Hauling Pups

Drive like Yello Frt drivers in NM. Pull off into the comedian at the first sign of ice and go on the clock. I pulled them, never look back, one might be passing you.

 

we had one idiot driver try to do this in our yard, went and got a dolly came back and coupled it to the rear trailer, i guess he couldnt get the pintle unlocked cuz of all the weight

 

I worked OTR for a company that had me pulling their 53ft trailers most of the time with an infrequent haul of doubles between terminals. Here is the first thing I learned from doing it that I hadn't heard or know beforehand; ignore the second trailer when going around corners or making turns. The double trailer combo is longer than a road tractor with a 53 ft trailer. When you are accustomed to pulling only single trailers you equate a longer trailer with needing to make wider turns or larger allowances to get around a corner. By that I mean someone pulling 48ft trailers doesn't go as wide around a corner as a dirver with a 53ft trailer. This does not apply at all with doubles or pups. My natural tendency when pulling the pups was to take corners and turns too wide, and too wide by a huge amount. The second trailer will go right behind the first trailer. You really only need to drive around corners as if your combination was just your tractor and your first pup trailer.

I got myself into a pickle few times trying to maneuver into pull-thru parking spots of all things. I would swing too far, thinking the pups were like one giant trailer, and then discover the trailers didn't straighten up with the tractor as I expected. Say I was coming in to park in a pull-thru spot between several trailers that are on my passenger side. I went too far past that spot I wanted and while I was trying to drive into the empty spot my last pup was too far into the trailer on the driver side.

The other thing is apply your brakes like you are on wet or icy roads. You can really jump on the brakes hard with a single trailer compared to doing the same hard breaking with pups. It also takes a bit longer for the brakes to take effect and you feel any slowing. I think that's due to the longer length of air lines on a double pup combo.

It took me over an hour to hook up my first set of pups and I was beat. The second set took me 30 minutes and it was much easier. I stopped pulling pups about the time I figured out how to hook them up with a minimum of back tracking. It's a heck of a lot easier to hook up a set if you have a pintle hook on your tractor frame, front bumper or rear of the frame. Otherwise you have to hook a pup to use its pintle hook or push around the dollies by hand.

 

See some real good advice here from all those that posted. Two things I can add that I have not seen mentioned. The first one kinda relates to the "crack the whip effect" which is what the one driver explained - the first wagon goes a foot and the back box goes two feet. Be careful in work zones - especially those with lane shifts. I always try to stay on the high side of the road in those types of work zones. In other words, if the lanes shift to the right, keep left if legal. Chances are the right lane will be banked harder and bumpy because it is generally temporary pavement. That will make your back box kick hard every time. In general, take it easy and get a feel of how they handle.

The second is winter related. You have to be real careful about coming to a complete stop on bad roads. I don't think most drivers realize how easy it is to get stuck with a set - especially a single axle tractor. When possible, avoid any stops (coffee, ramps, etc) where you will be forced to stop on an upgrade. I have stopped a 1/8 mile or so before a certain stop light numerous times to keep moving up the hill. We are given digger chains to get you going but I'd rather not use them. As far as winter driving with a set, I suggest you definitely get some winter driving experience first or start pulling doubles in the spring to get a feel for them. No winter experience + no doubles experience = don't start pulling them in November.

 

Exactly "My Point" !
You know just enough about trucking to be very Dangerous.Everyone needs a job,but hopefully yours wont be jerking sets anytime soon.

 

Kinda harsh on someone just asking advice?....wow...I'd rather see someone asking questions than just jumping in there thinking they know it all.....oh well...

 

I pulled my first set of pups when I was 22 years old. You'll be fine. It is always good to broaden your experience in this industry - it will open up more jobs for you down the line. I admire the fact that you want to do it. Personally, I'm trying to work something out with another terminal to run triples for a week because it is something I'd like to do. 5 years doubles experience and you can tack the third box on.

As a side note here, there are drivers at Con-way who started here 15 years ago with no driving experience and are now million mile safe drivers - they have never pulled anything but a set.