gordonw:
quick question before you start lifting legs with the the air should you not check the park brake is on?
Ya. You should get out anyway because it always pays to check what’s in the back and if it matches what you think it should. Plus you want to see what’s behind as it’ll move even on park if you shoot backwards (easy with AStronic unlike old clutch). Pull the plunger on the way past. To be honest I always look at the thing anyway before backing under as loads of times I’ve encountered a lemon with knackered tyres, fridge bust etc. Thats a point, if picking up an empty fridge, always try the fridge before heading out the door
This is my drill.
Back up to beast with chassis dropped, reverse so you can judge 5th is going under whilst staying flat (use judgement-- if you think you’ll scoop it and clean your fith wheel grease off, get out and look. If needed use trailer air/winding legs down on low range or even shunter to lift and drop legs if really bad in that order.)
Get out and check basics (not load security - do that after).
Check lateral alignment of pin to jaws.
Look at terrain unit axle(s) are going into-pot holes?
If fridge and empty, check it starts. If loaded-check temp (incorrect temp maybe clue as to wrong trailer).
If fridge - check fuel level.
Pull park brake.
What’s in it is what you expect.
Glance to see if rear is 2 inches from headboard of trailer/warehouse/Janet from accounts having a smoke.
Check MOT date and wheels (do this now as if fault, you’re not going to be rushing anyway).
Go to unit
Pull out remote. Raise until legs off floor. If not, as mentioned, use trailer air, then legs.
Back under.
Tug test.
Lights and flashers on.
Do your bits and bobs as you would coupling up (I am a saddo who always checks lock bar on fith wheel).
Check trailer over properly, load security etc.
Hand in defect “nil” sheet or do in cab if tramping.
Start up
Pull away and try brakes straight away. Also listen for a “clunk” when braking incase of a false coupling (100-1 chance but who cares).
Sounds a lot. Takes 10 mins. Heros do it in 5 without the faffing. So what. They’ve big hairy balls. Power to their elbow.
waynedl:
If it’s a Scania, lift axle down, for some reason when it’s up, the 5th wheel is higher.
Good trainer recently told me there’s no need to go mad about leg heights these days with air suspension, a lot of old habits exist from spring days. I just lower sensibly, use common sense and: if empty and lift raised, lower then take a crank or so off. If loaded I make sure it’s down properly as thing will sink plus leading edge of trailer will droop when dropped.
He wants to pack in training then, or get back into the saddle and revisit things himself.
Empty trailers (legs wound fully to ground) dropped by Scanias with the mid lift raised are so high as to be unable to be reached by MAN’s, but especially DAF’s and no doubt some others fully raised.
The thing that amazes me is that the worse offenders for this where i work are old timers who have worked with steel springs, they’d have been livid if some plonker with a sliding 5th wheel had done this to them in previous times, especially a loaded trailer with no low gear on the landing legs, leading to you searching high and low for blocks and planks of the wooden variety etc to make a ramp to reverse the tractor up as you went under.
I’m not sure if they get some perverse pleasure from this still, expect they were those offenders 35 years ago.
It doesn’t catch me out (so far), because i lean out the door when reversing up and actually watch the edge of the 5th wheel as it enters the trailer…not as i need get that far before getting out to manually wind the legs down, no point going anywhere near the trailer with the tractor cos you could almost walk straight under some of them without bending down.
I’ve tried suggesting this to them in non accusatory words, but obtuse wins, the younger blokes where i work usually already lower the mid lift and then leave a gap before dropping the trailer, those who didn’t are responsive to polite suggestion, it’s the older blokes for some reason who persist, it’s baffling.
I can see where you have gone wrong here, you had those skimpy knickers trapping your balls, thus causing your eyes to water, thus inhibiting your vision, thus causing this newb error.
Pull about 30 feet away from trailer, select high range and accelerate backwards as hard as possible at trailer. Doing this ensures that everything is strong enough for the rigours of the days driving. (for the sense of humour challenged)
peterm:
Pull about 30 feet away from trailer, select high range and accelerate backwards as hard as possible at trailer. Doing this ensures that everything is strong enough for the rigours of the days driving. (for the sense of humour challenged)
I kid you not i’ve seen this done.
Just after i started driving artics, a long time ago now, i had to pick a return load of barrels of oil up from Ellesmere Port, so i’m in there being loaded by the forky, and i’m watching the shunter in amazement.
He’s in a BigJ i seem to recall, anyway, as you describe he stops some distance from the trailer and reverses at full speed, connecting with such force that you’d think an earthquake was underway, this whether the trailers were empty or loaded, he had a rear window to look through as almost all lorries did and should still IMO.
Days of cable parking brakes, so no automatic spring brakes, if the trailer brakes had drained one it could have ended up anywhere.
Empty trailers actually moved back several feet when he connected, how they didn’t bounce up and clean over the fifth wheel i have no idea, would have gone clean through the cab, loaded ones stopped him dead, and how the dead stop didn’t break his idiotic neck is still a mystery.
midlifetrucker:
Sloppily just ramming into the pin without using any adjustment means you scrape all the frigging grease to the edge covering the suzies and everything. You’d get a gob full of me.
And me. And with all these thick [zb]s saying leave the legs a few inches of the ground it just makes the problem even worse. It amazes me how some of them can make such a simple job so ■■■■■■■ complicated. Just wind the legs to the ground, pull forwards an inch to disengage pin, dump the air, drive out. Been doing this since air suspension arrived and no-one has ever not been able to hook up to any of the trailers and never had any complaints about too high/too low either, perhaps because I’m dropping it at the ■■■■■■■ height it’s meant to be at ■■? Too many thick [zb]s in this job nowadays.
seth 70:
Its a mistake that should not happen,no ifs or buts ,
No it shouldnt Mr Perfect but it does happen
Not long after I started driving I reversed under a trailer ( I had not dropped it ) backed under yep it was night ok not really an excuse the trailer was fully loaded I missed the pin it was also a fridge unit no damage to either the trailer or unit
I have never done it again always double check
I now tend to go part way under trailer get out & look raise suspension check in right place then go back a lesson well learnt
The trailers at Isotank had a good function, take red airline off and they’d dump the air out of the trailer suspension, do this BEFORE winding the legs down and it can’t lose any air from the back, meaning they’d be the same height when you return to them…
YET, some drivers would still do it the ‘old way’ of winding legs down before touching the suzi’s, meaning the trailer ‘rocked’ on the legs and the front was higher when you came to collect.
I’ve done ‘drop and swap’ jobs at customers, where they’ve loaded the tank overnight, and I’ve had to spend a good 10 mins in low gear on the legs just to get the pin to reach, even after connecting the red line and building the air up in the trailer suspension.
When I was at Howard Tenens they had Mercs and Marathons
the pin height was miles different
I think all trucks should have pin height marked.
Also are your trucks fitted with run up ramps.
midlifetrucker:
Sloppily just ramming into the pin without using any adjustment means you scrape all the frigging grease to the edge covering the suzies and everything. You’d get a gob full of me.
And me. And with all these thick [zb]s saying leave the legs a few inches of the ground it just makes the problem even worse. It amazes me how some of them can make such a simple job so [zb] complicated. Just wind the legs to the ground, pull forwards an inch to disengage pin, dump the air, drive out. Been doing this since air suspension arrived and no-one has ever not been able to hook up to any of the trailers and never had any complaints about too high/too low either, perhaps because I’m dropping it at the [zb] height it’s meant to be at ■■? Too many thick [zb]s in this job nowadays.
If you drop an empty trailer at normal ride height, you can’t always get under without touching once it’s loaded.
I’d always lift the unit to the top, drop the air out of the trailer if going to be loaded or stood a while, wind the legs around 2 inch off the floor, that way I can always get out with no weight on the unit, under without touching and lift the legs off the floor, whether loaded or empty.
Granted, there was only me in the same unit, so no different truck height compatibility issues
seth 70:
Its a mistake that should not happen,no ifs or buts ,
No it shouldnt Mr Perfect but it does happen
Not long after I started driving I reversed under a trailer ( I had not dropped it ) backed under yep it was night ok not really an excuse the trailer was fully loaded I missed the pin it was also a fridge unit no damage to either the trailer or unit
I have never done it again always double check
I now tend to go part way under trailer get out & look raise suspension check in right place then go back a lesson well learnt
Didnt know your surname was Perfect seth
I like to think so pal,nobody else seems to think so though
Left hand down!:
And me. And with all these thick [zb]s saying leave the legs a few inches of the ground it just makes the problem even worse. It amazes me how some of them can make such a simple job so [zb] complicated. Just wind the legs to the ground, pull forwards an inch to disengage pin, dump the air, drive out. Been doing this since air suspension arrived and no-one has ever not been able to hook up to any of the trailers and never had any complaints about too high/too low either, perhaps because I’m dropping it at the [zb] height it’s meant to be at ■■? Too many thick [zb]s in this job nowadays.
Your superiority complex over other drivers hasn’t faded from when you used to post as Rob K, has it…
midlifetrucker:
Sloppily just ramming into the pin without using any adjustment means you scrape all the frigging grease to the edge covering the suzies and everything. You’d get a gob full of me.
And me. And with all these thick [zb]s saying leave the legs a few inches of the ground it just makes the problem even worse. It amazes me how some of them can make such a simple job so [zb] complicated. Just wind the legs to the ground, pull forwards an inch to disengage pin, dump the air, drive out. Been doing this since air suspension arrived and no-one has ever not been able to hook up to any of the trailers and never had any complaints about too high/too low either, perhaps because I’m dropping it at the [zb] height it’s meant to be at ■■? Too many thick [zb]s in this job nowadays.
Well, never thought I’d agree with LHD - but gotta say - that’s how I do it, unless the trailer is loaded heavy at the front and the neck dips. In which case I will raise suspension by an inch or so…
Drop suspension before hooking up, back the fifth wheel under the plate, lift it up and back until you connect. Then the legs SHOULD be off the floor when you do the tug test
You leave a gap between the floor and the legs with a heavy trailer, and it’ll be too low by the time the neck has sagged.
you’ll not even be able to pull the pin until you take weight off the plate.
(for the sense of humour challenged)
Too many thick [zb]s in this job nowadays.
