Dropped a trailer pulling away from the dock.

Didnt see anyone ask this question (didnt read all the responses though) what was the temp outside when you hooked?

Ive dropped 3 trailers in a 40 year career.

First one was minus 25 with a minus 75 windchill in South Dakota where the yard was all drifted in. I swear the gate was locked on the 5th wheel but no dry spots to do a real tug test. It landed upright, I cranked it up, rehooked and was on my way (took 45 mins to crank it up because of heavy load and colder than hell out there). This was 1998.

2nd one was minus 25 in a drifted in yard in Iowa. Again looked like it was locked, no dry spots to tug it. Landed upright, cranked it up and rehooked and off to the races. This was 2000.

3rd was minus 20 degrees in Minnesota. Iced up yard, gate was locked. Was leaving the yard and it dropped on the street folding one of the landing gear so I couldnt crank it up (but the trailer was upright). The company sent in a tow, they picked it up, put it on a dock and braced it up. We had to hand unload the trailer because it wasnt safe to bring a fork into. I was about 4 hours behind schedule. This was 2013.

The point being, when its God awful cold on ice you need to assume you arent hooked even if it looks like you are. Until you can get to a dry spot to make sure, be careful. Oh, and in all 3 cases I was turning 90 degrees when it dropped. First 2 to the left and last one to the right.

Oh, and never heard a thing from any of the companies about it. The terminal manager of the last place tried to make some noise but since 3 of his city drivers also dropped trailers that day in that yard it wasnt loud and it wasnt long. I was line haul, I dropped it around midnight. All 3 times it was a set of doubles. First 2 times they dropped from the tractor, the last one was the rear box.

 

Ive seen trailers in the ditch that fell off on the hiway and the driver never even noticed... Im guessing in those cases someone was out a job. But yeah, no damage, no problem. Hook it back up and keep rockin.

 

22 years here, you always need visually check your king pin. I’ve had two come loose in the yard. Luckily it didn’t cause to much damage. I never got fired when I reported it.

 

You were honest. That is a good quality. You didn’t cause damage, so chalk it up to a mistake, which you’ve clearly learned from.

There are drivers out there that do damage and run away from their responsibility. Some of them get caught, others go on to ruin more.

Good luck out there. You owned your mistake and have my respect. They’d be stupid to fire you.

 

Gradually back the tractor until the fifth wheel touches the trailer. Get out and visually inspect the trailer height in relation to the 5th wheel. Lots of newbies don’t do this, and if the trailer is too high end up missing the kingpin altogether. Lots of damaged APUs, fairings, etc. because of this.
Once the 5th wheel has engaged the trailer kingpin, visually inspect the clearance between top of 5th wheel and bottom of trailer(no gaps, or “high hooking”). Take an extra second or two to visually inspect that the jaws have locked around the kingpin.
Perform the all important tug test, before leaving with trailer.

 

If you do this I guarantee you won’t be losing any trailers. This guy should be a teacher.