Tricks To Slide Tandems?

Tonight I had a trailer thst sat a long time. The locking pins would not release to slide the tandems. I rocked... nothing. I banged it with a hammer... nothing. I drove around a bit to give the trailer more air.

Another driver told me to throw washer fluid on it and bam.. they unlocked and I was soon rolling.

Do u have any other tips to get these sucked working?

Rainy, when the pins stick like that it means the pins are jammed against the rails too hard so you have to get the pressure off them. What you want to do is walk around and look at all four pins to determine how they're jammed. You tend to see pressure on the pins in one of two different ways.

1) The pins are either jammed forward against the front of the hole or back against the rear of the hole. If all four pins appear to be in the front of the holes then with the trailer brakes set and the tractor brakes released pull forward against the trailer tandems to shift the tandems slightly to the rear so the pins will be centered. And of course the opposite is true. If all four pins are jammed against the rear of the hole then put the tractor in reverse to shift the tandems forward and release the pressure.

2) The more difficult situation is when the tandems are twisted. When you look at all four pins you'll find that on one side of the trailer the two pins are toward the front of the holes and on the other side they're toward the back. That means the tandems have a twisting force on them from someone turning the trailer in a tight radius. In this case then with your trailer brakes locked and your tractor brakes released push back against the tandems then pull forward against them. Do this two or three or four times - whatever it takes to get the tandems straight again. You'll know they're straight when all four pins are either toward the front of the hole or the back of the hole. Then you just do the procedure I outlined in #1 above to get them centered in the holes.

A can of WD-40 may help a little bit but nothing is going to beat the force of a three pound sledge hammer - a must have tool for any trucker. Try to get those pins lined up as well as you can and beat on them things until they release. There will be times this will be an exercise in madness. It can be very frustrating. All you can do is keep rocking it and keep beating on it. When you drove around with it you got the tandems centered up a bit better and then you were able to knock them loose.

WD-40 instead of washer fluid. The WD can squirt in there, besides it doesn't make for rust.

Twice in one year I've found the pull rods that pull the pins had separated from the pin, leaving the pin stuck. Both times I had to get a mechanic to work on the trailer.

Keep a can of white lithium grease on hand as well, it can be a lifesaver on those.

Thanks guys. Ur the bestest hahah

It was really frustrating. The back pins released but the front didnt.. and it didnt look like there was pressure.. but maybe enough to give me had aches lol