Stop it with the high trailers!

Step 4. Lower the Landing Gear

• If trailer is empty, lower the landing gear until it makes firm contact with the ground.
• If trailer is loaded, after the landing gear makes firm contact with the ground, turn crank in low gear a few extra turns. This will lift some weight off the tractor. (Do not lift trailer off the fifth wheel.) This will:
  • Make it easier to unlatch fifth wheel.
  • Make it easier to couple next time.

..maybe I should leave photo copies of this around the terminals.

 

That's always fun. I'm sure we've all been there, too.

 

Even when I owned my own truck and trailer I would crank to the ground then a few turns untill I heard air release.
Then I would dump the valve.
When I pull back under I dump air, back under, stop get out check distances, get back in and back a little more then air back up. The 5th makes contact almost in the V and takes most of the weight off the dollies. Not all of it but most. Then I back in when air is back up and hit the pin and do my pull check then go and do my visual. I did this as an O/O and as a company driver up till I came off the road.

Now for the reason it's not to smart to be "picking that trailer up off the ground"

The reason is you put grease on that 5th wheel for a reason.
To keep it lubed so it slides when you turn.
It keeps it from binding and keeps it from rusting.

When you stop dollying down an inch above the ground and then dump your air and pull out when you or the next guy come to hook up you scrape all that grease onto the lip of the trailer where it does you or the next truck no good at all!

Not only that but some of these rocket scientists that are so either to fat or lazy to do a simple turning of a handle, drop the trailer a tad bit more than an inch off the ground and the next poor fool backing in drops his drive shaft! I strongly feel that the moron that dropped that trailer like that should get to pay that cost for being a lazy arse!

Also some drivers pulling out from a trailer that they were being lazy with when the 5th wheel clears the nose and he didn't dump or dumped but was fast in pulling out the rear cross member will catch the pin and bend the cross member which will also have a nice side effect!
It will take the alignment out of the frame! A costly reason to be freaking lazy and that's ALL that 1" above ground level is. Being way to lazy!

Yeah, go ahead and be lazy and drop an inch high. If you are in a fleet with low pro tires you are not really helping anything! Let them touch then crank till you hear air which isn't that many turns and you might now have to change gears! Then dump and you will clear without stressing the air bags or damage the cross member and will keep that grease on the 5th when you pull back in. You'll have to "work" a few turns when dollying back down but it's not that freaking hard! Quit being lazy and costing yourself tire wear and fuel because of no grease on that 5th! Be smart not lazy!

Now. For those of you who go in behind that O/O that runs high profile tires and if you are in a mixed fleet you'll have this problem. That trailer when they drop and DO crank it down till it touches that thing will be pretty high! This is why I carried 2-4x4x4' with an incline cut on one end to back onto to lift that rear end up!

Another hint:
Some idiot drop it so low you can't get under it? Dump the air, back under till the 5th almost touches the nose of the trailer and put one of the ramps across the frame behind the 5th under the trailer and flip the switch and air up. When it lifts the trailer up crank the dollies down till they take up some weight, dump the air put the other ramp across or a 2x4 or piece of a pallet if you have to and air back up till you can back under without dropping that driveshaft!

Yes we can argue that it's EASIER to back in and pick up the trailer but it's not SMART to do so! A LITTLE work will not kill any of us even if you have a bad heart! That grease and being smart will add many miles to the steers as they take the abuse if that 5th binds due to no grease.
I also carry a 6" putty knife with me and EVERY TIME I dropped I would go get any grease I could off the nose of the trailer and then scrape the grease off the side of the 5th wheel and from the frame where it squeezes out and spread it back on the 5th wheel and keep it greased! Store the putty knife in a folded piece of cardboard and 2 or 3 plastic Walmart bags in the side box. It's nice when you can get more miles out of those tires and better fuel mileage when things turn easier! Not to mention wear on that 5th wheel!

 

A simple solution is to always keep your plate greased. I carried a stick instead of a putty knife though.

 

Respectfully, Rollover, I have to disagree with your assertion that the fifth-wheel grease is all scraped off when the fifth-wheel slides under the trailer. I have not had that problem, even with a fresh grease job. When it's fresh, I dump the air completely before backing under, watch my distance and about six inches before the fifth-wheel should clamp the kingpin, raise the suspension until fully inflated and finish backing. I don't slam equipment around whether mine or someone else's.

I always leave about an inch under the landing gear before dropping my air, especially on empties. Here's why: as the trailer is loaded, pressure is placed on the tires. The unmoving landing gear acts as the centerpoint of a see-saw, raising the nose of the trailer. If I've cranked that dolly all the way to the ground plus another couple to hear that p-s-s-s-st! and then go park for a while, not only does the load cause the nose of the trailer to rise, but the leveling valve on the tractor has lowered the height of my fifth-wheel. Now I have a problem. And it ain't grease gettin scraped off my fifth-wheel.

Absolutely correct on the 4x4s and using the frame to raise a too-low trailer. Was gonna say that myself.

For icy conditions, use the method I do when I've got a fresh grease job.

-pipe down over there! I can hear those snickers!-

If you want to keep your 4x4s clean, carry a small tarp and fold it with the greasy side in. There are times a trailer is so high the 4x4 on the fifth wheel trick won't work, learn how to access that low gear on the trailer dolly. Either push or pull the handle all the way. You won't be breaking your back as much.

 

I carry blocks of wood and if a trailer is too high, I lower my airbag, back under it and block up to the plate, then fill my bags, crank the landing gear up some, then lower the bags, pull forward enough to tip the blocks of wood pick up the pieces and then back back in to a trailer that I can now crank the crank..... If i can Crank the crank, I'll do it first. but sometimes it just can't be done.

 

About once a week I get those little plastic packets of grease and put them on the 5th wheel. Back up close to the trailer, dump air, continue backing under til it's pretty close to the kingpin area. Refill air and click in-- all greased up and ready to roll! The instructions just say to put the packets on and back under but there is a couple of feet there that they would explode and grease up the upper 5th wheel where it would do NO good.

 

Wow this one is STILL GOING--just one more reason I love pulling my trailer--and for all those people who look at me when I'm nuts when I say--I hate to drop and hook--and I only drop my trailer to grease the 5th wheel--Well there you have it!