Newbie:
What about ducking down at a low bridge even when you know you will go under it.
And is it only me who turns the radio down to reverse.
yep thats me as well ducking under a bridge and i turn the radio off to revervse
ha ha ha ha ha 
i didnt even reilse i did it till the other day i thought what am i doing turning the radio off to reversve 
Newbie:
And is it only me who turns the radio down to reverse.
I’ve always done that! It must be a concentration thing! 
About 10 years ago I’d gone out in an old transit with a luton body. Pulled in to Thorne near Doncaster to make a drop, got the stuff out of the back and carried it into the shop.
2 minutes later I came out to see some old gezzer clinging grimly to the bumper trying to stop it running across the road…
guess I must have forgotten the handbrake.
My 2nd week out as a class 2 had me in Wolverhampton early one morning.
I stopped at a set of lights that were on a hill. I selected what I thought was 1st gear (don’t ask, new driver!), only it wasn’t, it was reverse.
Needless to say, the lights changed, and I gave it loads of revs cos of the hill and shot back at great speed, stopping after about 3 metres. There was a car behind me, but luckily (for whatever reason) they had decided to sit well back.
My god, I learned a lesson that day
1 more for the list.
doing a bit of shunting yesterday with our very old shunter. backs under the tanker and the pin goes over the top of the fifth wheel. i knew what id done so i got out for a look. the pin had dropped over as suspected but all was not lost.
i had about four inches of clearance between the trailer legs and the lights ,so i thought move it back an inch or two,dump the air and pull out, hey presto.
jumps back in the shunter (erf twinsplit) and the bloody thing would not go in reverse. so i gave it a good slam to get it in and back it jumped 
smash bang wallop, both lights knackered
the best thing 
they were brand new, put on the night before
1st time ive ever done that.
Liberace:
[zb] yourself whilst your stationary, thinking your rolling backwards, when the two wagons either side of you pull away in unison
Oooh yes! Especially when I’m tired or very cold 
marcustandy:
Newbie:
And is it only me who turns the radio down to reverse.I’ve always done that! It must be a concentration thing!
Me too 
But I would have never even thought about it until I saw it written here! Definitely a concentration thing; weird.
Talking of ducking when you go under low bridges, how scarey is that 13’9 one on the A638 near South Elmsall . I 
myself everytime I go under that . The road dipping down to go under it makes it even worse .
I always turn the radio down to reverse. Not sure about the concentration thing, it’s so I can hear the crunch when I ■■■■ something 
This is a great thread and proves we are all human!
dave:
- have you ever popped your head out the window to reverse, only to find you have not wound the window down
Yes!
Liberace:
[zb] yourself whilst your stationary, thinking your rolling backwards, when the two wagons either side of you pull away in unison
Lol - yes - been there, done that one! I was about to tip a load of ball-clay on to a dockside one time, this was then picked up by a crane and loaded into the hold of a ship. Needless to say, the crane driver wanted the loads tipped as close to the edge of the dock as possible. So there I am, parked about five foot from the dock edge - which was then about a ten foot drop to the open ship’s hold below. I was about to engage the PTO when both wagons either side began to pull forward… Let’s just say I hit the footbrake pretty hard, and when my lorry continued “moving” backwards it was a real heart-in-mouth moment!
Newbie:
… And is it only me who turns the radio down to reverse.
Nope, you’re not alone! I do that too! In fact, I turn the thing off - and if I’m about to enter some nasty narrow/tight area I’ll turn it off when going forwards too!
dave:
4. ever left the hand brake off, see it roll away and stop it in time
I Once saw a driver do this but he ran to the front of 6 axle combination and tried to stop it rolling by pushing it .
He then realised this may not work so ran to the drivers side but missed the bottom step & the lorry ran over his foot & broke it.
Fortunately the security guard managed to open the barrier before the truck hit it & the truck rolled to a stop about 20’ from where it started & never got above 5 mph
It was a good few years ago but I’m fairly certain it was at Ashford paper mill
Rob K:
For some reason I pulled the pin before doing anything else and I absolutelyNot being able to think quick enough what to do for the best to stop the bloody thing, I did no more than grab hold of a couple of the curtain buckles on the trailer with both hands and attempted to hold the bloody thing and stop it from rolling
I did some work for Superdrug in Croydon,They used to have some trailer bays in the middle of the yard by the security hut off Beddington Farm Road.
Anyway I was dropping my trailer one day while I was taking my trailer plate off I heard a loud bang I turned round and saw the trailer behind me rolling backwards at a funny angle,
Luckily I hit the deck and the moving trailer hit the one I was dropping.
There then followed a scene from a Benny Hill sketch as I chased the offending driver round the yard closely followed by 2 security guards who were followed by a couple of drivers who had seen what had happend as well
(the number plate from my vehicle missed the other drivers head by about 2" I reckon he felt the breeze as it went past)
How about coupling up to a trailer and the pin rides over the top of the fifth wheel? You try to pull the unit from under the trailer, the pin gets caught on the front of the fifth wheel and the air suspension doesn’t lower itself enough for you to pull out.
brummie:
How about coupling up to a trailer and the pin rides over the top of the fifth wheel? You try to pull the unit from under the trailer, the pin gets caught on the front of the fifth wheel and the air suspension doesn’t lower itself enough for you to pull out.
No problem that one - just grab the handle for the legs and start winding. Unless the trailer is loaded you can wind the legs down in high gear if you’ve got any meat on you.
Rob K:
Unless the trailer is loaded you can wind the legs down in high gear if you’ve got any meat on you…
Surely that defeats the object if you’re already under the trailer?
knight:
I always turn the radio down to reverse.
What about when looking for an address?
brummie:
Rob K:
Unless the trailer is loaded you can wind the legs down in high gear if you’ve got any meat on you…Surely that defeats the object if you’re already under the trailer?
Read it again . What happens to the trailer when you wind the legs down even more when they’re already sitting on the ground
lift the air suspension on the tractor,then wind the legs down,lower the suspension and drive out
Normally I check everything
However, one morning I checked the basics, made sure the truck was out of gear and ignition on.
Normally I then hop in, and do all the other small checks… Except one of the other drivers came over and was chatting about something…
So I just fired the engine up…
30 seconds later the air built up, the 7.5 tonner gently rolled forwards towards the exit… I had my back turned and the other driver started cracking up without actually pointing it out to me… He left me for all of 5 seconds, before I was running after the sod…
Needless to say, EVERYTIME I check the handbrake is on, fully, among other things… 
uvox82:
knight:
I always turn the radio down to reverse.What about when looking for an address?
It’s definately a ‘concentration’ thing as now I come to think about it, it’s just like you said above!!
I also recall some of my ‘multidrop days’ in London, A-Z in one hand - 38t 'er in t’other, and I always had the radio off/low then as well!!