I was in a yard today and a driver dropped a trailer after ‘coupling’ up. The leaver/bar was across and the ‘dog’ clip was in. The office said there must be a problem with the trailer/unit coupling system as the dog clip was in.
My understanding/opinion is ithe pin was riding on the plate and hadn’t properly engaged the jaws of the unit, resulting in the trailer being dropped on its knees. Is this the right opinion?
A wrecker had to come and lift it up as it had ton bags of carrots on it, so no chance of a forkie lifting it
The driver was given the keys to another unit, his load was transhipped and was allowed to go on his way.
I must point out this happened in the night when no fitters were around to give an opinion.
I make you right. The pin has had just enough “depth” to trip the latch but has not sat correctly in the slot/groove. Given what has happened though i could understand the office taking it off road until its checked just to make sure.
happened to me hooked up etc pulled forward out of yard 5/600 yards and trailer fell off turned out they had had problem with unit before if bar has shut and clip in the pin must have hit the jaws for the leaver to pop back to closed position giving the idea it was shut and all ok so they do go wrong even after the tug test
merc0447:
A wrecker jeez you no use the slow wind on the winding handle ya lazy bassas
It wasn’t me mate, if it was it wouldn’t be on here! I’d be hanging my head in shame!
Don’t know why they called the wrecker out, I’d have made him wind it up, it was a pretty time sensitive load and with 20+ tonnes of chilled produce on it, I’d guess the fines for late delivery would have been greater than the cost of the wrecker. (I have no idea how much a wrecker costs)
If the locking bar release handle has got a bit bent then it can sound to have locked in but can ‘trip’ if you try and pull away, this is why I ALWAYS do a visual check to make sure the locking bar is right across behind the pin.
Mike-C:
I make you right. The pin has had just enough “depth” to trip the latch but has not sat correctly in the slot/groove. Given what has happened though i could understand the office taking it off road until its checked just to make sure.
dont often agree with mike but thats about spot on.
NewLad:
I was in a yard today and a driver dropped a trailer after ‘coupling’ up. The leaver/bar was across and the ‘dog’ clip was in. The office said there must be a problem with the trailer/unit coupling system as the dog clip was in.
My understanding/opinion is ithe pin was riding on the plate and hadn’t properly engaged the jaws of the unit, resulting in the trailer being dropped on its knees. Is this the right opinion?
Had the trailer been dropped ‘High’ & the tractor reversed ‘Low’ leaving a gap between the 5th wheel plate & the underside of the trailer ?
I always check the locking bar with a torch & check that the 2 surfaces are flush & no daylight is showing between them.
Did the guy move off and the trailer hit the deck? or did he drive round the yard a bit, then it happened?
I always do a good tug test when hooking up, but I always think as I’m moving off “Hope this trailer comes with me” I’d feel better if I drove round the yard and it dropped, rather than if it dropped as soon as I moved away
Sounds like driver error to me. Tractor too low (or trailer too high) and not visually checked the coupling just reached under and stuck the clip in. Common error - yet potentially a fatal one.
If the fifth wheel hight is correct to the trailer rubbing plate it is impossible for this to happen. The king pin is forced into the throat of the fifth wheel and so into the waiting locking jaw. As the lock jaw rotates the lock bar is pulled across under spring pressure. This is directly linked to the operating handle (release handle) and so that goes in allowing the spring loaded secodary latch to drop which then clears the dog clip hole.
So as already said by others - the king pin has been deep enough to push the locking jaw round but not deep enough to engage within it.
Mu opinion is the driver would have had some kind of symptom and probably shunted around a little before deciding it was coupled. i doubt it was just a straight forward reverse under.
Yes the fifth wheel should be inspected and reported on but the driver should now be assessed for coupling and uncoupling technique. A note should be placed in his disciplinary file just in case.
As far as I see it this is a near miss incident and should be dealt with accordingly.
Fith wheels here don’t have dog tags, I wish they did, most are just thin rods with a handle on the end. My Cascadia has a better one, it’s very similar to the YORK ones back in the UK, it has no dog tag but if it is not fully in to the hilt the jaws are not engaged, I found this out to my shock a few months ago in what was I have to say ‘Sub zero’ temps, -38f which is 70 degrees bellow freezing. I hooked to an empty trailer, looked at the back of the fith wheel to see the jaws locked in place but I hadn’t noticed that the handle was not fully in, drove half a mile and the trailer fell off the back.
NewLad:
I was in a yard today and a driver dropped a trailer after ‘coupling’ up. The leaver/bar was across and the ‘dog’ clip was in. The office said there must be a problem with the trailer/unit coupling system as the dog clip was in.
My understanding/opinion is ithe pin was riding on the plate and hadn’t properly engaged the jaws of the unit, resulting in the trailer being dropped on its knees. Is this the right opinion?
A wrecker had to come and lift it up as it had ton bags of carrots on it, so no chance of a forkie lifting it
The driver was given the keys to another unit, his load was transhipped and was allowed to go on his way.
I must point out this happened in the night when no fitters were around to give an opinion.
How many of us would expect “The driver was given his P45, transhipped outside the gate by security, and allowed to go on his way to the jobcentre.”?
merc0447:
A wrecker jeez you no use the slow wind on the winding handle ya lazy bassas
It wasn’t me mate, if it was it wouldn’t be on here! I’d be hanging my head in shame!
Don’t know why they called the wrecker out, I’d have made him wind it up, it was a pretty time sensitive load and with 20+ tonnes of chilled produce on it, I’d guess the fines for late delivery would have been greater than the cost of the wrecker. (I have no idea how much a wrecker costs)
I put it down to whoever called the wrecker out not actually knowing that it’s more expensive than delivering sone chilled 15 minutes late because richard head couldn’t be arsed to wind it up on low gear as was previously suggested above… Not much chance of “thermal damage” to chilled loads at this time of the year yet either. If the outside air is 5 degrees and your fridge conks out when set to 3 degrees, then it’s going to take DAYS to “dangerously” warm up…
How about naming and shaming those “customers” that reject loads for no other reason than “missed his 15 minute slot” or something similar… This is just a bullying tactic to push unit prices down, and encourages rush-jobs and corner cutting putting the public and driver at risk…
I saw something very similar happen in Blake’s yard when I was on agency there. The trailer was full of cheese and had been pulled off the deck and shunted across the yard, then dropped. There was no way anyone was going to wind those legs up as the feet were buried in the tarmack. I think it smashed the rear lights on the unit as well.
After seeing that, I too always used a torch (I still have a nice LED one on my key ring) to check there was no gap.
merc0447:
A wrecker jeez you no use the slow wind on the winding handle ya lazy bassas
It wasn’t me mate, if it was it wouldn’t be on here! I’d be hanging my head in shame!
Don’t know why they called the wrecker out, I’d have made him wind it up, it was a pretty time sensitive load and with 20+ tonnes of chilled produce on it, I’d guess the fines for late delivery would have been greater than the cost of the wrecker. (I have no idea how much a wrecker costs)
Why would you be hanging your head in shame, it wasn’t the drivers fault these things happen.
You must have a really quick recovery company. Any time I’ve needed recovery it’s been a minimum of 90 minutes.
It wouldn’t take that long to wind it up in low gear.
martinviking:
Had the trailer been dropped ‘High’ & the tractor reversed ‘Low’ leaving a gap between the 5th wheel plate & the underside of the trailer ?
I always check the locking bar with a torch & check that the 2 surfaces are flush & no daylight is showing between them.
Unknown mate, I didn’t actually witness the coupling up, just the aftermath, it’s not unknown for trailers in this yard to be dumped higher than your average unit can lift, however still no excuse it’s happened to me a few times, you just wind it down, while swearing constantly to yourself about the shunter
G6Bob:
Did the guy move off and the trailer hit the deck? or did he drive round the yard a bit, then it happened?
I always do a good tug test when hooking up, but I always think as I’m moving off “Hope this trailer comes with me” I’d feel better if I drove round the yard and it dropped, rather than if it dropped as soon as I moved away
I think it was originally mentioned as a joke but you won’t lift a dropped loaded trailer with the handle. Options normally are a big or several forklifts, decent sized bottle jack and a stack of pallets or a wrecker.
