Derick, Author at Gerry's Truck Centres

Author Archives for Derick

Tips on how you can increase the life of your tires

Driving a heavy truck or rig?

If the answer is yes, we’ll share something that probably won’t come as much of a surprise.

If you take a quick look underneath your rig and do some counting, you’ll find there are eighteen wheels holding your heavy truck up, and on each of those wheels is a tire.

Eighteen “expensive to replace” on their own tires…and downright painfully “expensive to replace” tires if you have to replace all of them! Fact: no one (and we do mean NO ONE) enjoys replacing A SINGLE tire (much less eighteen of them) [...]

How heavy truck drivers can reduce fuel costs and improve the performance of their vehicle.

Welcome to 2021 and the world of ever increasing fuel costs!

Let’s start with the negative side of things. It’s safe to say that it comes as no surprise that fuel costs a fortune, seems to be perpetually increasing and is one of those things makes a massive dent into a truckers income. Now for the (semi) good side of things. You have the ability to reduce the amount of fuel you burn (and how much of your money you burn).

How so? How can you reduce fuel costs?

Simple, understand the following reality – without a well maintained [...]

A surprising way to defrost your heavy truck windshield faster in winter

Here comes winter, along with the ice, snow and yes, windshield that needs to be defrosted and cleared. It’s not fun clearing the windshield in a car and it’s much less fun doing this in a heavy rig. Probably fair to say that there aren’t many people, truck drivers or otherwise, who enjoy defrosting their windshield, particularly in winter.

Likely everyone has, at one point or another in their driving career (particularly in Canada), driven down the road with a fogged, icy or snowy windshield. Not only does this make that first kilometre or so more difficult, it is extremely dangerous. So today we have a suggestion that can make clearing the windshield of your rig easier.

How long does it take to charge a Volvo electric rig… and how long does a charge last?

So as the world realized it was transitioning from electric cars are progressively replacing fuel engined cars, truckers knew that electric heavy trucks and rigs wouldn’t be far behind. And they weren’t. But not surprisingly, the mass transition from diesel rigs to electric rigs has been slower than it has been with cars. Having said that, as they say, it’s just a matter of when… not if.

As heavy truckers progressively make the change from diesel engines to electric, two questions frequently come up from our customers when it comes to electrified heavy trucks and rigs.

How long does it take to charge a full size electric [...]

Do Volvo Trucks offer any kind of driving automation?

Volvo heavy trucks and rigs are the most technologically advanced vehicles on the road. As a brand Volvo prides itself on being on the leading edge of… well everything when it comes to trucking, so naturally, it took an organization like Volvo to offer the revolutionary “I-See” predictive cruise control technology.

Volvo’s I-See technology uses cloud based map data to actually analyze the upcoming road topography as you are driving on highways in cruise control. It literally reads the road ahead of you, and then adjusts the vehicle to maximize fuel consumption by using a combination of the vehicles speed, gears and engine brake. While any trucker knows, when you are driving [...]

What Volvo dynamic steering and the action movie star Jean Claude Van Damme have in common

A few years back, the “Muscles from Brussels” Jean Claude Van Damme (a famous action movie star) partnered with Volvo to prove exactly how stable and precise the Volvo Dynamic Steering system is. Let’s say they found a creative way to more than prove the point. We’ll start by explaining what Volvo Dynamic Steering is and the benefits it offers to heavy truck drivers, and then we’ll discuss the video.

Volvo Dynamic Steering is a revolutionary steering system only available in the Volvo heavy truck lineup. The technology receives input two thousand times per second from sensors that monitor everything from the yaw rate, the steering angle, wheel speed and drivers actions. And what is the benefit/goal that is derived from all of this you may be wondering?While there are many ancillary benefits, primarily there are two key things [...]

How comfortable are Volvo trucks to sleep in?

There is probably no group of people that appreciate when something actually (rarely?) lives up to the term “home away from home” more than truck drivers do.
Like it or not, your rig really needs to be just that. The further your truck falls short of delivering the comfort and convenience of home, the more stressful, difficult and hard a truck drivers life becomes. There is little argument that is applies no where as much as it does to your sleeping areas. Aside from the drivers cockpit the next important area of comfort is the sleeping quarters. Without proper rest and relaxation, the hard job of hauling becomes infinitely harder.

So with this in mind, Volvo set forth with the plan of creating the ultimate sleep conditions and amenities available in the trucking industry.

An Unexpected Way Heavy Truck/ Rig Drivers Can Reduce Fuel Costs

Of all the variable costs that truckers face, fuel is all but guaranteed to be the most severe one of the batch.

It is said that at one point, fuel was “cheap”.

Well, if fuel really ever was “cheap”, it certainly hasn’t been in recent memory… which brings us to the topic of this article.

How can heavy truck/ rig drivers reduce fuel costs?

Well we have a surprising way we are going to share with you that will reduce the merciless fuel costs that wreak havoc on your pocket book.

Here it is… reduce unnecessary idling.

Sounds too simple? Too basic?

Many (most) drivers never think of the fuel costs involved in unnecessary idling.

Studies have shown that just ten seconds of idling actually burns MORE fuel than the act of ignition, and that’s even when you allow for the fact that you’re not moving your rig.

Now while this is a simple concept [...]

How Often Should Truckers Change The Oil In Their Rigs, And How To Extend Engine Oil Life

If you’re a trucker you are undoubtedly painfully aware that heavy rig oil changes an add up rather quickly.

Of course the alternative, which is to neglect your oil changes really isn’t a great option though because replacing heavy truck engines adds up much quicker!

So the question truckers want to know is how frequently should they actually change the oil in their rigs?

(And after we answer this, as an added bonus we are going to give you three tips that can help extend the life of your oil.)

First, we will start by saying you should always follow any OEM advice/ recommendations, but beyond that we suggest, depending upon the model year of your vehicle, having oil changes anywhere from forty thousand kilometres to eighty thousand kilometres.

Why such a wide range?

This is due to the fact that many variables that come into play on how frequent your [...]

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