Refrigeration Unit Maintenance Tips: Part 3

Maintenance tips to help keep your trailer on the road

Becoming aware of potential problems that can occur with your refrigeration unit will allow you to act proactively and keep your trailer on the road. Thermo King District Service Managers Scott Koch and Freddy Muñoz, have outlined four specific refrigeration unit maintenance tips to help avoid potential issues that will put a trailer out of service.

1. Proactive maintenance can save you money in the end. The cost of a call out charge or load loss will be significantly higher than being proactive about maintenance.

2. Utilize tools such as Thermo King OptiSet® Plus to ensure optimal temperature control and engine run time while minimizing the potential for setpoint/mode errors by the operator.

• One feature of OptiSet® Plus is around temperature control for product protection, but a significant part of the OptiSet Plus package allows fleets to maximize unit efficiency and reduce run hours which can extend the time between maintenance events.

3. Install solar panels on units. Maintaining battery health is critical to reducing some of the most common out of service issues. With many units connected to cellular communication devices, the battery voltage is critical to maintain.

4. Utilize telematics such as TracKing® to remotely monitor equipment location and health status. This allows fleets to take action on items immediately to prevent unscheduled breakdowns and reduce maintenance costs.

• With TracKing, fleets can monitor and react on selected codes the TRU may generate during operation. Having visibility to codes at the fleet manager level, gives a different level of insight than was not previously available before the widespread use of telematics.
• Today’s TRU’s can set alarm parameters for maintenance events. As an example, a TRU can be set so that at 1,500 hours, a reminder can be given to both the driver and fleet maintenance manager to indicate that the unit is due for an inspection.

By staying alert to potential problems that can occur with your refrigeration, you can act proactively and keep your trailer on the road.