Stupid, dumb, no excuse. But I made the mistake.

Good way to bend legs that way too. Then you'll REALLY be screwed with a fully loaded trailer.

 

Maybe that was a "dumb mistake", but I bet you will never forget to double check that pigtail plug. Good story though, sometimes we gotta slow ourselves down and remember the small details.

 

if you run with your lights on, you'd see that your side markers or side turns are not working and go look.

 

Reminds me of what I did few months ago. When I forgot to lock in the pins after sliding my tandems. Long day waiting for hours at the receiver I was on and off the phone with the dispatcher about a load that I might be able to pick up before the shipper closes and the whole day goes down the crapper. I thought I would slide the tandems forward, so as I'm doing the whole thing of aiming for that hole where I want them, the dispatcher calls me with the pick-up info. I get back in the cab to write it down, and get in a rush to make the pick up. The first light I stopped at the tandems locked up and the trailer slid forward, which sounded and felt as if I hit an invisible wall. I nearly had a heart attack.

 

How many times have you lost your gloves? Have a system or routine. Anytime you do a pre-trip or whatever around a truck and someone or something distracts you stop take care of distraction. Then start where you left off. When you are done and get into the truck sit there for a few seconds and think about what you were doing. Did you miss any steps? It does not take long to get into good habits and do not get into a hurry. The world will not stop turning even though some DM think so. That's the key to not making mistakes. It's your license.

 

Love my 2011 F150,hate the payments! Glad no one was hurt, or any accidents happened.

 

This is why you should have a solid routine you do each time you drop, drop and hook or just hook a trailer. This will help in preventing most mishaps even when you are daydreaming about a new Ford F150.

 

Reminds me of the time i forgot to hook up my service air line. The handle was getting in the way of my middle door on my headache rack so i was pulling the service line off to put my tarps/securement away then reattaching it. Well, of course, in a rush to make my p/u appt i forgot to rehook the line after finishing up and bounced 50 or so miles with no trailer brakes. When i got to the shippers i saw it and felt like the biggest dumb*** out here.

But it is good that you and others can say you have learned from your mistake. Many wouldnt give it a second thought and make the same mistake again.

 

today while trying to rush to deliver my last load of the week and running out of my 70's the king pin went over the 5th wheel on a 44 pounds load i felt like the biggest fool ever but i did go a pretty nice workout out of it

 

At least it did not cost you anything. I bent the hell out of some landing legs after thinking I could just roll them up a few inches to move a trailer. Did not account for a dip in the pavement. That was an expensive mistake.