High-hooking A Trailer

Yes, we went over the hooking height procedure, I was very curious as to how that worked. Being used to utility trailers, all I have ever needed to do was line my ball under the hitch and lower trailer onto ball. I could tell the whole set up was backwards from what I’m used to on a big rig. I knew it would be quite a task trying to line up the kingpin and 5th wheel hole and then crank landing gear up to seat trailer.

G backed the truck up to the trailer to about a foot away from hooking. I asked how can you tell if your good. We got out and checked to make sure the 5th wheel and edge of trailer were level. he also stated there should only be a few inches between tire and trailer. Then he reversed, THUNK, we’re hooked. Got out again to make sure we coupled properly, no space between 5th wheel and trailer, kingpin latch engaged, hook up air and power.

Note, I have only seen this process done once to date. Hope I didnt miss anything!!!

Agree. Schneider taught cranking the trailer down to the center of the fifth wheel till you couldn't see daylight. I try and do that every time. I say "try" because I know G-town remembers my post when the crank handle smacked me in the head and split my eyebrow open. It was from me trying lower a reefer with 40k in the box. It was goingno where. It was probably low enough too but my ocd said otherwise. No shame in trying to find the spotter so you can get a lift.

Actually in the official Swift video I watched, "proper height" is when the front edge of the trailer is pretty much on level with the center of the 5th wheel. Whatever works for you!

Bird-one,

I'm hoping you'll show me the technique January 25.

Agree. Schneider taught cranking the trailer down to the center of the fifth wheel till you couldn't see daylight. I try and do that every time. I say "try" because I know G-town remembers my post when the crank handle smacked me in the head and split my eyebrow open. It was from me trying lower a reefer with 40k in the box. It was goingno where. It was probably low enough too but my ocd said otherwise. No shame in trying to find the spotter so you can get a lift.

Actually in the official Swift video I watched, "proper height" is when the front edge of the trailer is pretty much on level with the center of the 5th wheel. Whatever works for you!

I did it 2 months ago which is really bad since we have a window. Usually I back up and watch the 5th wheel lift the trailer up, this time I was day dreaming or something wasn't paying attention and noticed the trailer was extremely close to the cab.

Luckily I didn't damage anything, but having to spend a few minutes cranking a heavy trailer up is a good way to learn not to do that again.

Glad it didn't cause more damage Jamie. As you can tell you're not alone in high hooking. Please let us know if they do count it as a preventable and if they have you come in for additional training or meeting with safety. As much as we all hate making mistakes, especially those that cause damage, that's how we learn.

Thanks for sharing jammie. One day I’ll share my huge list of screw ups on here. Almost hit a trailer 5 minutes ago. I been having such smooth few weeks I let my guard down to low.

I'll give you the complete rundown Rob. Gash in the head included.

Bird-one,

I'm hoping you'll show me the technique January 25.

Agree. Schneider taught cranking the trailer down to the center of the fifth wheel till you couldn't see daylight. I try and do that every time. I say "try" because I know G-town remembers my post when the crank handle smacked me in the head and split my eyebrow open. It was from me trying lower a reefer with 40k in the box. It was goingno where. It was probably low enough too but my ocd said otherwise. No shame in trying to find the spotter so you can get a lift.

Actually in the official Swift video I watched, "proper height" is when the front edge of the trailer is pretty much on level with the center of the 5th wheel. Whatever works for you!

My terminal had a series of high-hooks. Safety looked into it. I sent a recommendation for them to ask drivers to leave the landing gear 1.5-2” off the ground.

The academy was teaching us to crank it all the way down. I was quickly disbused of this with my mentor.

After some grumbling from safety about why they couldn’t make a rule about trailer height they sent a terminal wide announcement/requirement that everyone leave the gap in the landing gear. (A very green rookie suggested this...)

Cheers,

G

Spoonerist my company has us leave it an inch or 2 or so above the ground, then dump the airbags to pull out. The problem is that our yard and most of our backhauls we're doing that are drop & hook aren't perfectly flat. I've gone to backhauls and needed to crank it up by hand, or lower it while fully loaded to get proper height despite the previous driver doing the right thing. When I get back to the yard I'm assigned a pad to put the trailer in. Our Shag drivers then move that trailer into a door to be loaded, and when I come in I'll either take a trailer out of the door or a pad they put it in after it was loaded. It's even worse in the winter time due to ice buildup in certain areas. Unless the trailer is staying in the same place it's quite possible that it's not the correct height, which is why it's so important to G.O.A.L. 99% of the time I'm in a daycab and have a rear window so I'm able to see without a G.O.A.L. but I ALWAYS climb underneath to ensure its hooked correctly. I have had only 1 high hook. Last winter i had a 600 mile day and it was icy. Everytime I got just under the trailer my tires were spinning. I was getting frustrated and decided to get some speed to get farther underneath. Well i ended up barely missing the pin and had to crank my load of 38k until I could clear the kingpin.