Rookie Mistakes That Could Have Been Avoided

Not asking/negotiating layover pay, dropping a trailer once by being too ####y first 6 months in(thank god it was night time in an empty lot and no one saw).

 

This is how I learned. Nothing wrong with it.

 

make sure king pin is locked before pulling out with trailer. would hate to wind loaded trailer up with landing gear. lucky for me,trailer was mt when it happened to me. also make sure landing gear is down b4 pulling away from a trailer

 

We all made stupid mistakes, hell I still do almost daily. But I think the hardest thing for me to learn was how to say no. Coast my self a ton of money by not being willing to say that simple two letter word.

 

To illustrate your point...



(I did not make this video, nor am I associated in any way with Werner)

 

Don't think that's legal to log.... Rookie mistake #456

 

As for dropping the trailer with the landing gear up... everyone does that at least once. You get out of your routine, something distracts you, your mind isn't on the job, whatever.

My mentor taught me to creep out when detaching from a trailer. It does two things; saves wear and tear on the landing gear (and road!), plus if you forget to lower the gear (or the gear sinks into the ground), the trailer ends up on your rear tires.

If that happens, lower the gear to the ground (or 4x4, if sinking), and give it a good crank. Drop air bags, and you should be able to get the 5th wheel plate under the trailer. Reinflate bags, and start over.

I may or may not have had the opportunity to practice this procedure just last week... (whistles innocently)

 

How do you do 5 on and 5 off?

To me that's the
[h=2]Rookie Mistakes That Could Have Been Avoided[/h]

 

Thankfully none of my mistakes were dropping a trailer with the gear up or if I didn't MEAN to drop it. No PAM trailer I pulled ever suffered damage until I knocked the door off the last one.....