New drivers please read - Hook up procedures...

After seeing some of the excuses for drivers that I have the misfortune of working with, and the way they operate, the thought of some of them actually training those who less experience is nothing short of scary.

Given the nature of this job and the fact that we drive among the public on public roads, it is incumbent upon the experienced to educated the new guys whenever we can. Public safety depends on it.

 

In one of those, if the trailer's too high you can raise the fifth wheel before backing completely under it.

 

Overpinning is what that is called and what sometimes happens is the suspension on the tractor was dumped and not allowed to reinflate or air up. It happened to me with those Heartland rejects we had with automatic dump valves and no manual switch. It was hard to remember that you had to drive around for 5 minutes or so for those things to come back up. Moving over to the next trailer wasn't enough time.


We only had 4 of them, and I only was cursed enough to drive one of them, for less than a year, and at the same time, it cured me of any fondness for Cummins, too.


I'm trying to remember which one I dropped a trailer with, it was either that one or the other white one or two, which were FLDs.

Adjusting the Holland 5th wheel with the adjustment bolt sticking out of the front was counter intuitive, in that turning the nut off actually tightened the jaws, and you were only supposed to turn it maybe an eight of a turn.

This lease company only buys Simplex 5th wheels on new trucks.