No Air Bag Dump On My New Freightliner

It took so long because the load itself weighed 44,000 pounds... So I had to crank it up in low gear, which I did about 10-20 turns at a time before taking a breather!

It took so long because the load itself weighed 44,000 pounds... So I had to crank it up in low gear, which I did about 10-20 turns at a time before taking a breather!

You mentioned the jockey driver dropped the trailer off the pad. Whenever I’m dealing with a trailer that’s all “jiggered-up” like that, I will flag the jockey driver to pull it out and spot it correctly. If that’s possible, it will save you a ton of time and physical work.

Three other suggestions:

- Override traction control (should be a switch on the dash) enabling your drives to spin. Which in this case you want.

- Apply the differential lock so that all 4 of your drives are powered; provides more traction when getting under a trailer. In the snow/ice using the differential lock is also effective for getting out from under a trailer.

- It’s only necessary to crank the trailer so that it clears the fifth-wheel wings; thus when getting under the trailer, traction downforce is applied to the tractor almost immediately. The fifth wheel when getting under a trailer is basically used like a wedge.

You mentioned the jockey driver dropped the trailer off the pad. Whenever I’m dealing with a trailer that’s all “jiggered-up” like that, I will flag the jockey driver to pull it out and spot it correctly. If that’s possible, it will save you a ton of time and physical work.

That's what I should have done, I'm surprised they didn't fix it. No way did they not notice it, when I went to the area they told me my trailer was at and I noticed it wasn't there. I started driving around looking for it, I noticed that trailer and thought to myself "I feel bad for the person who has to get that" -> "Looks at paper with my trailer number"... But I'll keep that in mind for the future.

- Override traction control (should be a switch on the dash) enabling your drives to spin. Which in this case you want.

Yeah, that's what I had to do which barely got me under it.

- Apply the differential lock so that all 4 of your drives are powered; provides more traction when getting under a trailer. In the snow/ice using the differential lock is also effective for getting out from under a trailer.

I also did this suggestion as well, otherwise I wouldn't have made it for sure.

- It’s only necessary to crank the trailer so that it clears the fifth-wheel wings; thus when getting under the trailer, traction downforce is applied to the tractor almost immediately. The fifth wheel when getting under a trailer is basically used like a wedge.

Of course, I actually left out a part of the story from my previous reply. The part I left out was that my 5th wheel latch wasn't closing properly. I have since found out why thanks to the guys at the shop when I went in to get a problem fixed on another trailer. But the issue was I actually did crank it a bit to high the first time, and it wasn't sitting on my 5th wheel correctly and had spaces between the trailer and 5th wheel. That's why I had to lower the landing gear, as there was no extra weight on the drive tires at that specific time, so I kept spinning out. Only took me a few to realize it and fixed it up.

But over all, I should have gotten the yard spotter to help me out as there was one running around. He would have been able to get under the trailer much easier then how I did it.

Are you sure you don't have a button to drop the suspension on your tractor?

Mines the fourth button to the right..

I only have 3.

The majority of the tractors at my company have the airbag dump switch. The big key is to hook and unhook a trailer the same way every time and not damage equipment in the process. When dropping I always set trailer brakes first then back up to take pressure off kingpin and set tractor brakes. Walk to the back of the trailer check to make sure its set up to dock correctly and place chock blokes. Lower landing gear until I hear the airbags hiss. Pull the release handle, unhook and store the airlines and pigtail in their holder. Never leaving them to hang as they can get caught and ripped off. Get in tractor, put it into First gear and pull forward about a foot. Then drop the airbags, that gently lowers the trailer nose to the ground and allows the gear to settle.

Another trick to help when someone drops a trailer to low to get under.. Drop you air bags and back the frame rail under the nose of the trailer and use a piece of a 2x4 to stick on the frame and then use airbags to lift the trailer up so you can jack the gear without killing yourself.