Over the years ive driven class 1 Scania’s, Volvos, DAF’s, Renaults and ive never had a problem attaching them to trailers, just reverse under the trailer, raise it up a bit, reverse back normally and click they are connected…
but last night i drove a 60 plate Iveco and i had to connect it to a trailer, so i done my usual and when i reversed back all i heard was a thud…so i drove forward again and made sure everything was ok and tried again…and again…and again…to no avail
i thought i must be doing something wrong so i went and spoke to another driver who told me he saw a guy the other day with the Iveco and he had the same problem as i did, he tried several times to connect and failed so what he ended up having to do was just get it under the trailer, raise it up and reverse back at speed and basically ram raided the trailer to get it connected !!
so thats what i had to do to get it to connect and when i picked up another trailer later on i had to do the same thing again
it didnt feel right having to basically crash the unit into the trailer to get a connection and it didnt fill me with confidence when it did connect as it was still a thud noise rather than a click !!
are Ivecos usually like this or have we got a dud ?
the fifth wheel are not manufactured by Iveco, mines got a jost on it, you shouldn’t have to ram raid the thing to get it to connect, just back under lift it a bit as you said if the lock won’t throw in on contact then you might have to get out and just knock the lever in by hand, then do you tug test, just check the jaws and make sure the grease is not all gummed up and full of crap, might need washing out and re-greasing,
on the first day I got my present unit,i experienced a similar problem.when I looked closer,the jaws were already partly closed…but the lever was in the correct position.
I ran it up to the maintenance dept,who prised it open with a crow bar and gave it a good squirt with what looked like wd40.
my question is…how did the last trailer release,without opening the jaws
If the 5th wheel is not right then defect it and send it to the workshop. As said above- its the 5th wheel which may be made by Jost/Fontaine etc and those brands are used on all trucks. If yours is dodgy then it could have been so on a DAF or Scania etc with the same 5th wheel.
If its not connecting then you may simply have broken the main handle spring- in which case as said above you may need to manually move the handle to lock, and you ‘crashing’ into the trailer may have just been enough to make it shunt into place.
It ‘may’ be buggered though, and should definitely be looked at.
Tooz:
so thats what i had to do to get it to connect and when i picked up another trailer later on i had to do the same thing again
it didnt feel right having to basically crash the unit into the trailer to get a connection and it didnt fill me with confidence when it did connect as it was still a thud noise rather than a click !!
You say “It didn’t feel right” and “It didn’t fill you with confidence”
But you still took it out on the road■■?. … ffs
Did this possibility not occur to you, even for a second
Is the bar with the handle on that you pull out to unlock bent? I had a similar sort of problem on of our Scanias a while back. Lifted it up then backed on but it just wasn’t catching the pin. Tried it harder and it eventually caught. Went and saw a fitter and he showed me if you back all the way up and tap the locking bar it will slide in. It was a bit banana shaped tho…
I wasnt knocking Ivecos as i did enjoy driving it as it was a good truck
there are 2 Ivecos in the yard and i heard that the other one sometimes doesnt connect first time either
it didnt fill me with confidence but i did do 2 tug tests and put the clip in and checked that the fifth wheel was sitting properly with a witness present just incase
im only agency and it was the first time i got this truck so obviously it gets driven every day and the other guys dont bother defecting it, so if i get it again and it has the same problem i will defect it and i will see what happens.
Tooz:
it didnt fill me with confidence but i did do 2 tug tests and put the clip in and checked that the fifth wheel was sitting properly with a witness present just incase
im only agency and it was the first time i got this truck so obviously it gets driven every day and the other guys dont bother defecting it, so if i get it again and it has the same problem i will defect it and i will see what happens.
Not having a go mate, but it is/was obvious that there was a fault with a component so vital that if it failed could be catastrophic, so just because other drivers could not be arsed to defect it is irrelevant. The fact that you felt the need to get a witness “just in case” suggests that in the back of your mind you were fully aware that something serious could happen.
If it had been me in those circumstances, I would not have taken it out of the yard… “only agency” or otherwise.
ffs
