Stop it with the high trailers!

Would that be considered a "PREMATURE RETRACTION"???

 

I did see that after I posted. Wait, this don't sound right.

 

Try to stay deep in there until the bags go limp.

 

I realize high ones can be a PITA but I've seen 2 people in my short time seriously dent 2 trailers that were too low and they were too lazy to check before backing up...One punched a hole thru the trailer with the 5th wheel, the other just dented the crap out of it...I was taught, and practice religiously, to back up until the trailer is halfway over my rear drive, GOAL to see if it is high or low, adjust if needed, THEN, back up...I never just run back into them but see it all the time and figure, one time, that person is going to hit a low one and really regret a totally preventable accident...

 

I do about 85% drop and hook...my fifth wheel is about 6 inches higher than the company trucks, with my bags dumped. I have the lifter brackets on the rear of my frame; but sometimes the co guys leave the feet an inch off the ground and pull out.
If you think rolling legs up sucks (it does, I'm not actually discounting it), try rolling the legs out 6" so it'll clear the back of thetractor when there's 55k on the deck. fail.

 

The way I have been doing it for mucho years, Lower the landing gears about an Inch before the ground, Unhook all lines, Pull pin, Lower suspension, pull out slowly.

Sometimes, you lose either way.


Trailer to high, back under, miss the freakin pin. Everyone heres me #####en.

trailer is to low, get out and put the crank handle in high, takes for ever to crank it high enough to get under, but not that hard on my back.

Either way, Im pissed off.

 

What really was a PITA was when I drove for Swift, they had the ultra cube trailers, and I had one of the trucks set up for the ultra cubes. Really bit to have to hook up to a wagon that had been on a regular tractor with my tractor. Always had to crank them WAY down to hook up. I don't even know if anyone is using ultra cubes anymore.

 

I have run across this problem many times at warehouses where the yard jockeys shuttle trailers around between docks and parking areas. Trailers with king-pins that were way higher than the fifth-wheel locking jaw were usually easy to crank down. These yard jockeys are always in such a rush, but it would be nice if some of them didn't fully extend the landing gears. Most don't have to bother with cranking the landing gear at all, but there are some that I've seen that would go crazy with over-extending the landing gear.

My biggest frustrating moments have always spawned from having to crank a fully loaded trailer just high enough off of the ground with enough clearance for the fifth-wheel to back underneath the trailer apron. My other frustrating moments were from other truck drivers that would lazily drop a loaded trailer on soft dirt, while the trailer legs were a couple of feet away from that concrete strip.

 

Wouldn't dropping them from an inch off the ground make it tough, possibly, in the winter if you can't get traction to get under it?