Crab Walking Trailer

Topic 33389 | Page 1

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BK's Comment
member avatar

Hey people, I just had my first crab walking trailer on my current assignment. Rear of the trailer tracks noticeably to the curb or passenger side. Really a weird experience both visually (out the passenger side mirror), but it creates some difficulties in certain situations. For example going through one of those narrow toll booth lanes.

I’m going to report this to my company tomorrow, but in the meantime maybe you more experienced mechanical people could explain how this happens. I assume it is an alignment issue with the trailer tandems. What causes it and how is it remedied?

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
ID Mtn Gal's Comment
member avatar

That usually happens when the trailer tandems is hit on the left side. The mechanics didn't get it aligned properly. They usually don't get it back to where it should be, but can get it fairly close.

Had it happened to a trailer I was pulling. My boss and his wife (also a boss) followed me after getting hit in the drives by a pickup, bouncing and hitting the tandems. Going up the road I was on the center line and the tandems was over the emergency line. It was fun backing into the door, but I did it easily 😁

Laura

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Davy A.'s Comment
member avatar

Probably about two thirds of the loads I pull are crooked trailers. Comes from hitting curbs, also from u turns full loaded too hard according to our shop. Most of our are moderately to severely out of whack. I absolutely hate it. I've had many that. We're bad enough that the tandems wouldn't pin in corresponding holes.

I often wonder if there's a field engineering fix, such as blocking one side and pulling hard to tweak it back. Most of ours are always tail out to the passenger side but I get a few gems that are driver's side.

Tandems:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

Tandem:

Tandem Axles

A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".

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