Cranking up the trailer ?

An hour???
Why are you doing 30 trailers?
Its a 2 minute job.

 

thats how i makes me money

 

The company that I pull the most for probably has 3 or 4 hundred trailers, hostlers on both ends, They leave trailers at all shippers and recievers for them to load or unload at their convenience, yard dogs on both ends of the haul. these trailers range from antique, to brand new, it is not uncommon at all for only one gear to work, turn a quarter round and jump out of gear, one jack works, but the other does not move at all.
Everybody and their dog pulls these things, with every fifth wheel height, including some of their sister company trucks, which are required to have the ocillating fifthwheels, which are a god 6 inches higher than anything else.
Couple all this with temps as low as 50 below zero,m it can be a work out.
The Empty I brought back last night was a good 6 inches too high for my fifth wheel, and I run tall rubber, but do have low fifth wheel stands, I have bought a new tall slider, just haven't bought a new fifth wheel for it yet.

 

So this wasn't done right?

 

It may have been done perfect for their truck. lol

 

6 weeks ago I dropped a trailer in the dock and was going to return the next morning to pick up the same trailer after it was unloaded. I used the drop as an object lesson for my trainee as the load was 42K. I had the trainee crank the dollys down until they just barely touched the ground. I pulled out and the once the 5th wheel cleared the trailer hit the frame rails on the tractor and you could spin the rear wheels freely. If he had cranked the landing gear down any less the king pin would have made contact with the rear cross member and potentially damaged the mudflap brackets.

When we returned the next morning we had a gap similar to your picture. This is without the trailer being moved. Had the terrain changed the difference in height might be more or less - ie dropped in a dock that slopes down to a drop lot that is level.

If I have a choice of someone dropping a trailer too high or too low I chose high every time. It is much easier to lower a trailer than to raise it.

 

I actually like them to be just low enough that when I back under them it picks it up enough to get the landing gear clear of the ground, just a hair.

 

I have ramps for my RGN trailers on my truck. I’ve picked up trailers for guys had them down through the asphalt. No worse than picking a bed with 30ton on it. I only need 23” with the air out. Not very often I have to crank anything hard.

 

I am physically unable to crank hard on them anymore, am looking into building ramps and adding a valve, so I can over extend the bags for those that are too high.

 

One minute to crank it down to perfect.