got to agree yrs back it was your reputation that got you a job,then who you drove for ,if you could work for so&so for a while it meant you were a grafter!.
But times change and nowadays all the guys straight from uni get in the traffic office and the jobs screwed.!
just saying but over here in the great white north you must do an assesment drive by law when changing companies ,even owner drivers in there own trucks …and another thing …no clips on 5th wheels over here so out wi the torch everytime… jimmy.
The blokes that do the assessment are all ex drivers, so they understand that you might have a routine of doing things, they’re looking to see that you’re not doing things dangerously.
The current “textbook method” for coupling is:
- Check trailer brake.
- Drop unit suspension all the way
- Back under the trailer just far enough to cover the fifth wheel
- Lift unit suspension (and trailer obviously) all the way up.
- Back up till you get the double clunk
- Switch off engine, get out and fit dog clip
- Do tug test.
- Fit airlines, lift legs etc…
The idea behind the fitting the clip before the tug test is that if the fifth wheel hasn’t locked, you can’t fit the clip. So when you do the tug test, you won’t shoot out from under the trailer and take someone out driving/walking past you. Bit of a weird idea, but when you see some peoples idea of split coupling a fridge…
The idea behind the lifting the airbags is that you don’t end up with the pin on top of the 5th wheel and then when you do the tug test you don’t do it with the legs on the ground, possibly bending them.
Look under the trailer for the bar across? Obviously not had a trailer with a steering axle… (The wedge for controlling the axle sits in the back of the fifth wheel so you can’t see the bar) 
Seen an agency bloke buckle a set of legs on an old old old old tesco trailer by giving them a really hard tug test before 
Dieseldoforme:
I always get under the truck with a torch and look up the 5th wheel.I wanna see that jaw across the pin.
Yes, this is the only way of ensuring 100% the trailer is coupled correctly. The dog clip can definitely sometines go in with the pin sat on the jaws.
Wouldn’t be surprised though if some places didn’t want you wearing a hard hat to go under the trailer so probably would frown on this. I reckon the next most reliable alternative to be as sure as you can be would be to reverse partially under just short of the pin get out and check you can see the pin hasn’t quite gone into the jaws (without going under the trailer yourself). Then raise the unit suspension and check you can see fresh air beneath both trailer legs then get back in and reverse back, tug test and check you can get the dog-clip in.