Keep Your Diesel Food Truck Purring Like A Kitten

Keeping up on the maintenance of your diesel food truck is vital for the continued well-being of your vehicle. Giving your diesel food truck engine a tune up once in a while will help the health of your engine. No matter how good your food truck’s food and service may be, if your truck is off the road, you will lose money.

The following are some of the best ways that you can keep your diesel food truck engine running as it is supposed to.

7 Steps To Help Keep Your Diesel Food Truck On The Road

General Tips

Buy the best available diesel fuel. Although there are numerous food truck owners that use bio fuel for their diesel food trucks, you have to be careful not to purchase bio-diesel or standard diesel fuel from a non-registered fuel distributor. Nothing will stop your truck faster than filling it with dirty fuel.
Oil filters and fuel filters. Diesel engines need to be kept fully lubricated in order for them to work properly, which makes checking and changing the oil and fuel filters a necessity. If the oil and/or fuel filters become clogged, you’ll notice a drop in gas mileage as well as poor engine performance.
Keep an eye on gaskets and hoses. Gaskets on diesel food truck engines must be monitored closely. They are exposed to extreme operating conditions and high engine vibration. If possible, all mounting bolts should be re-torqued at regular intervals to prevent leaks. This is also true for coolant hoses which can deteriorate quickly if not properly secured. When you replace a leaky gasket replace the others as a set. This is because if one starts to leak, the rest won’t be far behind.
Check the gauges. Checking all of a diesel food trucks gauges is a great way for you to see if there are any possible issues that need to be addressed. This includes oil pressure falling, fuel issues, overheating, and electrical issues.
Check the fan belts. A simple way to avoid engine repair is to make sure that the belts are all set to proper tension.

Cleaning Tips

Clean the radiator. If the radiator is not completely clean, it can cause the engine to overheat. thus, it’s recommended to clean the outside of the radiator every 3 to 6 months (at minimum) in order to remove any road debris.
Clean all electrical connections. Cleaning all electrical cables and connectors of corrosion. This is going to provide a better electrical connection, which is going to allow electrical connections to be at their strongest.

The Bottom Line

If you aren’t confident in performing these diesel food truck maintenance tasks you should get a mechanic to do them. They are best done by professionals who know what they are doing.

Do you have a diesel food truck? Do you have any additional tips for new diesel food truck owners? Share your ideas on social media. Facebook | Twitter

By Richard Myrick|2018-02-22T09:02:08-05:00Feb 22, 2016|Under the Hood|

About the Author: Richard Myrick

Richard Myrick is an architect by degree (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan) who began his career in real estate development and architectural planning. In September of 2010 he created Mobile Cuisine Magazine to fill an information void he found when he began researching how to start a mobile hotdog cart in Chicago. Richard found that there was no central repository of mobile street food information anywhere on the internet, and with that, the idea for MCM was born. Richard also wrote the "Running a Food Truck for Dummies" available in bookstores everywhere and Amazon. You can reach out to Richard by email at: [email protected].