Jct with creepy old guy

Nice to meet you finally. It's always nice to put a face with the name.

 

The truck went into the shop today, and I got the issue straightened out so I'll go ahead and post what was happening. I implore the naysayers and negative nancy's (you know who you are) of this forum to please try to not twist my words or read into something that's just not there.

I went to the yard to hook up to my trailer. This was my very First load with JCT, and the First trailer that I hooked up to. I backed up to the trailer and made a solid connection, but the 5th locking arm did not "snap" into place. I connected with the trailer again with no luck on it locking. I tried 2 more times before it finally locked into place. I proceeded to my drop. Since they require drivers to disconnect from the trailer, I had to reconnect. After experiencing major difficulty yet again, I contacted breakdown. They stated that they had made note of the issue, and asked me what I wanted to do. I told them that it obviously needed to be fixed, but that it was not a dire emergency at that point in time, but it does need to be fixed.

After only 2 weeks, and 3 separate trailers, it was getting to the point that the 5th wheel was not wanting to lock onto a trailer at all. Since I was going home and taking the truck to Freightliner for unrelated matters already, I would have them check out the 5th wheel as well. When I called Freightliner for a status update, the informed me that they had taken pictures of the 5th wheel to send to Jost for their inspection. The next day, Freightliner informed me that Jost declined warranty repair because the 5th wheel had been negligently damaged. I asked Freightliner to clarify this, and they told me that Jost stated that the damage occured from "excessive and long term abuse of the 5th wheel." I asked them to describe how the damage might have occured, and they said it "looked like somebody had backed into a trailer several times with the locking arm in the closed position." They also stated that they had sent the repair to JCT and was waiting for approval.

When I called the man that is in charge of maintenance accounts at JCT to talk to him about the payment, he informed me that I was responsible for the payment because I damaged the 5th wheel. Remember that I only had the truck for 3 weeks at this point and the damage was caused by long term excessive abuse of the 5th wheel. Long story short; I sent an email to my dm who then forwarded onto some other people. I got a phone call from a higher up that said everything was taken care of.

Again, JCT has shown their class and their "drivers come First" mentality. There's always going to be at least one bad apple in any bunch, but I'm happy that it worked out in my favor.

The truck is in the shop now to get some various things looked at. MY abs light keeps coming on even though Freightliner has "fixed" it twice, and they are going to replace my 5th wheel handle. Other than that, I'm just hanging out in the hotel room waiting to get my tooth pulled.

 

I might join you depending on how I feel after getting this tooth pulled.

 

I hope they do more than replace the handle as that is NOT what is damaged. The locking arm is bent, and weakened and will fail. Sounds to me that JCT is only putting a bandaide on it. Maybe a miscommunication.

Slamming a trailer into the locking arm does damage.

Long term abuse in 60000 miles?

Not picking on you flight, just some things for you to consider.

 

Freightliner already replaced the locking arm and other internal pieces...to the sum of over $1000. The handle needs to be replaced because it sticks. It won't spring close when I back up to a trailer. I have to get out and manually close it.

They said it looked like somebody repeatedly backed into a trailer with the locking arm closed.

 

Had problems with a JOST 5th wheel in the past , had to fight with WESTERN STAR to get any warranty , only time I had a hassle with WS. My case was the jaws were sloppy like an old worn out set would be

 

Well you left that part out, and it sounded like all that was going to be replaed was the handle.

Glad it was repaired correctly. But you had to go up the chain of command to not have to pay for the previous owners damage. Standard operating procedure, screw the driver unless they complaign. Not just JCT.