SYE-1:
I was at amazon when a truck pulled off the bay turned left and BANG
… the trailer slides off the back of the unit and hits the floor.
Then last week the same.
How embarrassing - Total negligence and often too much weight on
the fifth wheel when coupling up.
Most good drivers couple up and duck under the trailer with a torch.
They want to see that jaw across the pin.
.
.
.
Fine if you’ve got enough height to get under and space between the legs and mudgaurds to fit through. If you can get the clip on the 5th wheel is locked, is as simple as that.
Press under the 5th wheel, jack up the suspension so the down-legs are up in the air, then couple it all up.
A lot of dropping trailers on their nose is because there’s a gap been left between the 5th wheel and the underside of the trailer when it engages the kingpin. Lifting it up in the air before engaging helps prevent this.
C’mon guys, it ain’t rocket science!
Around here, it seems to happen a lot with short-kingpinned trailers like rear-wheel steer ones. You also see people backing in too fast, and underrunning the kingpin because they don’t realise that there’s a 3foot extra gap between the back of the cab and the headboard compared to the “normal” close coupled trailers used by most supermarkets.
SYE-1:
I was at amazon when a truck pulled off the bay turned left and BANG
… the trailer slides off the back of the unit and hits the floor.
Then last week the same.
How embarrassing - Total negligence and often too much weight on
the fifth wheel when coupling up.
Most good drivers couple up and duck under the trailer with a torch.
They want to see that jaw across the pin.
.
.
.
Fine if you’ve got enough height to get under and space between the legs and mudgaurds to fit through. If you can get the clip on the 5th wheel is locked, is as simple as that.
no its not as simple as that, thats why trailers fall off!! if you reverse under the trailer to low it’s possible to trigger the fith wheel to close even with the pin sat on top of the jaws!!
if you are sure the trailer is locked but want to double check pull forwards on full lock and then stand behind the unit and have a look, if you dont know what you are looking for ask a person that does
I only usually go right under to check if I didn’t like the noise it made as it went under. But I always lift the suspension before connecting and always check there is no gap between the rubbing plate and the trailer. I have had the pin sit on top of the jaws before. It clicked into place but didn’t sound right. And when I did the tug test I shot out on the second tug.
(1) Can you get the dogclip in? - If not, the jaws are not closed properly.
(2) Are the legs still on the ground after you’ve coupled? - Shine a torch/look for daylight between the top of the 5th wheel where it should be flat snug against the underside of the trailer.
(3) Look at the combination from a vantage point about 20 feet in front - Does it look all wonky and crooked? - Kingpin might be in the jaws at a funny angle. Decouple, and do it again before you’ve compounded things by winding up the legs.
(4) If coupling on uneven ground, take special care you don’t end up in situation (3). YOU won’t be dropping a trailer on uneven ground, because you’re a pro, but the guy who left it there for you is another story…
(5) Did you do the tug test?
…and finally, don’t perform the entire coupling procedure in the wrong order, such as couple, wind up legs, tug (crash!)… I’ve seen that happen when another bod walks up just after a driver has coupled, and DISTRACTS them from what they are doing!
Personally, I don’t like anyone to even engage me in conversation whilst I’m coupling, or even walk up to me come to that. There are some out there who’ll “Jump in and lend a hand to wind your legs up” whilst you’re unaware possibly, putting the suzis on etc. I don’t like this at all, and discourage any kind of “two man coupling”.
depends maybe how many trailers a day you move done some serious shunting in my time paid by the trailer for 3years and your are a real smart arse if you dont lose one ■■?..
Being paid by the trailer encourages corner cutting IMO, and I’ve never heard of anyone else being paid this way.
Having said that, you can see tugs at just about any depot who’ll couple up, not tug, not bother putting trailer brakes on, and barely lifting the trailer on it’s down legs off the ground when they are moving it. Add to that ‘going around corners at right angles like automan’, and I prefer to keep a good distance between maneuvering trailer tugs and myself!
Yes, I did watch this show, and I was working myself at a mainframe centre at the time to boot!
cliffystephens:
steelworks shunting 1999 £12.50 a trailer to tip £12.50 a trailer to load serious money top shunters in llanwern hitting £1000 per week…
SYE-1:
Now i don’t expect to see many hands in the air but in the last month i seen this happen twice , i was at amazon when a truck pulled off the bay turned left and BANG … the trailer slides off the back of the unit and hits the floor, it had a full load on and took them ages to wind the legs down so the unit could get back under …
then last week the same , the truck next to me backs on to the trailer winds the legs up ect pulls off turns right and BANG trailer hits the floor , this time it was empty so they lifted it with a fork lift then wound the legs down , so my question is have you done this …
dunno about dcpc. but them wellies with L on left and R on right might come in handy.
that looks like a right turn then bang to me…i might be wrong.
never done it and dont want to. seen it happen a few times. stopped it happening once.
Most nights I do 7-9 coupling/uncouplings a shift 5 times a week and never dropped a trailer there is no excuse for it it’s a simple routine that should become a habit IMO
I saw this happen at Norberts Nuneaton last week (day of the chemical fire on the M6). I watched the guy couple up and saw him pull forward with trailer brakes on to check it was locked. Looked back down at my paper and suddenly an almighty bang I thought someone had reversed in to my cab I could feel it through my seat. The driver was very calm about it and they lifted the trailer up with a forklift so he could wind his legs down and start again. Dunno how it happened as he did the pull forward with brakes on check.
On the agency I sometimes used to work for Salvesson out of Evesham. They had a collection which was a trailer swap at the Organic place in Honeybourne. Only one bay so a double swap.
I dropped the empty, pulled the loaded trailer off, put the empty one on and backed under the loaded trailer. These were close-coupled fridge trailers, so I had to connect the lines before backing right under, and I had just done that when the guy came out with the paperwork and we had a bit of a chat.
When he left, I went round, wound the legs up, jumped into the cab and started to drive away. Now the more experienced reader will have noticed a vital operation that I had missed, and sure enough the unit moved but not the (heavy) trailer. Whether I felt it or saw it in the mirror I don’t know but I hit the brake just in time to stop it falling off.
After I had backed under again with no damage done, I had to make myself a coffee to calm down before setting off.
Close call , but expearance won through in the end …
After reading some of these post and see this with my own eyes , I’ve been paying extra attention to coupling Bering in mind this is self tort for me as I passed my test in a trailor and drag only 9 months ago …
When backing under I alway make sure I feel the unit move down due to the weight of the trailor being lifted up, then listen for the clunk click of the jaws shutting and a 2 shunts forward then obvisley the dog clip , but from now on I will be checking the fifth wheel centre aswell …
Driveroneuk:
No, but it truly frightens me the calibre of driver that is evidently out there these days … and they say the DCPC isn’t needed!
Edit: nice Jag by the way, shame you didn’t get a bit more of it in the shot.
the DCPC will not put a brain in a complete [zb].
what we need is decent training like we used to have. a full course onto class 1 from a car test. not this pass cat C, then two days later pass cat C+E (rush rush rush). If someone wants a class one licence, then let them do proper class 1 training.
classroom training, driving, load securing, laid on your back looking at how things do what training.
there’s no point learning to drive a rigid if you intend to drive an artic.
and another bit of important training (the driver is in charge, the book stops here training).
