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
Level out suspension, so you don’t reverse into kingpin at an oblique angle
Reverse into kingpin
Tug test
Clip on
Check for daylight between 5th wheel plate and underside of trailer. (If it’s crooked, then pull handle, pull forward slightly, and re-reverse into kingpin for a better couple this time
Susies on
Start engine put side lights/hazards on (thus allowing to build air pressure up) don’t switch lights full-on for at least a minute after starting the engine, or the alternator surge might blow the main dipped beam bulbs.
Number plate on
Legs all the way up (checking wheels tyres etc as your walking round)
Trailer brake off
Back in cab
Level out
Fill in defect card (Engine won’t start! - Hah!)
Then drive off into the sunsetSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Juddian:
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
Who hasn’t heard the “A-Frame Assault” or “Queen the Kingpin” squeal or “Cluster-cocked Crunch” at least once in their lives? 
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…
I accidentally did this today, foot slipped onto the gas pedal a little too much as I hooked up In all seriousness could I have done any damage to the fifth wheel or kingpin in any way? Everything hooked up okay and I moved it round the yard, but I’m a bit of a worrier!
djt1881:
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…
I accidentally did this today, foot slipped onto the gas pedal a little too much as I hooked up
Presumably you don’t mean as the Beaver joked getting a run up from 30 yards away, you actually mean that the final engagement was faster than you’d have liked?
Well, given the sub standard application of automatic clutches at such times even the most experienced of us now and again gets that final engagement faster than we’d like when the trailer is heavily loaded, you try to gradually increase throttle to get the unit to engage gently then all of sudden it shifts and you can’t stop it quickly enough before the pin hits home, other times it slides in gently with a click, its the big failure of all automatic clutch engagements not being able to minutely balance clutch engagement as you can with a manual clutch or torque converter hydraulic box, ie Terberg Tug.
Don’t worry about it they’re tough enough to take that sort of use.
I know Beaver was joking about the oldies but some 40odd years ago i genuinely did witness the type of hitching up he talked about.
It was at Castrol oils and i can still visualise it, bod shunting was using a Guy BigJ or similar motor panels cab unit taking a run up from yards away and hitting the trailer as fast as he could with a ground shuddering clang, if he’d missed the pin the trailer would have gone through the back of the cab, it was only luck that the trailer didn’t bounce off the pick up ramps and over the fifth wheel anyway, the whole thing was surreal to witness, dunno what the hell it was all about bad mad or what.
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
Good way of thinking
I did indeed miss the pin once when doing agency work.
Where I currently work, the procedure is to drop the suspension of the unit then get it just under the trailer nice and central, lift the suspension fully to lift it off the ground, then reverse under - you can’t miss
djt1881:
In all seriousness could I have done any damage to the fifth wheel or kingpin in any way?
Done this with the bendies for over 4 years now and not broken one yet. Always try to use the slowest reverse mode such as turtle mode in a DAF or from memory holding the switch in reverse for 2 seconds in a Merc so hitting the loud pedal doesn’t shoot you backwards. (Can’t find it on Renault).
You will of course eventually find all your internal organs are splatted again your back from the sudden jolt over the years. 
If you imagine how much pressure the 5th wheel jaws and the kingpin are under everytime you pull forward at full weight, they should be pretty solid. Infact if they do break its best to find out in the yard than on the road.
As for missing the pin, the only time I’ve done it was when the front wheels went on the pavement this I wasn’t totally flat against the rubbing plate. Luckily trailer was empty so easy to wind legs up and move out.
All good advice, if lacking confidence just stick head out the window, it’s like driving you feel it in the pants of your seat