Landing gear

They called it a drill, but that is set up for an impact gun and not a drill, so it won't do that to you.

Dealing with a trailer that is sitting too high is stupidly easy to do. I can't imagine being dumb enough to get injured like that. I really can't. The fact is that a high trailer can be properly hooked without touching that crank handle until the feet are off the ground. A trailer dropped too low can be dealt with as well, if you have an air ride, but it's much easier to deal with the high hook.

Again, low trailer is a problem, high trailer is not a problem for anyone with half a brain.

 

How does looking at the

Dude, NOBODY ever high hooks the trailer THEY just dropped. Even the guys on our account that are dropping their trailers too high for the other 150 drivers NEVER have a problem re-hooking to their own high trailer. This is what OTR drivers don't notice because every trailer drop is a "hit-and-run" compared to dedicated drivers sharing the same pool of trailers AND daily getting feedback from the drivers that picked up your dropped trailers. Every trailer I drop will be picked up by a driver talking to my dispatcher and the info is passed along immediately when its a problem, and vice versa for the other dedicated drivers when I pick up their trailer.

The problem is the dropping driver dropping it like you describe and then the next truck/driver trying to hook to it.

 

Get out and look, heck, I can usually tell if a trailer is going to be a problem in my mirror as I get the tires to the front of the trailer.

I still get out and look, I like to make sure nothing stupid is going to happen, but a decent driver should be able to tell in advance anyway.

 

Exactly. So you're arguing about points you are not experiencing. This topic is a daily issue on my job. And it supports my point that EVERY new driver to our account, whether that's a newbie with no experience or a Super Trucker with more miles backing up than anyone else has going forward accross all "57 states", drops too high until they are given specific instruction which is indistinguishable from the video I referenced. The new drivers ALWAYS resist to some amount and then follow our procedure. We have problems until they change, and zero problems with trailer height AFTER they change.

After they change no trailers are damaged, no trucks are damaged, no increase in maintenance on truck or trailers related to the lower trailer drop heights. Not trailers dropped below the drive tires once in 1973, but trailer dropped so trailer bottom is below 5th wheel level and above drive tire level.

 

So what happens when a big C500 KW on tall 24.5's drops a trailer and a guy with a low Volvo on 22.5's tries to hook up to it?

 

Have you experienced the snap back of the gear handle while cranking? What causes that snap back or lurch? Did you know exactly when that snap back would happen before it happened? Have you ever had to put your whole weight and effort into cranking the landing gear?

Most OTR drivers MIGHT hook to 1 trailer per day, mostly it's live load/unload. In 100 years of that kind of experience you will not see the problem, and that experience doesn't disprove other experience.

 

Problems. That's why fleets TRY to spec to the same 5th wheel height. Ask drivers assigned to high cube trailers what happens when they grab a standard 52x102 trailer. That's not what I'm discussing