CSA-Proofing, part two: Closed greasing system

I wanted to highlight a maintenance tip today you may have missed from owner-operator Gordon Alkire, leased to Landstar, down in the comments section on my “CSA-proof your rig” cover story for this month’s Overdrive (if you haven’t read that story yet, find it here in text or in digital mag format here). Essentially, Alkire’s engineered a solution to the problem of needing to get under the truck to grease front and rear suspension components with a system he says he’s spent a mere $75 on.

“This is not a commercial system but a homemade one,” says Alkire. “Kudos to Bill Marciniac,” a close personal friend of Alkire’s and a “really good mechanic and owner-operator. It is his idea, and he furnished and drilled the blocks for me…. He has the same system on his truck.”

And not only does it keep you off the ground, says Alkire, but helps avoid tickets for excess oil and grease: “Yes, you can get a ticket for excess grease and/or oil on the truck. Stupid, I know, but with the economy as it is and towns and states misspending our money, it is to be expected.”

Alkire says Marciniac’s gotten several DOT inspector compliments on his system over the years for its cleanliness, a quality that can go a long way toward avoiding detailed inspections at the scale house. It’s “a sign that he does his best to take care of his equipment.”

Following find Gordon’s explanation of the system as well as several pictures he took and sent to me. Next step, he says: the suspension of his 48-foot dry van.

How-to: Build a closed greasing system, by Gordon Alkire
The system is comprised of several solid aluminum  blocks about 1.25-1.5-inch square and about 6-8 inches long. Aluminum is easy to drill and lightweight. I use three blocks on the tractor. One block for the rear (set-up pictured at right and in next pic below) and two for the front end due to the many moving parts in the steering assembly and to keep the lines as short as possible.

The blocks are drilled completely through and then thread-tapped to accommodate the brass fittings on the bottom and the grease Zerks on top. This allows grease to pass through unimpeded. It would not hurt to drill and tap a couple of extra holes just in case one strips out at a later time. Don’t forget to drill mounting holes in the blocks also.