Just an update for the fellas I spoke to and wish me luck earlier, it wasn’t good news, I failed my test in the wagon an drag, the pin on coupling wouldn’t sit in proper, (guess I didn’t reverse hard enough onto it) 4th time of asking it went in, to little to late I guess. To time take it on the chin an go again I suppose, the cost puts me off a bit. But once I’m done I’m done right.
Sorry guys! Speak soon!
So a stubborn drawbar coupling is enough to fail the driving test.Next it will be hitting flies. 
As stated elsewhere drawbar couplings like some oil to help them connect properly.
That sounds harsh, you can’t come this far and jack it in! Get the re-test booked ASAP and go back head high and show em you can do it 
Does not sound as if that was the precise reason to me - how did your instructor explain it to you after they also listened to the debrief from the examiner?
That was it, the pin wouldn’t drop in the ‘doughnut’ after a few tugs forward an backwards, it’s finally went it, my instructor explained I didn’t back up hard enough, an I thought I’d get benefit of doubt, which proved wrong. I came back with 5 minors an 1 serious on coupling up.
ROG:
Does not sound as if that was the precise reason to me - how did your instructor explain it to you after they also listened to the debrief from the examiner?
Does sound a silly reason I said the same, but you only get 3 goes at it apparently. I took 4. 3 of the times it just wouldn’t drop. 4 time I slammed it in cause started to lose my rag.
al3murphy:
That was it, the pin wouldn’t drop in the ‘doughnut’ after a few tugs forward an backwards, it’s finally went it, my instructor explained I didn’t back up hard enough, an I thought I’d get benefit of doubt, which proved wrong. I came back with 5 minors an 1 serious on coupling up.
The question is how does the common issue of a drawbar coupling sometimes needing a few shunts to make it connect get turned into a so called ‘serious’ fail by the DSA.So long as the driver has reversed the guide jaws of the coupling correctly to meet the eye of the drawbar then the driver hasn’t done anything wrong.Everything after that is all a matter of either the coupling connecting or not.In which case if it doesn’t you have to re try until it does.However dry couplings make that issue worse either in the case of the eye sticking against the guide jaws instead of sliding against them and sometimes even breaking chunks of them,or the pin not releasing or dropping through the eye cleanly.
Carryfast:
al3murphy:
That was it, the pin wouldn’t drop in the ‘doughnut’ after a few tugs forward an backwards, it’s finally went it, my instructor explained I didn’t back up hard enough, an I thought I’d get benefit of doubt, which proved wrong. I came back with 5 minors an 1 serious on coupling up.The question is how does the common issue of a drawbar coupling sometimes needing a few shunts to make it connect get turned into a so called ‘serious’ fail by the DSA.So long as the driver has reversed the guide jaws of the coupling correctly to meet the eye of the drawbar then the driver hasn’t done anything wrong.Everything after that is all a matter of either the coupling connecting or not.In which case if it doesn’t you have to re try until it does.However dry couplings make that issue worse either in the case of the eye sticking against the guide jaws instead of sliding against them and sometimes even breaking chunks of them,or the pin not releasing or dropping through the eye cleanly.
I felt it was a harsh serious, it’s not like I’d of drove of without the trailer, my jobs is to make it secure an road worthy regardless the amount of goes it goes hence you saying the common faults. It was as if the pin wouldn’t drop through cleanly. Not a lot I can do but accept an hopefully go for it again sooner rather than later, but 326 for a retest I thought was steep. Was full of confidence aswel after getting the reverse exercise in first go without any shunts!
al3murphy:
Carryfast:
al3murphy:
That was it, the pin wouldn’t drop in the ‘doughnut’ after a few tugs forward an backwards, it’s finally went it, my instructor explained I didn’t back up hard enough, an I thought I’d get benefit of doubt, which proved wrong. I came back with 5 minors an 1 serious on coupling up.The question is how does the common issue of a drawbar coupling sometimes needing a few shunts to make it connect get turned into a so called ‘serious’ fail by the DSA.So long as the driver has reversed the guide jaws of the coupling correctly to meet the eye of the drawbar then the driver hasn’t done anything wrong.Everything after that is all a matter of either the coupling connecting or not.In which case if it doesn’t you have to re try until it does.However dry couplings make that issue worse either in the case of the eye sticking against the guide jaws instead of sliding against them and sometimes even breaking chunks of them,or the pin not releasing or dropping through the eye cleanly.
I felt it was a harsh serious, it’s not like I’d of drove of without the trailer, my jobs is to make it secure an road worthy regardless the amount of goes it goes hence you saying the common faults. It was as if the pin wouldn’t drop through cleanly. Not a lot I can do but accept an hopefully go for it again sooner rather than later, but 326 for a retest I thought was steep. Was full of confidence aswel after getting the reverse exercise in first go without any shunts!
I’m also guessing that it’s a close coupled drawbar outfit as opposed to an A frame type.Which makes the coupling issue even worse because the whole trailer has to move,rather than just the front bogie on it’s turntable,to allow the eye of the drawbar to be guided into exact position within the jaws of the coupling.Which explains why hitting it harder might have more of an effect in that case.But it seems like the DSA is getting confused between the common no problem issue of the need to repeat the coupling process to make the pin connect properly as opposed to not making sure that the coupling has safely connected and locked afterwards.Which are two totally different things in that the former is not safety related while the latter is.If it was me I’d complain about the issue to the DSA.
I am assuming that the pin failed to engage properly and not that you were slightly off centre, and thus it was your poor positioning that caused the problem because you were not pushing hard enough to realign the jaw of the lorry coupling.
I think this is crazy, as has been said this is almost an everyday event. I think this is worth complaining forcefully to the driving school. I can understand the examiner perhaps failing you if you had rammed the trailer really hard, because he could take the view that you could possibly damage the coupling , or more likely you could have missed the coupling completely and seriously damaged the vehicle and trailer. I can maybe understand the examiner failing you if you got down from the cab in an ‘unsafe’ manner to inspect what was happening. What I cannot see is how coupling up carefully ie showing ‘good mechanical sympathy’ and having a problem with the pin dropping justifies a failure. I would have thought a more appropriate action would have been to abandon the test on the grounds of a defective vehicle.
You are up against the problem of your instructor having a vested interest in saying that the vehicle and coupling is OK when it is not; and relying on your inexperience to take his word as gospel. While failures do not do a school’s reputation any good, ones that can be put down to the pupil’s actions which are unrelated to any teaching deficiency, are in reality good for business.
Complain to the driving school and say you expect the vehicle to be provided free of charge for your retest. I would have expected your instructor to have argued the point and perhaps made clear that he was going to appeal the decision. The three hours plus free use of the vehicle will be cheaper for you than just a free driving test fee.
Edit add:
I reckon you have been let down by your driving school.
dont giv in m8 keep positive it happens everyday gd luck 
It’s my word against there’s though, I’m inexperienced an there experienced, an it will come down to my own error? But apart from that one error however it happened I still went out an finished with 5 minors an a good reverse. The pin was in, just didn’t drop all the way through until I gave it a proper hard shunt backwards. I did say to my instructor before my exam I was confident with the coupling/uncoupling as I only did it once during training an nailed it, which he thought I didn’t need to do it again an I said beginners luck… Which again I trusted his word an I’d be able to do it, proving wrong an I failed the task. Not worth changing driving schools as everything was spot on apart from that one error.
Edit:
Maybe I have cav? It’s all ifs buts an maybe’s? An he’ll no doubt stick to his guns, it’s a one man band, one guy with an 18tonne an trailer.
stevejones:
dont giv in m8 keep positive it happens everyday gd luck
Thanks pal I won’t be giving up just disheartened at the retest fee.
Most unlucky - these things do happen unfortunately.
The good thing is that with a score like that you can go in with much confidence next time, knowing exactly what you need to do, and you know exactly which bit to practise before your retest now. All the best. Tim
th2013:
Most unlucky - these things do happen unfortunately.The good thing is that with a score like that you can go in with much confidence next time, knowing exactly what you need to do, and you know exactly which bit to practise before your retest now. All the best. Tim
Thanks a lot tim, appreciate it 
yeah know exactly where I went wrong now. But next time it could be something else, everyday is a different day out on the roads. But again I’ll do my best!
This just goes to show how absurd these regulations are, this guy goes out does all the training and fails on what is being called a harsh desision yet I was given a drawbar cat c+e simply because of when I passed my 3 axle rigid test, so I could go out and drive a drawbar unit with no training what so ever and no idea of how to couple and uncouple yet I am fully licenced to do so.
I’m not so stupid to do that by the way, i’ll stick to rigids
OllieNotts:
That sounds harsh, you can’t come this far and jack it in! Get the re-test booked ASAP and go back head high and show em you can do it
+1 go get em mate
I can see why they’d fail you if you drove off and it wasn’t connected properly but you got there in the end so are obviously capable of doing so. Maybe the driving schook ought to chuck a bit of grease about once in a while!
Matt.
It sounds even more ridiculous to me after a bit of thought. I genuinely don’t know a driver that hasn’t missed the pin on coupling up to an artic and I can only assume that this would also class as a fail?
The fact is you got 5 minors on the most important part of the test! Drivers with years of experience still miss the pin on a trailer I know because I’ve seen it and I’ve done it, yet that doesn’t mean I can’t drive. Under test conditions he got the ■■■■■■■ thing coupled up and gave a safe drive, just proves in it’s current state the way they mark a test is flawed in my opinion. If it took 9-10 attempts as driver was clueless fair enough but throw in the nerves and I don’t think getting it in on the 5th is an issue ‘if’ he drives safe and I reckon 4 minors is a decent pass.
You’ve got to dust yourself off and crack ok now lad, don’t think back just be confident and assert yourself when doing it next time 
The test examiner must have had a barney with the wife, I know people say just go again as i would but the buggers want like £600.00 for a retest,i always got the feeling my instructor wanted us to fail for another fee for him. keep your chin up and no you can’t give up now.