Prime had a very bad day

WTF is going on with all these trailers getting dropped???

We just had someone drop one of our dry vans almost to the ground a few days ago.The head of the trailer rested on the rear of the chassis at the truck, but the landing gear was still damaged!

 

I don't know how in the world that tractor can drop trailer right there at that angle.

The picture is telling me a problem with that story. For example his 5th wheel is not in any way able to reach the kingpin which is now probably over at least one of his super singles. *(Popped that maybe?)

Or he did drop it without checking it and somehow forced the tractor back into a attempt to hitch.

This is a stumper head scratcher for me.

 

pro tip. if you set the trailer brakes first. then pull on trailer a little. then set truck brakes. nobody can pull the handle when theres that pressure against it.

 

I think I prefer to do those steps in reverse. Visually check the coupling, THEN tug test. I've had that order of operations save me from dropping a trailer during the tug test before. #### 5th wheel went "snick," but the lock jaws were nowhere to be seen

 

Would you not still have the landing gear down at that point though? Myself I've always tug tested before I get out of the cab to raise the landing gear.

 

Yes and no. I do my first visual check from the driver side, and Swift's landing gear crank is on the passenger side. I just have a thing for redundancy; 2 is 1, 1 is none, and that's also why I don't care for super singles

 

I tug test them before I move, but do not 100% trust it I have had heavy loads that felt like they were locked. I will always pull up a few feet and pull the trailer brake while moving slow, foot handy on the brake, so that I will not drop the trailer.

 

I was at a tank wash in Decatur, Illinois, a few weeks ago. There's a company that has a yard right there; in fact, I think it's their tank wash. Anyway, one of the guys that drives for that company was hooking to a trailer near me while I was dropping mine. I went in to get the paperwork done for my trailer to be washed. The other guy came in and asked the tank wash guys if they could send someone over with a forklift. He had dropped his trailer onto the frame of his truck when he was tug testing (supposedly).

The guy's attitude was nuts, like, no big deal, I just dropped a trailer onto the frame of my truck. Oops. Hey, get a guy over here with a forklift, OK? I've gotta get going! Stupid smile, impatient with "the help" in the tank wash, he did nothing wrong obviously, happens every day amirite?

I say supposedly tug tested because when I went back out to my truck, I saw that he was about ten feet out of his parking spot before the trailer slid off his fifth wheel. He didn't tug test it, he didn't look at it, he just rammed into it, hooked his air hoses, cranked the landing gear, and took off.

But no big deal. Get the forklift over here.

That's why there are so many dropped trailers: there are lots of impatient idiots who can't be bothered to do things the right way because it takes too much time and effort.

 

I have done a tug test, all was well, but a visual inspection and the bar was not locked all the way across the pin, only went 2/3. Had I not visually inspected it, I would have dropped it.