I always use the air suspension to match the height before coupling…saw somebody overshoot the pin with a fridge once…wasn’t pretty.
Must admit to not checking the jaws are actually closed, as i was always taught that providing you do the tug test and put the clip in…you should be fine.
After reading this however…will be checking the jaws from now on!
DonutUK:
I always use the air suspension to match the height before coupling…saw somebody overshoot the pin with a fridge once…wasn’t pretty.Must admit to not checking the jaws are actually closed, as i was always taught that providing you do the tug test and put the clip in…you should be fine.
After reading this however…will be checking the jaws from now on!
Should be is the word every trainer use’s what they should be saying is
do it once do it right get out and look look look and if it aint looking right start all over again
Look at the handle make sure its locked in the closed position
Look for any space between the 5th wheel and trailer and pin
Look to ensure the jaws have closed on the pin
What an excellent posting .There is always something to learn on this job, I knew nothing about that plastic ring and Ican trace my work with artics back to 74 when Yard Shunting,a veteran driver of that time showed me how the jaws worked on a redundant 5th wheel that was lying in the yard and that was it. Itoo have had the pin resting on the jaws, though with an empty.it didnt feel right when Idid the tug forward and I got out to have a look and saw the gap between the rubbing plate and fifthwheel,I raised the Unit back end up as far as it would go and then wound the legs to the floor and then dumped the air and it let go with metallic bang, everything felt ok when Icoupled up and away I went.Ido ocasionally look under with the Torch though. Going back 9 or 10 years one of our blokes lost his trailer at Droitwich after doing a c/o at Berry Hill Estate. He had to attend the local Magistrates and eventually got a straght fine under C&U REGS. it may be different now though…I’ve only ever seen one on the road thats come undone and that was one of Geoffrey Reyners in 1973 on the A56 at Stretford.
boden:
What an excellent posting .There is always something to learn on this job, I knew nothing about that plastic ring and Ican trace my work with artics back to 74 when Yard Shunting,a veteran driver of that time showed me how the jaws worked on a redundant 5th wheel that was lying in the yard and that was it.
I have done the “overshoot the pin thing” luckily it was in the yard and I managed to get the fork lift out and take some weight of the legs to wind them down. not done it since 
The plastic wear rings are not new but are a modern development since air became common, instead of replacing the 5th wheel plate, it only needs a set of replacement jaws and a new wear ring. I am sure I remember a mechanic welding in a new throat on a York Big D coupling.
When I couple up I reverse towards the trailer using the mirrors lowering the suspension, as the plate disappears then I raise the air just till the trailer touches. I cringe when I hear trucks being rammed under low trailers and into pins at warp speed
Wheel Nut:
boden:
What an excellent posting .There is always something to learn on this job, I knew nothing about that plastic ring and Ican trace my work with artics back to 74 when Yard Shunting,a veteran driver of that time showed me how the jaws worked on a redundant 5th wheel that was lying in the yard and that was it.I have done the “overshoot the pin thing” luckily it was in the yard and I managed to get the fork lift out and take some weight of the legs to wind them down. not done it since
The plastic wear rings are not new but are a modern development since air became common, instead of replacing the 5th wheel plate, it only needs a set of replacement jaws and a new wear ring. I am sure I remember a mechanic welding in a new throat on a York Big D coupling.
When I couple up I reverse towards the trailer using the mirrors lowering the suspension, as the plate disappears then I raise the air just till the trailer touches. I cringe when I hear trucks being rammed under low trailers and into pins at warp speed
Most of the artics I drove did’nt have any air suspension until later so the unit height was fixed.But I’ve wound enough loaded trailers up or down on the lower gear of the landing legs to get the height right before coupling up it’s good excersise.There’s no need to ram units under trailers when coupling up though.I always just had the trailer height so as the ramps on the unit picked up the trailer about half way along them and then the trailer just lifts and runs on to the fifth wheel.But there’s no need to do any of that at a high speed.But if the plastic insert is a relatively recent thing introduced when air suspension came in? then maybe that’s why some of us who might only be more familiar with non air suspension fixed height units find that a bit confusing if we’re not used to them and they probably would’nt have been the cause of that movement between trailer pin and coupling which I was referring to in that case it would have been wear in the fifth wheel not any plastic ■■.