your 4-ways is by kicking the blinker down and bringing it back up.
Test out the steering. Check to see if there’s any play in it and if it’s working properly.
Safety Items
The next step in the in-cab inspection will be to double-check your safety items.
- The first line of defence is a seat belt.
The seat belts should be in good working order. Make sure it couples, latches tightly, and unlatches and has no frays or tears.
- A fire extinguisher should be securely mounted and in green.
- Don’t forget to check spare fuses. Unless your truck has circuit breakers you will need to have a few extras.
- Then you need to double-check the three triangles. Check that you have three triangles and that they are in the red box.
Brake Test
Static Brake Test
The last thing we need to do is perform an air brake test.
The first part of this is to check and perform the static pressure test.
Follow these steps to check air brakes.
- Chock the wheels or make sure that you are on a flat surface where you won’t roll.
- Release the brakes.
- Make sure you don’t roll
- Once our brakes are released, proceed to turn off the truck.
- Turn the key to the on position so the gauges are operational.
- Watch the air gauges for one minute.
Check that the gauges, for a combination tractor-trailer should not move more than 3 PSI per minute. For a straight truck, class B, it shouldn’t move more than 2 PSI in a minute. This is called the Static Brake Test.
Applied Brake Test
The next test is the applied brakes test.
- Chock the wheels or make sure that you are on a flat surface where you won’t roll.
- Release the brakes.
- Make sure you don’t roll
- Once our brakes are released, proceed to turn off the truck.
- Turn the key to the on position so the gauges are operational.
- Hold the foot on the brake pedal for one minute.
- To begin with, you should have a small amount of drop.
Check that the gauges, for a combination tractor-trailer should not move more than 4 PSI per minute. For a straight truck, class B, it shouldn’t move more than 3 PSI in a minute. This is called the Applied Brake Test.
Low Air Alarm
The next thing is to make sure the low alarm works.
The low air alarm sounds at about 60 PSI.
For that, we are going to fan our brakes, with the key in the on position down until the low alarm comes on. There should be a visual and audible alarm that is triggered when the air pressure reaches 60 psi.
Emergence Valve Set
Next, we need to make sure that our brakes are set when air pressure gets too low.
Continue fanning the brakes until the valves “pop” out or the brakes set.
This should happen at around 20-40 PSI.
Air Compressor / Governor Cutout
Now let’s start the truck and let it build air.
To generate air faster, we can rev the engine to normal operating speed, which is around 1500 RPMs.
One of the things we’re looking for in the air pressure is built up from 85 to 100 psi time of fewer than 45 seconds.
The thing to check is the air compressor cuts out or stops building air at around 125 PSI.
Park Brake Test
To conduct a park brake test.
- Release the truck parking brake and put the truck in drive or low gear.
- Slightly tug against the brakes to make sure they hold.
- Set the truck parking brake and place it in neutral.
- Next release the or the trailer parking brake, put the truck in drive or low gear,
- Slightly tug against the brakes to make sure they hold.
- Set the truck parking brake and place it in neutral.
If the vehicle moves when you perform either part of this test. Place the vehicle out of service until the brakes can be adjusted.
Service Brake Test
Lastly, we will conduct the service brake test.
Start by releasing both the truck and trailer brakes. We are going to place the vehicle in gear and roll forward at about 5 mph. Then step on the brake pedal to ensure that the truck stops and doesn’t pull to one side or the other.
So, place the truck in gear and go ahead and pull forward until you reach about 5 miles per hour.
And then, press on the brakes. If the truck did not move side to side, set our brakes to the back and shift the truck back to neutral.
Important Things to Look For During Cab Inspection
When going through the in-cab inspection, one of the things to look for is how clean the cab is. Is the floor squeaky clean?
How do you like the feel of your steering wheel? Is it in good shape? Is it too sloppy?
Make sure there’s nothing in the way of your feet or obscuring your vision; no stickers on the windshield, either.
One of the other things to look for on all commercial vehicles is how tinted the side windows are. You could get a ticket if your side windows have too much tint on them.
Let’s get out there and lay some rubber on the road.
Until next time.
Stay safe.
Dan Greer
