- If you couldn’t wind them in low gear its possible someone wound them down to the very end of their travel where they get stuck, unusual but it does happen if the ground is not even, especially if the tractor dropping it off is a 3 axle Scani and the mid lift or tag axle is raised because in the raised position the unit is around 3" higher than normal ride height.
If where you work has a mixed fleet of vehicles always keep this in mind, if you reverse under an empty that’s been dropped by a Scania previously (keep in mind the vast majority of drivers haven’t the wit to lower the extra axle or leave a gap before they actually drop it ) and you have almost any other make of tractor or your Scania is a 4x2 or you have the Scanni mid lfit down that trailer will be sitting 3" higher than the vehicle you are in, and potentially considerably higher still if the trailer suspension has lost its air and the trailer axles lowered thereby raising the front higher still.
Unless i know, and you can tell when you’ve been around long enough that the trailer you are about to pick up is at the right height, i reverse up to the trailer sliding only the chassis under and then stop get out and have a look see what heights are like, chances are that once you reverse under and do as described well above that you’ll be able to raise it enough to get the landing legs clear before finally connecting.
There will be times when the trailer sits so much higher than the tractor can lift the legs clear, this could be because Scania clot dropped it with mid lift raised and also wound the legs down even further effectively lifting the trailer off his tractor before pulling out, or as above the suspension could have lost some air and dropped the back end down lifting the front higher still.
In most cases like this, you can wind the trailer down in a minute or so via the legs to a suitable height, once in a blue moon you might have to connect the red line up before attempting to connect, set the tractor on fast idle and inflate the trailer suspension.
Things to remember.
Never underestimate just how stupid some so called experienced drivers are, some haven’t a clue what they are doing no matter how long they do the job, some actually drop things badly to make like difficult for the next man, yes these latter half wits really do exist.
Stop get out and have a look, just because billy big ■■■■■■■■ the yard show off does as Terry T describes so well with the warp speed pick up, bbb is not the one to learn from or seek to copy, sooner or later he’s going to really ■■■■■■■■ up big time either by missing the pin at speed or hitting the front of the trailer with the back** of the fifth wheel sending it the wrong way up the front of the trailer.
** this can happen too easily, sometimes the way people drop trailers you see some fifth wheels perfectly level and not tilted back as is usual once a trailer is dropped, approach too high without lowering the suspension as you go under and that fifth wheel can be forced up the front of the trailer, i’ve seen whole yard trailer fleets like this with almost every trailer with umpteen scores and scrapes up the front edge where this has happened, one morning whilst checking the tail lift was working i could hear this repeated banging every ten seconds or so, wandered down to see this full time suposedly experienced driver repeatedly ramming the fifth wheel up the front edge, had to pull them and physically show them what was happening and how to cure it, that’s when i notied the entire row of trailers was similarly damaged.
This especially happens with tractors without pick up ramps behind the fifth wheel, as you can reverse the chassis under but the fifth wheel well above the leadings edge of the trailer rubbing plate.
Take no notice of anyone criticising you for picking up and dropping off carefully, takes seconds to get out and look see how things are lining up, the aftemath of overshoots or trailers dropped on their knees arn’t sorted in seconds.
Well done by the way.