Anyone got any idea’s on a quickest/easiest way to unjackknife a lorry, chatting to a couple of workshop lads, is it possible if you pull off the airline suzy and trailer brakes lock on , can the unit be raunched round under it’s own power with a bit/lot of tyre wear,
or can the trailer be towed backwards a bit to straighten the whole caboodle up?
Has anyone tried anything successfully or unsuccessfully?
the idea is not to jackknife ie professional driver allways look 100m ahead beaware of road conditions braking distance loaded/unloaded never managed to jacknive in 20 years must be doing something wrong must need extra training
It’s also “an idea” to not be run over by a bus.
It still happens.
had you given the bus driver abuse dambuster 
scania245:
the idea is not to jackknife ie professional driver allways look 100m ahead beaware of road conditions braking distance loaded/unloaded never managed to jacknive in 20 years must be doing something wrong must need extra training
Gonna be ar$ey now why only 100m, that’s a pretty short stopping distance at full whack with a load on. shouldn’t you always be looking to limit point of vision/road and scanning backwards and forwards constantly for any lurking danger, as well as trying to anticipate the numpties next completely unthought out manouvre, 
for the record, i haven’t jacknifed yet i’d have to be good in a class 2 , only have the 1 because it was the same price at the time, never needed to use it never really want to, just that i see and hear a lot about jackknifed lorries so i was looking for an easy option to see if there’s any way of shifting it a very short distance sharpish.
speedyguy:
scania245:
the idea is not to jackknife ie professional driver allways look 100m ahead beaware of road conditions braking distance loaded/unloaded never managed to jacknive in 20 years must be doing something wrong must need extra trainingGonna be ar$ey now why only 100m, that’s a pretty short stopping distance at full whack with a load on. shouldn’t you always be looking to limit point of vision/road and scanning backwards and forwards constantly for any lurking danger, as well as trying to anticipate the numpties next completely unthought out manouvre,
i thought id red somewhere a.b.s had made jackknifes a lot more unlikely than they used to be.
so youre getting a$sey and dont know what your talking about ok can live with that you will do well in driving theres a lot of you s about you cant miss me im the one standind watching you make an a%se of it after giving you some good advice that you disregard 
ady abs is good but not infallible
As someone who has jackknifed a truck 
(the how and why relayed before) the whole combo stayed upright and, for the most part on the black stuff (sheet ice/tarmac) so the wrecker could pull the combo straight with the winch, unhook the unit and raised tow that back to the workshop. The trailer was towed back by a replacement unit and driver. This needed a police prescence to block the road and roundabout for the duration, as I recall about 20 minutes.
I have no idea about falling over after a jack knife or leaving the road though lots of scraping would seem to be certainty.
Don’t jks happen blurry quick. I’ve never had one but felt the front come a bit light on a wet roundabout. I’m sure there’s veterans here who’ll put us right.
Silly me, thought you meant can you unjack it mid way through. Just read your post properly.
i was pulling a skelly out of dover docks yrs ago for lazers on the old folkestone road,a truck was approaching me and there were cars parked each side of the road so i braked and flashed him to continue… he flashed me back and i checked me mirrors again and my skelly was askew right across the road blocking everything…i didnt feel a thing (apart from feeelin stupid) but deffo a lesson learnt…you wouldnt want to do it deliberatly m8 …believe me .
bernie
scania245:
had you given the bus driver abuse dambuster
Just a little
I’ve only ever once had one “come round” on me. that was enough. And I still blame the teckno conflict between differing types of ABS 
A mirror full of trailer isn’t a good thing to see 
Although - it always makes me wonder when I hear Sally, or the Welsh Traffic Totty, giving reports of road closures due to a “jack-knifed” lorry. Have they actually jack-knifed, or merely had to push their foot straight through the pedal and left the outfit at an odd angle ?
The one and onlt time I’ve jack-knifed, which left me sideways across four lanes of motorway and facing the wrong way. I was able to drive it onto the hard shoulder and wait for the wrecker. I had gone round to the left with the N/S rear corner of the cab smacking into the trailer. I stuck it in gear and with a bit of right hand down on the steering wheel I was able to ‘unwind’ it and then give it a bit of left hand down to make a complete turn so I was facing the right way and could get it to the shoulder. The truck was a write off unfortunately.
Longman:
Don’t jks happen blurry quick. I’ve never had one but felt the front come a bit light on a wet roundabout. I’m sure there’s veterans here who’ll put us right.
Dunno about that! In my case it started to go (trailer pushing the drive axle at between 15-20 MPH) then my mind went supersonic, time went slow mo and I walked/skated away lesson learned just love those air temperature warning gauges. Bent metal, punctured trailer skin, broken glass bruised ego.
When the (zb) gritter turned up seconds later… 
Hi had no idea a jack-knife could cause so much damage.
obviously if it flipped the cab i knew it would be a write of.
but how can it write of a cab if both are still upright?
Please be gentle with replies , new to class 1.
Ithought if all came to a stand still safe and upright you could just drag the trailer straight?
Any one got any good pictures to demonstrate what damage is actually done to the cab after a jack knife please
cheers
Not a full on jack knife but such a stupid story I’ve got to divulge. There’s a big hill up North think it’s towards Scarborough or something. Notorious especially in the wet. No caravans allowed up it. It was p-ing down and there was an 8 legger tanker stuck up the first slope. He was getting winched up and plenty of bobbies around. That done they all disappeared without a glance. I set off in low 1 (I’m running empty) up this stream/road. This hill just gets steeper and steeper (crawler gear) until you reach a hair pin at the steepest bit. Here I lost all traction with the cab slipping sideways every time I tried to move. Clever lad here tries to reverse. I was just digging my own grave. Eventually it was jacked across the hairpin. A car driver (the shame) suggested I wind the legs down and pull out from under so I could straighten it. Here’s the good bit. The police come back and I explain I can’t go up. One of them says ‘Lift your midlift’ I said ‘Why?’ You can work out the rest. I’d done 3 months class 1 and never knew the pricipal of traction and axles. Please don’t tell anyone. (A lot of lorries get stuck there but not so stupidly)
Longman:
Don’t jks happen blurry quick.
Sorry it was meant to be a question - forgot the mark.
starlocation:
Hi had no idea a jack-knife could cause so much damage.obviously if it flipped the cab i knew it would be a write of.
but how can it write of a cab if both are still upright?
Any one got any good pictures to demonstrate what damage is actually done to the cab after a jack knife please
cheers
I’ve just a quick search on Google Images, but nowt came up.
As for the damage - try this . .
Imagine you’re reversing quite tightly and you’ve got the unit screwed right over to the point where it’s almost touching the front corner of the trailer. Now go further until they do touch. Now imagine all that happened at 15/20/40mph.
Could you see the damage now ?
starlocation:
Hi had no idea a jack-knife could cause so much damage.obviously if it flipped the cab i knew it would be a write of.
but how can it write of a cab if both are still upright?
In my case the chassis was twisted, the cab had shifted on it mountings and had a fair bit of damage to the N/S rear. The whole cab had twisted as well, I couldn’t open the driver’s door because of it. The Insurance company paid me out £10,000, which was less than the repairs would have cost. I had paid £12,500 for the truck so was happy with the payout.
starlocation:
Hi …but how can it write of a cab if both are still upright?Please be gentle with replies , new to class 1.
Ithought if all came to a stand still safe and upright you could just drag the trailer straight?
Any one got any good pictures to demonstrate what damage is actually done to the cab after a jack knife please
cheers
The repair costs of cab structure, chassis, main corner supports, windows, body panels can be horrendous and if the truck is getting near the end of it’s life it can cost more to repair than to write off. Add to that any fittings like suzies that may have been damaged and immobilised the unit and you can see that you can get from minor, drive aways, to fully recovered after immobilising damage.