The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

Or, he forgot to latch the neck.......not that I have ever done that...

 

i think the drag marks are probably when it ripped out the airline on the neck when it broke free.

 

If it is a spring loaded locking pin that did not engage properly it can happen.
That is why a manual pin is better or inspecting the pin every time is important.

 

Must be a hydraulic neck ? On my mechanical neck it has redundant safety system with the dogbones and collars u have to lock in place to pick up the neck.. Does hydraulic necks not have that? I never run one before

 

Stan is a driver with 30 years of driving experience. 20 of which were as an "owner operator" doing bedbug work. Early 2021 Stan recoginized that he his truck was at the end of it's lifespan, his bank account wouldn't support getting a new truck and his wife was at the end of being a truck stop along the way



Stan hired on with us on a dedicated, home daily account. One morning he shows up as I'm manually disconnecting the batteries from a P3 so we can do a hard reset on the ecm and drive it over to Freightliner instead of having to get it towed. Stan is in awe that I know how to do it, I'm flabbergasted that he doesn't. Fast forward almost a year and I'm babysitting my 'young gentleman' as he couples/pretrips/slidetandems/etc. Stan comes in and hooks to his trailer, slides the tandems, pulls out to the left, makes a left at the end of the row, then another left to head to the shipping office to grab his paperwork. Stan cuts to the right to head back to the exit and the trailer drops.

Stan tries to claim "something broke". No, nothing broke, Stan just didn't do his job. February temperatures in Wisconsin are ripe for bad hooks, even with well maintained equipment. I scrapped enough grease out of his locking jaws to make a softball, tripped the jaws and dieseled them up and the truck coupled without a problem. He caused no real damage, so I read him the riot act without making anything official because when I make thing official it depresses the heck out of me and Stan is a good guy who f'd up.

My point to this long winded story is "just because you've been doing things since Christ was a Corporal doesn't mean you're good at what you do". I don't know exactly how an RGN should get attached, but I would guess that this idiot skipped a step, just like Stan skipped visually checking the locking jaws when he coupled.

The thing I don't understand is most of the steps that guys skip take NO TIME to complete. I made more than my fair share of mistakes my first 6 months, and I'm #### lucky that I was able to recover from those stupidities without assistance or tearing stuff up. I learned that doing things the 'company way' and doing things the 'fast way' were one and the same. My guess is that with either a hydraulic or mechanical neck there is a fool proof process to follow and this driver didn't follow it.

 

Started singing this song when I saw this flatbed load
“Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...”

 

On mine there is an air can that has spring pressure against it. This can attaches via a lever to a 2" or so pin that locks the neck to to the deck, and is supplied air via a manual valve on the side of the neck. It also has a safety pin that you install to prevent the main pin from being able to come out.

So, when unhooking after lowering the deck to the ground, you pull the safety and the hit the air valve to release the pin, which is not load bearing, and lower the stiff leg via hydraulics against the tractor frame to support the neck, disconnect the lies frm neck to deck, then drive away.

Just the reverse for hooking up. Since the big pin is not load bearing, the deck can be lifted without engaging the locking pin, and because air to the neck is charged throughout the process, once you connect the air cords from neck to deck you can drive away without engaging the locking pin.

My trailer is a 96. Newer trailers may have a some sort of safety plumbing for the air so that supply to the deck is not allowed until the lock pin is engaged, I'm not sure.

Getting a solid routine down and not getting in a hurry is pretty important!

 

We've got a 2021 55 ton that works the same way. Can't tell you how many times I've started to pull off , set the brakes get out and look at the lock pin and gooseneck support. Just double checking myself. That gooseneck support will wreck havoc on stainless steel fenders. Don't ask me how I know.

 

We've been good about the neck support, but I have had to replace the air and electrical lines from neck to deck.........twice. Now, it has finally become force of habit to look in the mirror to make sure the dang things are unhooked before pulling away.

What brand of trailer do you have, and how do you like it?