Never saw this before

Ooooo look at you! That's a good possibility, but don't they have something to prevent that? I've always wondered if that would happen if it wasn't locked in place.

 

http://www.overdriveonline.com/nearly-11000-trucks-being-recalled-in-fontaine-fifth-wheel-recall/



Here ya go. 5th wheel recall

 

I got back from a local run one day to find one of the pivot pins missing on my fifth wheel. I don't know if it broke and fell out or just fell out. Scared the crap out of me though.

 

Good possibility but I've never had the pins pop loose without taking pressure off them. But if it was an empty trailer...

 

Couple years back I saw the entire rear crossmember of a gravel truck yanked out. Truck was parked on the shoulder and the quad axle wagon was sitting a few hundred feet behind him. Crossmember was still hitched to the trailer. Thinking buddy doesn't maintain his truck too well.

 

fontaine just did recall on bunch of Volvos recently.

 

@reefer101 link posted above...

 

That scares the hell out of me. A couple of years ago, one failed on an oversize that was carrying a locomotive while at speed on the interstate in Cincinnati. The trailer slammed into a bridge abutment at a major interchange and it took many months to fix. I hope the driver wasn't cited. You know, "improper pretrip" or whatever.

I'm glad my company has the non-adjustable kind (we don't have any reason to ever need to move them). The only time I've ever had to move one back in my entire career is to pull a container that has the landing gear further forward. Those will perform a mudflap adjustment if you aren't careful.

 

Or worse.......someone thought they were using good hardware, but it was knock-off crap.