Ask a Feeder Driver, Feeder Driver FAQ

[Coldworld]

Built a set I swear had hooked, pulled off the door a bit and hit the hand valve, got out to do a final walk around, and my rear trailer was sitting on the edge of the dolly. Just about my pants. I cranked the legs down. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to hook, never figured out what was wrong with it, no one around to ask.... red tagged and started over with a differernt dolly.

Could the kingpin be bent slightly not allowing the dolly to latch on??? I always cringe when I see some drivers back into a trailer so hard the whole rig shakes ...let alone the damage they are doing on their back and neck..

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

And I’m going to assume that it doesn’t mean to test tug it half way across the yard either... lmao... I’ve seen drivers do that and bend the hell out of the trailer legs...I just think they like the sound of steel on concrete....

Yeah, I've seen them do that. Never made sense to me. Sometimes it's done to pull the trailer off a door far enough to access the trailer door. Too lazy to get out and in an extra time to do it right. In the yard, definately not. It's more important to visually check the dog wrapped around the kingpin, IMHO.

 

[Coldworld]

I don't want to hijack and information post...meet me in fluff lol

For some reason when you said that I got this image stuck in my head .. maybe from what you said, maybe because @RonBurgandy?????????? and I seem to like this same kind of old school gangster rap....

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

Could the kingpin be bent slightly not allowing the dolly to latch on???

I dunno man, looked like it was on first check, but the latch wasn't quite all the way around the kingpin no matter what I did. Didn't notice the first time and almost got myself in deep .

I always cringe when I see some drivers back into a trailer so hard the whole rig shakes ...let alone the damage they are doing on their back and neck..

That's me driving an automatic transmission tractor, I just can't seem to get a feel for them. It's like all or nothing on the throttle with those things.

 

[Coldworld]

Yeah, I've seen them do that. Never made sense to me. Sometimes it's done to pull the trailer off a door far enough to access the trailer door. Too lazy to get out and in an extra time to do it right. In the yard, definately not. It's more important to visually check the dog wrapped around the kingpin, IMHO.

Im talking 10x the length it takes to pull off a door just enough to get back there to check air and paperwork and such.... it’s ridiculous

 

[MeLlamoMud]

For some reason when you said that I got this image stuck in my head .. maybe from what you said, maybe because @RonBurgandy?????????? and I seem to like this same kind of old school gangster rap....

View attachment 190769

View attachment 190770

Lol we are all from that same era...I was going to post a video in response but didn't want to derail the thread lol

 

[olroadbeech]

Thx

dropping a trailer means you forgot to roll landing gear down before unhooking the tractor from the trailer. forgetting to unhook airlines happens too usually when you become distracted by something.

that is why it is so important to have a routine. do your pre trips and post trips the exact same way every time and you will almost eliminate this possibility. "almost" as we are all human and it will probably happen to you at least once in your career. after it happens once it usually won't happen again.

experience is the real teacher in feeder .

 

[over9five]

Every bid it says right on the bid sheet that tractors are assigned to the run, not the driver. Then once the bid is over all the guys who switched go crying to management to let them take "their" tractor to their new run and of course they get the ok. Used to piss me off but now I just accept it.

The little favorites cry, and get whatever they want.

 

[olroadbeech]

Could the kingpin be bent slightly not allowing the dolly to latch on??? I always cringe when I see some drivers back into a trailer so hard the whole rig shakes ...let alone the damage they are doing on their back and neck..

That's why after you do the tug test you get out and check to make sure the handle is all the way in and then go under trailer and see that the jaws are all the way locked. not all drivers do this and they are just asking for trouble.

a trailer can act and appear locked , even can driven miles with no problem , but it may not be totally locked. if you see any shiny metal on the jaws around the kingpin , then it is not properly locked. In that case I would start over and unlock the handle, pull out about a foot or so and then rehook. That works most of the time.

If not it could be a couple reasons. bad angle, slightly high pin ( trailer too high off ground ) and in rare cases the locking mechanism is filled with dirt and/or needs to be cleaned out and readjusted or repaired or replaced.

 

[barnyard]

nd in rare cases the locking mechanism is filled with dirt and/or needs to be cleaned out

Not that rare, in my experience. I have had it happen twice. In both cases, spraying with the lube that mechanics keep in the hand spray bottle fixed them.

 

[Indecisi0n]

Not that rare, in my experience. I have had it happen twice. In both cases, spraying with the lube that mechanics keep in the hand spray bottle fixed them.

You have mechanics?!

 

[olroadbeech]

Not that rare, in my experience. I have had it happen twice. In both cases, spraying with the lube that mechanics keep in the hand spray bottle fixed them.

it probably happened to me maybe 3-4 times in my career. you are right about the mechanics spraying it and cleaning so that it would work. we get a lot of sand and dirt from the highways since they throw it down in the winter.

 

[pickup]

I dunno man, looked like it was on first check, but the latch wasn't quite all the way around the kingpin no matter what I did. Didn't notice the first time and almost got myself in deep .

That's me driving an automatic transmission tractor, I just can't seem to get a feel for them. It's like all or nothing on the throttle with those things.

If you disable the traction assistance with the button that shows the truck on a slight incline and/or use your left foot on the brake to slow down your sudden backwards acceleration and velocity, you might greatly improve in regards to this situation.

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

You have mechanics?!

In my old building, the mechanics hated to work on tractors/trailers, since it was almost all pkg car mechanics working at night. The second you pop your air brake, the mechanics scattered like a covey of quail. It became a joke, really. They were kind of like sasquatch. Rumor is they exist, but no feeder drivers have actually seen one.

 

[barnyard]

We had a guy that worked nights that knew enough to get a guy going safely to make it to the hub. Both of the times, the dolly that would not lock happened at my center. Mechanic came out, sprayed down the jaws and helped me build my set and pretrip to make sure that things were good to go.
We also had a tractor that had a 5th wheel plate that was needing either a rebuild or replacement. Carried a bottle of the spray in the tractor and sprayed it every night during the pretrip. The jaws would not unlock properly without lots of lube.

 

[Johney]

The jaws would not unlock properly without lots of lube.

I hear the same about Indecision.

 

[olroadbeech]

We had a guy that worked nights that knew enough to get a guy going safely to make it to the hub. Both of the times, the dolly that would not lock happened at my center. Mechanic came out, sprayed down the jaws and helped me build my set and pretrip to make sure that things were good to go.
We also had a tractor that had a 5th wheel plate that was needing either a rebuild or replacement. Carried a bottle of the spray in the tractor and sprayed it every night during the pretrip. The jaws would not unlock properly without lots of lube.

that would really worry me. I would have red tagged it.

 

[barnyard]

that would really worry me. I would have red tagged it.

"New 5th wheel plate on order. Jaws lubed. OK for service."

 

[olroadbeech]

"New 5th wheel plate on order. Jaws lubed. OK for service."

We had a new driver that had a concern about a dolly and took it to the shop. It was already in a loaded set and they Okayed it for service. He gets down the road about 80 miles and the set of duals on one side came completely off and went out into a field. lucky no one was hurt.

nothing ever came of it but all we drivers knew the story.

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

Representin'
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