Embarrassed - how to slide tandems on the trailer?

Sorry about your husband.OK here's what I do.Get out of trk walk to the back of the trl and pull the handle out which is located where the tandems are and then lock it into place.Sometimes that don't work then u use vice grips to lock the lever in place.Then walk back to trk set trl brks(red button) and slowly move forward or backward.Then get out to make sure pin is lined up with the hole or close release leaver then rock the trk a bit to make sure its lock then check to make sure.Don't be shy about asking drivers for help.Most are more then happy to help.

 

I use my crowbar and hang it through the hole before the one I need to stop at. If you back slowly, it won't damage anything. Jerk it around and you could tear some stuff up.

 

OK. Fair enough. Did not expect a different reaction

 

honyb57, I would get a CB asap if you don't already have one. All you have to do is ask on the CB and there are many good truckers out there that will help you do anything. It's easier if someone shows you first hand.

A general rule for heavy loads is if you don't have 26 pallets on the floor is to stretch the freight out to the 44 ft to 48ft mark. You do that by putting a single pallet up front and alternating 1-2-1-2 to accomplish this. If you have more than two singles then consider putting one single towards the rear to keep the load balanced. Two up front first compensates for the nose weight. Most good warehousemen know how to load a trailer correctly. Light loads you don't have to stretch out. Some shippers have load diagrams for their beginner forklift drivers. If you get a chance look at them.

Then with the pallets stretched out you can put the end of the last pallet about even with the rear axle. Many times getting loaded you'll have the tandems all the way back so when you pull away from the dock is a good time to pre-adjust your axle position before scaling. If not right this will put you with in a couple holes. Then you won't find yourself doing major adjustments at the truck stop and rescaling. I usually mark my hole by licking my finger and drawing a little line on the dirty trailer or frame.

Air slide will make things easier on you. Release your tractor brakes first and then go pull the air slide button. Applying air to your trailer brakes again will automatically make your air slide button go back in and the pins back out. So when you are adjusting all you have to do is get next to the hole you want. Then either go pop the air slide button or sometimes you can do it from the tractor by popping your button and pulling it back out.

Stubborn trailers I'll carry wheel chocks and use them to hold the tandems steady. You can use a curb sometimes for that but it's a good way to rip a mud flap off it the curb is too high.

Practice makes perfect. You'll be good at it in no time!









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Mazda Miatas work well too!!

 

Sorry for your loss.

If you have the strength, a 4 foot crowbar held like a pool cue will knock the pins without having to crawl around to get at them, or in front of the wheels for that matter. I think there's actually a tool sold for this that's like a slide hammer. Might be easier to handle than a heavy crowbar.

Sometimes those guys are the ones that can figure out stubborn hardware since they're used to it. I'd be more hesitant to ask the guy that hops out of his pristine rig in khakis and garden gloves.

On a dry day when you're killing time at a truck stop, squirt some axle or 5th wheel grease on a rag and mop a thin coating on the frame rails where the chassis slides. It will be the shiny parts with no rust, mostly facing down. Provided you don't have bent parts causing the bind, it will flat out eliminate the need to chock up when sliding axles.

I wish you the best.