What do you do if the kingpin jumps your 5th wheel?

That's true but your forgetting he's a yard mule driver he ain't got no time for all that he's on the hurry to haul trailers everywhere

 

I keep a gatorade bottle in my sidebox just in case, I've done it a few times being in a hurry with switch trailers. I put the gatorade bottle on the back of the fifth wheel so it tilts forward, then I dolly it up high enough for the pin to slide back over, pull the bottle, dolly down; take a little time to line up properly and back in. Usually takes about 25 minutes if it isn't super cold.

 

You don't do this often do you? Not be a wise cracker, but usually once is all it takes to cure us of that move. And yes, we've ALL (or mostly all) have done it. So there's no judging here. I'm guilty of it once.

That one time, and all the hassle it caused me cured me. I was rushing all day trying to hit my windows because of that. It SUCKED for hours

 

At one I worked with a company who's tanks were really deceiving. Had some kind of 2 or 3 step deal on the bolt on king pin plate assembly. Skipped them more than once looking out the back window. Could not drop the camel backs and cranked my butt off. The loaded one with a bad landing gear would not crank. Found some pop cans in the parking lot, stacked two together and put them under the back of the 5th wheel with the front of it tilted down. That allowed the pin to slide over the front of the plate and the cans crush to allow the plate to flip back as you pull forward. If you do not see it lifting the trailer a little bit, G O AL, because you can also have a false latch if one is slightly high.

 

As an older than dirt, ex OTR cowboy, and fighting to understand the new terminologies of the modern driver's jargon, I would hazard to guess that a driver who overshoots the fifth wheel is, for the greater part, a newbie.

When I applied for my first OTR job with TransAmerica in 1960, I spent the first six months as a "Yard Monkey" (now called a yard dog) shunting trailers. Looking back on it, that low-life job was the best possible training I could have ever done to learn backing, turning and dropping trailers. (keeping a truck in the middle of the road is talent that even mindless jockies are born with) In short, it doesn't take long to gain an instinctual feeling to learn the distance relationship between the bull pin and the fifth wheel center.

I will never downgrade a yard dog and their talent for backing trailers to a door in instances where an OTR is completely lost. Yard donkeys have the same turning radius as a conventional tractor (usually), but a yard monkey who has some experience on the job can do magic with a trailer needing a short radius turn in a tight slot.

 

I just pull the pin and pull out....lol

 

I would place a piege of wood under the rear edge of the 5th wheel between it and the frame reversing the tilt and back up.
Or you maybe able to pull the linkage between your air control valve to completely lower your suspension, or use it to lift the trailer to make it easier to extend the gear.

Thing to remember is that you should pick the trailer up as you back under taking the weight load on to the tractor.

When I train I teach to stop before you back under with the 5th wheel plate almost touching the trailer. connect electric and air, check height then back under. This also gives you control of your trailer brakes'

 

I'm relatively new to job, and I'm glad to be making stupid mistakes such as these in relatively controlled environments before getting out onto the road. I doubt I would make it through driving school when it comes to backing trailers without the practice and experience that I get as a yard dog, and I'm still far from perfect. With a 53' on my back I drive slow as hell and GOAL all the time. There are maneuvers I haven't attempted with them yet, that the more experienced drivers can do easily.

 

This usually followed by a bunch of self critic.

 

Excellent post with wisdom, but I beg to differ on this point. Rollovers on I-10 in Arizona when the freeway is straight as an arrow for miles, not to mention Yankee Doodle steering that I see every day. It's not just mega training companies. I see very poor steering habits from owner operators with chromed out Pete's.