Pre trip mistake

Pretrip in the dark during the day in the dark is not normal, take off the sunglasses neo. Haha. Night driver myself.

Aint that the truth.

I don't think I've done anything anyone else who commented hasn't done, unless you count leaving my paperwork on the dot bar.

 

I've forgotten the oil cap a couple of times following oil change, luckily smelled the oil burning during the following trip so it never cost me an engine. Just a few days ago I was washing my windshield at a tire shop while they installed some tires on my trailer.....I looked up and watched a pair of new Cascadias pulling out of some parking spaces in the edge of the property.... As the second one turned a right hand turn toward the street I realized his trailer was slowly getting further and further from the tractor. I jumped up waving my hands to STOP, luckily the driver saw me and stopped before the trailer landed on the ground . He looked confused until I pointed to the trailer, he got out of the truck and almost fell over when he saw the trailer wasn't coupled up at all.... Moral of the story...... Check, check, double then triple check, and even after that keep your fingers crossed

 

I may sound like a newb but when i start driving my butt is getting out everytime i hook a trailer to make sure that 5th is locked. Getting my ### up under to look.

 

You'd be surprised how well things ride on the catwalk. I sat a bottle of piss on my catwalk once and forgot about it. It made the trip from Chicago land to Salt Lake City, utah!

 

I have nearly 3 years total OTR experience. Any time the truck is out of my sight, I look to see that the bar is across the kingpin before moving again.

 

At my meet point where I'm supposed to swap trailers after 10 off I grabbed the wrong trailers. Got 3 states away before I checked the paperwork and realized my error.

 

I once arrived at consignee the night before my delivery and when I woke up I just left and started for my next pick-up. Made it about 10 miles before I finally realized my mistake. Pretty bad considering I was pulling a flatbed. Instead of being first to unload I was 7th in line when I got back and it cost me about 4hrs on my clock.

 

I was in the yard. The mechanic was right next to me. The oil was 1 gallon low. I check the box and found some old oil jugs. I asked him if there was oil in them or something else. He said it was oil as he personally had filled them. I opened the lid and said are you sure. He said yes. I poured a bit of it into the fill tube and mentioned that I had never seen Green Oil before.

Got to see my first oil change that day.

 

What I always wonder is could it be improperly latched if no gap between plate and fifth wheel and the locking bar is across the back of kingpin... I know it has the hooks Infront of the bar that goes across... What is a good way to make sure those hooks are grabbing it properly?