Trailer Brake

coffeeholic · 1 February 2007 20:29

Bren:
When I went in to Asda in Grangemouth, I had to sign a form about the way they wanted to couple & uncouple trailers. When I dropped the first trailer and applied the trailer brake the shunter told me to leave it off. I said I had been told to do it that way and the form I had signed.
He said, “Don’t be bothered with that”.

At Asda Bedford not applying the trailer brake is a serious offence, for an agency driver it will mean a ban from the site. As offences go i think it is only second to backing under a trailer while the bay light is at red.

driver-once-more · 2 February 2007 06:14

I always checked the brakes before backing under

bren · 2 February 2007 08:26

Coffeeholic:

Bren:
When I went in to Asda in Grangemouth, I had to sign a form about the way they wanted to couple & uncouple trailers. When I dropped the first trailer and applied the trailer brake the shunter told me to leave it off. I said I had been told to do it that way and the form I had signed.
He said, “Don’t be bothered with that”.

At Asda Bedford not applying the trailer brake is a serious offence, for an agency driver it will mean a ban from the site. As offences go i think it is only second to backing under a trailer while the bay light is at red.

As soon as the shunter was away I applied the brake. If I sign to do something then it all goes pear shape I wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on. "The shunter told me is no excuse… ":oops:

It’s been a couple of years since I was in Asda but I think it was ok to back under the trailers while they were on a red light. I may be wrong as I say it was a while ago.

bagpuss · 2 February 2007 13:21

i always check the brake before doing anything else . i have a quick walk round trailer before i hitch up checking its the right one , its sealed and the numbers match , tyres and such like .
i always put the brake one when i unhitch no-matter what anyone else says its my safety
besides which i like to see shunters swear

gazzareth · 2 February 2007 19:17

besides which i like to see shunters swear

That’s why I always did it at TNT !!!

scanny77 · 2 February 2007 19:26

i always check before backing under, especially close coupling. too many driver dont bother applying it after they drop a trailer so when you tug forward, the whole thing moves. not very safe when its on a bay (i have had to couple up to a trailer at the end of a shift and leave it there on this job) and possibly being loaded.

fozzie · 2 February 2007 19:32

i always check first but i have still had a trailer move on me it was a flatbed step trailer and when the pin clicked the trailer moved back then when doing pull test it moved forward it slided

krankee · 2 February 2007 21:59

Coffeeholic:
Yes they do, but if the trailer then loses its air the brakes can come back off again meaning it is free to move.

Not with ‘spring brakes’, which have been standard fitment now for about a quarter of a Century or more. Removing the red air line allows the double diaphragm chambers to ‘exhaust’ thereby allowing the ‘mechanical’ spring to apply pressure to lever arm. However, there has been some discussion elsewhere on the wisdom of relying on this as the time taken for all six chambers (on a tri-axle) to exhaust through such a small (and lengthy) set of pipework can take a significant time.

Coffeeholic:
Newer trailers are coming with a feature that automatically applies the trailer brake when the red line is pulled. Asda have just taken delivery of some and as you pull the red line, the park brake button pops out and the park brake is applied. If just pulling the red line was enough then that feature would be unnecessary.

I think I’ve come across one or two of those. I think it may be called a ‘Pownall Brake’ as I’ve seen some press articles about them recently. A few months ago I went to premises where a spare trailer was supposed to be put on a bay and preloaded. When I got there, it hadn’t, and the Shunter informed me that the parking brake was defective and to report it at our depot. Yea, right. I had a look and true, it didn’t appear to work, and then I saw it was an (older type) Pownall Brake. Connected up as normal, charged the air system, and it worked fine. I presume that the fact that it had been parked for so long, and had lost air, simply made the button unresponsive.

As for trailers moving. I think I’m correct in saying that on many of the older trailers, ‘parking’ would only be applied to one of the 2/3 axles, the other axles having only single diaphragm chambers. Hence they would be easier to drag. Just as the Con & Use Regs prohibit the parking of vehicles ‘on air’ I’m sure it also applies to trailers.

hitch:
when at Cov Chem on the Rugby shunt i had to move one of Chats trailers back under and it started to move this was a trailer on air and the shunt button was in or out up to then i hadnt come across a trailer where you push the shunt button wothout the YELLOW on

The shunt button works regardless of whether the yellow line is connected or not. The yellow line, after all, only carries a ‘signal’. Connecting the red line ‘disengages’ the shunt button. In theory the yellow line could be replaced by an electrical signal in the CAN-bus system, or by a radio signal. The purpose of the yellow line is to carry a signal from the foot valve to the RE6 valve, which determines how much air the trailer reservoir delivers to the brake diaphragms.

The use of a trailer brake tends to vary from sector to sector. Work with ‘fridges’ and the trailer brake is the first and last thing you touch. Curtain-siders, I’ve been to companies where the button was jammed solid through lack of use and nobody cared.

Horses for courses.