July 22, 2025 • 41 mins
Episode 6: In this summer-themed episode of the Parts for Trucks Podcast, host Jamie Irvine dives into the critical topic of keeping commercial vehicles cool during the hottest months of the year. With rising temperatures posing serious risks to drivers and equipment, Jamie is joined by Ken Brandt from Horton and Mike Helm from Arctic Traveler Canada to explore preventative maintenance strategies, cooling system technologies, and practical tips for fleets. The episode emphasizes the importance of proactive care to avoid costly breakdowns and ensure driver safety and comfort.
Key Topics Covered:
- Heat Risks for Drivers and Equipment: How extreme summer temperatures impact truck drivers, mobile technicians, and cooling systems.
- Cooling System Failures: Common causes of overheating, including fan clutch issues and AC system leaks.
- Fan Clutch Technologies: Overview of on/off, two-speed, and variable-speed fan clutches and their applications.
- Preventative Maintenance: Best practices for inspecting and maintaining cooling systems, including air pressure checks, component inspections, and rebuild intervals.
- Remanufacturing Insights: Horton’s high standards for reman fan clutches and how fleets can benefit from reman programs.
- Inventory and Support Tools: Horton’s VIN decoder, Quick View tool, and Power BI reporting to streamline parts identification and availability.
- AC System Maintenance: Tips from Arctic Traveler Canada on preventing AC failures, including running systems in winter and replacing dryers after repairs.
- Vocational Equipment Support: Specialized solutions for off-road, agricultural, and mining equipment cooling systems.
Resources Mentioned:
- Parts for Trucks Website
- Horton’s 17-digit VIN Decoder Tool
- Horton Quick View Inventory Tool
- Preventative Maintenance Checklists from Horton
- Arctic Traveler Canada’s HVAC support and custom coil manufacturing
Guest Bio:
- Ken Brandt – Director of On Road, Horton: With over 40 years in the heavy-duty industry and 25 years at Horton, Ken Brandt brings deep expertise in fan clutch technology and fleet support. He oversees Horton’s On Road division and is a passionate advocate for preventative maintenance and customer training. Ken has played a key role in developing Horton’s remanufacturing standards and support tools for distributors and fleets.
- Mike Helm – Arctic Traveler Canada: Mike Helm represents Arctic Traveler Canada, a company specializing in HVAC systems for commercial, agricultural, and off-road vehicles since 1960. With a strong focus on preventative maintenance and customer education, Mike supports fleets across Canada in maintaining reliable AC systems and minimizing downtime during extreme weather conditions.
Connect With Us: Available on PartsForTrucks.com/podcast, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms.
Disclaimer: The Parts For Trucks podcast is produced by Parts for Trucks, Inc. for informational and entertainment purposes only. The content, opinions, and views expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of Parts For Trucks, Inc. Read more...
Visit PartsForTrucks.com/podcast for all links.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ken Brandt (00:00):
But we put the finest standards into our reman
fan clutches.
You know, if the outside's good, you're getting pretty much a
new fan clutch, even though it'scalled a reman, and it's very
high quality to the highestindustry standards that we have
out there as far asmanufacturing and even our
customers that rebuild, we offertraining to help them do that,
so it gets as close to our remanas it possibly can be.
Mike Helm (00:26):
I always tell our fleets and everything here
locally is, once you hit April,you need to start to truly turn
those AC units on.
You need to start running them.
That's the time when you do thepreventative maintenance is you
.
You start early, you get inearly and you get ahead of the
game, Cause if you don't, youcould be looking at three to
four weeks and three to fourweeks in a class A truck with no
AC.
I don't know many drivers aregoing to drive it.
Jamie Irvine (00:52):
You're listening to the Parts for Trucks podcast.
My name is Jamie Irvin.
I am the National SalesDirector at Parts for Trucks and
your host.
In each episode of the Partsfor Trucks podcast, you'll walk
away with tools, strategies andknowledge to make your job
easier, cut costs and elevateyour performance in the trucking
industry.
Megan Bouchard (01:14):
Welcome to the Parts for Trucks podcast, where
we explore the latest trends,technologies and strategies in
the heavy-duty trucking industry.
Each episode you'll hear fromindustry experts to help keep
your trucks on the road and yourbusiness thriving.
Now let's get into gear.
Here's your host, jamie Urban.
Jamie Irvine (01:34):
This episode drops in July of 2025, which is
typically the hottest month ofthe year in North America.
While most people are planningsummer vacations, the heat poses
a significant risk to threegroups of people.
The first are the elderly.
Chronic illness and medicationsput them in a higher risk
category when we have heatevents.
(01:56):
Infants and small children areanother group.
They have unique physiologicalneeds and are very dependent on
caretakers, and so they also areat risk when we have heat
events.
The third group of people whoare at risk are people who work
outside.
Now, they're in the elements,they're in this harsh
environment.
So if you think of constructionworkers or people who work,
(02:18):
let's say, in road repair, theyhave to work outside all day
long.
We also could think of mobiletechnicians, who are outside at
this time of year, and we canthink of drivers, who aren't
necessarily outside all day long, but if they happen to break
down, they are put at a risk ofheat exposure.
So how hot does it actually getthis time of year?
(02:41):
I thought that'd be interestingto kind of review that, because
the trend over the last fewyears has been one where things
are getting hotter in the monthof July.
So in 2019, the averagetemperature in July North
American wide was 22.1 degreesCelsius.
By 2023, it had risen to 23.7degrees Celsius.
(03:04):
The average temperature hadgone up that much.
In July of 2024, it was hot.
In the US, the averagetemperature was up 1.2 degrees
Celsius and in some parts ofCanada we saw average
temperatures soar as much as 3degrees Celsius.
So the last few Julys have beenvery, very hot.
(03:26):
To put it into context, lastyear, in July 2024, it was the
11th warmest July on record.
So while truck drivers may notface the same risks as, let's
say, construction workers orpeople who work on road repair,
they do face risks when theyhave.
(03:46):
One of two things occur.
So you can imagine you'redriving a truck and the AC
system fails in your truck.
All of a sudden, cabintemperatures go up.
Now what could happen?
Well, those warmer temperaturescould cause the driver to fall
asleep and that can be verydangerous for the driver and the
public who that driver issharing the roads with.
(04:07):
And then, in another situation,the equipment.
If the actual cooling system onthe equipment fails and the
truck overheats, it forces thetruck to the side of the road.
This driver is now broken downand stranded.
They have to be outside in theelements or in that cabin with
no AC, and it is pretty risky tobe on the side of a highway.
(04:29):
You have vehicles passing bythat can be dangerous, but then
also, if you're stranded forseveral hours, you then could
suffer from heat exposure, heatexhaustion or even heat stroke,
and so all of this is bad newsfor the driver.
Then you have a mobiletechnician, perhaps a tow truck
driver, who has to come out andwork in that environment as well
(04:52):
.
So everybody is at risk, andthis is all potentially
avoidable if we do the propermaintenance on our vehicles and
if we can make the rightdecisions about our cooling
system so that our trucks arenot breaking down on the side of
the road.
That's why, in this episode,we're going to talk about these
unique challenges of operatingcommercial equipment during the
(05:14):
hottest months of the year, andwe're going to try to provide
you with some tips from oursuppliers on how to cool down.
At Parts for Trucks, you haveaccess to a complete line of
cooling system parts, whichincludes rads, thermostats,
water pumps, hoses, belts, fanclutches and related parts, ac
compressors and condensers andmuch more.
(05:35):
You can buy all of theseproducts at PartsForTruckscom or
if you go into any one of our32 locations, we'd be happy to
help you out.
In addition to that, if youneed someone to service or do
preventative maintenance andinspections on your commercial
equipment, we have 16 locationsthat provide service to you,
(05:56):
coast to coast as well.
So Parts for Trucks wants tokeep you cool this summer.
Now, to help me keep you cool,I'd like to introduce you to Ken
Brandt, director of OnRoad fromHorton.
Ken has been with the company25 years, but he's been in the
industry for over 40 years.
Those years just fly by, don'tthey, ken?
(06:17):
They sure do.
Ken Brandt (06:18):
Jamie, and I appreciate you inviting me to
the podcast.
It's a real honor.
Jamie Irvine (06:22):
Well, you know, one of the reasons we wanted to
talk to someone like you isbecause of your many years of
experience and, as a distributorof both parts and a provider of
service, our job at Parts forTrucks is to take care of our
customers.
We can't do that withoutsupport from vendors like you,
so we're happy to have you here,you know.
Let's just talk broadly aboutthe kind of environment that
(06:44):
fleets find themselves operatingin right now.
You know it's July, it's one ofthe hottest months of the year,
and when you run hot you canrun into a lot of problems.
What kinds of issues do fleetshave to contend with during the
hottest months of the year?
Ken Brandt (07:00):
Yeah, it's just going to be.
The fan clutch will be engaginga lot more and that could cause
overheating in the engine andeverything's affected within the
system.
You know the ECM, electricalsystems, tires, brakes,
everything gets affected onthere.
But you know you have to runthat fan to cool that engine and
if you don't, the engine isgoing to have issues in there.
Jamie Irvine (07:21):
Yeah, when the engine has issues, that stops
you on the side of the road.
I'm just kind of curiouswithout going too deep into the
details just yet, but from ahigh level what are some of the
common causes of a truckoverheating in these hot summer
months?
Ken Brandt (07:36):
Generally it's improper fan clutch technology,
for example.
There's probably five differenttypes of fan clutches on-off,
two-speed, electric, electrictrucks, electromagnetic and now
variable speed and that's kindof the kind of controllable
viscous the technology comingover from Europe.
So if you pick the wrongtechnology you may have
overheating issues.
Jamie Irvine (07:58):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I guess also,
even if you have the righttechnology, if you're not
maintaining it, that could be anissue too.
So if you find yourself in oneof these situations where you're
on the side of the road, thehood's up, your truck's
overheated what does that cost?
Customers that Parts for Truckstakes care of fleets,
(08:18):
owner-operators, drivers what'sthe true cost of this kind of an
overheating event?
Ken Brandt (08:24):
It could be $2,000 to $3,000.
You have the cost of the towright and then you're going to
have the cost of the repair andgoing back in and then we try to
get the availability butthere's not availability for
that fan clutch or fan blade.
It could cost you a lot ofmoney in downtime.
I think they estimate $1,000 aday per truck when it's down.
So I can add up pretty quick.
Jamie Irvine (08:43):
Yeah, sure, ken, and those are just the direct
costs.
I think of also the indirectcosts.
If you're a fleet, you havecustomers.
Maybe you didn't deliver theload on time.
Now they're upset.
You could lose business there.
On the other end of thespectrum, it's so hard to get
drivers and if the equipment'salways breaking down the driver
may decide.
You know what.
I want to go drive for somebodyelse.
So there's a lot of things tothink about.
(09:05):
So the stakes are very high forCanadian fleets operating in
the summer months.
Let's get into a little bitmore detail.
So when you specifically talkabout picking the right fan
clutch for the right application, those kinds of things, if
you're an over-the-roadapplication, how do you avoid
this costly downtime?
Ken Brandt (09:26):
Well, one of the things you can do is prevent a
maintenance before your truckleaves and goes out on the road.
Even the other thing that wekind of left out is that getting
another truck out there to getthe load and then taking it out,
that's going to cost you evenmore money.
But you want to check the liner.
You want to check for any airleaks.
Treat the whole fan clutch as asystem, not just as an
individual component.
So there's different thingsthat you want to check out.
(09:48):
Which would be a solenoid valve, the number one cause of
failures.
You have airlines that go overhotspots and get crimped.
You want to check those out.
There's a $5 compression fittingthat goes in the back of most
fan clutches.
That leaks also and you cancatch that.
And then the fan blades.
I lift up a lot of hoods andyou'll see them cracked, chipped
and a piece could go in theradiator and really cost you a
(10:08):
lot of money.
And the heat exasperates that.
Up in Canada you guys get verymuch extremes.
You get extreme cold, you getextreme hot and at extreme heat
the fan clutch, or the on-offtype fan clutch, is going to
engage more during the summer,which means there's going to be
a lot more wear on the wearitems, so it's imperative that
you do prevent and maintenanceon that.
Jamie Irvine (10:29):
Yeah, so we talk about over the road, but what
about vocational applications?
I think about Alberta, forexample.
There's a lot of oil and gas,there's a lot of forestry and
logging in both British Columbia, Alberta, and in the East.
So when you're in thatvocational application, what
might you be thinking about?
Ken Brandt (10:47):
I'd be looking at a two-speed or variable speed.
Because what happens with anover-the-road truck say you're
going from Montreal to Vancouver, as an example?
That fan clutch is going to beoff probably 75% of the time and
only operating 25%.
But on those type of operationsyou've described, logging could
be concrete.
It could be concrete, it couldbe waste.
There's not much ram air comingacross in the summer during the
(11:08):
heat, so the fan clutch isgoing to be constantly coming on
and off to try to cool thatengine.
And what a two-speed does?
The back of the fan clutch issimilar.
In our case we've dropped intwo magnets around a steel ring
and it works off of eddy currentand it works at half speed like
four to 500 RPM, and then whenyou need more cooling, it'll
come on at about eight to 900RPM for about 60 seconds and
(11:31):
then go back into thenon-engaged eddy current mode.
So what this does?
It saves your fan clutch fromengaging all the time.
It will not wear.
It'll save you some fuel, it'sgreat for the fleet and it's
perfect for those vocationaltype of applications that you
run into.
Jamie Irvine (11:47):
So if a fleet wants to have precision cooling
for their equipment, what's thebest option then?
Ken Brandt (11:54):
Probably would be variable speed, and that's
technology coming over fromEurope.
A lot of people call itcontrollable viscous.
So there's a tether that'shooked into the engine.
Ecm sends a signal inside avalve, into the fan clutch, and
it just releases viscous fluid.
So in the summer when it's hot,it'll release more viscous
fluid through that valve and thefan blade will turn quicker and
(12:15):
as it gets colder, like anextreme cold up in Canada, that
valve will shut down and it'llgo down as low as 100 RPM For
Canada.
It's a really nice item.
It's good in the extreme heatand it's good in the extreme
cold and it'll give you precise,accurate cooling that a
pneumatic fan clutch will notgive you.
Jamie Irvine (12:33):
With these style of clutches?
Are they kind of like reversecompatible, Like could we decide
to retrofit an older vehicle ora vehicle with another style of
fan clutch with this technologyif we're having problems?
Ken Brandt (12:47):
In some cases you can.
At certain OEs you probably canbecause they're coming out on
the first fit side with avariable speed and some you
wouldn't be.
We'd have to use the on-off ortwo-speed technology because in
the aftermarket we couldtheoretically do it, but it'd be
a lot of applications to createvariable speeds for that Right
On the pneumatic side.
Obviously we, you, you haveremands or you have rebuilt kits
(13:08):
because of the messy, viscousfluid and variable speed.
It's not that you can, can'trebuild it, but it gets kind of
messy.
Yeah, Fair enough, Fair enough.
Jamie Irvine (13:17):
Well, we'll talk about remand in a little bit
Before we get into that.
You know you talked aboutpreventative maintenance and the
importance of that, but reallywhat I'd like to understand, or
have a better understanding, iswhat can fleets do to get the
most life out of their coolingsystem?
Walk us through the kind ofprocedure that Horton recommends
(13:38):
fleets operate under to getthat long life out of their
system.
Ken Brandt (13:42):
Well, you want to walk around the truck.
There's a kit available that weusually give out for free.
But you want to test the air atthe solenoid valve with the fan
clutch.
If it's less than 90 PSI, youknow you need to change that
valve.
That valve on any type ofpneumatic clutch us or any of
our competitors is critical, butyou have to have proper airflow
on that stuff.
(14:03):
You know, just the fan blades,all that stuff plays into it.
You know just the fan blades,all that stuff plays into it.
You know, just before it leavesthe garage and gets out on the
road, you have to do a walkaround on that truck and
probably, as far as the fanclutch goes, you should probably
look at rebuilding it, maybeevery 300,000 miles.
And as I always say a lot of theseminars, when a fan clutch
comes in, let's say, you knowyou guys are selling somebody a
(14:24):
fan clutch, the fan clutch has300,000 miles.
Well, so those ancillarycomponents also.
So you have to change those outand that will really help the
fleet with their preventivemaintenance.
But we actually have a.
We have a checklist for thefleets, a preventive maintenance
checklist they could go through.
You know, for example, checkingthe liner if it's below one
quarter of an inch, as anexample.
And then we do training, youknow, with you guys
(15:12):
no-transcript.
Jamie Irvine (15:17):
these best practices and like in your
experience, how important is itfor the fleet to invest in that
training with their people?
Ken Brandt (15:25):
Very important because you know this, you go to
a lot of the shows, like I do,and we're getting people with
all various experiences outthere.
Some guys are really new.
So, yeah, we really have tobring that level of training
down to the appropriate level.
Some of the guys are new, butwhen we do training we emphasize
service after the sale.
I think that's the key thing.
But I like to teach rebuildingbecause then you see what's on
(15:48):
the inside of a fan clutch.
It's kind of important.
Even if you're going to changeout a remand, it's good to know
what's inside that fan clutch soyou can diagnose it.
Is it air cartridge?
Is it an O-ring?
What is it?
And when you open it up,there's not that many parts in
there.
It's pretty easy.
When you pull it apart, it'snot the most complicated thing.
But you get all levels ofexperience out there and we try
(16:09):
to get that experience down towhatever level we need to.
Jamie Irvine (16:14):
That's kind of how we do it.
Yeah, and how does Hortonspecifically support
remanufacturing of their fanclutches?
Go into details more about thatactual side of the business.
Ken Brandt (16:24):
So we have facilities in our main one.
Our main offices are inRoseville, Minnesota.
That's our head office, but ourfan clutch and reman facility
is in Britain, South Dakota.
We follow ISO 9001 and 14001guidelines on that, which are
the highest industry standardsClemson, South Carolina.
(16:48):
We also have a plant inSchweinfurt, Germany, and then
we have one in China also.
So we're a small, privatelyowned company but we're
worldwide.
But we put the finest standardsinto our remand fan clutches.
Essentially, when you're doinga remand you reuse the shaft and
the pulley.
If they're at a mic or whatever, they get tossed into the scrap
bin and a lot of times in ourremand program we'll use some
new ones if we don't have thecore back, but everything else
(17:10):
is pretty much new inside ofthere the bearings, the O-rings,
everything.
So if the outside's good,you're getting pretty much a new
fan clutch, even though it'scalled a reman, and it's very
high quality to the highestindustry standards that we have
out there as far asmanufacturing.
Jamie Irvine (17:24):
I think that's an important thing to just
emphasize, because when you areremanufacturing components, you
do that failure analysis and youget to see what's happening
with the product over many, manymillions of miles driven by all
of the equipment.
And so when you'remanufacturing the aftermarket
components that we would sell toour customers, or a complete
(17:47):
reman unit, the customer canhave real confidence in the fact
that you've done these failureanalysis, you understand where
the failure points are and thenyou've proactively been solving
those issues, wouldn't you say?
That's true?
Ken Brandt (18:00):
Absolutely.
And even our customers thatrebuild we offer training to
help them do that.
So it gets as close to ourremand as it possibly can be.
Of course, you know ours isalmost like a military.
You know inspection.
We have inspectors that come inand check the facility, make
sure that we're checking all theboxes and we're doing
everything right.
So it's a little bit higherlevel.
At our level.
We want to make sure we put outthe best possible product for
(18:23):
our fleet customers and ourdistributors.
Jamie Irvine (18:25):
Yeah, and it's important.
I think, when you are a fleetand you're operating in these
difficult environments whetherit's the extreme cold of the
Canadian winter that's why theycall it the great white North or
if it's this extreme heat inthe summer when you are
purchasing parts, when you'rethinking about, okay, what parts
am I going to put on myvehicles, you want to choose
(18:46):
distributors who invest in you.
You want to choose distributorswho have vendors who are going
to invest in you.
So let's talk about some of thethings that Horton is doing
specifically to supportcustomers, like Parts for Trucks
, and then, of course, thefleets and the owner operators
and the drivers who buy from us.
So, first of all, talk to me alittle bit about the VIN decoder
(19:06):
on your website.
Ken Brandt (19:07):
Yeah, we have a 17-digit VIN decoder on our
website, which you know partsfor trucks a lot of our
distributors use.
Our distributors, likeyourselves, are the backbone for
Horton.
You guys are a big help,helping us with our fleet
customers and you know it's keythat we give you and the fleets
the proper tools, and the17-digit VIN decoder is one of
them the proper tools and the 17digit Vindicator is one of them
(19:30):
.
Now we're a tier one first fitsupplier, but not at all the OEs
.
So we're into aftermarket partsalso and we have the
competitors parts and stuff likethat.
So occasionally, especially foryou guys, you're getting
everything in there.
You're getting all kinds ofmakes, models and stuff like
that.
So with the Vindicator, if youhave the 17 digits, we can give
you the make, model year andthen the part number and then
below that we'll have the remanoption, we'll have the kit
(19:53):
option and then we'll have thefan blade option, sometimes on
that also.
So it's real easy for the guyto find.
He doesn't have to make phonecalls.
All that information is rightat his fingertips, along with
cross-references.
Also.
There's a lot of good stuff onthe Horton website Along with
cross-references.
Jamie Irvine (20:07):
Also, there's a lot of good stuff on the Horton
website.
So it's one thing, and it's avery important thing, to be able
to identify the parts that areneeded.
It's totally another thing tohave it in stock, ready to go
for your customers.
What investment has Horton madein the way of reporting to
ensure that they help theirdistributors get the right
inventory in the right regionsat the right time?
Ken Brandt (20:27):
Great question.
There's two things that wereally have.
We've invested in 3PL quickship warehouses, of which we
have four in Canada.
We have Calgary, montreal,toronto, winnipeg, but we have
16 overall.
Purpose of that is to get nextday ground to the distributor
and then out to the fleet withinlike a day.
You guys obviously have a greatinventory on there, probably
the most popular parts and whatwe try to provide for parts for
(20:50):
trucks.
We use a program called PowerBI and we can see, for example,
all the Horton parts that comeinto Winnipeg.
So in that case we'll let youguys know about it.
We'll work at the branch level.
We'll also make sure ourQuickShip Warehouse has a backup
of those parts and the key isdowntime with fleets, that we
have that part for our fleetfriends out there and it's
(21:10):
available for them from our 3PLwarehouses If for some reason
you know it's an oddball thatyou may not have on the shelf.
Jamie Irvine (21:17):
Yeah, knowledge is power, and being able to
identify where a part is in thesupply chain is a really
important part of making goodquality decisions.
I think there's nothing worsefor a fleet to bring a truck
into their shop and starttearing it apart and then it
sits for days because the part'snot available.
Talk to me about how Hortonoffers a quick view to people so
(21:40):
that they can kind of get anunderstanding of where a maybe
hard to find part is in thesupply chain.
Ken Brandt (21:46):
Yeah, the quick view is a really nice thing.
It has no pricing in it, butyou can get a username and
password from Horton.
You can then go in, put thatpart number in and you can
actually see its location andthe quantities, for example in
Calgary or Winnipeg or somethinglike that.
It has no pricing, which isreally nice, because a lot of
people you don't want to giveout all the information and
(22:06):
stuff like that pricing,obviously, but it'll.
It'll have where, where to getall that stuff.
Jamie Irvine (22:11):
Well, and that's an important piece to it, cause,
let's say, I'm working in ashop and I'm, I'm, you know, I
know that it takes a day to shipfrom, from Winnipeg to me and
you can see, oh, it's in theWinnipeg warehouse.
That means parts for trucks canget it and ship it today, I'll
have it tomorrow.
Now I can plan when to fix thattruck.
So that's an important piece toit.
With over 60 reps and directpersonnel to help, what role do
(22:36):
they play, working in the fieldalongside distributors like
Parts for Trucks, to help fleetcustomers?
Ken Brandt (22:42):
Yeah, we're available for training,
obviously, at Parts for Trucksto work with your counter guys
outside sales and to get fulltraining in there.
But we're also there to workwith Parts for Trucks, to go out
to the fleets and do fleettraining, make calls and stuff
like that.
You know, as you know, jamie,it's a relationship business, so
I think it's key.
You know, sometimes the fleetmanagers they get very busy out
there and we understand thatwe're not always out there
(23:05):
selling.
We're out there with goodinformation, updates on fan
clutches For the fleetmaintenance manager.
Knowing your distributor andsupplier I think is critical
because sometimes you get inthose gray areas and we can help
you out with policy and also wecan help you out with warranty.
I mean, to cut costs, the fleetshould know their warranties
(23:25):
from every supplier.
For example, our reman is threeyears, 300,000 miles, so you
want to take advantage of thatand that's just.
You know if it's within thatwarranty, not just go out and
buy a new fan clutch when youcan take care of your warranty
for you?
Jamie Irvine (23:36):
Yeah Well, when you're talking about
remanufactured product, you'retalking about cores.
A lot of people say that coresis a four letter word, but when
you think about managing yourcores and you're returning them
to parts or trucks, they'regoing back to Horton.
What kind of assurances doesHorton put in place to give
(23:57):
customers confidence to stickwith the Horton brand?
Ken Brandt (24:00):
We have the easiest core program I think out there.
So the way it works is prettymuch.
Any core is worth $400.
Years ago we had a bad corewhere if it got shipped or it
didn't turn you get dinged for$200.
We got rid of that becausethat's what the customers wanted
.
So now it's real easy.
The other aspects of our coreprogram it's not like for like.
So let's just say you'reupgrading a truck using an
(24:24):
on-off to a two-speed becausenow it's logging, you can send
back that on-off core.
It doesn't have to be the sameexact part that you bought.
And number three we take backany competitive cores.
We've all run into situationswhere we walk into a fleet and
maybe a gentleman has one usingas a doorstop or a barrel full
of them, you know, and maybethey're getting rid of them, you
(24:45):
know.
You pick them up if it's finewith him and bring them back to
the distributorship.
If one of your good customerscomes in doesn't have one, you
can help them get out of a jam.
It's probably 70% remands rightnow and 30% kits 10 years ago
it was 30% remands and 70% kits.
Because of the availability andthe ease of doing business with
cores.
(25:05):
It's changed quite a bit.
You're 100% right.
Cores can really kill you ifyou're not careful the fleet and
the distributor.
So we're trying to make it easyfor you guys with that.
Jamie Irvine (25:15):
Go figure right.
Make it easier for yourcustomers and they do more
business with you.
Talking about making it easy,freight is a big cost for
everyone.
It's definitely gone up a lotin the last few years.
So what has Horton done withtheir prepaid freight policy to
make it easier to get Hortonproduct in the hands of the
(25:36):
customers who need them the most?
Ken Brandt (25:37):
Yeah, believe it or not, during COVID, when
everybody else went up withfreight, we actually went down.
So we were at $2,250 US, Ithink it was $2,500 Canadian
dollars, and now we're at $1,000US and was 2,500 Canadian
dollars and now we're at athousand dollars US and 1,300
Canadian dollars.
So again, with that, combinedwith the availability on our
quick ship warehouse, you know,it gives you guys more
flexibility, gives the fleetmore flexibility.
We do care about your termsvery much.
(26:01):
We care about, you know, makingsure the fleet has what they
need, you know at the fleet andthen you can, we can, give you
the parts that you need todeliver those.
So that's, it really counts forus, that's for sure.
Jamie Irvine (26:12):
You know, I like to hear a story about how all of
these elements came together tohelp out a customer.
So tell me a story about, youknow, one of the customers that
you saw.
Maybe you worked with adistributor and you were helping
a fleet.
You know what was the situation, what were they up against, how
did Horton help them solve theproblem and what was the outcome
.
Ken Brandt (26:33):
Yeah, we had a customer, I remember, down in
Orlando and they had a originalit was originally an on-off
style fan clutch and they weregoing from probably Orlando out
to California and back and thenhe repurposed that truck and
he's doing delivery, startingand stopping all the time and
that's where we kind ofoutfitted them with.
He had probably 10 trucks thatwere doing that.
(26:53):
So we gave him a free sample onthe two-speed to check out.
And the interesting thing withthe two-speed one of the things,
a couple of things we didn'tmention two-speeds are pretty
interesting in that if you'resouth of the Mason-Dixon line
and a lot of your truckers fromCanada go down there too, down
to Florida and back to run innorth-south Right, the criteria
for using a two-speed is ifyou're minus 45 miles an hour
(27:16):
average vehicle speed or southof the Mason-Dixon line.
No-transcript.
Uh, two speeds.
The only bad thing with them, uh, the pneumatic ones.
Sometimes you can get a littlebit of over cooling if it gets
very, very cold in the wintertime and that's where that
variable speed aspect comes in.
But generally in those Southern, the Southern hemisphere, you
(27:38):
know that that thing's runningbecause you you're talking about
heat.
There's heat all the time downthere, even in February, uh, in
Orlando.
So you know we got him hookedup he's.
You know we got him hooked uphe's.
You know they've had somereally nice fuel savings down
there.
Their fan clutch is lasting alot longer because it's not
engaging all the time andhitting in and out, so that
liner's saving and he's doingbetter preventive maintenance
(27:59):
and those fan clutches arelasting a lot longer right now.
Jamie Irvine (28:02):
Yeah, and you know you think about all of those
little things that added up tosavings.
I mean, in a competitiveenvironment where fleets are
struggling at times to beprofitable we've seen the whole
environment over the last coupleof years with the freight
recession and other economicpressures on the trucking
industry every little bit helps.
(28:22):
So if you're listening to thisright now and if you think that
you could really use some helpfrom both Parts for Trucks and
Horton, reach out to one of our32 locations, talk to your
outside salesperson, talk to ourcounter, you know, hit us up on
the website.
We would be so happy to be ableto bring out an expert and look
at your situation and see if wecan help.
(28:44):
You have a similar experience.
Thanks, ken, for coming on theshow and sharing a lot of
details about how people cankeep cool this summer with
Horton.
Ken Brandt (28:53):
Thanks, jamie, it's a real honor.
Jamie Irvine (28:54):
Well, I really enjoyed my conversation with Ken
Brandt from Horton and Ithought that he shared a lot of
really great tips on making surethat your fan clutch is matched
correctly to the applicationand is going to operate at peak
efficiency and performance onyour behalf.
There's more to the coolingsystem than just fan clutches.
(29:14):
You've got to think about theentire HVAC system.
So I wanted to talk to one ofour suppliers, arctic Traveler
Canada.
They've been in business since1960.
They're a trusted specialist inthis space and they really have
developed products and a greatdeal of expertise in industries
(29:35):
like the trucking industry,agriculture, logging, mining,
some of the vocationalapplications.
So these are the people we needto talk to when we're talking
about keeping cool in thehottest months of the summer.
I'd like to introduce you toMike Helm.
Mike, welcome to the Parts forTrucks podcast.
So glad to have you here.
Mike Helm (29:51):
Thank you very much for having me.
I look forward to helping inany way I possibly can.
Jamie Irvine (29:55):
So, as we're recording this right now, your
area in Ontario has been hitwith some pretty hot
temperatures.
You guys are really feeling it,so this is great timing to have
this conversation.
So let me ask you something,since July is often the hottest
month of the year and we thinkof all the summer months as
being these really hightemperatures, and we got to run
(30:17):
those commercial pieces ofequipment regardless of what's
going on outside.
What would you say are some ofthe most common problems
trucking outfits run into in thehottest part of the summer?
Well, usually in the hottestpart of the summer.
Mike Helm (30:29):
Well, usually in the hottest part of the summer,
you're going to run into a lotof what you're running into is
small leaks, and small leakseventually lead to oil being
drained out of the system, whicheventually leads to problems
further down compressors,condensers and that's all done
through preventative maintenance, of which we can talk about in
a little bit.
But it's usually that becausethe other problem people run
(30:50):
into is when they turn their airconditioning on.
They think it's going to beextremely cold.
Well, as you mentioned here,we're sitting at 39 to 41 right
now.
The AC can only do so much.
It will not ever reach thetemperature that you think it
should, and that's because ofthe ambient temperature that's
outside that's affecting theairflow that's coming into it.
So a lot of people don'tunderstand that part of it.
(31:10):
So the small things like thatare what?
Jamie Irvine (31:16):
mainly is happening right now, when we're
in the middle of the heat wave.
So let me ask you something.
You mentioned preventativemaintenance.
Oftentimes I know my experiencehas been a lot of times people
don't even think about it untilthey get a hot day, they turn
their AC full blast and it's notworking right.
So what steps could have beentaken prior to this heat wave
and what steps should be takenon a regular basis to keep the
(31:37):
system working properly?
Mike Helm (31:38):
Well, there's two different questions in there, so
I'll answer the first one.
The first one is what steps youshould do on a regular basis,
yearly basis, monthly basis.
One of the biggest problems isthat the oil isn't circulating,
which means the seals aren'tgetting lubricated, and every
fitting, every connection on anair conditioning system has a
seal or an o-ring that's keepingit sealed in and tight.
(31:59):
So what happens is if you don'tstart your AC unit in the
winter and you let it sit forsix months until you hit that
hot day and then you turn itover, Well what's happening is
the compressor's engaging, it'smoving the oil, but now you've
had your seals and your oilrings dry for six months.
So, as anything, if you're notgoing to run it, it's eventually
going to dry up.
What happens is it cracks, and asmall crack when you understand
(32:24):
AC, it's a gas and a liquid anda small crack in one of those
that leads to it leaking out,and then that's what leads to
cast-off failures further downthe road.
So the simplest thing I telleverybody is run your AC system
heave when it's minus 15, run itto defrost your car window
before you get in the car,things like that.
It removes your moisture.
It helps defrost your windowanyways, so run it for that 15
minutes.
Even if it's 15 minutes a month, that allows 15 minutes, even
(32:49):
if it's 15 minutes a month, thatallows it to stay lubricated
and will solve a lot of yourproblems coming into the hot
weather that we're going toexperience and we're
experiencing right now.
Jamie Irvine (32:54):
Okay, and now the second half of my question.
What happens when we get tothis spot and it's not working?
What do we do?
Mike Helm (33:00):
Well then you're calling people like Parts for
Trucks and like myself, andsaying do you have availability
of things?
I always tell our good, ourfleets and everything here
locally is, once you hit April,you need to start to truly turn
those AC units on.
You need to start running them.
You need to run them not for 15minutes, you need to run them
for a day, you need to run itfor two days.
(33:20):
And the reason being is whenyou hit a heat wave, like we are
in June, july, right now, yourgarages and your stock levels
and everyone is already backedup.
So trying to find a mechanicthat you can get in within a day
or two is a lot more difficultnow to get AC done than it would
have been in April or at thebeginning of May.
(33:42):
That's the time when you do thepreventative maintenances.
You start early, you get inearly and you get ahead of the
game.
Because if you don early, youget in early and you get ahead
of the game, because if youdon't, you could be looking at
three to four weeks, and threeto four weeks in a Class A truck
with no AC.
I don't know how many driversare going to drive it.
So you need to look at thatahead of time and try and get
(34:03):
ahead of the game when it comesto any repairs or any issues
that you're going to face,because the hot weather will
always come and if you waituntil it's too late, you're just
far too late at that point intime.
Jamie Irvine (34:12):
Yeah, exactly.
So let's talk specifically,then, on some key products that
people should be thinking aboutwhen they are inspecting these
systems.
Mike Helm (34:22):
You can do the bubble test, which is just, basically
it's just water and soap and ifit's bubbling up, you know
there's a leak.
That's a good one forcondensing unix, same as
spraying that mixture around thefittings and around the
connections to see if there'sanything that's bubbling out.
That's a clear sign thatthere's air.
One thing you never want an acsystem is air.
It is a closed system.
(34:43):
When air gets in, the dryer,which is an integral part of the
AC system, essentially becomesuseless, because the dryer is to
take the moisture out of the ACsystem.
And what happens with moistureis moisture causes high head
pressure on the compressor,which in turn causes it to
eventually blow out the coil,which in turn causes the clutch
(35:05):
to seize, which in turn rips outthe belt.
All of that is done throughwater and condensation.
So anytime there's air in asystem, anytime any piece of
your system is replaced acondenser, a TX valve, even a
hose line you need to replaceyour dryer.
And I tell everyone this, and Isay it, I preach it because
you're opening the system and itdoesn't matter what vacuum you
(35:28):
put on there afterwards, you'renever going to get the moisture
back out.
You're placing the dryer, whichwill cost you anywhere from $40
to $120, is going to save youon a $700 to $1,200 bill down
the road, and you've already hadthe truck down.
Your system's already open.
There's no reason to not putthat money out there at that
point in time.
Get it done, get it fixed rightthe first time, so you're not
(35:49):
back in the shop in 8 to 12months and now you got a much
more expensive bill.
Those are the small things thatyou need to know.
Jamie Irvine (35:56):
It sounds to me like that's also part of the
overall strategy, then, to likefocus on total cost of operation
as opposed to just the purchaseprice of some replacement parts
.
Mike Helm (36:05):
Absolutely it is.
I always tell my biggeraccounts is that, and my bigger
accounts will tell me the samething A truck down costs them a
lot more money than bringing itin for the day and doing the AC.
The AC repair itself and partsand labor doesn't compare to
what the fact of that vehiclenot being on the road and making
money, or that piece ofoff-road equipment or that piece
(36:26):
of ag is not out there makingmoney, it's sitting.
If they have to make that sitfor more than a day because they
can't get a part or they're notdoing the replacement parts
that need to be done the firsttime and it comes back in.
That is overall cost way morethan just doing it right the
first time and taking the timeto do it right the first time.
(36:47):
So you're absolutely correct.
The overall cost is much morebeneficial to do the small
things right when you first takethat machine or that truck off
the road.
Jamie Irvine (36:59):
Mike, you mentioned other applications.
A lot of our customers at Partsfor Trucks we are coast to
coast 32 stores fromNewfoundland to British Columbia
so we cover a lot of differentvocations.
A lot of our customers aren'tjust over the road.
Can you talk to me just for amoment about maybe some of the
unique offerings that yourcompany has for those customers
(37:21):
who maybe have some over theroad highway equipment but they
also have some vocationalequipment?
What do you offer them?
Mike Helm (37:27):
Well, I mean, the good news is, between the
partnership at Omega and Partsfor Chucks is we do cover,
naturally, we cover the Class AChucks and we cover that
extensively.
But we also have the off-roadand we have the egg.
We do deal with the Ford NewHollands, the Ducens, the
Komatsus, the Cats, the JohnDeeres.
We even go as far as dealingwith the Yarmouth and some of
(37:48):
the Bobcat and we have thereplacement parts for those as
well.
And the one thing I will sayabout this when it comes to
off-road equipment, it's just asexpensive to have down, but the
product line is usually alittle bit more pricey if you go
through a dealership,comparatively speaking to coming
to a Parts for Trucks.
And the reason that is is it's24 volt, it's a little bit more
(38:11):
involved and there's a littlebit more in-depth on it.
But again, we do have and we dooffer the product lines to
backup, whether it be a hoseline, whether it be a compressor
or condenser.
We also have the ability,through our coil manufacturers,
to manufacture coils directlyspecific to replacement coils.
So if it's not availableanymore, whether it be through
(38:33):
us or through our supply linesor through parts for trucks, we
can take the coil and make itrate two spec from the original.
So those are some of thedifferent avenues that we have
and some of the differentbackgrounds that we do.
We naturally are strong, like Isaid, in class eight and the
bigger on-road vehicles.
But we've grown over, I wouldsay, the last eight to 10 years
(38:54):
and we've got much stronger andwe have much more knowledge on
the off-road and the mining andthe forestry equipment.
So if you do run into those,please do not hesitate.
Call your parts for trucks.
They're going to have theknowledge, they're going to have
the backing and they've'vealways got us.
Just in case they ever need toback it up, they can call us and
we'll do what we can do to findit for you.
Jamie Irvine (39:12):
We really appreciate having suppliers like
you who support us in takingcare of the heavy duty industry.
It's the backbone of society,and so it's a real privilege for
us to be able to support them,and we wouldn't be able to do it
without suppliers like yourself.
So, mike, thank you so much forcoming on the podcast.
I really appreciate it.
Mike Helm (39:30):
I appreciate you having me.
I thank you and, like I know,we're very grateful to have the
working leadership and thepartnership we have with Parts
of Trucks and we continue towork with you and grow the
business, and that's from coastto coast.
So I look forward to 2025, 2026and beyond.
Bring, and you know, enjoy thehot while while we have it,
cause it doesn't always last thelongest.
So enjoy it while we got it.
Jamie Irvine (39:51):
So up here at the great white North the winter
will return sooner than later.
Thanks, mike.
Thank you Appreciate it Well.
This brings us to theconclusion of our episode about
cooling systems and staying coolin the hottest months of the
year.
You've been listening to theParts for Trucks podcast.
(40:14):
I'm your host, jamie Irvin.
In this episode, we learnedabout how to cool down in the
summer with our commercialequipment.
If you want to buy the partsthat we discussed today, head
over to partsfortruckscom andfeel free to sign up for an
account so that you can buythese parts online nationwide.
But you also have the supportof 32 locations.
We'd be happy to have you comeinto the store and buy what you
need.
We have our 16 servicelocations as well, which are
(40:37):
there to take care of yourequipment if you don't want to
do the repairs on your own.
Also, I'd like to encourage youto subscribe to the Parts for
Trucks podcast if you like whatyou've been listening to.
You can do so by visitingpartsfortruckscom slash podcast,
you can go to our YouTubechannel or you can listen
wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for tuning in to theParts for Trucks podcast and, as
(41:00):
always, I want to thank you forbeing heavy duty.
But we put the finest standards into our reman
fan clutches.
You know, if the outside's good, you're getting pretty much a
new fan clutch, even though it'scalled a reman, and it's very
high quality to the highestindustry standards that we have
out there as far asmanufacturing and even our
customers that rebuild, we offertraining to help them do that,
so it gets as close to our remanas it possibly can be.
Mike Helm (00:26):
I always tell our fleets and everything here
locally is, once you hit April,you need to start to truly turn
those AC units on.
You need to start running them.
That's the time when you do thepreventative maintenance is you
.
You start early, you get inearly and you get ahead of the
game, Cause if you don't, youcould be looking at three to
four weeks and three to fourweeks in a class A truck with no
AC.
I don't know many drivers aregoing to drive it.
Jamie Irvine (00:52):
You're listening to the Parts for Trucks podcast.
My name is Jamie Irvin.
I am the National SalesDirector at Parts for Trucks and
your host.
In each episode of the Partsfor Trucks podcast, you'll walk
away with tools, strategies andknowledge to make your job
easier, cut costs and elevateyour performance in the trucking
industry.
Megan Bouchard (01:14):
Welcome to the Parts for Trucks podcast, where
we explore the latest trends,technologies and strategies in
the heavy-duty trucking industry.
Each episode you'll hear fromindustry experts to help keep
your trucks on the road and yourbusiness thriving.
Now let's get into gear.
Here's your host, jamie Urban.
Jamie Irvine (01:34):
This episode drops in July of 2025, which is
typically the hottest month ofthe year in North America.
While most people are planningsummer vacations, the heat poses
a significant risk to threegroups of people.
The first are the elderly.
Chronic illness and medicationsput them in a higher risk
category when we have heatevents.
(01:56):
Infants and small children areanother group.
They have unique physiologicalneeds and are very dependent on
caretakers, and so they also areat risk when we have heat
events.
The third group of people whoare at risk are people who work
outside.
Now, they're in the elements,they're in this harsh
environment.
So if you think of constructionworkers or people who work,
(02:18):
let's say, in road repair, theyhave to work outside all day
long.
We also could think of mobiletechnicians, who are outside at
this time of year, and we canthink of drivers, who aren't
necessarily outside all day long, but if they happen to break
down, they are put at a risk ofheat exposure.
So how hot does it actually getthis time of year?
(02:41):
I thought that'd be interestingto kind of review that, because
the trend over the last fewyears has been one where things
are getting hotter in the monthof July.
So in 2019, the averagetemperature in July North
American wide was 22.1 degreesCelsius.
By 2023, it had risen to 23.7degrees Celsius.
(03:04):
The average temperature hadgone up that much.
In July of 2024, it was hot.
In the US, the averagetemperature was up 1.2 degrees
Celsius and in some parts ofCanada we saw average
temperatures soar as much as 3degrees Celsius.
So the last few Julys have beenvery, very hot.
(03:26):
To put it into context, lastyear, in July 2024, it was the
11th warmest July on record.
So while truck drivers may notface the same risks as, let's
say, construction workers orpeople who work on road repair,
they do face risks when theyhave.
(03:46):
One of two things occur.
So you can imagine you'redriving a truck and the AC
system fails in your truck.
All of a sudden, cabintemperatures go up.
Now what could happen?
Well, those warmer temperaturescould cause the driver to fall
asleep and that can be verydangerous for the driver and the
public who that driver issharing the roads with.
(04:07):
And then, in another situation,the equipment.
If the actual cooling system onthe equipment fails and the
truck overheats, it forces thetruck to the side of the road.
This driver is now broken downand stranded.
They have to be outside in theelements or in that cabin with
no AC, and it is pretty risky tobe on the side of a highway.
(04:29):
You have vehicles passing bythat can be dangerous, but then
also, if you're stranded forseveral hours, you then could
suffer from heat exposure, heatexhaustion or even heat stroke,
and so all of this is bad newsfor the driver.
Then you have a mobiletechnician, perhaps a tow truck
driver, who has to come out andwork in that environment as well
(04:52):
.
So everybody is at risk, andthis is all potentially
avoidable if we do the propermaintenance on our vehicles and
if we can make the rightdecisions about our cooling
system so that our trucks arenot breaking down on the side of
the road.
That's why, in this episode,we're going to talk about these
unique challenges of operatingcommercial equipment during the
(05:14):
hottest months of the year, andwe're going to try to provide
you with some tips from oursuppliers on how to cool down.
At Parts for Trucks, you haveaccess to a complete line of
cooling system parts, whichincludes rads, thermostats,
water pumps, hoses, belts, fanclutches and related parts, ac
compressors and condensers andmuch more.
(05:35):
You can buy all of theseproducts at PartsForTruckscom or
if you go into any one of our32 locations, we'd be happy to
help you out.
In addition to that, if youneed someone to service or do
preventative maintenance andinspections on your commercial
equipment, we have 16 locationsthat provide service to you,
(05:56):
coast to coast as well.
So Parts for Trucks wants tokeep you cool this summer.
Now, to help me keep you cool,I'd like to introduce you to Ken
Brandt, director of OnRoad fromHorton.
Ken has been with the company25 years, but he's been in the
industry for over 40 years.
Those years just fly by, don'tthey, ken?
(06:17):
They sure do.
Ken Brandt (06:18):
Jamie, and I appreciate you inviting me to
the podcast.
It's a real honor.
Jamie Irvine (06:22):
Well, you know, one of the reasons we wanted to
talk to someone like you isbecause of your many years of
experience and, as a distributorof both parts and a provider of
service, our job at Parts forTrucks is to take care of our
customers.
We can't do that withoutsupport from vendors like you,
so we're happy to have you here,you know.
Let's just talk broadly aboutthe kind of environment that
(06:44):
fleets find themselves operatingin right now.
You know it's July, it's one ofthe hottest months of the year,
and when you run hot you canrun into a lot of problems.
What kinds of issues do fleetshave to contend with during the
hottest months of the year?
Ken Brandt (07:00):
Yeah, it's just going to be.
The fan clutch will be engaginga lot more and that could cause
overheating in the engine andeverything's affected within the
system.
You know the ECM, electricalsystems, tires, brakes,
everything gets affected onthere.
But you know you have to runthat fan to cool that engine and
if you don't, the engine isgoing to have issues in there.
Jamie Irvine (07:21):
Yeah, when the engine has issues, that stops
you on the side of the road.
I'm just kind of curiouswithout going too deep into the
details just yet, but from ahigh level what are some of the
common causes of a truckoverheating in these hot summer
months?
Ken Brandt (07:36):
Generally it's improper fan clutch technology,
for example.
There's probably five differenttypes of fan clutches on-off,
two-speed, electric, electrictrucks, electromagnetic and now
variable speed and that's kindof the kind of controllable
viscous the technology comingover from Europe.
So if you pick the wrongtechnology you may have
overheating issues.
Jamie Irvine (07:58):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I guess also,
even if you have the righttechnology, if you're not
maintaining it, that could be anissue too.
So if you find yourself in oneof these situations where you're
on the side of the road, thehood's up, your truck's
overheated what does that cost?
Customers that Parts for Truckstakes care of fleets,
(08:18):
owner-operators, drivers what'sthe true cost of this kind of an
overheating event?
Ken Brandt (08:24):
It could be $2,000 to $3,000.
You have the cost of the towright and then you're going to
have the cost of the repair andgoing back in and then we try to
get the availability butthere's not availability for
that fan clutch or fan blade.
It could cost you a lot ofmoney in downtime.
I think they estimate $1,000 aday per truck when it's down.
So I can add up pretty quick.
Jamie Irvine (08:43):
Yeah, sure, ken, and those are just the direct
costs.
I think of also the indirectcosts.
If you're a fleet, you havecustomers.
Maybe you didn't deliver theload on time.
Now they're upset.
You could lose business there.
On the other end of thespectrum, it's so hard to get
drivers and if the equipment'salways breaking down the driver
may decide.
You know what.
I want to go drive for somebodyelse.
So there's a lot of things tothink about.
(09:05):
So the stakes are very high forCanadian fleets operating in
the summer months.
Let's get into a little bitmore detail.
So when you specifically talkabout picking the right fan
clutch for the right application, those kinds of things, if
you're an over-the-roadapplication, how do you avoid
this costly downtime?
Ken Brandt (09:26):
Well, one of the things you can do is prevent a
maintenance before your truckleaves and goes out on the road.
Even the other thing that wekind of left out is that getting
another truck out there to getthe load and then taking it out,
that's going to cost you evenmore money.
But you want to check the liner.
You want to check for any airleaks.
Treat the whole fan clutch as asystem, not just as an
individual component.
So there's different thingsthat you want to check out.
(09:48):
Which would be a solenoid valve, the number one cause of
failures.
You have airlines that go overhotspots and get crimped.
You want to check those out.
There's a $5 compression fittingthat goes in the back of most
fan clutches.
That leaks also and you cancatch that.
And then the fan blades.
I lift up a lot of hoods andyou'll see them cracked, chipped
and a piece could go in theradiator and really cost you a
(10:08):
lot of money.
And the heat exasperates that.
Up in Canada you guys get verymuch extremes.
You get extreme cold, you getextreme hot and at extreme heat
the fan clutch, or the on-offtype fan clutch, is going to
engage more during the summer,which means there's going to be
a lot more wear on the wearitems, so it's imperative that
you do prevent and maintenanceon that.
Jamie Irvine (10:29):
Yeah, so we talk about over the road, but what
about vocational applications?
I think about Alberta, forexample.
There's a lot of oil and gas,there's a lot of forestry and
logging in both British Columbia, Alberta, and in the East.
So when you're in thatvocational application, what
might you be thinking about?
Ken Brandt (10:47):
I'd be looking at a two-speed or variable speed.
Because what happens with anover-the-road truck say you're
going from Montreal to Vancouver, as an example?
That fan clutch is going to beoff probably 75% of the time and
only operating 25%.
But on those type of operationsyou've described, logging could
be concrete.
It could be concrete, it couldbe waste.
There's not much ram air comingacross in the summer during the
(11:08):
heat, so the fan clutch isgoing to be constantly coming on
and off to try to cool thatengine.
And what a two-speed does?
The back of the fan clutch issimilar.
In our case we've dropped intwo magnets around a steel ring
and it works off of eddy currentand it works at half speed like
four to 500 RPM, and then whenyou need more cooling, it'll
come on at about eight to 900RPM for about 60 seconds and
(11:31):
then go back into thenon-engaged eddy current mode.
So what this does?
It saves your fan clutch fromengaging all the time.
It will not wear.
It'll save you some fuel, it'sgreat for the fleet and it's
perfect for those vocationaltype of applications that you
run into.
Jamie Irvine (11:47):
So if a fleet wants to have precision cooling
for their equipment, what's thebest option then?
Ken Brandt (11:54):
Probably would be variable speed, and that's
technology coming over fromEurope.
A lot of people call itcontrollable viscous.
So there's a tether that'shooked into the engine.
Ecm sends a signal inside avalve, into the fan clutch, and
it just releases viscous fluid.
So in the summer when it's hot,it'll release more viscous
fluid through that valve and thefan blade will turn quicker and
(12:15):
as it gets colder, like anextreme cold up in Canada, that
valve will shut down and it'llgo down as low as 100 RPM For
Canada.
It's a really nice item.
It's good in the extreme heatand it's good in the extreme
cold and it'll give you precise,accurate cooling that a
pneumatic fan clutch will notgive you.
Jamie Irvine (12:33):
With these style of clutches?
Are they kind of like reversecompatible, Like could we decide
to retrofit an older vehicle ora vehicle with another style of
fan clutch with this technologyif we're having problems?
Ken Brandt (12:47):
In some cases you can.
At certain OEs you probably canbecause they're coming out on
the first fit side with avariable speed and some you
wouldn't be.
We'd have to use the on-off ortwo-speed technology because in
the aftermarket we couldtheoretically do it, but it'd be
a lot of applications to createvariable speeds for that Right
On the pneumatic side.
Obviously we, you, you haveremands or you have rebuilt kits
(13:08):
because of the messy, viscousfluid and variable speed.
It's not that you can, can'trebuild it, but it gets kind of
messy.
Yeah, Fair enough, Fair enough.
Jamie Irvine (13:17):
Well, we'll talk about remand in a little bit
Before we get into that.
You know you talked aboutpreventative maintenance and the
importance of that, but reallywhat I'd like to understand, or
have a better understanding, iswhat can fleets do to get the
most life out of their coolingsystem?
Walk us through the kind ofprocedure that Horton recommends
(13:38):
fleets operate under to getthat long life out of their
system.
Ken Brandt (13:42):
Well, you want to walk around the truck.
There's a kit available that weusually give out for free.
But you want to test the air atthe solenoid valve with the fan
clutch.
If it's less than 90 PSI, youknow you need to change that
valve.
That valve on any type ofpneumatic clutch us or any of
our competitors is critical, butyou have to have proper airflow
on that stuff.
(14:03):
You know, just the fan blades,all that stuff plays into it.
You know just the fan blades,all that stuff plays into it.
You know, just before it leavesthe garage and gets out on the
road, you have to do a walkaround on that truck and
probably, as far as the fanclutch goes, you should probably
look at rebuilding it, maybeevery 300,000 miles.
And as I always say a lot of theseminars, when a fan clutch
comes in, let's say, you knowyou guys are selling somebody a
(14:24):
fan clutch, the fan clutch has300,000 miles.
Well, so those ancillarycomponents also.
So you have to change those outand that will really help the
fleet with their preventivemaintenance.
But we actually have a.
We have a checklist for thefleets, a preventive maintenance
checklist they could go through.
You know, for example, checkingthe liner if it's below one
quarter of an inch, as anexample.
And then we do training, youknow, with you guys
(15:12):
no-transcript.
Jamie Irvine (15:17):
these best practices and like in your
experience, how important is itfor the fleet to invest in that
training with their people?
Ken Brandt (15:25):
Very important because you know this, you go to
a lot of the shows, like I do,and we're getting people with
all various experiences outthere.
Some guys are really new.
So, yeah, we really have tobring that level of training
down to the appropriate level.
Some of the guys are new, butwhen we do training we emphasize
service after the sale.
I think that's the key thing.
But I like to teach rebuildingbecause then you see what's on
(15:48):
the inside of a fan clutch.
It's kind of important.
Even if you're going to changeout a remand, it's good to know
what's inside that fan clutch soyou can diagnose it.
Is it air cartridge?
Is it an O-ring?
What is it?
And when you open it up,there's not that many parts in
there.
It's pretty easy.
When you pull it apart, it'snot the most complicated thing.
But you get all levels ofexperience out there and we try
(16:09):
to get that experience down towhatever level we need to.
Jamie Irvine (16:14):
That's kind of how we do it.
Yeah, and how does Hortonspecifically support
remanufacturing of their fanclutches?
Go into details more about thatactual side of the business.
Ken Brandt (16:24):
So we have facilities in our main one.
Our main offices are inRoseville, Minnesota.
That's our head office, but ourfan clutch and reman facility
is in Britain, South Dakota.
We follow ISO 9001 and 14001guidelines on that, which are
the highest industry standardsClemson, South Carolina.
(16:48):
We also have a plant inSchweinfurt, Germany, and then
we have one in China also.
So we're a small, privatelyowned company but we're
worldwide.
But we put the finest standardsinto our remand fan clutches.
Essentially, when you're doinga remand you reuse the shaft and
the pulley.
If they're at a mic or whatever, they get tossed into the scrap
bin and a lot of times in ourremand program we'll use some
new ones if we don't have thecore back, but everything else
(17:10):
is pretty much new inside ofthere the bearings, the O-rings,
everything.
So if the outside's good,you're getting pretty much a new
fan clutch, even though it'scalled a reman, and it's very
high quality to the highestindustry standards that we have
out there as far asmanufacturing.
Jamie Irvine (17:24):
I think that's an important thing to just
emphasize, because when you areremanufacturing components, you
do that failure analysis and youget to see what's happening
with the product over many, manymillions of miles driven by all
of the equipment.
And so when you'remanufacturing the aftermarket
components that we would sell toour customers, or a complete
(17:47):
reman unit, the customer canhave real confidence in the fact
that you've done these failureanalysis, you understand where
the failure points are and thenyou've proactively been solving
those issues, wouldn't you say?
That's true?
Ken Brandt (18:00):
Absolutely.
And even our customers thatrebuild we offer training to
help them do that.
So it gets as close to ourremand as it possibly can be.
Of course, you know ours isalmost like a military.
You know inspection.
We have inspectors that come inand check the facility, make
sure that we're checking all theboxes and we're doing
everything right.
So it's a little bit higherlevel.
At our level.
We want to make sure we put outthe best possible product for
(18:23):
our fleet customers and ourdistributors.
Jamie Irvine (18:25):
Yeah, and it's important.
I think, when you are a fleetand you're operating in these
difficult environments whetherit's the extreme cold of the
Canadian winter that's why theycall it the great white North or
if it's this extreme heat inthe summer when you are
purchasing parts, when you'rethinking about, okay, what parts
am I going to put on myvehicles, you want to choose
(18:46):
distributors who invest in you.
You want to choose distributorswho have vendors who are going
to invest in you.
So let's talk about some of thethings that Horton is doing
specifically to supportcustomers, like Parts for Trucks
, and then, of course, thefleets and the owner operators
and the drivers who buy from us.
So, first of all, talk to me alittle bit about the VIN decoder
(19:06):
on your website.
Ken Brandt (19:07):
Yeah, we have a 17-digit VIN decoder on our
website, which you know partsfor trucks a lot of our
distributors use.
Our distributors, likeyourselves, are the backbone for
Horton.
You guys are a big help,helping us with our fleet
customers and you know it's keythat we give you and the fleets
the proper tools, and the17-digit VIN decoder is one of
them the proper tools and the 17digit Vindicator is one of them
(19:30):
.
Now we're a tier one first fitsupplier, but not at all the OEs
.
So we're into aftermarket partsalso and we have the
competitors parts and stuff likethat.
So occasionally, especially foryou guys, you're getting
everything in there.
You're getting all kinds ofmakes, models and stuff like
that.
So with the Vindicator, if youhave the 17 digits, we can give
you the make, model year andthen the part number and then
below that we'll have the remanoption, we'll have the kit
(19:53):
option and then we'll have thefan blade option, sometimes on
that also.
So it's real easy for the guyto find.
He doesn't have to make phonecalls.
All that information is rightat his fingertips, along with
cross-references.
Also.
There's a lot of good stuff onthe Horton website Along with
cross-references.
Jamie Irvine (20:07):
Also, there's a lot of good stuff on the Horton
website.
So it's one thing, and it's avery important thing, to be able
to identify the parts that areneeded.
It's totally another thing tohave it in stock, ready to go
for your customers.
What investment has Horton madein the way of reporting to
ensure that they help theirdistributors get the right
inventory in the right regionsat the right time?
Ken Brandt (20:27):
Great question.
There's two things that wereally have.
We've invested in 3PL quickship warehouses, of which we
have four in Canada.
We have Calgary, montreal,toronto, winnipeg, but we have
16 overall.
Purpose of that is to get nextday ground to the distributor
and then out to the fleet withinlike a day.
You guys obviously have a greatinventory on there, probably
the most popular parts and whatwe try to provide for parts for
(20:50):
trucks.
We use a program called PowerBI and we can see, for example,
all the Horton parts that comeinto Winnipeg.
So in that case we'll let youguys know about it.
We'll work at the branch level.
We'll also make sure ourQuickShip Warehouse has a backup
of those parts and the key isdowntime with fleets, that we
have that part for our fleetfriends out there and it's
(21:10):
available for them from our 3PLwarehouses If for some reason
you know it's an oddball thatyou may not have on the shelf.
Jamie Irvine (21:17):
Yeah, knowledge is power, and being able to
identify where a part is in thesupply chain is a really
important part of making goodquality decisions.
I think there's nothing worsefor a fleet to bring a truck
into their shop and starttearing it apart and then it
sits for days because the part'snot available.
Talk to me about how Hortonoffers a quick view to people so
(21:40):
that they can kind of get anunderstanding of where a maybe
hard to find part is in thesupply chain.
Ken Brandt (21:46):
Yeah, the quick view is a really nice thing.
It has no pricing in it, butyou can get a username and
password from Horton.
You can then go in, put thatpart number in and you can
actually see its location andthe quantities, for example in
Calgary or Winnipeg or somethinglike that.
It has no pricing, which isreally nice, because a lot of
people you don't want to giveout all the information and
(22:06):
stuff like that pricing,obviously, but it'll.
It'll have where, where to getall that stuff.
Jamie Irvine (22:11):
Well, and that's an important piece to it, cause,
let's say, I'm working in ashop and I'm, I'm, you know, I
know that it takes a day to shipfrom, from Winnipeg to me and
you can see, oh, it's in theWinnipeg warehouse.
That means parts for trucks canget it and ship it today, I'll
have it tomorrow.
Now I can plan when to fix thattruck.
So that's an important piece toit.
With over 60 reps and directpersonnel to help, what role do
(22:36):
they play, working in the fieldalongside distributors like
Parts for Trucks, to help fleetcustomers?
Ken Brandt (22:42):
Yeah, we're available for training,
obviously, at Parts for Trucksto work with your counter guys
outside sales and to get fulltraining in there.
But we're also there to workwith Parts for Trucks, to go out
to the fleets and do fleettraining, make calls and stuff
like that.
You know, as you know, jamie,it's a relationship business, so
I think it's key.
You know, sometimes the fleetmanagers they get very busy out
there and we understand thatwe're not always out there
(23:05):
selling.
We're out there with goodinformation, updates on fan
clutches For the fleetmaintenance manager.
Knowing your distributor andsupplier I think is critical
because sometimes you get inthose gray areas and we can help
you out with policy and also wecan help you out with warranty.
I mean, to cut costs, the fleetshould know their warranties
(23:25):
from every supplier.
For example, our reman is threeyears, 300,000 miles, so you
want to take advantage of thatand that's just.
You know if it's within thatwarranty, not just go out and
buy a new fan clutch when youcan take care of your warranty
for you?
Jamie Irvine (23:36):
Yeah Well, when you're talking about
remanufactured product, you'retalking about cores.
A lot of people say that coresis a four letter word, but when
you think about managing yourcores and you're returning them
to parts or trucks, they'regoing back to Horton.
What kind of assurances doesHorton put in place to give
(23:57):
customers confidence to stickwith the Horton brand?
Ken Brandt (24:00):
We have the easiest core program I think out there.
So the way it works is prettymuch.
Any core is worth $400.
Years ago we had a bad corewhere if it got shipped or it
didn't turn you get dinged for$200.
We got rid of that becausethat's what the customers wanted
.
So now it's real easy.
The other aspects of our coreprogram it's not like for like.
So let's just say you'reupgrading a truck using an
(24:24):
on-off to a two-speed becausenow it's logging, you can send
back that on-off core.
It doesn't have to be the sameexact part that you bought.
And number three we take backany competitive cores.
We've all run into situationswhere we walk into a fleet and
maybe a gentleman has one usingas a doorstop or a barrel full
of them, you know, and maybethey're getting rid of them, you
(24:45):
know.
You pick them up if it's finewith him and bring them back to
the distributorship.
If one of your good customerscomes in doesn't have one, you
can help them get out of a jam.
It's probably 70% remands rightnow and 30% kits 10 years ago
it was 30% remands and 70% kits.
Because of the availability andthe ease of doing business with
cores.
(25:05):
It's changed quite a bit.
You're 100% right.
Cores can really kill you ifyou're not careful the fleet and
the distributor.
So we're trying to make it easyfor you guys with that.
Jamie Irvine (25:15):
Go figure right.
Make it easier for yourcustomers and they do more
business with you.
Talking about making it easy,freight is a big cost for
everyone.
It's definitely gone up a lotin the last few years.
So what has Horton done withtheir prepaid freight policy to
make it easier to get Hortonproduct in the hands of the
(25:36):
customers who need them the most?
Ken Brandt (25:37):
Yeah, believe it or not, during COVID, when
everybody else went up withfreight, we actually went down.
So we were at $2,250 US, Ithink it was $2,500 Canadian
dollars, and now we're at $1,000US and was 2,500 Canadian
dollars and now we're at athousand dollars US and 1,300
Canadian dollars.
So again, with that, combinedwith the availability on our
quick ship warehouse, you know,it gives you guys more
flexibility, gives the fleetmore flexibility.
We do care about your termsvery much.
(26:01):
We care about, you know, makingsure the fleet has what they
need, you know at the fleet andthen you can, we can, give you
the parts that you need todeliver those.
So that's, it really counts forus, that's for sure.
Jamie Irvine (26:12):
You know, I like to hear a story about how all of
these elements came together tohelp out a customer.
So tell me a story about, youknow, one of the customers that
you saw.
Maybe you worked with adistributor and you were helping
a fleet.
You know what was the situation, what were they up against, how
did Horton help them solve theproblem and what was the outcome
.
Ken Brandt (26:33):
Yeah, we had a customer, I remember, down in
Orlando and they had a originalit was originally an on-off
style fan clutch and they weregoing from probably Orlando out
to California and back and thenhe repurposed that truck and
he's doing delivery, startingand stopping all the time and
that's where we kind ofoutfitted them with.
He had probably 10 trucks thatwere doing that.
(26:53):
So we gave him a free sample onthe two-speed to check out.
And the interesting thing withthe two-speed one of the things,
a couple of things we didn'tmention two-speeds are pretty
interesting in that if you'resouth of the Mason-Dixon line
and a lot of your truckers fromCanada go down there too, down
to Florida and back to run innorth-south Right, the criteria
for using a two-speed is ifyou're minus 45 miles an hour
(27:16):
average vehicle speed or southof the Mason-Dixon line.
No-transcript.
Uh, two speeds.
The only bad thing with them, uh, the pneumatic ones.
Sometimes you can get a littlebit of over cooling if it gets
very, very cold in the wintertime and that's where that
variable speed aspect comes in.
But generally in those Southern, the Southern hemisphere, you
(27:38):
know that that thing's runningbecause you you're talking about
heat.
There's heat all the time downthere, even in February, uh, in
Orlando.
So you know we got him hookedup he's.
You know we got him hooked uphe's.
You know they've had somereally nice fuel savings down
there.
Their fan clutch is lasting alot longer because it's not
engaging all the time andhitting in and out, so that
liner's saving and he's doingbetter preventive maintenance
(27:59):
and those fan clutches arelasting a lot longer right now.
Jamie Irvine (28:02):
Yeah, and you know you think about all of those
little things that added up tosavings.
I mean, in a competitiveenvironment where fleets are
struggling at times to beprofitable we've seen the whole
environment over the last coupleof years with the freight
recession and other economicpressures on the trucking
industry every little bit helps.
(28:22):
So if you're listening to thisright now and if you think that
you could really use some helpfrom both Parts for Trucks and
Horton, reach out to one of our32 locations, talk to your
outside salesperson, talk to ourcounter, you know, hit us up on
the website.
We would be so happy to be ableto bring out an expert and look
at your situation and see if wecan help.
(28:44):
You have a similar experience.
Thanks, ken, for coming on theshow and sharing a lot of
details about how people cankeep cool this summer with
Horton.
Ken Brandt (28:53):
Thanks, jamie, it's a real honor.
Jamie Irvine (28:54):
Well, I really enjoyed my conversation with Ken
Brandt from Horton and Ithought that he shared a lot of
really great tips on making surethat your fan clutch is matched
correctly to the applicationand is going to operate at peak
efficiency and performance onyour behalf.
There's more to the coolingsystem than just fan clutches.
(29:14):
You've got to think about theentire HVAC system.
So I wanted to talk to one ofour suppliers, arctic Traveler
Canada.
They've been in business since1960.
They're a trusted specialist inthis space and they really have
developed products and a greatdeal of expertise in industries
(29:35):
like the trucking industry,agriculture, logging, mining,
some of the vocationalapplications.
So these are the people we needto talk to when we're talking
about keeping cool in thehottest months of the summer.
I'd like to introduce you toMike Helm.
Mike, welcome to the Parts forTrucks podcast.
So glad to have you here.
Mike Helm (29:51):
Thank you very much for having me.
I look forward to helping inany way I possibly can.
Jamie Irvine (29:55):
So, as we're recording this right now, your
area in Ontario has been hitwith some pretty hot
temperatures.
You guys are really feeling it,so this is great timing to have
this conversation.
So let me ask you something,since July is often the hottest
month of the year and we thinkof all the summer months as
being these really hightemperatures, and we got to run
(30:17):
those commercial pieces ofequipment regardless of what's
going on outside.
What would you say are some ofthe most common problems
trucking outfits run into in thehottest part of the summer?
Well, usually in the hottestpart of the summer.
Mike Helm (30:29):
Well, usually in the hottest part of the summer,
you're going to run into a lotof what you're running into is
small leaks, and small leakseventually lead to oil being
drained out of the system, whicheventually leads to problems
further down compressors,condensers and that's all done
through preventative maintenance, of which we can talk about in
a little bit.
But it's usually that becausethe other problem people run
(30:50):
into is when they turn their airconditioning on.
They think it's going to beextremely cold.
Well, as you mentioned here,we're sitting at 39 to 41 right
now.
The AC can only do so much.
It will not ever reach thetemperature that you think it
should, and that's because ofthe ambient temperature that's
outside that's affecting theairflow that's coming into it.
So a lot of people don'tunderstand that part of it.
(31:10):
So the small things like thatare what?
Jamie Irvine (31:16):
mainly is happening right now, when we're
in the middle of the heat wave.
So let me ask you something.
You mentioned preventativemaintenance.
Oftentimes I know my experiencehas been a lot of times people
don't even think about it untilthey get a hot day, they turn
their AC full blast and it's notworking right.
So what steps could have beentaken prior to this heat wave
and what steps should be takenon a regular basis to keep the
(31:37):
system working properly?
Mike Helm (31:38):
Well, there's two different questions in there, so
I'll answer the first one.
The first one is what steps youshould do on a regular basis,
yearly basis, monthly basis.
One of the biggest problems isthat the oil isn't circulating,
which means the seals aren'tgetting lubricated, and every
fitting, every connection on anair conditioning system has a
seal or an o-ring that's keepingit sealed in and tight.
(31:59):
So what happens is if you don'tstart your AC unit in the
winter and you let it sit forsix months until you hit that
hot day and then you turn itover, Well what's happening is
the compressor's engaging, it'smoving the oil, but now you've
had your seals and your oilrings dry for six months.
So, as anything, if you're notgoing to run it, it's eventually
going to dry up.
What happens is it cracks, and asmall crack when you understand
(32:24):
AC, it's a gas and a liquid anda small crack in one of those
that leads to it leaking out,and then that's what leads to
cast-off failures further downthe road.
So the simplest thing I telleverybody is run your AC system
heave when it's minus 15, run itto defrost your car window
before you get in the car,things like that.
It removes your moisture.
It helps defrost your windowanyways, so run it for that 15
minutes.
Even if it's 15 minutes a month, that allows 15 minutes, even
(32:49):
if it's 15 minutes a month, thatallows it to stay lubricated
and will solve a lot of yourproblems coming into the hot
weather that we're going toexperience and we're
experiencing right now.
Jamie Irvine (32:54):
Okay, and now the second half of my question.
What happens when we get tothis spot and it's not working?
What do we do?
Mike Helm (33:00):
Well then you're calling people like Parts for
Trucks and like myself, andsaying do you have availability
of things?
I always tell our good, ourfleets and everything here
locally is, once you hit April,you need to start to truly turn
those AC units on.
You need to start running them.
You need to run them not for 15minutes, you need to run them
for a day, you need to run itfor two days.
(33:20):
And the reason being is whenyou hit a heat wave, like we are
in June, july, right now, yourgarages and your stock levels
and everyone is already backedup.
So trying to find a mechanicthat you can get in within a day
or two is a lot more difficultnow to get AC done than it would
have been in April or at thebeginning of May.
(33:42):
That's the time when you do thepreventative maintenances.
You start early, you get inearly and you get ahead of the
game.
Because if you don early, youget in early and you get ahead
of the game, because if youdon't, you could be looking at
three to four weeks, and threeto four weeks in a Class A truck
with no AC.
I don't know how many driversare going to drive it.
So you need to look at thatahead of time and try and get
(34:03):
ahead of the game when it comesto any repairs or any issues
that you're going to face,because the hot weather will
always come and if you waituntil it's too late, you're just
far too late at that point intime.
Jamie Irvine (34:12):
Yeah, exactly.
So let's talk specifically,then, on some key products that
people should be thinking aboutwhen they are inspecting these
systems.
Mike Helm (34:22):
You can do the bubble test, which is just, basically
it's just water and soap and ifit's bubbling up, you know
there's a leak.
That's a good one forcondensing unix, same as
spraying that mixture around thefittings and around the
connections to see if there'sanything that's bubbling out.
That's a clear sign thatthere's air.
One thing you never want an acsystem is air.
It is a closed system.
(34:43):
When air gets in, the dryer,which is an integral part of the
AC system, essentially becomesuseless, because the dryer is to
take the moisture out of the ACsystem.
And what happens with moistureis moisture causes high head
pressure on the compressor,which in turn causes it to
eventually blow out the coil,which in turn causes the clutch
(35:05):
to seize, which in turn rips outthe belt.
All of that is done throughwater and condensation.
So anytime there's air in asystem, anytime any piece of
your system is replaced acondenser, a TX valve, even a
hose line you need to replaceyour dryer.
And I tell everyone this, and Isay it, I preach it because
you're opening the system and itdoesn't matter what vacuum you
(35:28):
put on there afterwards, you'renever going to get the moisture
back out.
You're placing the dryer, whichwill cost you anywhere from $40
to $120, is going to save youon a $700 to $1,200 bill down
the road, and you've already hadthe truck down.
Your system's already open.
There's no reason to not putthat money out there at that
point in time.
Get it done, get it fixed rightthe first time, so you're not
(35:49):
back in the shop in 8 to 12months and now you got a much
more expensive bill.
Those are the small things thatyou need to know.
Jamie Irvine (35:56):
It sounds to me like that's also part of the
overall strategy, then, to likefocus on total cost of operation
as opposed to just the purchaseprice of some replacement parts
.
Mike Helm (36:05):
Absolutely it is.
I always tell my biggeraccounts is that, and my bigger
accounts will tell me the samething A truck down costs them a
lot more money than bringing itin for the day and doing the AC.
The AC repair itself and partsand labor doesn't compare to
what the fact of that vehiclenot being on the road and making
money, or that piece ofoff-road equipment or that piece
(36:26):
of ag is not out there makingmoney, it's sitting.
If they have to make that sitfor more than a day because they
can't get a part or they're notdoing the replacement parts
that need to be done the firsttime and it comes back in.
That is overall cost way morethan just doing it right the
first time and taking the timeto do it right the first time.
(36:47):
So you're absolutely correct.
The overall cost is much morebeneficial to do the small
things right when you first takethat machine or that truck off
the road.
Jamie Irvine (36:59):
Mike, you mentioned other applications.
A lot of our customers at Partsfor Trucks we are coast to
coast 32 stores fromNewfoundland to British Columbia
so we cover a lot of differentvocations.
A lot of our customers aren'tjust over the road.
Can you talk to me just for amoment about maybe some of the
unique offerings that yourcompany has for those customers
(37:21):
who maybe have some over theroad highway equipment but they
also have some vocationalequipment?
What do you offer them?
Mike Helm (37:27):
Well, I mean, the good news is, between the
partnership at Omega and Partsfor Chucks is we do cover,
naturally, we cover the Class AChucks and we cover that
extensively.
But we also have the off-roadand we have the egg.
We do deal with the Ford NewHollands, the Ducens, the
Komatsus, the Cats, the JohnDeeres.
We even go as far as dealingwith the Yarmouth and some of
(37:48):
the Bobcat and we have thereplacement parts for those as
well.
And the one thing I will sayabout this when it comes to
off-road equipment, it's just asexpensive to have down, but the
product line is usually alittle bit more pricey if you go
through a dealership,comparatively speaking to coming
to a Parts for Trucks.
And the reason that is is it's24 volt, it's a little bit more
(38:11):
involved and there's a littlebit more in-depth on it.
But again, we do have and we dooffer the product lines to
backup, whether it be a hoseline, whether it be a compressor
or condenser.
We also have the ability,through our coil manufacturers,
to manufacture coils directlyspecific to replacement coils.
So if it's not availableanymore, whether it be through
(38:33):
us or through our supply linesor through parts for trucks, we
can take the coil and make itrate two spec from the original.
So those are some of thedifferent avenues that we have
and some of the differentbackgrounds that we do.
We naturally are strong, like Isaid, in class eight and the
bigger on-road vehicles.
But we've grown over, I wouldsay, the last eight to 10 years
(38:54):
and we've got much stronger andwe have much more knowledge on
the off-road and the mining andthe forestry equipment.
So if you do run into those,please do not hesitate.
Call your parts for trucks.
They're going to have theknowledge, they're going to have
the backing and they've'vealways got us.
Just in case they ever need toback it up, they can call us and
we'll do what we can do to findit for you.
Jamie Irvine (39:12):
We really appreciate having suppliers like
you who support us in takingcare of the heavy duty industry.
It's the backbone of society,and so it's a real privilege for
us to be able to support them,and we wouldn't be able to do it
without suppliers like yourself.
So, mike, thank you so much forcoming on the podcast.
I really appreciate it.
Mike Helm (39:30):
I appreciate you having me.
I thank you and, like I know,we're very grateful to have the
working leadership and thepartnership we have with Parts
of Trucks and we continue towork with you and grow the
business, and that's from coastto coast.
So I look forward to 2025, 2026and beyond.
Bring, and you know, enjoy thehot while while we have it,
cause it doesn't always last thelongest.
So enjoy it while we got it.
Jamie Irvine (39:51):
So up here at the great white North the winter
will return sooner than later.
Thanks, mike.
Thank you Appreciate it Well.
This brings us to theconclusion of our episode about
cooling systems and staying coolin the hottest months of the
year.
You've been listening to theParts for Trucks podcast.
(40:14):
I'm your host, jamie Irvin.
In this episode, we learnedabout how to cool down in the
summer with our commercialequipment.
If you want to buy the partsthat we discussed today, head
over to partsfortruckscom andfeel free to sign up for an
account so that you can buythese parts online nationwide.
But you also have the supportof 32 locations.
We'd be happy to have you comeinto the store and buy what you
need.
We have our 16 servicelocations as well, which are
(40:37):
there to take care of yourequipment if you don't want to
do the repairs on your own.
Also, I'd like to encourage youto subscribe to the Parts for
Trucks podcast if you like whatyou've been listening to.
You can do so by visitingpartsfortruckscom slash podcast,
you can go to our YouTubechannel or you can listen
wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you for tuning in to theParts for Trucks podcast and, as
(41:00):
always, I want to thank you forbeing heavy duty.
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