Last Sunday a driver of ours has stated a leg fell out !
Have you ever known a leg to fall out ?
It’s a topic thats getting serious at our place, the TM is coming back off holiday Monday and the fan is going to be hit with brown and smelly stuff.
The driver has a history of prangs and knocks, and I,m a fraid this could be one incident too many.The site where he was working has a “Plough” mark in the concrete, so time and time again the driver has been asked, “Did you wind the legs up fully ?”
He swears blind he covered all the safe procedures and wound the legs up fully, I believe he’s bluffed the incident and just has to admit it, but he won’t.
Ok, if found out that he has lied time and time again, what would happen at your firm ?
Rooster:
‘…Tank Leg Fell Off … what would happen at your firm…?’
We’re always guilty all of the time so it’d be ‘just another day’ 
Unless a nark shunter see’s it from the comfort of the stinking Tabbers shelter & dibs the ‘extra-guilty’ driver in a bid to get the company Creep-of-the-Week award 
I’m not 100% how the legs on trailers are installed, held in place or even how they work as such, other than they’re on gearing cogs. Would they fall off if a gearing cog came out of alignment? I’ve no idea.
The fact he lost 1 leg may have a bearing, but again, I’ve no idea.
Someone with more technical knowledge may be able to answer if this is possible or not.
Did the driver pick the leg up, does the leg appear to have fresh damage not in line with normal duties, is it bent to hell - I thought they’d bend before they considered falling out?
Presume you mean a rear stabiliser leg on a tipping tank?
If he’s ripped it out then there’s going to be serious damage to either whats left of the leg or obvious damage to the trailer chassis and possibly the rear bumper.
These legs don’t just wind all the way out like a piece of threaded rod, they stop when they reach the end of travel, and by heavens are they well bolted on or what.
A vehicle inspection will soon determine whats happened.
Drivers who are plainly incompetent are being dealt with, i have noticed a subtle change in attitude, and not before time.
Where I work if you do damage and admit it you’ll get into trouble. Don’t report it and you’ll be in even more trouble. Thats across the site. Better to take it on the chin. Obviously if you can cover it up and dispose of all evidence then do so, what they don’t know won’t hurt them as long as you don’t endanger anyone.
Tarrman:
Where I work if you do damage and admit it you’ll get into trouble. Don’t report it and you’ll be in even more trouble. Thats across the site. Better to take it on the chin. Obviously if you can cover it up and dispose of all evidence then do so, what they don’t know won’t hurt them as long as you don’t endanger anyone.
Thats the same everywhere. My company prides it’s self on honesty and we seem to have about 80% of honesty from drivers. There are drivers here who have had 4 accidents allbeit minor scrapes in their first few weeks and owned up to every incident, as the guy who is resposible for everything at Yonkers because our nearest manager is 200 miles away I have sometimes had to plead the case to stop a guy who has had constant accidents in 2 weeks for getting the chop and the case has always been ‘This man is honest, he owned up even when he could have acctually got away with it’ and it has ended up with the man being given another chance.
As for the leg falling off… I have seen the lower section of leg fall out when wound up on one occasion, if the whole leg fell off then I doubt it was just faulty. I do not like liars but this guy is obviously is in fear of loosing his job and that makes him nervous and even more likely to have an accident. Being a snitch is not good but a continuously accident prone man is not good for everyone else.
If we’re talking landing legs they should have a maximum travel with the winding handle and then if you lifted the trailer with the unit suspension the legs obvious shouldn’t drop out if as they should be.
However, I’ve seen them drop out and I’ve also seen it where they’ve worked their way down during driving both with the winding handle stowed and them left in gear and the winding handle stowed and left in neutral. It might be totally the guy’s fault and he’s a muppet or it could just be the legs were just knackered already.
Own Account Driver:
If we’re talking landing legs they should have a maximum travel with the winding handle and then if you lifted the trailer with the unit suspension the legs obvious shouldn’t drop out if as they should be.
However, I’ve seen them drop out and I’ve also seen it where they’ve worked their way down during driving both with the winding handle stowed and them left in gear and the winding handle stowed and left in neutral. It might be totally the guy’s fault and he’s a muppet or it could just be the legs were just knackered already.
I saw one when the connecting tube had rotted through, and the opposite side leg unwound itself and dug into the road.
So yes, they can fall off if they are not maintained.
