The annual calendar, month by month
January and February are for the truck. Oil and filter, air filter, fuel filter if it is a diesel, coolant level and strength, serpentine belt, battery load test. This is the same work any passenger car gets, and the price logic is the same: parts are cheap, labour is the cost. If you want a reference point for what a service interval and a fair price look like in France, the maintenance guides at car service intervals and prices break down oil change periodicity, oil choice and inspection points in plain terms, and the reasoning carries over to a pickup almost unchanged.
March is for the trailer. Pull both wheels, repack or replace the hub bearings, inspect the brake shoes or pads, check the drums for scoring, and look at the breakaway cable and the coupler. April is for tyres on both vehicles, including the spare. May is a shakedown: hook up loaded, drive twenty minutes, stop, and put a hand on each hub. Warm is normal. Too hot to hold is a bearing or a brake dragging.
Write the dates on the wall. A calendar you keep in your head is a calendar you skip.
What does a truck service actually cover?
An annual service on a half ton or three quarter ton pickup covers fluids, filters, belts, battery, brakes, tyres and a visual inspection of the underside. Concretely, on my truck:
- Engine oil and filter, every 5,000 to 7,500 miles when towing, not the 10,000 the manual allows for empty highway driving.
- Air filter, once a year, or twice if you tow on dirt roads.
- Transmission fluid and filter, every 60,000 miles if the truck tows in summer heat.
- Coolant, checked for strength each fall, replaced on the manufacturer interval.
- Brake fluid, flushed every two to three years. It absorbs water and towing cooks it.
- Serpentine belt and tensioner, inspected yearly, replaced at the first sign of glazing or cracks.
- Battery, load tested yearly. A battery that cranks a cold diesel in January is a battery that works.
What a service does not cover unless you ask: differential fluid, transfer case fluid, and the brake fluid flush. Those are the three items most often left off a cheap service invoice, and all three matter on a tow vehicle.
Brakes: the part that decides whether you stop
Towing doubles the thermal load on brakes. The trailer has its own brakes, and they only help if they work.
On the truck, measure pad thickness at every tyre rotation. Replace pads at 3 mm, not at the squeal. Rotors get measured for thickness and runout, not just eyeballed. If the pedal pulses when you brake loaded, the rotors are done.
On the trailer, the numbers are different. Surge brakes and electric brakes both need an annual inspection. Check shoe or pad thickness, drum or disc condition, and the magnet face on electric brakes. A magnet worn below spec will not apply the brake hard enough, and you will feel it as a trailer that pushes you through a stop sign.
Bleed the trailer brakes if the fluid is more than two years old. On electric brakes, check the breakaway battery with a meter. It should read above 12 volts. A dead breakaway battery is a legal problem in most states and a real problem on a grade.
Set the trailer brake controller before every loaded trip, not once a season. Empty trailer, low gain. Loaded trailer, higher gain. Test it in a parking lot at 15 mph with the manual override.
Tyres, bearings and the checks that fail at the roadside
Trailer tyres age out before they wear out. Check the date code on the sidewall. Four digits, week and year. Replace trailer tyres at six years regardless of tread, and sooner if you see sidewall cracking. Trailer tyres also run at higher pressure than truck tyres: check the sidewall max, and run close to it when loaded.
Check truck tyre pressure cold, once a month, and before every long tow. Underinflation is the number one cause of trailer tyre failure, and a trailer tyre failure at highway speed does body damage that costs more than a set of tyres.
Bearings: pull the hubs once a year, inspect the races and rollers, repack with fresh grease, and set the nut to spec with a torque wrench, then back off to the cotter pin hole. Too tight is worse than slightly loose. Spin the wheel after assembly. It should turn free with no rumble and no play at the top and bottom of the tyre.
Lights and wiring: every trip, walk the rig with the lights on. Running lights, brake lights, turn signals, reverse. A corroded ground on a trailer light is the most common electrical fault there is, and it usually shows up as one dim light or a light that comes on with the wrong circuit.
Coupler and safety chains: chains crossed under the tongue, hooked to the truck frame, not to the bumper. Breakaway cable or chain attached to a solid point, not looped over the ball.
What inspection does a trailer need?
In most US states, a trailer under a certain weight and used privately needs no periodic inspection at all, only registration. Above that weight, or if it is used commercially, annual inspection rules apply, and they vary by state. The practical answer: check your state DMV or motor vehicle office for the weight threshold and the inspection interval that applies to your trailer, and do not assume the rule you heard from a friend in another state applies to you.
What an inspection typically looks at, whether it is a legal requirement or a self imposed one:
- Lights and reflectors, all of them, working and correctly placed.
- Brakes on both axles if the trailer is equipped and over the weight threshold.
- Tyres, tread depth and sidewall condition, including the spare.
- Coupler, safety chains, breakaway system.
- Frame and tongue for cracks, especially around welds and the coupler mount.
- Floor and tie down points, if it is an open or enclosed trailer.
Even in a state with no trailer inspection, run this list once a year. It takes an hour and it catches the failures that end a race weekend in a ditch.
The week before you leave
Five days out: check tyre pressures on all six or eight wheels, including the spare. Top off the truck's fluids. Test the trailer lights with the truck running.
Two days out: load the bike, strap it, and drive ten miles. Stop and check the straps, the hub temperature and the lights again. Straps stretch, and a bike that shifts on the highway is a bike that arrives in pieces.
The day before: check the trailer registration and the truck insurance card are in the glovebox. Check the torque on the lug nuts on both vehicles with a wrench, not by hand.
That is the whole calendar. Truck in winter, trailer in spring, tyres and lights before every trip, and one honest look at the brakes before the season starts. None of it is complicated. All of it is cheaper than the alternative.