If your trailer is lightweight or empty do you lower your landing legs all the way or leave a 2(ish) inch gap?
We lift the unit suspension up an inch or so, wind legs to the floor then pull out enough to release pin then drop the air totally out then drive out. Keeping grease on the 5th wheel and under the trailer were it should be. Keeping run up ramps and bash plates clean
Some of the steering wheel attendants at where i work dont even know how to lower the landing legs let alone use air suspension
Wind them to floor. 12 turns in low ratio pull forward then drop suspension to floor and pull out. As said previously leaves the grease where it should be and not everywhere it shouldn`t. Plus leaves 5th wheel nice and flat 
with air suspension on all trucks
wind legs down fully but not hard
lower truck suspension pull out
Lower to the ground, drop unit air when pulling out - if done right the 5th wheel plate usually stays horizontally flat - ish.
When lifting, I always go in low until the plate is under the trailer, then raise it to the sky and then onto the pin - legs should be off the deck for me then they shouldn’t get damaged / bent and should be easier to wind.
waynedl:
Lower to the ground, drop unit air when pulling out - if done right the 5th wheel plate usually stays horizontally flat - ish.When lifting, I always go in low until the plate is under the trailer, then raise it to the sky and then onto the pin - legs should be off the deck for me then they shouldn’t get damaged / bent and should be easier to wind.
+1
For a heavy trailer I will wind the legs down further in low gear usually around a couple of dozen turns extra until it starts to get harder to turn. Keeps the landing soft.
DrivingMissDaisy:
waynedl:
Lower to the ground, drop unit air when pulling out - if done right the 5th wheel plate usually stays horizontally flat - ish.When lifting, I always go in low until the plate is under the trailer, then raise it to the sky and then onto the pin - legs should be off the deck for me then they shouldn’t get damaged / bent and should be easier to wind.
+1
For a heavy trailer I will wind the legs down further in low gear usually around a couple of dozen turns extra until it starts to get harder to turn. Keeps the landing soft.
If you want it a bit easier, when you’ve wound the legs to the floor, drop the trailer air suspension - this is what we used to be advised to do on every trailer drop anyway.
If you didn’t have an air suspension unit and you wound the legs to the deck, then dropped the trailer, if the trailer suspension lost air through the day / night, you could easily miss the pin - so we were advised to drop trailer air suspension before winding the legs down.
nothing worse than somebody who cant be bothered to use the air suspension and rides round the yard nearly fallin thru the windscreen,
In our place the number of thick ******* who drop the trailers far too bing is unreal.
A 2 inch gap when empty all the way when loaded, come off the pin then lower the suspension.
Our trailers tend to sit up at the front if the legs are wound right down when empty, not a problem you know when there is no contact when coupling up and you lift the unit accordingly, unless of course you are a member of club plant pot/steering wheel attendant and general useless individual and will attempt to put the fridge motor on the bunk, I’m almost certain if there were enough space for the pin to go over the front of the 5th wheel on our trailers the above mentioned clown would carry out a successful tug test, then scratching his thick skull wonder why the safety clip won’t go in.
And no I’m not joking.
ower here in the great white north…dump air in trailers suspensions,air suspension on unit normal hight (cant raise any higher ower here),pull pins on legs (non winding ) put pins back in about with the feet a couple o inches of the ground ,disconnect hoses etc dump air in unit and move forward slowly…job done.
Some trailers have pins ,some windup legs never came across a safety clip neither. biggest problem ive came across is many units at work are on 24.5 tyres when im on 22.5s 
jimmy
My unit came back from service last month and I was off on the Monday. Someone had backed under my trailer and scraped the grease from the fifth wheel onto the front lip of the trailer. The grease had dripped onto the suzies. Ended up with a grease covered leg and gloves before I noticed.
3 gap when empty
All the way down when loaded, pull out a bit drop unit suspension until it clears the trailer, drive forward a few foot raise the suspension on the unit
The way I do it is to dump the air out of the trailer, lift the unit an inch or so, wind the legs down to the floor, pull forward an inch or so to get the pin out of the jaws then drop the unit air and pull out, this way all the weight is off the unit so driveline stress is reduced, the legs can’t bend if the trailer loses air and the grease stays where it is supposed to be. I reverse the procedure when coupling up 
I remember being taught about dumping the trailer air suspension when they first became commonplace, for the very sound reasons described. This though led to more problems with inattentive jockeys not re-setting the suspension and running round with it down, so it seems no one bothers these days. TBF, haven’t seen it be a major problem any place where the suspension is left alone.
As for my trailer drill:
empty/light, leave legs maybe 1" off the floor
heavy trailer, wind down to ground, then use low gear until I hear the tractor unit suspension ‘ease’ a little.
Whilst on this topic, always found Jost gear to be the best (and a more common fitment) these days - certainly far better than the spindly things that were fitted 20-30 years ago… and as for the old York ones where there was a hexagonal end on, to which you had to use a separate winding handle that had a socket on the end for 
NMM did you have air suspension on the unit that went higher than running height? ,just that i havent come across that over here.just normal & dump or have i read your post wrong 
jimmy
Scott M:
3 gap when emptyAll the way down when loaded, pull out a bit drop unit suspension until it clears the trailer, drive forward a few foot raise the suspension on the unit
This
The ones I can’t understand are those who smash straight into the pin on a trailer without adjusting the suspension (at all) and then instead of doing the ‘tug test’ on tickover as I was taught, give it a load of revs and end up with the unit rearing up like a horse. All while the legs are still in contact with terra firma. Presumably it is these idiots who bend legs slightly and make them difficult to wind up and down.
When hooking up I always dump the air, get the fifth wheel under the rubbing plate, jack the suspension up to lift the legs clear of the floor, then back slowly until you hear the clunk. When dropping, lift the suspension slightly, wind legs down to a couple of inches clear of the floor, pull pin, move forward, dump air to separate fifth wheel and rubbing plate, and pull out.
waynedl:
Lower to the ground, drop unit air when pulling out - if done right the 5th wheel plate usually stays horizontally flat - ish.When lifting, I always go in low until the plate is under the trailer, then raise it to the sky and then onto the pin - legs should be off the deck for me then they shouldn’t get damaged / bent and should be easier to wind.
+1
Hate when the grease goes all over the cat walk and suzies, and of course ends up all over some folks trousers then… you guessed it… all over the bunk. And who tend to be the people who complain the loudest about it… the one who ram it under and yank it out from under neath the trailer 
