Regular truck care is crucial to ensure your “road companion” operates smoothly, powerfully, and durably, especially during the harsh weather conditions of the rainy season. The rainy season not only brings inconvenience to travel but also poses many risks to your truck. Therefore, equipping yourself with knowledge and implementing thorough truck care measures during the rainy season is extremely necessary.
This article from Xe Tải Mỹ Đình, a leading website on trucks, will share effective truck care experiences for the rainy season, helping your truck stay in top condition and overcome all weather challenges.
Why is Rainy Season Truck Care Important?
The rainy season in Vietnam often comes with complex weather developments such as storms, prolonged heavy rain, flooding, mud, slippery roads, and limited visibility. These factors not only make driving difficult but also negatively impact your truck, increasing the risk of damage and reducing its lifespan.
Here are common problems that trucks easily encounter during the rainy season, emphasizing the importance of proper truck care:
- Flooding and engine stall: Deep floodwater is a dangerous “enemy” that can cause sudden engine stall, disrupting journeys and incurring repair costs.
- Electrical system and lighting issues: Continuous operation in humid and heavy rain conditions can cause the electrical system, lights, horn, wipers, etc., to become erratic, reduce performance, or malfunction.
- Damp, moldy, and degraded interior: Humid air creates favorable conditions for mold to grow in the cabin, causing unpleasant odors, affecting health, and accelerating interior degradation.
- Corrosion and rust on parts: Rainwater containing acid and mud adhering to the truck can cause corrosion and rust on metal parts, especially the chassis, exterior, and parts directly exposed to water.
- Reduced operating efficiency and safety: Slippery roads, potholes, and hard-to-see bumps increase the risk of accidents and reduce vehicle control. Trucks getting bogged down in mud also puts pressure on the drivetrain, brakes, and tires.
To minimize these risks, ensure stable and safe truck operation, and extend its lifespan, truck care during the rainy season is an indispensable task.
10 Essential Rainy Season Truck Care Items
Below are 10 important truck care items that truck owners and drivers should pay special attention to during the rainy season:
1. Regular Cleaning and Washing – Protect the Exterior
Rainwater contains acid and corrosive impurities, which are major harmful agents to the truck’s paint, cargo box, tarpaulin, bumpers, and other exterior parts. Truck care starts with regular cleaning and washing, especially immediately after the truck has traveled in the rain. This helps remove mud, dirty water, and minimize the corrosive effects of acid in rainwater.
If you don’t have time for a thorough wash, you should still quickly rinse areas prone to getting dirty, such as the radiator grille, front bumper, lighting system, and mirrors. Equipping mud flaps is also an effective solution to limit mud splashing onto the truck.
Regular truck cleaning helps protect the paint and exterior parts from the harmful effects of rainwater and mud, an important part of rainy season truck care.
Regular truck washing to protect paint
2. Check the Electrical System and Battery – Ensure Stable Starting and Operation
High humidity during the rainy season can affect the truck’s electrical system. Truck care needs to focus on regularly checking the engine compartment, ECU control box, and electrical connectors to ensure they are dry and not damp. This not only helps the truck start easily but also prevents the risk of short circuits and engine stalls on the road.
In addition, electrical appliances such as lights, horns, and wipers operate more frequently during the rainy season, which can cause the battery to drain quickly. Check and assess the battery condition periodically, charge or replace it if necessary to ensure a stable power supply.
3. Care for the Serpentine Belt – Prevent Slipping and Breakage
The serpentine belt is often located low, making it susceptible to water and mud splashing when the truck travels in the rain. Mud sticking to it can cause the serpentine belt to slip off the pulley, causing related components to stop working. Truck care during the rainy season includes checking the serpentine belt before each trip.
If you hear strange noises like squealing or loud noises from the engine when the truck is running, stop the truck and check the serpentine belt. Clean any mud stuck on the belt. If the serpentine belt shows signs of cracking, wear, stretching, or breakage, it needs to be replaced immediately to avoid more serious incidents. You should go to reputable maintenance centers to replace the serpentine belt correctly.
4. Maintain the Brake System – Safety on Every Journey
The brake system is also a part easily affected by rainwater and mud. In slippery road conditions with poor visibility, more frequent braking requires the brake system to operate stably and effectively. Truck care during the rainy season must include regular brake system maintenance.
Take your truck to reputable garages and service centers to inspect and maintain the brakes, ensuring brake pads, brake discs, and brake fluid are always in top condition, helping the truck operate safely in all weather conditions.
5. Inspect the Underbody – Detect Problems Early
The underbody is in direct contact with dirty water, mud, and other impurities. Truck care for the truck underbody during the rainy season includes thorough cleaning to remove mud, prevent rust and corrosion.
After washing the truck, check the suspension joints and steering system under the underbody to ensure they are working normally. To better protect the underbody, you can apply undercoating or use anti-corrosion and rust inhibitors periodically.
Inspecting the undercarriage of the truck for rust and damage after rainy season driving is vital for truck care.
Truck undercarriage inspection for rust
6. Check the Windshield Wipers – Clear Vision in the Rain
Windshield wipers play an important role in ensuring visibility for the driver when it rains. Simple but effective truck care during the rainy season is to check the windshield wipers regularly. Check the rubber wiper blades to see if they are hardened, cracked, worn, or broken. Make sure the windshield washer fluid reservoir is always full of specialized solution.
Windshield wipers should be replaced periodically after 12-18 months or sooner if you notice signs of poor performance. Good wipers help remove rainwater and dirt on the windshield, ensuring clear visibility and safer driving.
Checking and replacing windshield wipers when necessary is an important step in rainy season truck care, ensuring safe driving in bad weather conditions.
Checking windshield wipers for wear and tear
7. Check Tires – Road Grip and Safety
Tires are the part in direct contact with the road surface, greatly affecting the truck’s operating ability and safety. Worn, underinflated, or overinflated tires can be dangerous, especially on slippery roads in the rainy season. Truck care for truck tires during the rainy season is to check tires regularly before each trip.
Check tire wear, tire pressure, and cracks or bulges on the tire surface. Inflate tires to the correct standard pressure. If tires are too worn, they need to be replaced to ensure the best road grip, avoiding the risk of loss of control and skidding when braking suddenly.
8. Clean Headlights, Windows, and Rearview Mirrors – Increase Visibility
Headlights, windows, and rearview mirrors help drivers see better in all lighting conditions, especially in heavy rain and fog. Truck care during the rainy season includes cleaning these parts thoroughly.
Ensure headlights, taillights, turn signals, and fog lights are working well and not dimmed by dirt. Clean the windshield, window glass, and rearview mirrors to ensure optimal visibility. You can use a nano-coating rain repellent solution for the windows to enhance visibility in the rain.
Cleaning headlights and mirrors ensures optimal visibility, a key aspect of truck care during the rainy season.
Cleaning truck headlights for better visibility
9. Check Fuel and Engine Oil – Smooth Engine Operation
Fuel and engine oil play an important role in ensuring smooth and efficient engine operation. Truck care during the rainy season also requires attention to checking fuel and engine oil.
Check fuel and engine oil levels through the dashboard gauge and dipstick. Replenish when they are near the minimum level. Check the quality of fuel and engine oil. If you detect abnormal signs such as color change, water contamination, or rough engine operation, contact a reputable service center for timely inspection and handling. Rainwater can enter the fuel tank or engine oil, affecting the combustion and lubrication process of the engine.
Ensuring fuel and engine oil are of good quality and sufficient quantity is an important step in truck care, helping the engine operate stably and durably during the rainy season.
Checking engine oil level in a truck
10. Clean the Interior Cabin – Clean, Airy Space
Humid rainy season weather creates favorable conditions for bacteria and mold to grow in the truck’s interior cabin. Truck care for the interior during the rainy season is to clean and disinfect the cabin thoroughly.
Clean areas such as air conditioning vents, control panel, storage compartments, floor mats, dashboard, etc. Use specialized interior cleaning solutions to remove dust, mold, and odors. Keep the interior cabin dry, clean, and airy, creating a comfortable feeling for the driver and passengers.
Regular cleaning and disinfection of the truck interior is an important part of truck care during the rainy season, ensuring the cabin space is always clean, airy, and safe for health.
Cleaning the interior of a truck cabin
These are the 10 truck care items for the rainy season that Xe Tải Mỹ Đình wants to share with customers. We hope this information will be helpful for truck owners and drivers in maintaining and caring for their trucks, always feeling secure on every journey during the rainy season.
