Bad Hook - or why you always use a flashlight to look at the jaws

We traded the UP for a strip of Toledo, win for The Mitten. And as far as the roads, yer preaching to the choir

 

With all the different grease and grit contamination from pinning that many trailers a day is bound to give the fifth wheel VD.

 

The Toledo war, the Ohio Side said they fight like Wolverines, thus the Nickname.

 

I took some recent CDL refresher training at a truck driving school and I rode with the instructor to take a trailer to an outside shop to check ABS light on trailer. He disconnected trailer so they could do their diagnosing and reconnected and I believed he didn't do the tug test (because the techs were standing next to the trailer) but he did get out and visually checked the 5th wheel jaw. We pulled out and turned on local street and trailer dropped. It was the first time I have ever seen it but I had the wherewithal to tell him to stop because he kept coasting and trailer slowing on landing gear skids was stretching air hoses and I didn't want him to rip them off. He ended up jacking trailer back up and reconnecting. It was a powerful learning lesson to me. I have heard of it but never saw it. Luckily trailer empty and no one else on road. I can't imagine a loaded trailer on a crowded highway.