After 28 months of HGV driving I finally facked up. Trailer break on…legs down…plate off…pin pulled…lowered unit…good to go. You know what comes next …Twang!!!
Thankfully only the abs line broke, the airlines just got stretched.
After 28 months of HGV driving I finally facked up. Trailer break on…legs down…plate off…pin pulled…lowered unit…good to go. You know what comes next …Twang!!!
Thankfully only the abs line broke, the airlines just got stretched.
We’ve all done it mate, usually when distracted…don’t sweat it
least you didnt do it as badly as me…i managed to do all three lines… then drove it trying to get it somewhere out of the way until it stopped completely (the brakes came on as the air had run out completely) obviously it was still in gear and i made the cardinal mistake of turning the engine off to go report it and get help.
yeah i wasnt popular as the unit was blocking three trailers that needed to leave to make their delivery times and the unit couldn’t be started as it was in gear and couldn’t be taken out of gear as there was no air!!
You’re not special Paddy, well maybe you are, but you’re not the first to have done it.
I can even better your effort, I disconnected the air and electric, but totally forgot the braided, hydraulic line. Don’t beat yourself up over it.
Dropped my trailer after putting it in rank, on its knees after being distracted - all lines disconnected fortunately!
The corker - I did it when my TM was right in front of me !!!
Folded arms on the steering wheel, head resting on my arms and the TM wanders up to me “Do I need to b’k you” No says me, the crank of shame followed
21 yrs old, first artic job, flat trailer load of steel.
Young over condfident, Jack the lad thought he knew it all.
Parked (on an angle) to drop trailer, no thought whatsoever, disregarded everything that day I had learned, jumped out of cab…and first thing I did was pulled pin.
Only to see a trailer come off the fifth wheel heading towards my head at speed, which was still at 5th wheel pulling the pin.
I must have had the reactions of a Ninja that day to get out of the way,… proven by the fact I am tellimg you about it today.
It could have been a very short career.
When I was shunting I ripped 2 red Airlines of in 15 minutes. Both time I got talking to someone forgot about the lines and ping. After I ripped the second one of I was sent home.That was after breaking a pin lock. That was not a good day.
Welcome to the club.
I did 2 abs leads in a week.
We where de-hiring a large number of B&Q trailers to don bur, but had to drop them off at a remote location that was a battleground of deep water filled potholes, so being a smart aras I decided to drop the legs before shunting it into a corner where there was a giant flooded pothole, and clambering over the side of the cab to the catwalk to avoid wading through the water and pull the pin, but as it was out of sequence I forgot the suzies and pulled out to hear the familiar thud of the abs lead snapping off and hitting the back of the truck, fortunately the airlines where ok but stretched, so I backed up close enough to uncouple them and head back solo
Done a few red air lines whilst piloting a Terberg.
I can confidently confirm that yer average red air line will stretch across four standard loading bays before finally giving in.
Nope never done it , or dropped a tri on its knees
It’s very simple , before you get in a drive off , stand back & Look , Legs down , Suzis disconnected , dog clip off , second it takes .
When you connect up , stand back , dog clip on , legs up , suzis connected ( I also always have a look at back of fifth wheel to make sure jaws are closed )
It’s so easy to do , I just cannot understand why you wouldn’t do it
Never done it?
How long ya been driving mate?
I know and have known a hell of a lot of drivers in the past, you are the ONLY one who has ever said that.
Thanks for the helpful tips anyhoo,.I’ve wrote em down for future reference .,
Btw ADY??
Doze we’ve missed ya.
My last escapade was breaking the red line after it had got caught up in the ratchet on the front of the trailer. A helpful bloke lent me a spanner and I was able to unfasten the remains from the unit. A screwed up crisp packet pushed into the hole with the remains fixed back on was sufficient to stem the flow of air enabling me to shift the motor into a less inconvenient place and await a repair man. He was quite impressed!
We (us old lads) are indebted to you sir for that step by step info. about coupling and uncoupling of articulated vehicle semi trailers. Thank you.
Oh, please clarify…what do you do next after taking the dog clip off ?
Just asking for a friend .
He’s gonna come back now and tell us he doesnt take his dog with him in the truck.
Are you suggesting that he picks up strays along the way?
I think pretty much everyone has at least come close to doing it. It’s easy for ady to suggest nothing will go wrong following a check before driving off. distraction must play a huge part in this happening. It’s not as if drivers are sat in the cab and think “not sure if I put the legs down. Naa, it’s probably fine”. We all have a check everytime before pulling away from a trailer until that one day when we don’t
Thankfully I have not, until now, actually forgot the legs (although I’ve forgotten a couple of other things) but I count myself lucky because I came bloody close to dropping a trailer a couple of times. This was purely down to distraction. The trailer was on a bay and there had been a lot of to-and-fro discussions over weather the trailer could be left there or not. I think somewhere I’d had a phone call/person walk over saying to drop it, then another couple of minutes later saying not too which is how I got it in my head I’d done everything correctly.
I was about to start the engine and remembered I hadn’t yet got the POD from the customer. I walked back inside the building and when I came back out with the POD to my horror saw that the legs were still up on the trailer. This was an ATL loading bay (I think thats the term) and the warehouse had already moved the skates back inside the trailer ready for later when the engineering guys came to service the loading bay, and it was sheer luck I didn’t drop that trailer. I don’t know what that would have done to the tracks and loading bay,but I’m sure it would have cost serious money and I’d have been in some serious bother.
so, the confessional thread then…
I ■■■■■■ up a fifth wheel
and paid visits to certain category of female human beings
I can do better than that …I once wore a Man U shirt for 1 hour as a bet…in mitigation it was for a charity donation.
No photos I am delighted to say.
Thanks for giving me that opprtunity to admit it.
I feel cleansed getting that awful confession off my chest.
I can now move on with my life.