advice on pulling doubles

Understood. Pay your dues and it will pay off. Not sure how UPSF line-haul works, but in general LTL line-haul at a good company is one of the best paying jobs on the road.

 

yes turn off the air at the rear of the lead trailer and disconnect the lines then the dolly should have a parking brake button push in to release the brakes on the dolly and pull it out from under the kite

 

Right, the dolly has it's own button for the parking brake. If it didn't, you would have to hook an airline from the tractor to it just to drag it around the yard.

Just thinking, your trailer brakes would be set anyway when you're breaking a set. I always roll backwards a little and set the brakes to get the tension off the dolly 5'th wheel. When you push the dolly button, it will jump around a little getting rid of all the tension.

 

You will likely run into that converter that is just a "stubborn SOB" and it seems like nothing you can do, will release the fifth wheel lock. We had a couple of them like this...

Anyway, if you keep changing position of the entire set, in other words move forward and turn a bit one way or the other, sooner or later, you will find the "sweet spot" for that release. When you get one that is REALLY stuck, you won't be able to open it any other way. One guy by hand or with a hook, two guys one with hook and one with sledge hammer - whatever, it just ain't gonna open. So move until you find that sweet spot.

Remember, when hooking up or breaking down, flat ground is your friend. Any type of slope, particularly a SIDE SLOPE is your enemy.