The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

Thats your momhood.

A high hitch is when you lock the jaws around the bottom flange of the hitch pin. The thick part.

 

Its surprising that every cdl drivers test has a 90 alley dock.. But not an uncouple recouple. Never did i really have to full 90 between vans as a flatbedder. Yeah i did plenty of backing into holes but with a loaded spread doing it from a 90 if you didnt have to would be pretty dumb. As in bad setup to start with a 90 instead of 60 or 45.

 

Saw this gem this morning.

 

Good price on poll barns lol

 

ROTFLMAO. Yeah and the tightest reefer back I ever had was not as skinny as today's Dow in Pennsauken back in with 2 inches each side... I can't 90 dock. Tried in January. 6 months and it's all gone lol. However if I have about 150' and can do an 18 point turn, heck I can put it wherever you point to.....

 

I don't hook or start my day without a look-see under, along with the wipe down on all my lights (I think if my lenses look sparkling it's easier to prove I did my pretrip LoL) so I guess I don't have too much to worry about there. But the assault.... Which is what I would consider another driver pulling a 5th wheel pin.... Perhaps I should take it more seriously. Im not mistaken for other guys often and i don't leave the truck much but I do hit a restroom and shower every so often....

 

Most times, if you high hook a trailer you will be able to see a gap between the 5th wheel and the trailer apron... At least big enough to put you finger in. FYI... DONT PUT YOUR FINGER IN THE GAP!!!

Most dropped trailers I've seen have been the result of the 5th wheel jaws NOT fully locking. This can be particularly easy to do in the winter when the grease in the jaw mechanism is very cold. Or even more common... The driver didnt clean the snow and ice out of the jaws and off the 5th wheel before coupling a trailer. Heres a pic of a trailer that got dropped that I witnessed. Driver made it clear out from the back of the yard and a couple hundred feet down the road before it dropped. It was about 10° outside.

 

I dropped a trailer filled with propane tanks on its nose once. I backed under it, heard the news lock. Popped my brakes and visually inspected and pretripped the trailer. Woke the guy up next to me because his bunk heater was smoking so badly I thought his truck was on fire. So I pulled out of my spot and moved several spots away just in case. Then went to sleep for a few hours before I had to haul ### with my load. Logged a pretrip but didn't do one because I had already done one a few hours before. Got half a mile around the yard and heard a loud ### scrape. That and a crash of hundreds of propane tanks laying in the nose of my trailer. Didn't blow my airlines miraculously. Spent the next 6 hours trying to get the landing gear down and dumping my airbags, backing under and raising my airbags to relieve pressure from the landing gear. By the time I was done I felt like I was actually having a heart attack so I called dispatch and had them remove the load because I was feeling ill.

Now I won't even get back in my truck that I was just fueling without inspecting that locking jaw. I also use the absolute bare minimum amount of grease on my 5th wheel. It freezes up and the jaws won't lock. If one of those tanks ruptured it could have killed a lot of people.

 

I won't tarp it there but I'm not moving a coil that isn't fully secured. And then I'm only moving it a few feet, getting out and cranking on it some more.