Its amazing what you DONT get taught on lessons. Take for example,air suspension on the artics.
Where I trained,the artics were like something from Last of the Summer wine. No air suspension. Add that to the fact that you have just uncoupled,so a cursory glance at the height will suffice because you KNOW that your unit will glide under perfectly.
Not the case if your lift axle is up. Eh? Lift axle? Whats one of those? Didn’t cover that either on training.
So basically you have numerous dropped trailer heights to contend with. If its loaded,it sits lower. If its empty it sits higher,if its half loaded its somewhere inbetween. However was the lift axle up or down when it was dropped-it makes a difference. If the trailer was only half loaded the lift axle on your unit will probably rise automatically. Did the previous driver forget to level his suspension when he/she dropped the trailer? If its dropped high,and you have your axle down and suspension set to level,you will probably miss the pin and bust the back of the unit/suzies etc.
Lots of different possibilities,however asking other drivers when I first started has taught me a fool-proof method. If anyone is a new CE pass or is struggling with this aspect please feel free to pm me.
