Kingpin Jumps Over The Fifth Wheel! Oh My!

High hooking scares the **** out of me...

I constantly am mindful where my drives are but you know there's always that ONE mistake in not paying attention and BOOM I gone and done messed up!

I had no idea how I would resolve such an issue thanks for posting!

As soon as my rear most drive axle is under the trailer I get out and look at the height between the apron and the 5th wheel. More times than I can count the trailer is ALWAYS higher. I lower the trailer so that the apron is resting on my fifth wheel and the landing gear is hovering just over the ground, I get into the truck and continue backing until the kingpin hits the front of my 5th wheel. At that point I get out with a flash light and look to make sure that the jaws are latched around the shank of the kingpin. As long as that's all done I then roll up the landing gear the rest of the way and attach the hoses and wires then complete the pretrip on the trailer. (YES I climb under the trailer and look at everything including the brake lining as there has been a few cases where the mechanics forgot to put the brakes back on the wheel.)

Then again, i am super anal and I report everything little thing wrong with my trailer and if I am NOT sure about the tires I ask breakdown for a mechanic to double check my tires. Out of the 10 times I was in the shop, only ONCE were the tires ever replaced. That was my last time at the shop they put all new tires on the Right side of the trailer that was 4 new tires (I was only concerned about 2 I thought the other two were OK). The mechanic said the other 4 were in good shape.

High hooking scares the **** out of me...

I constantly am mindful where my drives are but you know there's always that ONE mistake in not paying attention and BOOM I gone and done messed up!

I had no idea how I would resolve such an issue thanks for posting!

As soon as my rear most drive axle is under the trailer I get out and look at the height between the apron and the 5th wheel. More times than I can count the trailer is ALWAYS higher. I lower the trailer so that the apron is resting on my fifth wheel and the landing gear is hovering just over the ground, I get into the truck and continue backing until the kingpin hits the front of my 5th wheel. At that point I get out with a flash light and look to make sure that the jaws are latched around the shank of the kingpin. As long as that's all done I then roll up the landing gear the rest of the way and attach the hoses and wires then complete the pretrip on the trailer. (YES I climb under the trailer and look at everything including the brake lining as there has been a few cases where the mechanics forgot to put the brakes back on the wheel.)

Then again, i am super anal and I report everything little thing wrong with my trailer and if I am NOT sure about the tires I ask breakdown for a mechanic to double check my tires. Out of the 10 times I was in the shop, only ONCE were the tires ever replaced. That was my last time at the shop they put all new tires on the Right side of the trailer that was 4 new tires (I was only concerned about 2 I thought the other two were OK). The mechanic said the other 4 were in good shape.

Good to have you back RR. Everything you wrote, spot-on. Anal or not, professional yes and it will keep you out of trouble.