When you drop a trailer, do it SMART

you must have same ####### trailer mechanic who insists on putting summer grease and oils in dolly crankcase .we now have a guy who uses winter lubes.. you can crank with 2 fingers in minus 3o no problem, before we kept breaking crank handles and bolts

 

(Ah, it's such a joy sometimes to belong to the fraternity of the Knights of the Road, ain't it?)

Or, if you really don't have time to fix it, at least tag it so some poor sap has a chance to pick a more mechanically sound trailer without inspecting 5.

 

Suck it up and deal with it. You'll never stop dealing with it no matter how much you complain. Trailers being at the wrong height are part of life. You can go on and on about how easy it is for it not to happen. Guess what? You'll still be lowering a trailer tomorrow.

And I'd love for you to find a mega carrier that has all the same exact trucks with the same exact specs. Here's a hint, you won't.

 

US Xpress trucks don't have suspension dumps.

 

I'm a fan of dropping with legs about 1/2 inch from the ground. helps to allow for change in surface height later, plus the tractor lifts enough that on heavy loads so the crank is easier to raise the legs. Not always do the yard dogs lift the trailer up as high as they should when spotting. Seen drag marks from the gear on occasion.

I was taught to slowly pull out from trailer til the front edge of trailer was just over the drives to see if the gear will hold before pulling all the way out.

 

From looking at the title I thought this thread was gonna be about folks forgetting to lower the landing gear.

 

The problem in our yard is that we do not have a yard dog, we simply have a couple yard trucks both with tall rubber and our road trucks are all on 22's. So we get to crank almost every trailer down, which on or vans isn't that big of deal, PIA, yes, but what really sucks is having to crank down our bulk tankers most of which have super stiff to crank gear even in low gear. Our drivers will get on the loaders about dropping them so high and things get better for a while, then things go back to usual. We've mentioned to the bosses that there are more than a couple sets of spare 22.5 tires and wheels in the shop that would make life easier for everyone if they'd just put them on the yard trucks to no avail. Even when I ran LTL we had this problem. I personally witnessed more than one driver cranking and cranking the gear until it lifted the trailer off the fifth wheel to drop it. I would ask them, why the heck are you doing that? That's the way I was taught to drop trailers was their usual reply. I would call the yard dog on the CB and have them pick up the trailer like that so I could lower the gear some before I backed under it.