So, never assume your tractor is at the proper height in relation to the 5th wheel. Always get out and check. A few seconds of verification can save your job. Many times I’ve observed drivers backing under trailers without checkpoints by. You can only be lucky for so long before the high hook strikes.
All depends on the company. Hopefully he tried cranking it up and lower his airbags before calling, unless it did damage. Cranking up thousands of pounds is a good lesson, don't ask me how I know.
A lot of those cab extenders get damaged by high hooking. It is a preventable accident in most cases. It doesn't really matter that someone else left the trailer sitting too high. Always get out and look when backing under a trailer. It is a simple step that will save you some misery.
I’m kinda surprised Schneider didn’t teach you what to do in the event of a high hook because they certainly went in depth with me Bruce. Unless damage was caused no reason to call anybody. This is a pretty simple situation to get out off. Dump the air bags and see if that works. Sometimes it will be low enough but the fifth wheel will be angled up so it will still catch on a kingpin. You will have to tip the fifth wheel forward and put a something like a Gatorade bottle or a wheel chock under it to keep it parallel. Sometimes it still won’t be low enough in which that case… get cranking. About a 80 cranks later you’ll be good….. Don’t ask me how I know either.
I'd say how a high hook is treated is dependent on company policy. I did it once. Our truck yard was real icy and my tires would start spinning when i got under it. Decided to hit it faster but apparently came in at a slight angle and thankfully caused no damage. We happened to have some lumber sitting around so the shag driver grabbed some. Had me lower my air bags, put that on the frame amd reinflated then lowered landing gear. He helped me crank it higher to completely get out of it and I never heard anything about it from my company.
Put an empty aluminum can under the lower end of the fifth wheel. If for any reason it hits while pulling out the can will crush preventing possible fifth wheel damage.
I’m kinda surprised Schneider didn’t teach you what to do in the event of a high hook because they certainly went in depth with me Bruce. Unless damage was caused no reason to call anybody. This is a pretty simple situation to get out off. Dump the air bags and see if that works. Sometimes it will be low enough but the fifth wheel will be angled up so it will still catch on a kingpin. You will have to tip the fifth wheel forward and put a something like a Gatorade bottle or a wheel chock under it to keep it parallel. Sometimes it still won’t be low enough in which that case… get cranking. About a 80 cranks later you’ll be good….. Don’t ask me how I know either.
Well, this is very educational for me. I was never instructed about fixing a high hook. Also, not shown how to release the king pin from the cab. That I figured out on my own, not very hard. I will say that Schneider did spend a lot of time teaching us how to PREVENT a high hook.
I used my drive tires as a guide, slowly back under leading edge of trailer, if my tire were under an inch or 2 gap at the edge, I was good to back in, more than that, get out n check for sure and lowered as I needed. lol Used the coke can trick to get my co-driver set right, he barely passed the king pin with the 5th wheel plate, so it wasn't too bad to fix
It AIN'T fun trying to raise a loaded trailer !! hahahah....
Interesting, when I was training, we saw a guy high hook, he didnt look of course. Every trailer I always stop at the rear drive, get out and look and adjust accordingly if needed. Its just habit now, I dont think I could hook a trailer without doing that. Even on a double drop and hook , I still get out and look, Ive had weird things happen and I dont have an airbag drop in my truck, neither have the loaners Ive been in.
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
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I was dropping a trailer at a distribution center and noticed a driver several spaces away from me was having a big difficulty w. I went over to see if I could help and he had high hooked. I should have noticed right away because his bat wings were tight against the trailer. He said his company was sending help, so I had to leave before the help arrived. How is a high hook handled and how much trouble is this driver in?