School Buses, Trucks, and Winter Preventative Maintenance

Winter will be here soon enough indeed. Once, Wintermay be associated with it. Magnesium Chloride 5
is in full swing there are serious issues for schooldegrees to negative twenty-Does not hurt concrete,
buses and school bus safety. The key is preventative40% less chloride into environment, comes in either
maintenance. Many buses blow exhaust underneathsolid or liquid, liquid preferred, Potassium Chloride- 25
either one or both back tires to keep warm and meltdegrees to 12 degrees-Similar to urea. Good deicer
ice and snow after they stop to get traction. Schooland fertilizer. Smells terrible later. Sand-good traction;
Buses Must Be Prepared For Winter Driving otherwisebut major mess later. Environmentally okay, after all it
buses get stuck in route or accidents can occur. Manyis only sand, sand blasts trucks and screws up paint.
times there is no sense in using buses on some daysSodium Chloride-15 to negative six degrees-deices,
meaning if no one can get there, why have school thatoften mixed with sand and salt applications. They call it
day at all; All the children Left Behind?road salt or you have heard the term rock salt. Urea is
School districts are taking the threat of snow and iceused in -25 degrees to 11 degrees- Looks like small
seriously during winter, preparing the buses for winterwhite pellets, used usually as a mixture to save costs
driving conditions in Oregon. One of the most importantwith other de-icers. Note the freezing temperature is
things you can do of course is to wash these busesoften a factor of altitude and wind chill. What is the
and to do it correctly. Many times a good pressuretrucking Industry doing about this problem?
washing company can assist in routine maintenanceManufacturers such as freightliner is using robots to
cleaning of frames to make sure the road salt andput on special adhesive to prevent corrosion between
such get off the buses which can cause excessiveparts. More stainless steels are being used and other
wear to things like brakes. Magnesium Chloride is aalloys with nickel content. New primers and coatings
huge issue on winter roads: This years Winter will costare being used available from PPG as well as new
government agencies 2 Billion in plowing and spreadingglass and ceramic coatings such as the NASA
salt and chemicals on roads for safety.formula used and sold by Adsil.
It will cost the environmental clean-up and corrosionResins and sealers are used by some to seal
damage to the trucking Industry 5 million. Some of thatcomponents and body parts. Anti-static discharge
will be spent in Truck detailing centers in places likepoints are put in strategic parts on trucks. PeterBuilts all
Detroit, Chicago, Denver, Green Bay, Cleveland, Newcome with underbody splash shields now. Mack has
York and Boston. What do they put on the roads?galvanized cabs and undercoating on fuel tanks.
Under 25 degrees Fahrenheit, they use CalciumTransport Topics in another related article in 2004
Chloride, it generates heat when it hits moisture andquoted fleet managers as saying increased washing
melts ice and snow, giving off a little advection fog.frequency was by for the best preventative
Calcium Magnesium Acetate 20 degrees-Liquid deicer,maintenance and was the main advise of fleet owners
limestone and acetic, best for bridges and other areasand managers to prevent corrosion. Many times part
to reduce corrosion to prevent loss of structuralof the strategy of a deicer application is to allow the
integrity.trucks to spread it around and mix it correctly. So the
Calcium Magnesium Propionate-Powder form madeapplication means just dumping it on the ground and
from farm products, cheap and only $300 per ton. Stillletting the trucks mix it. And the buses and trucks are
undergoing tests due to environmental problems, whichnot alone in this problem. Think on it.