Smoggie89:
How come it doesn’t come off straight away ?
its surprising how far you could travel with the pin hooked in front of the fifthwheel
When I was working for a firm in Agecroft near Manchester, I’ll not name them, I followed 1 of the drivers out, across 1 roundabout, right at another roundabout, left at another roundabout, up the hill to near The Henry Boddington pub is, turning left at those lights the trailer decided it didn’t want to, and that’s when it left him to bobtail - not far mind, his air escaping and the loud noise brought him to a stop.
They can travel considerable distances sitting in the King Pin site but on top of the locked jaws, one where i worked in the 80’s travelled all the way from Bristol depot empty and the trailer bounced off on the Embankment not far from Big Ben.
Hardly surprising, i still see steering wheel attendees reverse straight under a trailer by mirror alone without a care in the world, usually it works out OK, sometimes they miss completely but not to worry eh, wouldn’t pay 'em in buttons.
After all, it takes about 5 seconds and a little bit of effort to do it.
If you add up all those 5 seconds and all that effort you save by not doing it each time you pick up a trailer, when you do eventually drop one on its knees, you’ll have saved up enough time and effort to wind it back up anyway.
The units at our place have the latch for the pin at the bottom so the only way to engage is to get the full weight of the trailer onto it.
Remember watching the Shunter at heinz go teararsing away leaving the trailer behind completely writing it off folded the legs and made a hell of a noise.
After all, it takes about 5 seconds and a little bit of effort to do it.
If you add up all those 5 seconds and all that effort you save by not doing it each time you pick up a trailer, when you do eventually drop one on its knees, you’ll have saved up enough time and effort to wind it back up.
I’ve never been taught it so why would I ? And it’s not something I’ve ever thought of, like I said I’ve always done the tug and clip. I don think I would be the only 1 to have never checked it either
After all, it takes about 5 seconds and a little bit of effort to do it.
If you add up all those 5 seconds and all that effort you save by not doing it each time you pick up a trailer, when you do eventually drop one on its knees, you’ll have saved up enough time and effort to wind it back up.
I’ve never been taught it so why would I ? And it’s not something I’ve ever thought of, like I said I’ve always done the tug and clip. I don think I would be the only 1 to have never checked it either
‘‘never been taught’’ whilst absolutely true in that modern driver training is frankly nothing short of abysmal and an industry scandal, it might not sound too good when read out by a grim copper from his notebook at an inquest should the unthinkable happen and a trailer pops off and stops bloody dead on a busy road.
Wouldn’t look too good on a CV either.
I didn’t believe it could happen, but it did happen to me one day not long after the episode i mentioned above, luckily something didn’t sound quite right when i picked a fully loaded trailer up dropped at the correct height but on uneven ground, i moved the trailer on to level ground and went and had a butchers, sure enough the bloody pin was sitting right on top of the jaws, surprised me but from that day i’ve never failed to double check.
I’m not trying to look clever or anything was just stating what I have/haven’t done and been taught , if I can get into the habit of checking this then it will obviously reduce the chances of it happening
After all, it takes about 5 seconds and a little bit of effort to do it.
If you add up all those 5 seconds and all that effort you save by not doing it each time you pick up a trailer, when you do eventually drop one on its knees, you’ll have saved up enough time and effort to wind it back up.
I’ve never been taught it so why would I ? And it’s not something I’ve ever thought of, like I said I’ve always done the tug and clip. I don think I would be the only 1 to have never checked it either
We are trying to teach it now, so hopefully it won’t happen to you in future.
As been said, it only takes about 5 seconds to check, I’ve got a mag torch in the door pocket, that I grab every time that I hook up to a different/new trailer.
Smoggie89:
I’m not trying to look clever or anything was just stating what I have/haven’t done and been taught , if I can get into the habit of checking this then it will obviously reduce the chances of it happening
I check it everytime. Paranoia can be a good thing sometimes.
The thread was origionally a joke, But with a bit of luck some will learn something.
Smoggie89:
I’ve never checked the bar is across, just the tug and clip. Surely if you have done that there is no come backs to my fault? Although checking would cause problems
WRONG !
I tug several times, it doesn’t mean a thing especially when it’s freezing, only last month I hooked to a an empty, tugged, even looked at the back of the fith wheel, drove across a truck park and the trailer came off. don’t just tug and double check, check over and over again, make sure the fith wheel handle is fully locked in place, make double or tripple sure the king pin is locked by shining a torch inside, drive slowly foreward and put the trailer brake on or dead man handle in the case of Britain, if the trailer stays firmly locked after that you will be ok.
Smoggie89:
I’m not trying to look clever or anything was just stating what I have/haven’t done and been taught ,
Never thought that for a moment.
This does show up the lack of real world driver training in our industry, you would most likely never be taught about this real danger by a driving instructor or (more’s the pity) by a company driver trainer/assessor.
Things like this could be part of a really useful DCPC but shan’t be holding me breath…harrumph, indeed about the most informative and useful parts of that bad joke course have been listening to other drivers real world tips.
Most of the time, I do check that fifth wheel locking bar has gone across as I’m a bit paranoid about the unit and trailer parting company.
Because of being slightly paranoid, I rang and spoke to a UK fifth wheel manufacturer and asked them about trailers being dropped and they told me that:
As long as there is no gap between the fifth wheel and the trailer rubbing plate when coupling up
and
The fifth wheel release handle has clicked fully back in
This then means that the trailer is properly coupled into position.
I dont know what others make of this?
Edit
When I took my HGV test and training, at no point was I ever told to check the fifth wheel jaws have gone across.
Secondly, I’ve just found the Jost Fifth wheel coupling guide and at no place in there does it tell the driver to check the mechanism has locked into position by looking up it’s jacksie
Lusk:
Most of the time, I do check that fifth wheel locking bar has gone across as I’m a bit paranoid about the unit and trailer parting company.
Because of being slightly paranoid, I rang and spoke to a UK fifth wheel manufacturer and asked them about trailers being dropped and they told me that:
As long as there is no gap between the fifth wheel and the trailer rubbing plate when coupling up
and
The fifth wheel release handle has clicked fully back in
This then means that the trailer is properly coupled into position.
I dont know what others make of this?
Edit
When I took my HGV test and training, at no point was I ever told to check the fifth wheel jaws have gone across.
Secondly, I’ve just found the Jost Fifth wheel coupling guide and at no place in there does it tell the driver to check the mechanism has locked into position by looking up it’s jacksie
this^^
i follow the industry standard practice for coupling up a trailer…the way i was taught from day 1.
You can normally tell if somethings off just by the sound when you back under the pin. Rarely do I check the jaws, and you shouldn’t be able to engage the dog clip if the release handle isn’t properly located.
Lusk:
Most of the time, I do check that fifth wheel locking bar has gone across as I’m a bit paranoid about the unit and trailer parting company.
Because of being slightly paranoid, I rang and spoke to a UK fifth wheel manufacturer and asked them about trailers being dropped and they told me that:
As long as there is no gap between the fifth wheel and the trailer rubbing plate when coupling up
and
The fifth wheel release handle has clicked fully back in
This then means that the trailer is properly coupled into position.
I dont know what others make of this?
Edit
When I took my HGV test and training, at no point was I ever told to check the fifth wheel jaws have gone across.
Secondly, I’ve just found the Jost Fifth wheel coupling guide and at no place in there does it tell the driver to check the mechanism has locked into position by looking up it’s jacksie
Yes, when i picked up and it was sitting on the jaws you could indeed see through the small gap between the 5th wheel and rubbing plate.
However we seem to have a whole swathe of drivers who can’t find or use a torch, so in the dark the same problem of looking applies, just as easy to look up its bum as well as though…as said above, 5 seconds is all it takes to look and you know you’ve got it securely in the groove…
attn m1cks…the jaws go fully home when the king pin is sat on, not in, the jaws, so the safety clip will go in as normal.
m1cks:
You can normally tell if somethings off just by the sound when you back under the pin. Rarely do I check the jaws, and you shouldn’t be able to engage the dog clip if the release handle isn’t properly located.
thats what i was gonna say,i used to allways back under with the window down,even in rain,you can usually hear if somethings a miss,and allways put the safety catch on even if moving 10 feet.
Smoggie89:
Surely if you have done that there is no come backs to my fault? Although checking would cause problems
I really hope this is sarcasm.
Because if not your attitude and mine are very different.
What the [zb] has fault got to do with anything?
Would it matter who’s fault it was if the trailer came off?
What I’m saying is , if I couple up to a trailer and didn’t check the bar was across just the usual tug and clip, and the trailer did come off obviously I would get the blame from my boss, but if I have only done what I have been taught then I “should” be in the clear of any blame ? Like I have said when I replied I wasn’t trying to look big and hard , I was genuinely replying as I have never known anyone or been taught to check the bar is across …
