Do *you* check your fifth wheel pin before pulling out?

Good point. So after putting pressure on the release arm, THEN release the trailer brakes, and engage just the parking brakes for overnight. This would work for these conditions, correct?

 

Back in the 80's I dropped a set of doubles at the weigh station on the Alberta - British Columbia border near Dawson Creek, BC.
While I was gone someone pulled the pin on the 5th wheel on the back of the lead trailer and when I returned and went to leave I dropped the rear trailer onto the ground. I figured it was likely a disgruntled ex-employee of the company.
What made it worse was instead of hand cranking a loaded trailer back up I got the bright idea to let some air out of my drive tires and dump the
suspension to get under it with the truck with the plan of airing up the tires on my own after doing so.
Well I let too much air out and broke the beads on all 8 tires when I hooked up and had to have a tire truck come 25 miles to bail me out.
We were all rookies at one time. lol
Since then I always do a tug test before I leave any parking spot.

 

ouch!! we all live and hopefully learn

 

yes always, almost had a trailer slide off the fifth wheel on a 115 degree day in Phoenix last summer, had to spend almost an hour slowly cranking the landing gear on a black asphalt yard. Never will make that mistake again

 

I am so religious about it that I ALWAYS crawl under and visually check then do my tug test.

 

I always feel paranoid after parking and leaving my truck, even just long enough to get my fuel ticket....

 

I'm pretty careful about doing the visual checks and tug tests. Only dropped one pup trailer one time after fighting with a bound up 5th wheel and forgetting to lower the landing gear. You do that once and you're forever paranoid about it. Not a bad thing to be paranoid about though.

 

I drove large cars coast to coast back in the late 70s and early 80s. Did 3 rounds a month. We never worried about someone pulling the fifth wheel handle on us. It must be pretty bad out there these days.

 

don't do that in the cold weather you will be pounding on your brakes before you can leave

 

I do a visual check but some locking jaws are difficult to understand. there's the easy ones in which there's a straight bar going across the king pin and then there's the one's where it looks like the jaws are over the bottom flange on the king pin. I thought the flange should be visible in all setups but I don't think that's always the case. Another thing I noticed is that the fifth wheel could be flush to the apron on one side and have an inch gap on the other side if you're on uneven ground. if anyone has any info on what it should look like....please tell me.