Can a bent wheel rim prevent the trailer tandem pins from going in when knob is pulled?

I thump all the trailer tires whenever I get a new trailer. Let's live in reality. Most drivers don't closely examine the inner part of the wheel rims when doing a pre-trip inspection. Heck, at my company, we have had several drivers drive off with a loaded trailer when they are trying to get an empty trailer lol!

 

I'm mad at the mechanic for telling the guard that I have a bent rim. Hopefully, that mechanic is in a lot of pain now. But if my company didn't pay the mechanic for coming out and helping me slide the tandems, that would be theft of services.

 

I do check for hub oil seal leaks on the outer part of the wheel. To my knowledge, the only place where there are hub oil seal leaks is on the outer part of the wheel, not on the inner part of the wheel rim.

I don't crawl underneath the trailer to pre-trip the inner part of the trailer wheel rims. I did team driving for years, and I teamed with a lot of drivers, many with double digit years of experience. I never saw a single one of my teammates do it. No, not one. Most truckers don't crawl underneath the trailer to pre-trip a trailer wheel rim when doing a pre-trip.

Why would I choose to lower myself down because I work with people who don't crawl underneath the trailer to inspect the inner part of a wheel rim? If the wheels aren't turning, I am not earning.

That ain't how it goes at any of the trucking companies I have driven for. I think the trucking companies I've worked for are more typical in the industry than your trucking company.

 

It's kind of an odd feeling to me how people here are accusing me of being incompetent by not doing a thorough enough pre-trip. At most of the trucking companies I've worked for, I have a reputation for being especially thorough on pre-trip inspections and other procedures!

When I was a team driver, most of my teammates would gripe about me taking too much time being thorough checking things on the pre-trip. They wouldn't even get the hammer and thump the tires. Some of them would kick the trailer tires and call that "checking the tires" lol-----

 

At all the trucking companies I have ever worked for, I have been known for being especially thorough on pre-trip inspections compared to most drivers. I do a pre-trip at the start of every shift, even if my fleet manager tells me that it's an emergency to get somewhere for a repower real fast, much to the chagrin of my teammates and fleet managers. The only things I do on a pre-trip are the following:
1# check all the lights on the tractor and trailer
2# check the oil level
3# check the coolant level
4# do a visual inspection of the tread depth on the steers tires and drive tires (I drive the trailer tires until they pop)
5# use my air pressure gauge to check the air pressure in the steer tires
6# check the steers and trailer tires for hub oil seal leaks
7# check the drive tires for axle gasket leaks
8# check that the mudflaps are not torn
9# check that the air lines on the trailer are not too low
10# check that the trailer is empty if I am picking up an empty trailer
11# check that the trim on the trailer doors is intact so that rain cannot get in the trailer
12# thump all the tires except the steer tires with a hammer
13# do a visual inspection to make sure that the airlines are properly connected to the glad hands on the trailer and that the green electrical line is properly connected to the trailer
14# I make sure nobody has pulled the 5th wheel release handle to sabotage my trailer
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That's it. Fourteen things might sound like a lot of things to check, but if you read all the things that the DOT CDL Manuals say to check, fourteen is only a small fraction of the total amount of things DOT says to check. And I have a reputation for being very thorough on pre-trips. Most drivers usually don't do a pre-trip at all. I'm way ahead of the pack. Observing the behavior of other truckers at truckstops, when I see trucks that have been shutdown for 10+ hours at truckstops pull out of the parking spots they have been in for 10+ hours, 99% of the time the drivers never even open up the hood or seem to do any pre-trip at all.