Proper way to drop n hook?

yes

 

Not all fifth wheel heights are the same. If you got a tall one, leave the legs up from the ground an inch. If you got a short one, give it a few extra cranks after the legs touch the ground. It's not a difficult to grasp concept.

 

What's better Ford or Chevy?
About the same when asking this question.
Simply do what you feel is right and ignore everyone else.

 

Ya, who cares if the next guy had to bust his ### cranking them up or down. Obviously common courtesy isn't very common.

 

No dont crank till you hear air you want your landing gear just about to touch the ground but not quite dump the air out of your bags then pull forward a few feet but keep your frame under the trailer inflate your bags and make sure the landing gear is holding and not sinking or any other problems to hookup to the same trailer dump you bags back under and inflate

 

I almost throwed this away the other day, its several years old, and I used to get in trouble for not doing it this way, until I explained to the assistant to the director to the manager, to the head of safety, for the boss of bulk relations, my way made more sense.

All I do different is crank legs up before hooking airlines, as long as you get a system, its fine.

 

Do not depend on your tractor's frame to lift a loaded onto the 5th wheel. In the old days we had angle iron on the frame for that purpose.

The way I approach all trailers is stop, get out make sure 5th wheel is sloped down and see how far it needs cranking until between the hole of the 5th wheel and bottom of it's plate. that leaves the frame of tractor maybe two inches below the kingpin front plate of the trailer I intend to hook to.

Back slowly and stop. Get out. Attach glad hands and pigtail. Check trailer around. Registration in bubble, bills in box if you havent go them already, seals, trailer number, tires, brakes etc.

Hop in and gently nurse your tractor under until you hear a CLANK! your trailer is now on the plate. Stop there, get out and check to be certain your kingpin is in line with the hole. Hop up and finish the hook. CLICK! Wind gear and take off.

My method may seem overly hard, difficult or too much make work. For me it's got several built in safegaurds against being over tired, stupid, in a hurry, trying to hook in the mud etc etc etc. I only jumped my 5th wheel once and very rarely make a mistake taking the wrong trailer. Such as number 1414 and you have 4141 going the opposite direction. Its a routine I follow myself every single time. That tractor and trailer does not move until I am satisfied all is in order. And in cases of Pharmacy high dollar loads, that also includes netting the trailer's qualcomm tracking to my own Tractor qualcomm and activating same. So that wherever it goes from that moment 5000 bosses are intently making sure I don't stop for 300 miles. (Meaning possible high jack etc) Which means before you get to that load to pickup, you need full fuel, food for yourself and all drama taken care of ready for the new load to run.

Just drive. Be happy. Drop and hook can be 20 minutes or faster. Much much much better than live unload in some Associated Grocers or whatever filthy lumper warehouse that takes a day to unload. Its not worth it.

 

And that's just it. There is no way to tell who the next driver is and his setup. Heck, at work we have identical trucks that follows me. Well identical except the tire wear. I drop the loaded, and pick up the empty, he does the same at both ends of the run. To make it easier for the both of us he has to drop about an inch from the ground and I just barely tap the ground. We can work this out working together and all, but if another truck was to hook up who is to say which way is better?

I personally prefer it to be a little high then a little low, but I also realize that's personal preference. There is literately no right answer unless all the factors are known, and they won't be on almost all drop and hooks.

 

But that's just it. If you have a low fifth wheel height and give a couple extra cracks then if the next guy had a high fifth wheel height he can still get under it. With a high fifth wheel height, you leave it up an inch before dumping air and pulling out then if the next guy has a low fifth wheel he can still hook without having to crank it down first.