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.
Back up very slowly, keeping the trailer central in the mirrors, stop just before you think you are about to touch the trailer, get out and check the trailer is not higher than the fifth wheel and is central to the king pin slot, then slowly move under the trailer, if you can’t feel the strain on the truck as you go under stop and check again because you are too low. You have an advantage in the UK, you have truck suspension you can lift as well as lower. you can lift the fifth wheel to make it easy, in the USA they are so far behind that lifting suspension has not been invented yet
If you’ve lifted the unit up but the 5th wheel isn’t flush with the rubbing plate, maybe because the trailer is on uneven ground or you’re driving a low profile unit, this is the time to wind up the legs until it settles onto your unit and the legs are just clear of the ground.
Programming your memory buttons on the remote is a top tip here. I set mine as M1 for all the way up and M2 for all the way down. Hooking a heavy trailer, I can back under and press M1 then get out and watch it pick up, drop the lift axle and maybe give the legs a couple of turns up if they need it so that I’m not straining them when doing the tug test.
It’s your responsibility so just take your time and double check until you’re happy. There are some great tips in this thread and remember that as you build experience you’ll become more fluid at it.
Santa:
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.
with the engine running he will fail an assessment
all good advice…before doing any of that,make sure the trailer brake is on…and once coupled …do a tug test…some do it till the trailer legs bend…no need to do it that hard.
This is what i do…
Trailer brake on
Drop air out of unit
Reverse under trailer stopping short of kingpin
Raise unit suspension as high as it will go
Wind legs up a few inches
Reverse into kingpin
Tug test
Clip on
Susies on
Start engine put lights/hazards on (thus allowing to build air pressure up)
Number plate on
Legs all the way up (checking wheels tyres etc as your walking round)
Back in cab
Level out
Fill in defect card
Then drive off into the sunset
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
If the trailer plate is sitting slightly lower than the top of the fifth wheel table before going under it then 1 it will make sure that the unit lifts the trailer and the pin won’t foul as it goes in the jaws and 2 you can’t possibly miss the pin.Unlike if you go under it low in whatever way.That’s why you have ramps or at least the tapered forks on the fifth wheel to lift the trailer.
If you’re new then get out and look, no other way to do it or you will make a mistake. That mistake may be going in too low under the pin, or raising the suspension when the pin is over the 5th wheel plate rather than the slot, reversing and again shooting the pin. Or, less disastrous but ■■■■■■■ annoying for everyone else is you go in too high or raise it too soon and scrape all the grease off the 5th wheel and dump it on the catwalk or trailer edge.
Get out and look, back it up and connect, only once you get it right every time can you think about modifying your routine to going in low, then raising it until you see it lift and knocking it shut. I still get out and look every time now because we can’t raise the suspension on our trucks and shunters or other trucks can drop them way too high, so we often have to wind the legs down to meet the plate.
mark1284:
This is what i do…
Trailer brake on
Drop air out of unit
Reverse under trailer stopping short of kingpin
Raise unit suspension as high as it will go
Wind legs up a few inches
Reverse into kingpin
Tug test
Clip on
Susies on
Start engine put lights/hazards on (thus allowing to build air pressure up)
Number plate on
Legs all the way up (checking wheels tyres etc as your walking round)
Back in cab
Level out
Fill in defect card Then drive off into the sunset
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
And you started at 05:00, and I thought I was good at dragging the job out
Just out of curiosity though why do you say you “Wind legs up a few inches” surely you’ve lifted them clear when raising the air fully up?
My proceedure…
Drive up to trailer and give it a quick once over, all wheels, tyres and nuts ok - trl brake on - quick look in the back or check seals… (amazes me how many drivers hitch up completely then notice they have a flat tyre or the wrong load is on that trl or whatever, and then have to drop the bloody thing again)
Reverse up to trl and using my eyes and good judgement see if I need to drop or raise air any, and adjust accordingly.
Once I get the ‘Currlunk’ of the jaws locking give it a forward and reverse tug test.
Side lights and hazards on. The reason for the hazards is if you connect a MAN to most of our trailers without having the hazards on as you connect you will get continuous annoying lefthand/righthand trl indicator malfunction warnings (all fellow MAN drivers thank me later )
Jump out shine torch up josts dirty bits.
Clip on.
Suzies*
Legs*
Number plate*
(*checking marker and sidelights at the same time)
Level air.
Pour coffee.
Chat to as many other drivers and moan about how I got stitched up tonight, Yesterday AND last Wednesday.
Drink coffee.
Go to pull away.
Curse an expletive.
Get out and release the trl brake.
Drive off checking to see if anyone saw you forget the trl brake and if they did and are laughing flick them the finger and tell them to [zb] off
Only if its loaded. My unit wont lift the legs off the floor if the trailer is loaded. Saves possible damage to the legs aswell
Reef:
mark1284:
This is what i do…
Trailer brake on
Drop air out of unit
Reverse under trailer stopping short of kingpin
Raise unit suspension as high as it will go
Wind legs up a few inches
Reverse into kingpin
Tug test
Clip on
Susies on
Start engine put lights/hazards on (thus allowing to build air pressure up)
Number plate on
Legs all the way up (checking wheels tyres etc as your walking round)
Back in cab
Level out
Fill in defect card Then drive off into the sunset
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
And you started at 05:00, and I thought I was good at dragging the job out
Just out of curiosity though why do you say you “Wind legs up a few inches” surely you’ve lifted them clear when raising the air fully up?
My proceedure…
Drive up to trailer and give it a quick once over, all wheels, tyres and nuts ok - trl brake on - quick look in the back or check seals… (amazes me how many drivers hitch up completely then notice they have a flat tyre or the wrong load is on that trl or whatever, and then have to drop the bloody thing again)
Reverse up to trl and using my eyes and good judgement see if I need to drop or raise air any, and adjust accordingly.
Once I get the ‘Currlunk’ of the jaws locking give it a forward and reverse tug test.
Side lights and hazards on. The reason for the hazards is if you connect a MAN to most of our trailers without having the hazards on as you connect you will get continuous annoying lefthand/righthand trl indicator malfunction warnings (all fellow MAN drivers thank me later )
Jump out shine torch up josts dirty bits.
Clip on.
Suzies*
Legs*
Number plate*
(*checking marker and sidelights at the same time)
Level air.
Pour coffee.
Chat to as many other drivers and moan about how I got stitched up tonight, Yesterday AND last Wednesday.
Drink coffee.
Go to pull away.
Curse an expletive.
Get out and release the trl brake.
Drive off checking to see if anyone saw you forget the trl brake and if they did and are laughing flick them the finger and tell them to [zb] off
You’ve probably got the hang of it after nearly a year now.
If not, line it all up and reverse back at 20mph from 100 yards away. After you’ve picked everything up from the cab (if it’s still actually mounted on the chassis) don’t forget to put the clip in.
How’s this for a novel idea, if you find the trailer is sitting too high, wind the legs up, if you find it’s sitting too low, wind the legs down, you will only do the latter once or twice before you start to take more care dropping trailers.
You can always raise and lower the kingpin plate using the trailer air bags, deflate the bags, lift the kingpin, inflate the bellows and lower the pin.
The above is sometimes necessary with ferry trailers or when swapping with a euro motor and a uk motor, ours tend to have a 5” RSJ sandwiched between the fifth wheel and the chassis.
peirre:
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.
I once saw a driver struggling with a trailer like yours…
easy solution was to use some timbers at the right side to run the drive axle on to so that the trailer mated with the 5th wheel… but gently so as not to have the trailer sliding sideways…
Another thing, there is absolutely no point in smashing **** into the pin the coupling mechanism is only a catch.
Get the height right and line yourself up nice and straight no problems it doesn’t hurt to check by getting underneath with a torch where you can see the jaw around the back of the pin, I believe good coupling technique is the mark of a good driver in general.
Remember also when tug testing underneath your right foot is around 2000Nm of torque, the ■■■■ flinging monkey with no idea of how a truck works after smashing the pin with stamp on the go pedal for a full 5 seconds twice and subsequently warping the clutch tuning the unit in question to a lurching idiot machine.
Two gentle tugs forward will suffice, trailers coming free from units is extremely rare.
mike68:
Another thing, there is absolutely no point in smashing **** into the pin the coupling mechanism is only a catch.
Good points Mike, however the clowns who ram back at max velocity in an effort to rip the pin out by its roots are usually the ones who’ve missed it by a country mile anyway ,usually they’re doing it full look at me macho style on mirrors alone, and that smashing soundtrack is a combination of rear light cluster heavy rock band percussion combined anti-melodically with full orchestral sound of the back of the cab being stoved in, sometimes with a backing track of side deflectors breaking up or for the most talented the explosive sound of the fridge passing through the cab rear window, brilliance i tell yer …Alice Cooper was brilliant at morphing different musical genres but his efforts are actually worth hearing.
I agree with you mind, very satisfying when you’ve reversed gently to within a few inches of the pin, and then having raised the legs slightly off the floor go back gently and the jaws engage with little more than a click, gentle tug, check with torch the bar is across, job well done
On the other end of the process… does anyone get annoyed with lazy dropping of trailers?
I dropped a fully laden one in the yard earlier, made sure it was in hard standing (not the softer stuff) and lifted it a tiny bit (to counter the silly Scania tag lift dropping) before lowering the legs so the nose of the trailer doesnt bend down too low making it easier for the next person to get under it.
Unlike the one I picked up this morning which was parked in the soft, heavy at the front, dropped low etc
)
,usually they’re doing it full look at me macho style on mirrors alone, and that smashing soundtrack is a combination of rear light cluster heavy rock band percussion combined anti-melodically with full orchestral sound of the back of the cab being stoved in, sometimes with a backing track of side deflectors breaking up or for the most talented the explosive sound of the fridge passing through the cab rear window, brilliance i tell yer 
…Alice Cooper was brilliant at morphing different musical genres but his efforts are actually worth hearing.