Muck Boots 'n' Slickers - Life of a Livestock Hauler

Just visiting

 

57 and drizzling rain down here in the southeast corner of New Mexico!

 

Alright….confession time.
Thursday evening I loaded my trailer late at a regular customer of ours, and unhooked it there to save dragging it an extra 140 miles home and back.
Friday morning I backed under it, hit the pin, tugged on it, after I hooked up my lines I looked at the handle (in the dark) and the handle was (appeared to be) all the way in.
I DIDNT SHINE A LIGHT IN AND CHECK THE JAWS.
Finished hooking up, and took off. It was several hundred feet up a slight grade to the road and I made a right hand turn from where I was parked.
As I was making another right hand turn onto the road, I was watching my right hand mirror because it a close squeeze to miss the curb, there was an awful grating sound and the truck surged forward.
I had the simultaneous thoughts “What is going on”, and “My trailer just unhooked”!
Thankfully I was in 1st gear (not Low) and I got stopped before I was out from under the trailer, and I didn’t rip any lines.
So there I am, at 5:30 am blocking a busy street in Bowling Green Ky.
Low gear on the jacks, cranking as fast as I can to get it up some, dump the air, jam a 6x6 between the frame and king pin plate, reinflate, crank, puff like a wind broke horse, (man it take a lot of cranking on a loaded trailer with the jacks in low gear)!
I got it up high enough to get under it, popped my lines loose, got as straight with it as I could, and hit the pin again.
A fuel delivery guy that had stopped said, “I heard it latch that time, and the handle is in!” I was just a little crooked, and when I looked at the jaws, it hadn’t fully latched that time either, but I was fully on the fifth wheel so I hooked my lines up, pulled the trolley valve just a bit to put some resistance on the trailer brakes, and backed back in the driveway I was coming out so that traffic could get moving again.
Once I was back in the driveway, I dollied down, pulled up, hit the pin square, and it latched.
All this to say, VISUALLY CHECK THE JAWS, EVERY SINGLE TIME!
That damage in the pictures above is where the king pin hit the frame, then hung on the rear frame enclosure.

 

Frames bent, Time for a new truck



All kidding aside, I think I probably would put a new fifth wheel head on. I get paranoid about #### like that.

 

All's well that ends well, is not exact here. But a lot better than "it ended worse..." Lesson you knew reiterated....

Confession here. In my days of driving, I backed under, (a good wham). connected the lines, pulled he hand valve and tried to strip out the
kingpin. If it stalled me., went to the crank and wound them up. I have never looked up in a fifth wheel....

 

One these days when we’re bored I’ll tell ya my story on a CPS steel hopper.

Im like @Ruthless that talked me into buying a new top plate.

For all the things I can do to a truck rebuilding a top plate is something I know nothing about

 

i got a rebuild kit one time
Ended up swapping the top plate a couple weeks later/ still seemed clapped out

 

I've known guys that rebuild them and never have trouble with them , but I'm of the same opinion as y'all I'd get a new top plate. Not many shops will rebuild one , just too much liability.

 

Most shops won't even rebuild the top plate due to liability.

 

Sorry saw that after I posted.