Malfunction or Driver Error???

I didn't see it on my phone, but looks like the tractor is still there. There is a rear of a tractor in the far left of the pic anyway.

As the tandems are slid all the way forward, I would say that's an empty that was just picked up and not locked in well. He turned on the on ramp and poof, it came loose.

 

I don’t see broke airlines hanging off the front. Looks like the leg you can see was run down. Pic is grainy though when you blow it up

 

I agree with others that it was dropped. Had he lost it rolling I suspect their would be damage on the corner of trailer.

 

I'm gonna go with dropped the loaded wagon in a soft spot while waiting for the hook and that's all she wrote

Maybe not loaded......or lightly loaded

 

In 2014 I had bought a truck in South Carolina, it was checked out by a mechanic and everything he found bad was fixed except he didn’t check the jaws of latch of the fifth wheel setup.

My driver flew out to get the truck from South Carolina, checked it out with no problems found. She picked up one of my reefer trailers from a thermoking dealer on the way to Indiana, followed the normal steps with a pull test and went on her way.

She stopped at a pilot to fuel up, pulled away from the fuel isle after fueling, the trailer dropped off the truck.

Fortunately this was at 1am so it wasn’t tying the isle up. We called a tow company to move the trailer out of there and there were there fast, no damage to the trailer. In the morning the truck was put into the shop to have the fifth wheel checked, the mechanic found the jaws were so worn that the shop owner was amazed that it passed the pull test let alone traveled 270 miles like that.

 

There should have been so much slop in it after she hooked it that the constant banging should have said we have a problem. They boom really good for a long time before they give. Doesn’t matter which style jaw you have. Fact is I can’t say I have ever heard of one with that much wear. Not that I have seen everything by any means.

 

That was one nice feature of the Fontaine fifth wheels, they could easily be adjusted to eliminate the sloppy.

 

There is only so much adjustment then they are still sloppy. Even a 2 jaw Holland has adjustment. But again once they get to that point adjustment won’t cure the slop.

 

There is point to where rebuilding is the only option. I remember years ago, when I was running linehaul there were times I moving a different power thru the system, usually one that was going back to central to be decommissioned, and a sloppy fifth wheel, grab the crescent wrench and adjust that front bolt.

 

The Holland on Casper had the beak.