just been reading on another truckers site about droping a trailer on its nose. im not an expert but ive been driving artics since 1977 and never done it, i was told then ,ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, there is 5 THINGS TO REMEMBER ,. first , SUZIES, LEGS, TRAILER BRAKE, NUMBER PLATE ,PIN. and count them out on your fingers before you pull out. PROVIDED YOU HAVE 5 FINGERS ,HAHA… another tip is when UNCOUPLING, the pin is the LAST THING YOU DO, AND when coupling is the FIRST THING YOU DO, hope this helps some of you newbies, remember 5 THINGS [zb], HOW HARD CAN IT BEE ■■? ITS A SACKABLE OFFENCE ,
Do them in the correct order and it is safer.
For uncoupling:
Brake (trailer brake - APPLY IT FIRST!)
Legs (lower them)
Airlines (detach them)
Clip (undo it)
Kingpin (release it)
That spells B L A C K
For coupling, simply do them in the opposite order:
Kingpin - engage
Clip - attach it
Airlines - attach them
Legs - raise them
Brake - release trailer brake LAST
And remember your number plate… 
I prefer the second version. Not least because that’s the one that will pass a test - as long as you check the lights when you’ve done.
Pete 
But first choose a suitable place to drop your trailer. A loaded trailer could have the legs sink into soft ground.
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gingo:
just been reading on another truckers site about droping a trailer on its nose. im not an expert but ive been driving artics since 1977 and never done it, i was told then ,ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, there is 5 THINGS TO REMEMBER ,. first , SUZIES, LEGS, TRAILER BRAKE, NUMBER PLATE ,PIN. and count them out on your fingers before you pull out. PROVIDED YOU HAVE 5 FINGERS ,HAHA… another tip is when UNCOUPLING, the pin is the LAST THING YOU DO, AND when coupling is the FIRST THING YOU DO, hope this helps some of you newbies, remember 5 THINGS [zb], HOW HARD CAN IT BEE ■■? ITS A SACKABLE OFFENCE ,
When dropping a trailer I’d say first thing is put trailer brake on followed by legs, susies not the order you mentioned.
I always did
Number plate
Legs
brake (depends where it is,by the legs or next to the suizies).
Suizies
Jump down round the front pin last.
What you find works for you stick to it, its when you’ve been doing it one way for so many years and then some box ticker tell you to do it another way is when it goes ■■■■ up and trailers end up on their knees.
One tip for all the newbies, always but always have your torch with you when hitching up even on the sunniest days, when you’ve connected up and put your clip in, just shine that torch up the fifth wheels bum, you’re looking for the jaws wrapped around the king pin, the lower lip of which sitting nice and snug under said jaws.
Some people think once the tug test is done that the trailer is secure, trust me that is not the case, it is entirely possible (when connecting op on uneven ground especially) for the jaws to lock home and the tug test to prove you have it secure, when in fact you have the king pin sitting on top of the now locked jaws, and depending on terrain its entirely possible (thankfully rare) to travel for many, hundreds, of miles like this and the trailer only bouncing off when you hit a rut.
I know the chap this happened to, which we all met with disbelief until a few months later when i myself picked up a loaded trailer on uneven ground and the exact same thing happened to me, something didn’t sound right when the jaws locked home so pulled the trailer down onto some level ground and had a poke nose, sure enough there the king pin was sitting on top of those locked jaws, it takes seconds to look, sod what anyone else watching you thinks, you are responsible for that vehicle so cover your arse as much as you can.
And for goodness sake people don’t just assume the trailer is at the correct height for picking up, back under enough to get the fifth wheel under the trailer, then (unless you personally dropped it but even then if the trailer air dropped the front could be higher) get out and have a quick poke nose and when happy raise that suspension a little so the legs don’t get strained, if you’re on tipping tanks and overshoot the pin it isn’t just lights and suzies smashed, that fifth wheel can severely damage the tank to the tune of many £thousands.
You know those impressive heroes who just (after never checking the engine oil fire straight up 
) drive along to their trailer and without even opening a window let alone a door back straight under like they’re on the LeMans grid by mirrors alone, well they don’t impress me one bit cos my lorry and tank and thousands more nationwide bear the scars and evidence of just how bloody clever these heroes aint.
As for trailer parking brakes, you should by rights check its on before picking up a trailer, in these days of spring brakes in theory this shouldn’t be necessary but you just never know if some clot has been sodding about with the shunt valve, so unless you know bloody well its in park go and check.
And whilst all this is going on do not forget your tractor parking brake, personally i turn off hill hold, IMHO hill hold has no place being in a lorry, so easy to misread HH as the parking brake.
There endeth the lesson for thismorning
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.
gingo:
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.
“trailer brake is no big deal”…hopefully you never come to regret that view.
gingo:
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.
Take it you haven’t uncoupled on a slope then pull the pin,for some reason no trailer brake on then its " 
err come back trailer rolls off into something or someone" maybe a bit dramatic but trailers have brakes for a reason.
Like you said SHOULD come on.
xichrisxi:
gingo:
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.“trailer brake is no big deal”…hopefully you never come to regret that view.
It is if you’re split coupling a fridge !!
bald bloke:
xichrisxi:
gingo:
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.“trailer brake is no big deal”…hopefully you never come to regret that view.
It is if you’re split coupling a fridge !!
this post is about uncoupling, not split coupling.
ORC:
Do them in the correct order and it is safer.For uncoupling:
Brake (trailer brake - APPLY IT FIRST!)
Legs (lower them)
Airlines (detach them)
Clip (undo it)
Kingpin (release it)That spells B L A C K
And remember your number plate…
‘c]’ is irrelevent ,you cant pull the pin unless you undo the clip. i would change the ‘c’ for ‘n’ for number plate, bear in mind this post is about UNCOUPLING a trailer.
theres a new post just started on the proffessional side about a driver with 28 years experience pulled the pin first when dropping a trailer, i have seen a few drivers do this . this is the last thing you do when dropping, and the first thing when coupling, BAD HABITS on the pro page.
Daytrunker:
gingo:
the reason i do suzies and legs first is they are the two most important things, forget one of them and thats were you could do a lot of damage, if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal, and you aint goin anywhere if you dont pull the pin, and when you disconnect the suzies the trailer brakes SHOULD come on anyway as juddian says get into a habbit of doing it the same way every time. and excellent advice re trailer and unit height,
seen a lot of drivers go under the pin.Take it you haven’t uncoupled on a slope then pull the pin,for some reason no trailer brake on then its "
Like you said SHOULD come on.
ive never had one yet were they havnt come on.
[ if you forget no plate or trailer brake its no big deal,
i could possibly have phrased that better, the 5 thing you do when dropping a trailer ARE ALL IMPORTANT, but you should always try to drop a trailer on firm, level ground, and 1 suzies or legs, cos if you forget them you will cause damage and could be sacked. trailer brake is important yes, but you can drop a trailer lots of times and forget to put the trailer brake on an there will be no problem, no plate, no prob, till you get stopped by the cops or vosa, or your boss get ■■■■■ off with getting you a new one .that leaves pin, the last thing too do and you cant go anywhere till you pull it.
for the last 5 years i have driven a MAN ,so i got out the cab ,the access to the catwalk was just to the rear of the cab on my side, so rather than go and find ,BLACK, it made sense to go onto catwalk and undo suzies, walk round front of cab, we done ADR so i would change my orange plate if neccesary , then LEGS, carry on round, and depending were trailer brake was, it was either brake or no plate ,then pin, and i had done a complete walk round of vehicle checking for faults as i went,
ORC:
Do them in the correct order and it is safer.For uncoupling:
Brake (trailer brake - APPLY IT FIRST!)
Legs (lower them)
Airlines (detach them)
Clip (undo it)
Kingpin (release it)That spells B L A C K
For coupling, simply do them in the opposite order:
Kingpin - engage
Clip - attach it
Airlines - attach them
Legs - raise them
Brake - release trailer brake LASTAnd remember your number plate…
yes follow this ‘safer’ proceedure ,which i dont have a problem with, just come back and let us know how many times you forget your number plate.
[ ps] ‘c’ is irrelevent in uncoupling, you cant pull pin till you have,
i have been driving artics for 40 years, and there was never a CORRECT ORDER back then, you did it your own way , and if it worked for you ,fine
an here we are 40 years later and drivers are still dropping trailers on there nose, ■■?
get over to the professional drivers forum, BAD HABITS,