sliding fifth wheel first time ever...help plz

I agree,you have to get out anyway......
I thought it was stupid myself to pull against the park brake..but that was how it worked.
I tried it a couple times but never used it.

 

Prime does not equip trucks with suspension dump or trolley valve. There are fleets that do not equip trucks with sliding fifth wheels. JCT comes to mind. If a truck with operational suspension dump is leased onto Prime, they will disable it.

There are lots of reasons some drivers don't know how to do these things. I went through a step by step how to for a guy with over 20 years' experience last year because he had never slid the fifth wheel before. He was driving in a capacity where the application was not needed. Ever.




Now: here are the steps:

1. Set the trailer brake.
2. Wind down the landing gear until it touches the ground.
3. Dump the suspension air whether the trailer is loaded or not. It's just easier on the equipment.
4. Release the fifth wheel lock. On some units, you will have to hold the switch in place. Listen for the locks to release.
5. Very slowly move the truck forward to take weight off the steers, backward to add weight to the steers. If the spacing between notches is about 1", each notch will move about 250 pounds. If the wider 2" spacing, each notch will move roughly 500 pounds.
6. Lock the fifth wheel.
7. Check your placement.
8. Reinflate the suspension.
9. Wind the landing gear back up.
10. Check your weights.

If your fifth wheel locking teeth will not release, banging on them with a hammer will be futile. Disconnect from the trailer and hose down every joint in, around and under the fifth wheel with penetrating lubricant. Spray the teeth and notches liberally with the stuff. Work the fifth wheel release switch a few times. This should loosen up any rusted parts. A good step of maintaining the fifth wheel is to hose the joints down with lubricant occasionally. You will thank yourself for this when you have to slide your fifth wheel in January in Fargo.

 

Yeah prime and most other bfi's don't have dump valves or sliding fifth wheels because there average inadequately trained drivers will find a way to screw it up. It's called idiot proofing.

 

Swift equips all trucks with air dump and sliding fifth wheel. Trolley valves come and go depending on the mood of the guy ordering the trucks. I was surprised when I leased a Prime truck and found it did not have air dump. Their excuse was that drivers were dropping trailers too low and it was bending the legs. Instead, I was manually winding down the trailers 90% of the time because they were dropped too high.

 

Great post Injun!

Also when you get the truck washed get them to wash the locking teeth down good too.
It gets the road grit out of them.Hit them with spray lube and it should release easy..

 

5th wheels are all a pain in the #### if they dont get slid often...Remidy get a good hammer that will fix anything on a truck..

 

Try sliding a fifth wheel that doesn't have airslide. Go ahead. I dare ya.

 

Yeah!

And real men do it without even using a trailer. Try that one.

Don't ferget yer' coveralls and roller skates.

 

Had that issue one morning with trying to scale a load for dollar tree. Was light on my steers and had to move the 5th wheel and all I heard from my mentor and cdl school was not to move it or touch it unless I absolutely had to but was never shown how to which got me looking stupid and pissed at the same time.But with 30 years working on cars and trucks and a little common sense I could take the presure off the drives with the landing gear and spray a little pb blaster(amazing stuff)onto the 5th wheel slides and hit the lock button(Volvo )and ease it back and forth and it slid with no problems.still couldn't scale and took it back to the shipper.

 

Yeah, that's the cure for everything. If it doesn't go your way, find something to beat the %&#% out of.

Maybe maintaining the fifth wheel would be a better first step. Yes, yes, I know. Company drivers, beat up trucks, shops that don't care yadda, yadda, yadda.... When you pick up that company truck with 1.5 million miles on it, spray the fifth wheel (not the plate....the joints and moving parts) down with some sort of penetrating lube. When you do need to slide that fifth wheel, it should work just fine.