A quick question for artic drivers and the technically minded among us…….
Sitting having my 45 break at a service station which you can see for you self has suffered some serious subsidence over the years ……a truck pulled away and I noticed this truck behind it.
Nothing to do with the truck its self but how it’s parked, I have been to this service station before and have wondered the same thing many a time.
With that picture in mind
Do fifth wheels have tolerance levels?
As to me that fifth wheel seems to be under a lot of stress the way it’s parked . Watching artics pull off from the breaks quite a few come very close to hitting the “T” bar on the tarmac as they leave and some times the trailer looks like its going to smash into the fifth wheel coupling as it bows in the middle so to speak. And some of the reefer trailer in the past looked very close to making their way into the cab as trucks have pulled off
So as mentioned above are fifth wheels and trailers designed for this sort of thing and just looks bad and not doing any damage at all?
Has anybody experienced this at a service station when parking up
I don’t think these Lo riders would take that much movement.
At our depot at Launceton,when you pull off the road into the parking area, one has to drive up a sharply angled concrete ramp before reversing back to the tipping point.The angle of the ramp is so abrupt that I was warned,and have done so ever since,to raise the rear suspension as there had been an instance of a trailer striking the roof mounted air deflector.
Years ago when running to the Middle East,a lot of firms fitted the well known Hatcher top tank for carrying that extra 200 litres.Trouble was,some people never checked how much clearance they had when taking a ramp.One or two had trouble getting on the ferry,but if they passed that hurdle,the real test was using the train across Germany.Many drivers finished up with 200 litres of diesel on the floor!
Looking at that picture it looks like the air suspension is quite low as well as the lay of the land.
The 5th wheel is designed to oscilate fore and aft but the problem is the trailer digging into the catwalk or the top of the trailer clouting the airkit.
Driving onto a ferry is a similar experience and it is adviseable to raise the air if you have the headroom or lower the trailer if the ramps are too steep. many ferry staff will watch you off and adjust trailer suspension as you pass the humps.
pecjam23:
So as mentioned above are fifth wheels and trailers designed for this sort of thing and just looks bad and not doing any damage at all?
Has anybody experienced this at a service station when parking up
cheers
Fifth wheels can tilt forward and backwards by roughly 4 inches. In addition to that, the pin isn’t held completely rigidly in place so there’s some give there as well. It’s likely that if you looked at it, you might see a little air between the fifth wheel bed and the trailer bottom behind where the pin is. Certainly when being on a tilt to one side, I’ve seen as much as 2 inches gap between the fifth wheel bed and the trailer floor.
……a truck pulled away and I noticed this truck behind it.
. Watching artics pull off from the breaks quite a few come very close to hitting the “T” bar on the tarmac as they leave and some times the trailer looks like its going to smash into the fifth wheel coupling as it bows in the middle so to speak. And some of the reefer trailer in the past looked very close to making their way into the cab as trucks have pulled off