Doubles for the first time

When I first started pulling doubles, after learning and pulling only 53 ft trailers, the thing that got me in a mess was swinging wider on turns pulling doubles than when I pulled 53 ft trailers. IGNORE the second trailer when making turns. The second trailer will o exactly where the first trailer goes. You barely have to swing wide on any corners. Swinging too wide on the street for a corner is not usually a big deal. Where it will bite you in the behind is swinging too wide for a pull-thru parking spot. Once you swing too wide you will not be able to continue forward without hitting something and because you are in a set of doubles you cannot back up. I once had to wait about 15 minutes for the truck beside me to move so I could get into the space I swung too wide for.

Drive It like it's just you, the tractor, and your first trailer. Also make smooth steering inputs. The second trailer will move much farther left/right from whatever steering inputs you make. Think of the tip of a whip. It moves farther and faster than you hand on the handle of the whip. Also, don't make panic stops. Doubles jacknife much easier.

 

They did tests in Baltimore one morning on a closed section of I70 with doubles.

Punched a big button on dash. Plates deployed down and under all tires and become big rubber mats that stop everything now.

They were stopped in 6 seconds from 70 dead straight as a set of doubles. Why did they not employ that technology? Who knows.

 

Learn how to properly install safety chains. Still see guys pulling them doing it wrong everyday.

 

It was aired in the television segment in Baltimore approximately 1990. For whatever reason this type of system did not gain acceptance in the industry.

What the particular is basically a rubber wedge is hung under the trailer in front of the tires on each axle. When driver cuts them loose to drop down they rotate and force themselves under the tires which stop rotating on all tires. The truck finds itself on many rubber blocks and will stop very fast.

 

X and open end of hook up.

2nd, that your chains are shorter than your airlines!