Dropping a Trailer Properly

One of the biggest mistake I see truckers do is drop a trailer incorrectly when doing a drop and hook.

On flat, level ground, DO NOT lower your gear all the way. Stop 1" from the ground and dump your air in the tractor to lower the trailer.

The reason being is that trailer will be loaded and moved to maybe different terrain. If that terrain is high, the king pin will still line up. If it low, the tractor can dump his air and get under and then raise it back up.

This makes life so much easier as you don't have to crank a loaded trailer with old rusty landing gear a hundred times to get the landing gear off the ground.

Also when dropping on a slope or hole which requires the legs to be extended further... DON'T DO IT! Lower the legs about 16". You can see the weather on the legs where the correct height is. Trailers sit alot and rust will be more apparent where the normal height exposed is.
Your landing gear might be 3" above the ground in extreme cases.
But this okay, Dump your tractor air and lower it to the ground. Then when the yard dog relocates the trailer it will be the right height for the next guy. Use your airbags to your advantage.

 

Unless you have a cheapy truck, there is a switch by your 5th wheel unlock and axle lock switches.

 

Airbags is just flipping a switch but your method works good.

I driven many trucks over the years. I never had one without an airdump switch. I guess you have manual rollup windows too

Can't you tell I had to crank one up recently, lol.