How do you unlock the kingpin from the 5th wheel?

Thats typically the way the manufacturers want it to be done. The pads should just touch the ground. The landing gear is not supposed to be used to jack a trailer up or down, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

The fifth wheel is actually supposed to pick the trailer up off the ground because if you're not centered properly, the sliding side to side can damage the gear especially on a heavy trailer.

Ideally, you'd want to get the fifth wheel under the plate, let the suspension get settled, then back into the pin.

 

In most truck stops for sale are hand held pull bars with a hook on one end. Reach the fifth wheel pin handle with it and pull to release. Some of the pull handles on the fifth wheels require lifting upwards and then left into a slot to be able to pull release them. You can purchase a pull rod with a hook that also has a short straight extending rod adjacent to the hook. Push the fifth wheel release bar into the slot with the adjacent extension angle area, then use the hook to pull the bar. No reaching under, no dirty clothes from tires (extra especially for females ), barely any effort.

 

My 2006 KW T600 has one of those in-cab quick release switches. I thought it was ridiculous at first. How lazy can a person be? But over the years as I've used it I've grown to love it. No more getting greasy. As for the safety aspect, I have to set the trailers brakes, flip a 5th wheel release switch, and then push in the release knob. There's no way you'd do all that on accident and it doesn't work going down the road. There's no way you'd drop a trailer on accident.

 

IF the legs are dry,or the load is real heavy,you also spend forever trying to get the landing gear retracted.
I let the air bags get me up,and free the legs.

 

If you have air suspension, most do now days. You can unhook the linage rod to lift the heavy trailer that some jackhole left set high, raise the weight off the landing gear then crank up the feet. I pickup alot of preloaded heavy trailer at Swift in Marshaltown, IA. We have one Heavy Haul W900 thats sits a couple of inches higher at the fifth wheel plate than my 680. So I use this lots, the colder it is the less inclined Iam to struggle with that crank. In my case its the owners son that leaves themfor me, can't get him to leave the feet up a few inches, he has a ramped frame as do I, so low is good.

 

I am not saying to crank it until you can't anymore, I admit I should've made that more clear, I usually stop once I hear the weight being lifted off the bags and never had any issues, I guess experience may vary.

And yea anyone would look like an idiot when a truck comes shooting out from underneath the trailer and hyperextends an air bag in the process and bends the landing gear brace...I say that because I have to fix them "idiot" errors all the time at my job, I am just trying to save a new person from making this mistake.

 

Go to Home Depot. Buy an 8' 4x4, and have them cut it in half at a 45 degree angle.

Next time you have to pick up a loaded trailer that's set too high, pull forward until the fifth wheel is ahead of the trailer, maybe by a foot. Put one 4x4 on the ground behind the drives, so the bevel is pushed up against the tire, forming a ramp. Back up a few feet so the fifth wheel is under the nose of the trailer; the extra height from the 4x4s could well lift the landing gear off the ground. If not, it's still a whole lot less cranking in low range.

Word of advice... don't try to hook to the trailer when on the 4x4s. If you back off the 4x4, you may have some fun climbing over the blunt end of the board.

I haven't tried it, but I was told it works well.

 

you do know what that air suspension dump valve is on the dash right. flip it before you pull out from under a trailer and you wont hyper extend any bags or come shooting out.

i agree with the posters that say crank it to the ground or a inch off the ground dump bags and pull out no reason to lift the trailer with the jack.

 

I use the dump valve all the time, I have just seen many guys at my yard not dump their suspension and causing all that.

 

Keep the landing gear about one inch off the ground, and dump the air before you pull out from under the trailer.

Dont crank the landing gear until it eases off the 5th wheel, because then the next driver has a risk of jumping the king pin when they try to hook up to it.

Dont leave too much of a gap between the gear and the ground either, because then the next driver has a risk of slamming into the header board putting the frame through it.

Ive seen both happen numerous times.