High Hooked Another Trailer Today...... Had To Do The Crank Of Shame

Well I did it again...... I High hooked another trailer at the same place I did back in January.... I got lined up and stopped before I went under the trailer to double check my alignment of the 5th wheel and the king pin the alignment was good to go; but the gap between the trailer edge and the 5th wheel was just wide enough that the king pin slid right over.....Dough!!!! So I had to crank the trailer up and dump my air bags so the king pin would clear the 5th wheel. It didn't help that my nose was running and I was gagging while I was cranking up the trailer.....and Yes the trailer was loaded....I think from now on when I jump out to check the alignment I'm going to give the landing legs a couple of cranks down just to be on the safe side. The bright side is I didn't slam into the tractor like I did last time.

Beware of "crap" yards too.

I went to pickup a trailer from a rail yard. It was dark.

Found my trailer and since I had a daycab, backing was a piece of cake.

However, next thing I knew the trailer was almost touching my windshield!!

Turns out trailer was sitting on about 5 or 10 degree angle with the nose of the trailer in a downslope. Backing up looked great! 5th wheel lifted the trailer and the trailer kept coming. Got out and looked and the FRONT of the trailer was fine. However, due to the slight down angle the kingpin did not connect with the 5th wheel.

I have high hoojed one time during my first weeks with CFI, at night. What a PITA. I learned real wuick not to be in a hurry and to watch my 5th wheel in relation to the trailer height. I try to have the top of my 5th wheel touching the bottom of the trailer when I have backed underneath just a couple of inches. I try not to be so close that I shear off my 5th wheel grease though. Lol. Our company uses a dirt lot, so you can imagine the trailers sinking in very wet weather. Luckily we have air dumps on our Macks.

During training, I was advised to look at the gap between the drive tires and trailer apron. Every time I backed under a trailer, i looked at that space between the drives and apron, then as I got close, I got out and looked. Took me 30 seconds to stop and look, and I've caught every high trailer, and low.. (it happens)

Will I ever high hook one? Maybe, but the odds are in my favor, because of doing the hard work early

All this to say, every good habit results from a firm foundation when beginning.

DC wrote:

Every time I backed under a trailer, i looked at that space between the drives and apron, then as I got close, I got out and looked. Took me 30 seconds to stop and look, and I've caught every high trailer, and low.. (it happens)

100% Spot-on. Ounce of prevention, worth a pound of cure.

About as low as I go. A little bit lower today because I'm hooking in a mud lot and it will dip down when I go to complete the hook.

It’s amazing to me how much I can learn from this site. There three things I do every day Like clockwork because of what I read here.

1) I always look at my three points of contact as I’m getting in and out of the truck because of what happened to Marc Lee

2) I always stop to goal once my fifth wheel makes contact with the apron. Because of posts like this. This morning I paused to think, I don’t feel like getting out and the trailer has always been at the right height, but, I GOALed anyway thinking it only takes one time to be wrong. Sure enough, the trailer was well above the skid plate. Then I read this post and realized today is my lucky day.

3) I watch my wagon like I’m a stalker due to a post a while back where someone “snuck up” on the side of a trailer in a merge and the driver crushed the car into a jersey barrier.

Three great habits learned from others hard lessons. I’m glad there’s a place where folks can be open about their mistakes so rookies can learn along the way.

DC wrote:

Every time I backed under a trailer, i looked at that space between the drives and apron, then as I got close, I got out and looked. Took me 30 seconds to stop and look, and I've caught every high trailer, and low.. (it happens)

100% Spot-on. Ounce of prevention, worth a pound of cure.

This always happens when you're in a hurry... Lesson number one don't rush... You will screw up.

I high hooked twice at night my 1st month solo...take 15 seconds to check this. Makes things so much easier.

It’s amazing to me how much I can learn from this site. There three things I do every day Like clockwork because of what I read here.

1) I always look at my three points of contact as I’m getting in and out of the truck because of what happened to Marc Lee

2) I always stop to goal once my fifth wheel makes contact with the apron. Because of posts like this. This morning I paused to think, I don’t feel like getting out and the trailer has always been at the right height, but, I GOALed anyway thinking it only takes one time to be wrong. Sure enough, the trailer was well above the skid plate. Then I read this post and realized today is my lucky day.

3) I watch my wagon like I’m a stalker due to a post a while back where someone “snuck up” on the side of a trailer in a merge and the driver crushed the car into a jersey barrier.

Three great habits learned from others hard lessons. I’m glad there’s a place where folks can be open about their mistakes so rookies can learn along the way.

SO happy to be of service!

I always made sure I could feel the 5th wheel lift the trailer a little bit. I would crank the trailer down low enough to make sure it did. I've seen the 5th wheel lock onto the kingpin with space between the trailer and the 5th wheel. That's not good. So I made sure the 5th wheel lifted the trailer when I backed under it.

Well my week finished out ok no more high hooks I've been double and triple checking my approach, alignment, and gap space between my 5th wheel and the trailer apron before I back under. I actually had to crank up a trailer to get under it to hook up luckily it was unloaded. Then on Tuesday morning as I was coming into Syracuse with a load of scrap cardboard my emissions control unit crapped out again after the 5th time so it's off to the Dealer and I had to transfer all my stuff into a spare tractor so I could finish out the week. Then my wife calls completely distraught one of our dogs was hit and killed sometime Tuesday night so I had to make a run to the house and calm her down and bury our departed fur-ball. Then back to work to deliver a load of beer down to Hatfield PA. Then a back haul of more cardboard to Syracuse. I ran out of HOS time so I had to pull up 20 miles short of the 'Cuse. I dropped the trailer at the papermill this morning and I helped a NFI driver get his tractor uncoupled from his trailer so that was a bright spot in an otherwise dreary week. Hopefully next week will be better.