How many of you have dropped a trailer?

I've done that before as well... First time it was a fully loaded flatbed A-Train of hay. It was a SOB to get it back on the rear of the 5th wheel again. Second time was an empty reefer... Luckily it only slightly bent the horizontal hand hold on the back of the sleeper.

 

Happened once. Did the tug test, visually looked at the jaws and all was good. Made the first corner out of the parking lot and BANG. We guessed that the jaws weren't fully engaged.

Friend of mine shewed away a panhandler one evening at a truck stop, and he got pissed because nobody was giving him money. He pulled the pin release in the middle of the night and my friend dropped the trailer in the intersection in front of the truck stop. Cops said it was the 3rd time that week. They didn't allow panhandlers on the lot after that.

 

You can go a long way in preventing those pin pulls by doing a short tug after parking and then pull the yellow knob keeping the pressure on the 5th wheel. that pin won't pull out.

 

Same here. Right in front of my old boss in their yard lol. Parts were on the shelf, so I fixed it while they fixed something else on the truck at the same time.

I have a routine for when I drop and hook back upto my trailer. Lines, landing gear, 5th wheel lock. When I hook back up, lines, check the 5th wheel jaws, wind up the landing gear.

 

A visual test is not confirmation the jaws will hold. Neither is no gap between the 5th wheel and the bottom of the trailer or the release handle being recessed into the "going down the road" position. And if the trailer is loaded you have to use a real tug test to verify it is ok for the road. Most tug tests I see and have done just confirm you have some brakes, especially if you r truck doesn't have a trailer brake lever, like my 2018 Freightliner.

 

It only counts if one of the witnesses is able to fire you. Otherwise it never happened.

 

My brain got crosswired after I unhooked a empty stepdeck (still under trailer). The customer came running out saying not to unhook. They will load me right away.

I put the air lines back on, lifted the landing gear, and somehow forgot that the release had been pulled. No tug test either.

Got loaded with 50 ton of concrete slabs, chained everything down.

Proceeded to drive. Truck shoots out from under the trailer by the weight sliding down the fifth wheel, (hitting the brakes didn’t work, tires slid), enough momentum to slide on the truck frame and drop to the ground on the retracted landing gear.

I’m such an idiot. Got distracted by a running customer and messed up the order I do to hook and unhook. Now have a trailer with 50 ton on it on the ground.

Tried for 20 mins in low gear to crank up the landing gear. Got maybe an inch.

Then just happen to see a Versa-lift 80,000 lb forklift at the other end of the property.

Got the customer out, brought the forklift over. Placed the twin 5 inch thick forks under both frame rails.

First lift the forklift’s back end came off the ground. Lowered the back end, extended the back end 3 feet.

Second try, the forklift worked to lift the trailer up to truck height.

Got the truck back under.

 

I was dropping a trailer mt and forgot to lower landing gear. I caught it when it hit the tractor frame. Lowered the gear and got back under it. And lowered gear the rest of the way....

My lucky day i guess

 

Have to be careful D&H on solid ice. Can’t always get a good tug test. That’s what I heard once.