ironpony
Professional Pot-Stirrer
My ability to judge trailer glide plate height is suspect at best. It's easier to just get out and look than dealing with a high hook.
5th wheel failed to lock up this week....
- Thread starter mndriver
- Start date
Hillbilly Canuck
Well-Known Member
Not so much on a stepdeck or hydraulic float but almost every time I go to hook up to a mechanical float my front handle will go back in soon as the rollers get up on the fifth wheel. Always have to jump out and pull it again right before I hit the pin.
quillcom
Well-Known Member
Yep, which is what I do if something does not feel right to me i.e. the trailer did not raise, did not like the alignment etc.
Ontario Outlaw
Hozer Witta Hood
I've never high hooked. Is that one of those things everyone does at least once?
Sinister
pari animositate
It must be going around like the flu.
Friend of mine had this last snow stacked up on his 5th wheel.
Went and hooked his trailer. Drive around the end of the line the long way to the scale, and in making he final turn stopped because his trailer looked way off.
It had come out of the jaws, (which apparently never locked, and he obviously did not visually check) and was resting on the last inch or two of the 5th wheel itself.
To top it off, when he cranked the trailer back up, he still couldn’t get the 5th wheel to catch until hammering out some ice and spraying some stuff into it.
So it wasn’t even close to latched the first time he hit the pin. It’s an easy job but you still have to pull your head out of your ass. I think his days here are numbered, really. Who knows what the hell they’d have charged him for that if it actually damaged the landing gear and ripped the air lines out.
All week I’ve been doing visual checks. It’s friggin COLD again.
Friend of mine had this last snow stacked up on his 5th wheel.
Went and hooked his trailer. Drive around the end of the line the long way to the scale, and in making he final turn stopped because his trailer looked way off.
It had come out of the jaws, (which apparently never locked, and he obviously did not visually check) and was resting on the last inch or two of the 5th wheel itself.
To top it off, when he cranked the trailer back up, he still couldn’t get the 5th wheel to catch until hammering out some ice and spraying some stuff into it.
So it wasn’t even close to latched the first time he hit the pin. It’s an easy job but you still have to pull your head out of your ass. I think his days here are numbered, really. Who knows what the hell they’d have charged him for that if it actually damaged the landing gear and ripped the air lines out.
All week I’ve been doing visual checks. It’s friggin COLD again.
ironpony
Professional Pot-Stirrer
Oh, yeah, eventually. Get a dip in the surface so your drives drop unexpectedly, just misjudge things a bit, and ZLOP! There she goes.
Nuthin' like trying to get out of that with a loaded trailer, and you can't dump your air bags.
I don't care how good a tug test feels, you just have to get down there and LOOK. What happens if you get a partial lock, and the trailer gets loose in heavy traffic? Someone could get hurt.
Hillbilly Canuck
Well-Known Member
We got a kid who has dropped an excavator in the middle of a highway in a town and ran a dozer into a ditch is the latest I've heard. I suspect they keep him around because he'll run coast to coast to coast on multiple log books (eld not required in Canada) or whatever other dumb crap they tell him to do.
You can't tell him how bad he's screwing himself so I've stopped trying. Perhaps should ask him if he's rolled a truck yet.....yes everyone does it once you gotta roll your truck come on man just pop your cherry and get it over with.
mndriver
curmudgeon extraordinare
Electric Chicken
Well-Known Member
Schneider got me into the whole visually checking thing. Never bothered before at USX.
Takes like three whole seconds to crawl under with a miner's light on your head and can save your ass big time. Get it part of your routine and it's no big deal.
Takes like three whole seconds to crawl under with a miner's light on your head and can save your ass big time. Get it part of your routine and it's no big deal.
Silverwolf
Well-Known Member
I can't see how this happens? Mine is manual, so I have to pull it. But after I hook, if the lever popped back in, and the flapper dropped to block the lever being able to move. Then its locked, and it aint coming off. So I don't even get off the truck. I just hop on the step and look to see if that flap is down and lever in. Done deal. Now if yours is automatic, and your not checking. Then your a rooky idiot. And I would fire you instantly. If you dropped a trailer, you didn't do you job. Your fired.
Electric Chicken
Well-Known Member
Ours are air.
Silverwolf
Well-Known Member
Air doesn't make any difference. Like I said, if you didn't check it, you didn't do your job. You also broke the law, because its the law to get out and check the trailer, all the way around. In Canada anyway. I don't drive in the US, so can't comment on there laws. But its usually company policy anyway, as is mine. So your fired.
mndriver
curmudgeon extraordinare
I'd like to see that statute.
Silverwolf
Well-Known Member
I only drive myself, and my own trailers. So can't speak for other company policy. And in Canada it IS law to check the trailer. If it came off and caused an accident. THey would investigate, and if it didn't break off, meaning it was human error. Then you are fined with criminal charges, suspended license and likely fired, and liable for damages.Like I said, I cant' vouch for the US, I never drove there, so don't brush up on there laws.
Rigjockey
In Gord we trust!
What law is that? Can you post it or give HTA #?
quillcom
Well-Known Member
Oh I always check after coupling to see if th e shank is hugging the king and if the release arm is in place.
With only a few trailers in our yard you get to know if its been moved or used recranked or what ever since my last drop.
Rigjockey
In Gord we trust!
Show us the law where it says you have to get out and check the trailer
