Let me start by saying that my hands are not entirely clean when it comes to performing car repairs with cable ties. Is it a perfect solution? No. Has this been the only solution for me more than once? Most definitely. But I can honestly say I’ve never used them as a band-aid for anything safety critical. The same can’t be said for this truck driver in Canada who used the beloved (but ultimately weak) fasteners to quickly “fix” his trailer’s air brakes.
Waterloo Regional Police publicly shamed the truck driver on CDL Life even going so far as to say the driver was arrested, although I haven’t found anything else that says as much.
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There’s no doubt that a few rules are being broken here. Waterloo Regional Police say at least seven violations of the Highway Traffic Act have occurred, and charges have been laid for each of them. Perhaps the most obvious is driving an unsafe vehicle which, yes, is true. Would you want a trailer that weighs 40,000 pounds or more without brakes and pushes a semi-truck towards you at every turn, bend and intersection? You don’t have to answer that. I already know.
I don’t think these cable ties will ever work for long. Take a look at what those hoses and fittings should look like in the video below. They snap into the trailer’s gladhands, which are the Phillips-branded metal finished parts in the photos. If the connection is not tight, the hoses will immediately pop loose the first time they have to bend and bend around a sharp corner, cutting off the tractor’s air supply to the trailer. Tectran, the hose manufacturer, even uses a patent-pending connector design that provides “ultimate kink protection” and a “tapered grip that moves with the airline during tight turns.” As great as cable ties are, they can’t really compare.
Whether this driver actually ended up in jail or simply received a laundry list of fines, you can bet he’s having a bad week. As if a broken truck and trailer setup wasn’t frustrating enough.
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