Heavy equipment radiators

This is a picture of a “over the road truck radiator” this radiator would fit in a Peterbuilt, Mack, Volvo white or many other big rigs moving down the road. We work on a lot of these radiators and they take special equipment to be able to handle them along with unique skills and training. I decided to write this blog because we have picked a lot of new clients with truck fleets and large radiators to fix.

 Heavy equipment cooling systems are built tougher than standard automotive systems, radiators are bigger they are assembled differently and are produced from stronger materials. So they are made to be rebuilt several times before they run out of life. The majority of the heavy equipment radiators are still made from copper and brass with steel tanks and side straps, some are changing to aluminum like most of the industry is facing in the automotive sector. The copper brass ones are easier and better to rebuild than their aluminum  counter parts.

We start by testing them when they come in on the truck to make sure the unit will hold up to our rebuild process remove the tanks which are usually fastened together with bolts, run the parts through our hot tank and then to clean out the radiator itself we physically run a “steel rod” down each tube that carries the cooling liquid through it so as to clean out any dirt grease or obstruction in the tube. Clean the outside with wire brushes and elbow grease paint and prep all the parts before reassembling the unite. (that is what these guys are doing below)

When we are all finished we do a final test in our test tank by plugging the radiators connections with plugs adding air pressure to the radiator dunk it in a tank filled with water and look for leaks to appear. If we don’t see any leaks we dry the radiator off and do a final touch up with paint then deliver it back to our customer. This whole process has taken anywhere from 5-10 man hours to complete. 
Need a good shop?

http://www.intermountainradiator.com