Trailer Air Ride Leveling Valve Hooked Up Backward

#trucking #truckerlife #airride #airridesuspension #hookedupbackward
If your trailer air bags won't inflate even with air pressure going to the trailer, check for these things, among others. You might not be a mechanic, but if you're a trucker, you're still expected to know how to find problems like this on a pre-trip inspection. In this case, the trailer air ride leveling valve was hooked up backward (input arm facing forward instead of aft). You can also possibly avoid making a special stop and waiting for 2+ hours for a mechanic to find and fix this problem that you can take just 5 minutes to find and fix on your own.
The air bags on this trailer would not inflate properly when I first acquired it. I did leave the arm hooked up backward through the end of this video, but I eventually disconnected it and reconnected it the right way after leaving the shipper in question and getting to a nearby truck stop.
This is also a great example of why truckers should always double check the work of mechanics. As a retired aircraft mechanic and as a trucker I can tell you that a large number of maintenance issues are caused by mechanics taking shortcuts, being complacent, not hooking parts back up correctly and/or at all, doing required follow-on maintenance, etc. This was a great example of what happens when a trailer mechanic reconnects the air ride leveling valve improperly.
I mentioned not being able to get the input arm in the proper aft position in the video, but after getting to the truck stop, there was enough clearance between the input arm and the trailer frame rail for me to reconnect it in the proper position, after rotating the input arm and pushing it up against the trailer frame rail, which caused the air bags to inflate more and create more clearance between the input arm and the frame rail.