Wiggle wagons

Yea but no stepping down off the truck in theory. It's my job to check trailer seal numbers, see what empties we have etc so I still gotta get out but they try to make it as easy as possible.

 

If you had a C dolly (2 pintle hooks) it eliminates the 3rd pivot point, and can be backed like a B-train. If I ever setup my own turnpike doubles rig I'm using one. A lot of the wiggle you notice comes from that pintle hook. Also, tandem axle dollies are worlds more stable than the singles.

I've pulled little doubles, but I vastly prefer 2 long boxes. As pretty much everyone has said, they move. They move less if you're not staring in the mirror watching. For every inch the front box wags, the rear box moves two. Keep it as smooth as possible, minimize your steering corrections, and don't drive on the speed limiter. Sometimes, adding a little speed will pull out of a wiggle.

 

Yep, the 2nd trailer movements are an exaggeration of the tractor and somewhat more than the movement of the first trailer. Just learn to steer smoother and/or ignore the 2nd trailer.

Especially when you go around corners. Corner like you ONLY have the first trailer behind you. If you are switching from pulling 53 ft you will naturally want to swing wider on corners because a set of pups is longer than you are used to pulling. DON'T DO THAT. Your 2nd trailer will be well into the adjacent lane for no good reason. IGNORE THE 2ND TRAILER.

 

No, with doubles each single non-steer axle can carry 20k lbs, where the tandem axles on 53 (drive & trailer) can carry 34k lbs. Doubles are usually for carrying lots of leight items that fill up a trailer before the max out the legal weight. My last company stopped using doubles because the full set needed more maintenance/tires than filling up (cubing out) the 53ft trailer. "Cubing out" means you fill up all of the cubic feet of the trailer before you "gross out" or reach max weight. Think of filling a trailer with EMPTY aluminum cans.

 

It's the next level of backing. I couldn't do it but some guys can. There are numerous videos on YouTube of FedEx drivers backing a set into dock doors before dropping the rear trailer. And I don't mean some weak long straight back into a dock door, but a conventional 45 or 90 degree back into dock doors.

 

Pushing that dolly around a gravel, sloped, or pothole riddled yard in the summer is awful.

 

If you have a road tractor or OTR tractor with tandem drives, make sure to slide your 5th wheel all the way back or you will wipe out your tractor mudflaps on sharp turns. Most tractors pulling doubles are single drive axle. The landing gear supports on a pup are a lot closer to the nose of the trailer than on 48 or 53 ft trailers.

And newbies usually learn the hard way, like I did, to watch their feet when dropping the nose-stand on the trailer. Thank you steel-toe boots.

 

Dang, that's fancy. Your company must like drivers. What's that like?

 

Have you been accused of raising/lowering landing gear on trailers just to make clueless Otr drivers exercise. That was a constant issue at my last job. The switchers bare had time to breathe and OTR drivers were certain they couldn't ptossibly be dropping their trailer too high/low, it must be the yard truck drivers. It was ALWAYS the OTR driver screwing up. If the switchers were messing with a d-bag the landing gear would be fully up and trailer like a ski jump, parked in the mud, with the trailer nose about 5 feet from a wall. No yard truck driver I knew was volunteering for even 1 extra trip up/down the steps of the tractor. At least their knee pain made them forget about their back pain.

 

We don't have any otr guys. I did have a jerk that was just dropping his trailer in the middle of the yard so when I would pull his route off the door I would crank the landing gear all the way down while I had it in my truck lol. Freaking King pin was like 5 feet off the ground, he got the message.