Have a big control problem

########. All you do is make the next driver sweat to crank the #### trailer down. Crank the landing gear down to about 1/4" from the ground, and pull out. Sure it is going to lurch a bit, that is normal. I've been doing this for over 20 years, and have yet to damage a landing gear.

Talk about the blind leading the blind.

 

Dude I feel for you.

Like others have told you.....I would talk to the person over training and discuss calmly my issues.

I don't go two days without showering, even if I have to plan my 30 minute break to do so.

BTW...a sleepy driver needs to STOP driving. Talk to him about that and if that doesn't work....call safety.

Your health is worth a lot more then his wallet or feelings being hurt.

 

Problem is, 9 times out of 10, Safety will side with the trainer rather than the trainee. They love to make you feel like your concerns are not valid, and by the time you get off the phone with them you find yourself thinking "YOU" did something wrong, even though you didn't.

 

If I drop the landing gear to hover above the ground, then lower the air bags completely before pulling out, I very rarely have any "lurch" or slamming of the trailer on the ground when I pull out.

 

By dumping the air bags before backing under a trailer and dumping them again before pulling out, this is what my fifth wheel looks like after running for a couple of weeks with a total of 12 drop and hooks. The company terminal greased my fifth wheel more heavily than I would have liked, but notice how much grease is still on the wheel. You can see the ripples of grease from the last time the air bags were dropped and the grease suction pulled away from the trailer plate.

At no time would I want to hook up to a trailer without sufficient grease...

 

Wow, that's some creative greasing there. Actually, I would grease the trailer before hooking up, as a lot of that gets scraped off when you back under the wagon.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4221203]Wow, that's some creative greasing there. Actually, I would grease the trailer before hooking up, as a lot of that gets scraped off when you back under the wagon.[/QUOTE]

I don't scape off any grease when I dump the air bags before backing under. I inflate again just in front of the kingpin to raise the trailer.

 

Well I don't know how that went over but at least he didn't yell at me.

We're on the road and he decided to play on the qualcom. He was driving all over the lane hitting the sleeper bumpers and going over the white line. I finally slapped the qualcom shut. So far he's left it alone since except too turn off the critical incident notices.

I can't risk contacting safety until after I'm in my own truck. I need the job and don't want to sit home waiting for a nonexistent new trainer. I'm learning a LOT of things to not do when I'm on my own but at least I'm also learning some important things too.

Right now he's sick so headed back home to go to the er again. I'll be left in the truck again but at least it's not moving. They tried to have us drop our load (we were in Oregon headed to Brea CA) in Stockton pick up another load and race to Tacoma WA by tomorrow asap. Thankfully because he's sick he turned them down. Ink going to work on my pre/post trips while I'm sitting waiting. After I take a breather.

 

Will Lysol hurt the truck? I'm thinking of getting a can and dousing the truck with it. It's nasty germy in here. Even taking a shower every 2 days I'm cleaner than he is. I so can't wait until I'm out of here. I have a mental list of the things that I will change when I get into my own truck like cleaning it. Yuck!

And they said they cleaned it before I got in.

On a good note he must be really sick because he's going slower. He's only doing 60 instead of his usual 65-70. Good for me that is.

 

That's true, however, I've always had the fear of "high hooking" that way. See, years ago, with spring suspensions, you didn't have that luxury, and I wasn't about to crank the dollies on a loaded trailer in 10 degree weather, so I just got in the habit of greasing the trailer. Sometimes, trailers were dropped so low, for whatever reason, even dropping the air wasn't enough.