The hot rod patrol are hot rod's biggest critics, they find fault in just about everything he does and have come to rescue the autobots stranded on earth really just to show they're better than him. And nobody exemplifies their distain towards hot rod better than trip-up, he'll never forgive him for insulting his mom one time (hes very touchy about that)
Trip-up is the most aggressive, contemptuous, and openly malicous member of the hot rod patrol. His own morality is something that deeply troubles him deep down. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to fight his urge to be petty.
His willingness to screw other people over to his own benefit is born from his past. He never wanted to be a mechanic, but his momma (bless her spark) died, and he had to take over the family business to stay afloat. His success in the field led to the wreckers taking note.
From their invitation, he met Big Daddy and joined the team. He hates the job, loathes it with a passion, and takes it out on pretty much everybody except hubs. something about her gets him really flustered. It's clear she likes him back in a playful bully kind of way
Even though big daddy and greaser run the team in a very unorthodox, "anything goes in the name of freedom" philosophy, they keep an eye on trip-up as they feel he could be a bad influence on hubs,
trip-up's personal beef with hot rod is that one time, they were testing those exhaust pipe flamethrowers hot rod likes to use so much and trip-up wanted to use a special family recipe as fuel but hot rod preferred a store bought alternative, the greatest insult trip-up ever had to endure