Coupling

Well use ur fins on trk if u see both sides ur good.. make sure trailer is not to high bk under a little get out n look. I got numbers on both sides so I use them

 

you're not always going to be in spot where you can get lined up perfectly straight sometimes you will have to hook up to it a little crooked. depending on what kind of trailer i pull depends on how i line up with the trlr. with a regular flat bed or a van iv always lined my landing gear of the trailer up with the space in between my dual tires.but if i were to hook up to a goose neck trailer or something i would line up the outside of my duals with the out side of the tailer. once you do it a few times its a piece of cake. just make sure to get out and physically look to make sure the jaws of the 5th wheel are locked. never assume just because u tugged on it with the trailer brakes locked the it is properly locked. iv seen ppl hook up and pull out of the bay and then loose there trlr and look like an idiot.

 

Get an MT trailer, go to a lot somewhere, and practice. No real formula.

 

Mirrors ... you know how the nose of the trailer looks like when going down the road, looking in the mirrors? That's about how it should look if your tractor is properly lined up straight in relation to the trailer as your backing and getting close. When you feel a slight "nudge" or think you may be too close to not feel something. Set brakes get out and check everything appears hunky-dory and your fifth wheel is at least as high as the deck plate, then proceed.

 

I position my tires just inside the side of the trailer, being off a little doesn't hurt, it will self-guide. Be sure the trailer hits the lower one third of the fifth wheel, if its too high, you may not couple properly or worse, the kingpin will go over the fifth wheel and get stuck. You might even back into the nose of the trailer.

 

Know the width of the trailer first. If you're towing a much older trailer, or some trailers out East, which are only 96-inch width, it's actually going to look like you're kind of badly lined up because of the width difference. Naturally, the side of the trailer should look like its several inches inside the width of your truck as your backing underneath it.

If its a 102-inch wide trailer, it will still look like its slightly inside the width of your trailer because of optics. As things are further away and approach a horizon line they will naturally have less apparent width.

As you back up to the trailer, stop right as the fifth wheel is getting ready to come underneath the trailer. Get out of the truck and make sure the trailer is set at the proper height. I typically line up the skid plate to be a little below the fifth wheel so that the trailer picks up as I'm backing underneath it. Much lower and you make strike things with the king-pin. Too high and you might high-hook the trailer. Getting out also allows you to check how well you've lined up with the trailer.

Remember that the tongues on the fifth wheel can guide the trailer to one degree or another. You do not want to rely on these, but, if you're a little off the tongues will slide the trailer into place.

Back underneath it and when you hear the click that's the jaws locking. At this point, I always put my truck into low gear and let out on the clutch enough to feel the truck pulling on the trailer. This is called a tug-test and makes sure that you're jaws have properly locked on the trailer.

At this point, go back and start hooking your lines up and cranking the landing gear back up. Make sure to check there is no gap between the trailer skidplate and the fifth wheel plate of the trailer.

At this point, continue your pre-trip of the trailer, tires, brakes, suspension, lights, etc.

Then, as one final test to make certain that fifth wheel is locked and isn't going anywhere, as you start pulling forward: foot in on the clutch and/ or kick it out of gear, then pull the Johnny bar/ Trolley valve to engage the trailer brakes. At this point, you've also checked to make sure your service brakes are working, as well as making sure the jaws locked on the fifth wheel. Don't do it at anything more than a crawl though so you're not skidding the tires or putting undue shock on the jaws.

And take a look in the mirror as you're hooked up. Take a look at the sidewall of the tire in relation to the side of the trailer. Keep that in mind when you're hooking to trailers and you should generally be close enough to hit it.

What's even more fun (and actually a good way to understand the way optics work looking backwards) is hooking a neck up on an RGN. Its all about sight cues. So long as you can see the tread of your drive tires you can always find a cue for hooking the trailer up in relation to the boards or outer-rail of the trailer in relation to a line drawn from the tread and/ or sidewall to the trailer cue.

 

Like others have said,line your tires up so they are straight with the trailer.heres another thing.If there is pressure on the fifth wheel,it will be very hard to unhook.A good common practice is before unhooking,put the trailer brakes on and GENTLY put the tractor in reverse,hit the parking brake,and it should not bind when pulling the fifth wheel lever.Un even ground, and/or a slight hill can bind the lever and make it impossible to unhook sometimes.

 

When I started out, I did a whole lot of getting out to look. After a while you look for what I call 'landmarks', one of which is a huge clue is knowing how many inches the tires will be inside the trailer when hooked up, so while backing try to get the tires on the driver's side a few inches under the trailer lined up, usually pops right in.

I've gotten pretty good, will even set up like I'm sight side backing, but of course without the trailer. Tuck it right in there. I can even tell when the trailers are too low (as in previous driver did not lower the landing gear to touch the ground.

In that case if it's loaded as well, I will back under just enough and air up the suspension system, pop brakes and get out and crank landing gear to touch ground, pull forward a little, grease 5th wheel then finish the coupling. Plug in the lights and air, pretrip, and send loaded call. Nothing worse than being a big hurry sending in loaded call first then discovering flat tires, or the tandems slide is destroyed..