Hi all need some advice on fifth wheel,
I’m new to class 1 and panic every time I go to couple incase I miss king pin
Any advice how to make sure this never happens as all they say in test is get out and look
Any tips be good?
Cheers tony
1stly take your time and if needed get out and look
Get out and look.
Check the height too. Some leave the trailers high, so you miss the 5th wheel and slam into the back of the cab.
Sounds simple but all you need is to carry out the following two steps; Line up your unit nice and straight and LIFT the trailer up as high as the control will allow.
As you are lifting keep an eye on your mirror, as soon as you see the deck lifting reverse back and listen/feel for the click. DON’T FOR F SAKE copy some of the bone idle old hands who still think everything is on steel springs and attack the trailer at 20 mph from 100 yards away… 
Get the 5th wheel just under the trailer then raise suspension so you’ve lifted it off its legs. By now your 5th wheel is flat against the slide plate. Now reverse until you hear it lock and do 2 tugs. Clip in and quick visual check [emoji106]
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Topcat1522:
Hi all need some advice on fifth wheel,
I’m new to class 1 and panic every time I go to couple incase I miss king pin
Any advice how to make sure this never happens as all they say in test is get out and look
Any tips be good?Cheers tony
After checking trailer hand brake
- Make sure you line up in line with the trailer.
- Drop suspension to go under trailer so that 5th wheel is underneath it but don’t go back too far.
- Turn engine off, get out, look at where 5th wheel is in vertical height and raise suspension so that the trailer landing legs are lifting off the ground.
That way you wont miss the pin as your lateral (side to side) measurements are in line and your vertical measurements are too.
The two areas you can miss the pin are:
Going under it squint so that the pin is to one side of the 5th wheel
Not raising the suspension such that the 5th wheel is firmly touching the bottom of the trailer. Always check that the fifth wheel is touching the plate underneath the trailer. If you are hitching up to a fridge and you are under the pin (i.e too low such that the pin is going over the top of the 5th wheel) by the time you realise it ‘looks a bit close’ the bloody reefer unit will have hit the cab.
Slow and straight, get out as many times as you need till you work out where your mudwings are, where the fifth wheel is through the mirrors, don’t open the door to reverse, you might fall out and run over your head. Use the air suspension and you should be able to couple up without disturbing a blue bottle
I had one last week that was a PITA, it was loaded only on one side, which despite being on level ground it lean slightly due to the load. So the 5th wheel didn’t sit flush to the underside of the trailer when I backed under it and wouldn’t allow the jaw to lock even though I’d lifted the suspension, the weight on one side kept the gap between the plate and the trailer.
You need the window open and stick yer head out, (i do open the door and lean out because you can see more, up to you if you want to try that, can always put the seat belt on).
Have a good look at your tractor unit from the side, see where the back of the fifth wheel is in relation to the rear wing or wing support arm, because you won’t be able to see the fifth wheel itself unless you lean out the door, so use the rear mudwing as a guide to where you are re the trailer you are backing up to.
In an ideal pick up you want to reverse the fifth wheel just under the front of the trailer so its under the rubbing plate and short of the king pin by about a foot, but that will take practice, so just back the unit up till you are nearly there and then follow the advice of the other posters, get out and have a look, get out ten times if needs be after moving the vehicle a bit until you are happy you can lift the suspension (you might have already dropped the suspension before reversing under, you might not have) in order to lift the trailer legs just off the ground and completing the hitch up, all this in lowest possibly reverse gear, sometimes you have to flick the manual shifter several times to get it into M, sometimes like on Arsetronic box as found on MANs DAF’s and Iveco lorries there will either a position on the switch for maneuvering or in Iveco and maneuvering switch beside the normal switch (if my appalling memory serves).
Take no notice of billy big ■■■■■■■■ in his permanently stitched on hivis who reverses straight under every trailer in one hit, at speed, on the mirrors alone, that method is absolutely guaranteed to miss the pin sooner or later with expensive results, amusingly these BBB’s think themselves so bloody clever doing this showing hoe efficient they are, so bloody celever they never need to look like us mere plebs , i have been know to ■■■■ myself laughing when it all goes pear shaped with a BBB.
Billy will be the one who takes the ■■■■ out of you by the way, for checking and double checking everything, remember him well, because he is not the one to learn from 
The one Pierre (above) mentions on the ■■■■ (could be due to weight, rough ground or road camber) is the dangerous pick up, because as he described so well the fifth wheel won’t lock in (i had the same only last month picking an empty tank up, had to get the shunter tug to move it before i could get it), but the real danger is that the fifth wheel can lock in but with the king pin sitting n top of the jaws and not nestled inside with the locking bar fully across, this is very rare indeed it must be said and if you check visually it will never happen to you, but the results will be catastrophic because in the tug test it feels right because the surrounds of the fifth wheel are holding the king pin in place and the clip goes in because the wheel is locked, but at some point in your journey the trailer will more than likely bounce off, might be in the yard but it might be over a pot hole at 55mph 
This thread is worth a look at for pics showing the pin locked on.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=155420
Do yourself a favour, get your torch and shine it up the skirts of several fifth wheels with trailers already sitting in place, familiarise yourself with what you are looking for re that locking bar across the pin and with the fifth wheel flush against the rubbing plate, and get into the habit of shining that torch up the fifth wheel’s skirt every time you pick up a trailer, see that pin across you’ve got the bloody thing and no mistake.
My routine is as follows.
Reverse and line up with trailer, drop the suspension until you are just under the trailer and then lift the suspension as high as it will go (this prevents grease from accumulating on your skids) checking in the mirrors that the trailer is lifting and then just wait for the click as you attach to the pin.
If it’s a loaded trailer your picking up, you’ll know if it’s lifting when the lift/tag axle drops down (If it’s a 6x4) your driving.
When droping a trailer, wind the legs down until they are just touching the floor, pull the pin and and draw forward about a foot and then lower the suspension as low as it will go and then draw away from the trailer to again prevent grease on the skids. Just remember to level off after you’ve drove away from trailer. Hope this helps.
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The control for the suspension is on a curly lead for a reason. When you think you are part way under you can get out with the control in hand, stand where you can see, and lift it until the legs are just off the ground.
As drivers have said get out & have a look @ what you are doing and why you are doing it when raising the suspension!! Someone else mentioned a visual check this means getting ya self underneath between the trailer and your unit and shining the torch up its ■■■ to make sure you are locked in. Don’t hang around for to long though airbags on units can go at any time and it will take your head off if it does. Best of luck!!!
eagerbeaver:
Sounds simple but all you need is to carry out the following two steps; Line up your unit nice and straight and LIFT the trailer up as high as the control will allow.As you are lifting keep an eye on your mirror, as soon as you see the deck lifting reverse back and listen/feel for the click. DON’T FOR F SAKE copy some of the bone idle old hands who still think everything is on steel springs and attack the trailer at 20 mph from 100 yards away…
20 mph… ■■■■■■■ jessie. You ever seen how fast a 12 speed Foden can go in reverse, high ? By the way, don’t forget to drag the trailer round the yard a few times with the brakes on, just to make sure it’s locked.
stuwozere1:
and quick visual check [emoji106]
Walk us though this one fella, are we looking for pigs flying or pop eye with angles flying around his head, or perhaps a bunch of bum boys that double man each night from deepest end of cornwall?
Juddian I had to leave that one alone until they finished loading the other 13T as I knew what the consequences where, only once before have I come across a similar situation (at the Cadbury’s place next door to British sugar in York just off the A1237), but that was due to the trailer being dropped in a hollow and the approach was at an angle, and whichever way I tried to back under it, my unit would always end up askew. It took me half an hour to figure out that if I lifted up the trailer on the units suspension and stuck a block under 1 leg it would twist the chassis enough to get it at the right angle to hook it up, then drag it up the yard onto level ground, drop it, and hook it up again
peterm:
eagerbeaver:
Sounds simple but all you need is to carry out the following two steps; Line up your unit nice and straight and LIFT the trailer up as high as the control will allow.As you are lifting keep an eye on your mirror, as soon as you see the deck lifting reverse back and listen/feel for the click. DON’T FOR F SAKE copy some of the bone idle old hands who still think everything is on steel springs and attack the trailer at 20 mph from 100 yards away…
20 mph… [zb] jessie. You ever seen how fast a 12 speed Foden can go in reverse, high ?
Sand Fisher:
Topcat1522:
Hi all need some advice on fifth wheel,
I’m new to class 1 and panic every time I go to couple incase I miss king pin
Any advice how to make sure this never happens as all they say in test is get out and look
Any tips be good?Cheers tony
After checking trailer hand brake
- Make sure you line up in line with the trailer.
- Drop suspension to go under trailer so that 5th wheel is underneath it but don’t go back too far.
- Turn engine off, get out, look at where 5th wheel is in vertical height and raise suspension so that the trailer landing legs are lifting off the ground.
That way you wont miss the pin as your lateral (side to side) measurements are in line and your vertical measurements are too.
The two areas you can miss the pin are:
Going under it squint so that the pin is to one side of the 5th wheel
Not raising the suspension such that the 5th wheel is firmly touching the bottom of the trailer. Always check that the fifth wheel is touching the plate underneath the trailer. If you are hitching up to a fridge and you are under the pin (i.e too low such that the pin is going over the top of the 5th wheel) by the time you realise it ‘looks a bit close’ the bloody reefer unit will have hit the cab.
As well as all the excellent answers already given… use your ears too. When reversing under and connecting you should listen for a satisfying CLICK, then do a couple of tugs to make sure you’ve got it. Get out and do a visual check too, if you went under at the right height there should be no big gap between the fifth wheel and the trailer. You can shine a torch behind the fifth wheel and see the mechanism across the pin… and finally the fifth wheel dog clip going in easily should also give you more peace of mind! You’ll get used to it when you’ve been doing it for a while!
Lennoxtown:
As well as all the excellent answers already given… use your ears too. When reversing under and connecting you should listen for a satisfying CLICK, then do a couple of tugs to make sure you’ve got it. Get out and do a visual check too, if you went under at the right height there should be no big gap between the fifth wheel and the trailer. You can shine a torch behind the fifth wheel and see the mechanism across the pin… and finally the fifth wheel dog clip going in easily should also give you more peace of mind! You’ll get used to it when you’ve been doing it for a while!
Cheers for everybody’s help
Topcat1522:
Hi all need some advice on fifth wheel,
I’m new to class 1 and panic every time I go to couple incase I miss king pin
Any advice how to make sure this never happens as all they say in test is get out and look
Any tips be good?Cheers tony
Biggest tip is to raise the suspension on the back of your tractor (that’s what that little keypad near the bottom of your seat by the door is for). Most missed pins are caused by the tractor being too low (after having been lowered when dropping a previous trailer), so the 5th wheel is lower than the pin which means it doesn’t engage. If your suspension (and thus your 5th wheel) is high, it’ll push the trailer up and the coupling will engage, and has the added bonus of making it easier to wind the legs up.