Why you should always check your fifth wheel.

holy jumpin......I've watched several guys drop a trailer pulling out from a dock but never anything like that. Several years ago when I drove near my home up north we had a driver drop a trailer on the road. It gets very cold in northern Vermont in the winter and the jaw grease gets pretty stiff. you have to remember to actually look at them to make sure they are closed fully. Our driver didn't and so didn't notice they were partially open. He got about 5 miles from the yard and was going around a curve and the trailer went straight off his truck, skided in the snow on its nose off the road and came to rest upright on the train tracks running next to the road. Company had to hire a crane to get it off the tracks and back onto the road but nothing was damaged at all. Pretty lucky.

 

I ALWAYS do a tug test upon hook up and/or after spending the night at a truck stop....just to make sure no one messed with me during the night.

 

Lucky driver.

 

Good God, amazing no one was hurt or killed,

 

dang it i cant see the vid! Got an old phone!

 

Thats the next biggest thing I noticed.. It looks like he just about gets a piece of your bumper..

 

Wow, I was on that same road at around the same time, I didnt see this though, I probably just missed it by 20 minutes.

Started at Davis travel plaza on 95, went to Newport news, dropped, went to Ashland picked up, then went to DC to drop and come home for the weekend. A small world we live in.

 

A tug test might not do it if the jaws are really stiff from the frozen grease. The only way to be sure in the winter is to get under the trailer and look at the darn thing.

 

I had a similar thing happen to my cousin. He had some fifth wheel work done and the shop didn't adjust the jaws properly. He went from Buffalo to San Fran and back with out any issues. We met over in Montreal and were heading into Toronto and I was following him when the trailer started to swerve. I got on the radio and asked what was going on and he was freaking out saying he was trying to stay ahead of the trailer as it became uncoupled and was skidding down the road. That thing went back and forth a bit and went onto the shoulder. The dolly pads caught the gravel, flipped up and acted like Freddy Flinstone brakes and came to a complete stop as straight as could just like you dropped it there without winding down the landing gear. Totally surreal. Other than having to wind the dollies down to get back under it and adjust properly, the only damage was a big dent in the back of the bunk where one of the glad hands nailed it.