This is a little embarrassing...lol

It would be a wonderful world if it could just be as simple as always cranking one way to raise the landing gear and the other way to lower... and an even more wonderful world if high gear was always in the same position... and always worked...

My approach is.. is to lower the landing gear.. it is always crank it clockwise..eventuallycourse I see that it should be counter clockwise... I approach high gear the same way... I alway push the handle in and crank it.. and if that is not high gear I pull it out.. if that is not high gear I puch it in a bit.. often times I eventually find it and get it.... and then discover the next trailer is opposite...

Some trailers are just crazy.. and it is really by luck I happen to get it exactly where it needs to be to crank in high...

 

Righty tighty, lefty loosey! Does that count?

 

sure does..

 

That never worked with the old Chryslers lug nuts!

 

LOL.......... Even seasoned drivers get the hi/low gear case tangled up their minds some times.

Been there and done that myself.

Usually from being preoccupied with other thoughts while hooking up.

 

Most of our trailers, the crank handle is on the left side.

Sometimes, we get a replacement trailer when ours go back for service.

location on some of those replacement trailer crank handles?

RIGHT SIDE.....AAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

 

Not a stupid question at all IMO.

4 pages and nobody told the guy to get out of the truck and lower the trailer first so he takes the pressure off the landing gear? That's probably why he's having trouble. The dumb arses that drop the trailer aren't doing like Crazy said and they are leaving it too high.

To the OP: Back under slow and look in the mirror. You should feel the truck squat and see the trailer lift up. If you don't, then get out and lower the trailer a little and try again. Like the other poster said, let the truck do the work. When you're pinned, the landing gear should be off the ground by 1/4" or so.

Too many stupid/lazy drivers slam into the pin 100 miles an hour with 30,000 lbs on the landing gear and then they wonder why the handle won't turn.

 

We had some old trailers with no cranks, just pins to hold the dolly in either the up or down position....no cranking there. Worked good as long as your 5th wheel raised the dolly up off the ground.

I like your idea of using an air tool to crank the dolly....I had been thinking about how one could make it a more efficient process and I could not come up with anything. Does the handle just flop around or do you have some way to secure it?

 

I learned that lesson the hard way. Handle poped back and caught me right across the bridge of my nose, it gave me a large cut on my nose & a black eye. Stayed like that for 10 days. I sure had fun making up stories how I got the black eye, I didnt want to admit a trailier crank got me.
MODS: I didnt know if the following question should have its own thread, put it where u want it.(thats what she said)

What do u do if some dummy drops a trialier too close to yours and you cant even pull the crank out to use it. Me, if theres a yard dog around ask him/her to pull it out. If I'm in a drop yard alone, I'll try to pull the trailier out with the dollys down to where I can use the handle. That depends on the surface of the drop yd, on blacktop/concrete not a good idea (. but I've done it a couple times). On a dirt lot its easier to pull the trailiere out dollys down. How do you deal with this problem?

 

Hi allniter, be careful dragging a trailer with the dolly's down. I've seen dolly legs break doing that. That happened a lot in the rail yards. What I did, was get under there, kind of on your knees, and in low gear with out the handle locked out, go half way around, swing it back and go half way around again.If that didn't work, I'd undo the bolt on my air ride leveling rod, pump up the bags a little more to get the pressure off the legs, then drag it out.