Might be illegal but plenty do it in Newcastle area on the industrial estates! No idea whether TPB on or off though [emoji6]
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Radar19:
I thought the only place you didn’t apply the trailer brake was on a ro ro terminal.
Pre health and safety days, any blue chip driver who used trailer brakes in an rdc, normally got a hand full of 5th wheel grease behind their door handle, courtesy of the yard shunter 
Honked:
[SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES]
Reminds me of a woman I pulled at a nightclub once. She looked like that 20 minutes after I got her home
Sorry, I went a bit “dipper_daveish” there 
Reef:
the maoster:
There’s a very good reason that the button is very small for most trailer brakes, and that reason is to stop drivers dicking about with them!What a complete and utter load of crap!
At this point your constructive input would be appreciated. Crack on…
Interesting discussion.
Back in the day, assuming it wasn’t seized and/or the cable snapped or wound off its spool and jammed in the ratchet, you needed to wind the parking brake on because a goodly number of trailers would leak air and the brakes would then come off, hence runaways and bent collapsing legs.
Me and a mate had to recover a tilt which had started to run off downhill after some clot tried to pick it up with an F88 without checking for air or brake, it ran sideways due to camber but luckily the king pin jammed into the n/s drive axle tyres saving it from completely disaster, we borrowed the yard wrecker for that, bloody scary it was too cos neither of us were trained or skilled in such things, bloody bodgit and scarper 
, bent legs so using the lifter frame and resting the loaded trailer bed on empty 45 gallon drums 
while we went under and sorted the chain out round the king pin for lifting, talk about crap yersen, not a hard hat high vis or safety boot between us which would have saved our lives had the chain broke or the drums collapsed… 
bloody mad.
Good picking up practice was to back up to the trailer connect the red line and put some wind in then disconnect again to apply the brakes fully, then pick it up…generally you learned in a regular yard which trailers could be relied on to hold air and which couldn’t.
It works the other way now, so in all honesty applying the brake is unecessary and is to all intents and purposes a box ticking exercise IMHO.
I seldom use the shunt valve, to me its there for regular full time yard shunters and mechanics and should be left alone by drivers, so the above post about some bugger pressing the shunt valve is pertinent…had that before when some bloke who should never have been employed ‘‘helped’’ me swap tanks and pressed the shunt valve which duly stuck in, cue me driving off into the night with no bloody trailer brakes at all and the dash lit up like Blackpool. 
What i’m trying to remember though is if the shunt valve works the same on a dropped trailer depending on park brake position, in other words does the shunt valve operate to release the brakes without the park brake being applied, so if the park brake isn’t used is it therefore impossible to use the shunt valve…not trying to make an argument, i genuinely can’t remember what the score is with them.
On all of our trailers Juddian in order to use the shunt valve you have to take the park brake off otherwise the shunt valve just pops back out again (push to shunt, pull to park) and the theory is that when you connect the red airline the shunt button pops out automatically. I say theory as I have once picked one of ours up, released the park brake and set off. It was only after a couple of miles I noticed that it was riding very low at the back and was starting to drag the brakes. Pulled in and the shunt button was still enabled. Can honestly say I never checked it before setting off as its not supposed to be able to happen.
They’re the ones that always bite you in the arse though aren’t they?
the maoster:
On all of our trailers Juddian in order to use the shunt valve you have to take the park brake off otherwise the shunt valve just pops back out again (push to shunt, pull to park) and the theory is that when you connect the red airline the shunt button pops out automatically. I say theory as I have once picked one of ours up, released the park brake and set off. It was only after a couple of miles I noticed that it was riding very low at the back and was starting to drag the brakes. Pulled in and the shunt button was still enabled. Can honestly say I never checked it before setting off as its not supposed to be able to happen.They’re the ones that always bite you in the arse though aren’t they?
So park brake pulled on for shunt button to work, thanks for that.
Interesting you had the same as me re the stuck in shunt valve, trying to recall the last time i needed to use the thing and can’t recall a single time, i’d rather they were behind a cage which only mechanics and shunters had a key for…the half wit who pushed it in used to use that to save him the 10 seconds needed to slip the red line on, he was bloody menace to be honest and we’re all glad cos it wasn’t the only short cuts he’d make, some of which were highly bloody dangerous.
As for trailer brakes, i used to prefer it when they made a unique noise on releasing air, once all connected and ready to roll you could stand outside the cab and just some hand pressure on the footbrake you could hear the trailer brakes apply and release, was always one of my normal checks before setting off.
the maoster:
Reef:
the maoster:
There’s a very good reason that the button is very small for most trailer brakes, and that reason is to stop drivers dicking about with them!What a complete and utter load of crap!
At this point your constructive input would be appreciated. Crack on…
What?
What constructive input would you like? I know I’ll tweet your comment out to Lawrence David and SDC and see what there response is, is that constructive enough?
Crackin’ on 
What I meant Reef was why was what I put crap? You’re not some wet behind the ears kid, you’re obviously experienced and believe it or not I’m more than happy to be proved wrong and shown a better way to do things.
So although you obviously disagreed with what I wrote you did nothing to show exactly why?
I wasn’t having a pop, but am genuinely interested and if someone can post a valid reason for using trailer brakes apart from “just because” or “it’s how I was taught” I will honestly take it on board.
Edit to add; I’m obviously talking about the modern trailers that most of us use daily. I accept that with older trailers with ratchet type hand brakes there are very good reasons to apply trailer brakes.
Juddian:
So park brake pulled on for shunt button to work, thanks for that..
Sorry mate, you misunderstood me. On our trailers (others may differ) the park brake needs to be OFF for the shunt button to be activated. As they’re generally right next to each other it’s no real hardship.
Tbh I very rarely use the shunt button except at one customer at Fareham where we have stand trailers and invariably we have to pick up, move and drop off at least two trailers in their very confined yard and I just can’t be arsed with all the faffing about with airlines and our very close coupled trailers.
Ah thanks for clarifying Maoster, thats how i expected it might be, as i said its not something i’ve tested cos have no need to, luckily on tanks there’s plenty of room to mince about on the catwalk to yer hearts content.
So in fact in some ways safer not to apply the park brake cos it means some clot would have to pull the park brake as well as pushing the shunt button in order to leave the trailer in an unbraked condition.
This thread reminds me of asking philosophers how to change a light bulb. Ask lorry drivers whether to put a trailer park brake on 
. And there’s a thread wondering why we dont get paid enough . What a bunch of divs we make ourselves look. I bet ships captains don’t argue on boatnet about using the anchor to park up.
Drop a trailer, put the brake on. I’m sure it’s not 10 percent of manliness traded with each pop of the plunger. Why is this being discussed?
the maoster:
What I meant Reef was why was what I put crap? You’re not some wet behind the ears kid, you’re obviously experienced and believe it or not I’m more than happy to be proved wrong and shown a better way to do things.So although you obviously disagreed with what I wrote you did nothing to show exactly why?
I wasn’t having a pop, but am genuinely interested and if someone can post a valid reason for using trailer brakes apart from “just because” or “it’s how I was taught” I will honestly take it on board.
Edit to add; I’m obviously talking about the modern trailers that most of us use daily. I accept that with older trailers with ratchet type hand brakes there are very good reasons to apply trailer brakes.
Ah ok it seems I took your comment too literally then, my bad.
I’ve tweeted SDC and LD so it will be interesting to see if they respond and what there official slant is on the TPB.
The problem is as it seems to me from this and so many other topics on this forum is it’s not the equipment or it’s functions that is the problem but in fact the [zb]ing idiot that’s been left in charge of it.
I’ve never used a shunt button, even when I’ve been on shunting (Visteon Swansea) and that was with an old DAF CF not a Terberg, but this thread will certainly make me wary that the shunt button is in fact disengaged from hereon out.
James the cat:
This thread reminds me of asking philosophers how to change a light bulb.
The light bulb cannot be changed, it must be smashed!
James the cat:
This thread reminds me of asking philosophers how to [album] change a light bulb. Ask lorry drivers whether to put a trailer park brake onDrop a trailer, put the brake on. I’m sure it’s not 10 percent of manliness traded with each pop of the plunger. Why is this being discussed?
I don’t bother closing my cab door. I find that it usually latches itself when I get up to speed on the motorway. So yeah, saving myself that effort there nicely.
There is a truck in the yard that turns its lights and wipers on when it gets dark and rainy. Why should I have to twiddle knobs & stalks and things? I mean I know I’m a professional and all that but it’s pretty unfair that I have the responsibility of deciding if it’s dark enough for wipers and wet enough for lights or whatever the stupid law is.
I can remember seeing a driver doing split coupling in our yard, he’d forgotten to put the trailer brake on and the unit handbrake, as he connected the lines both the trailer and unit rolled back, the trailer luckily bumped against a curb and the unit coupled itself to the trailer. How the driver wasn’t crushed I’ll never know, he was a big fella and he was coupling a refrigerated trailer, If the trailer had run over the curb the whole lot would disappeared down a bank and into a field.
Adonis.:
Considering most are next to the legs too, it’s hardly a great difficulty to give the little red knob a tug.Laziness pure and simple.
A.
+1
Even though my little red knob is nearer me back-end it’s always critical to check it’s popped out pre and post coupling.
Just as important to check with auto pop out systems as one should never rely on these when so much damage can happen.
Of course I’m talking about male chickens…
When I learned to drive, we learned to leave the parking brake off, when dropping the trailer.
Especially that time when air suspension on a trailer was extremely rare.
If you leave a loaded air-suspended trailer on the parking brake, and it looses air, the deflating of the airbag will push the trailer forward and bend the legs.
If you ge your coupling routine right, you can hook an empty trailer up, without chasing it through the whole yard.
You will find on the continent that not many trailers are on the parking brake (except draw bars )
Hence the reason that the old fashioned wind up parking brakes were always sized or the cables rotten when you needed them.
Nowadays with air systems on trailers so much better, it’s less and issue, but I would still leave the parking brake of when loaded and unloaded, or drop the suspension first and than apply the parking brake.