1 hour to unhook fifth wheel pin

I won't drive for any company without a fifth wheel puller.

 

I dont see how high the trl is,you can just tell before backing under it.This driver never backed gently just slam into the trl without looking first.They relizes he overshot the pin but rather then getting out proping the fithwheel letting the air out of the airbgs so the trk possibly chears the 5th wheel he just kept forcing it and forcing it till the bolt bends.This type of thing has happened more then once with him.

 

I carry a rattle can of endura grease and once in a while i spray down all the pivot points in the mechanism on the underside of the plate. Makes a big difference.

Always carry a gaffhook! Gives you more leverage and saves your shoulder from all that pulling.

 

have to wonder what they were doing for that year prior to signing on..could be overconfidence like below said? maybe but i have seen this type of super trucker attitude during my short 6 months otr when i seen guys do stupid shot i used to assume they were new a few times after other drivers had mocked him/her over the cb id say ignore them driver were all new at some point 80% of the time the driver would say id been driving for x-amount of years in no newbie.....jaw drops than keep my mouth shut and laugh at his failures thinking to myself heck im new and i know better than to do _____..or i can back way better than that.. etc

yea that is failure IMO should never ever get overconfident i dont care if you have been driving for 50 years...that can go with ANY job im a mason by trade over 8 yrs exp but i have never been over confident in what i do..not when my job and what i do can hurt another. my stuff has to be able to stay around for many years and overconfidence doing it can cause harm down the line if i do something wrong....100% comparable IM

 

I always before I hit my fifth wheel stop get out and adjust the landing gear before I back under. I can't trust a hostler when he drops it. Doing this saves so much time and frustration from over shooting a fifth wheel. Fifth wheel pullers are awesome! Keeps you clean and from pulling your back out from a stubborn fifth wheel.

 

My 2010 Freightliner Cascadia was doing the same at 4am at Wal-Mart DC in Ocheleta, OK. I tried everything i could think of,,, locking the trailer pushing and pulling from reverse to first and rocked the tractor as crazy as i could to no avail. From raising the trailer to dropping the bags on the tractor to moving the fifth wheel and still nothing! and after some angry pulling followed by profuse sweat i went back to my tractor pulled the brakes and paused turned up the a/c trying to cool myself and thinking wtf to do next, either go tell walmart "f*** you dont unload me!" And leave or stop this fifth wheel from ####### up my week... I chose the latter. So i pushed in only the trailer brakes by mistake and thought hmm let's see what that does. Got off and pulled the handle...... MAGIC!!!! And champagne fell from the heavens, angels sang a glorious song. Had a great week

 

This might have been brought up but I only skimmed the comments. One of the primary problems that cause this is drivers themselves that don't know how to properly back under a trailer. If the trailer kingpin is NOT at the proper height and you slam the 5th wheel into the kingpin it don't take long to bend some of the parts of the 5th wheel. One of my first tractors I was assigned to had to have it's 5th wheel replaced because of this. Side to side is not that important, but the tip of that kingpin has to hit a specific place on the 5th wheel and there is not much tolerance. Over time a seasoned driver can spot this damage on a pretrip when bobtail. Once a 5th wheel starts doing this it is just a matter of time.

One more thing. There is a belief of some that the 5th wheel will self correct mismatched heights and side to side motions. This is a bit of a myth. They are made to allow some side to side but I have seen drivers slide landing gear they were so out of line. You should learn how to center a trailer in your california mirrors when backing. My father taught me how to correct for heights in trailers without airride. If the trailer is too high crank the landing gear down. If it is too low back under the trailer ONLY enough to raise the landing gear off the ground then let it down. Or get a yard dog to come help you. If the front edge of the trailer just in front of the kingpin is not hitting the 5th wheel about 2/3rds the way down the 5th wheel you have a mismatch and if you try to force them together you could very well bend the catch parts of the 5th wheel.

 

Beat on that there bolt sticking out of the 5th wheel after backing under it. Had this happen before to me. Apparently that bolt there will make it fly open faster than... something something in appropriate something something.

 

Step 1. Set trailer brakes and back into the kingpin all the way.

Step 2. If this was not enough to release the handle, tap on the bolt as @RedRover suggested.

Step 3. Still if you cannot release the handle, turn that bolt head Clockwise half turn and try again, still no?, turn another half turn until the handle will pull free.

I suspect the adjustment is out meaning too tight. You can have a problem with too loose as well. You will know this say, empty and taking off from a stop the trailer slams into the back of the 5th wheel locking bar steel. Properly adjusted it wouldn't do that.

Too tight of a 5th wheel could be dangerous as one would not be sure of that locking bar steel is all the way across the 5th wheel jaw, say only halfway more or less meaning it is only providing half the strength more or less than it should for pulling trailers.