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Averitt | We need a company wide trailer dropping seminar !

Iceman

Iceman

Company Man
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My friend just about lost his head last night in Cin. He was hooking a heavy load that was dropped incorrectly, while trying to raise the landing gear the handle "kicked back" and busted him in the mouth, a lot of blood loss and I think stitches. He was in a Volvo. Freightliner drivers need to stop cranking down the gear BEFORE it touches the ground. Let the tractor do the work. I bet 5/10 of the trailers I hook are dropped way too high, sometimes the trailer kingpin never touches the fifth wheel.
 
Iceman I have been saying this for a long time.Someone needs to do something.Every night I have to crank the landing gear before I hook.Trailers are way to high.When you watch these drivers in thr FL's pull out they will sit there and spin their wheels.Engage both axels and pull out slowly.Drives me crazy!
 
Its the same thing here at Sysco, I sit and watch guys practically work theirself to death cranking that trailer high, I wrote a big long how to on our whiteboard in our driver room, even that didn't work! I think we do enough through the course of the day or night, why finish it off by adding that last little bit of work to ones shift!
 
As a FRTLNR driver ...I do not lower the landing gear down all the way...however what many people don't realize is that when you drop a mt trl,even leaving the gear up a bit,when it is loaded the azz end will settle down and RAISE the front of the trl. I've had to crank a loaded trl down so I can get under it. Did that driver know that our trailers have 2spd gears on them......also our wonderful parts changers,install what ever gear handles they have laying around...ever try to crank a gear up with a handle that's tooooo short or bent. Many of our landing gear legs are stiff or bent....because people are to DAMN lazy to lock the tandems in after sliding them back at customers!
 
This is also a burr under my saddle blanket. Obviously those that continue to crank and crank are obviously rookies. Landing gear hits the ground on a Volvo and I back it off 6 turns and drop the bags. On a Freightliner I will back them off even further. WHen a landing gear is lowered it should NEVER EVER be cranked past the ground and should be backed off significantly.

Thanks for bringing this up.
 
Some of us don't have dump valves. Hell, some of us don't have paved yards. I would prefer one left a little high than low.
We have no option but to get a running start and slam the wagon which I hate doing but have no choice. If we try to ease under in my yard, we spin out in the dirt/gravel rather quickly. Then it's time to get the trusty chain and hope you're not alone in the yard.
 
Ran into this Thursday at Petco Braselton Ga,talk about a nose high trl...
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Grocery Thrower we have a dog food account in Lebanon TN drop and hook...They shove 45k on those trailers and EVERY trailer I have picked up is high pinned I often wonder how in the world are these trailers dropped so high...
 
I watch our guys drop mtys and crank the crap out of them, I don't know why, one guy that does it alot cranks the hell out of it then crams it in gear and pulls out without dumping his air, he is a douche, and all of us that care about our equipment despise him, he drives a new Cascadia, at least he doesn't have a clutch anymore, he has destroyed 3 clutches since I have been here.

Some people just don't know how.
 
Internationals sit higher than Columbia sit higher than Volvo. There is NEVER an excuse for a high dropped trailer. Let the tractor do the work when hooking and slowly pull out from a trailer that you are dropping and have left thew landing gear a couple inches shy of the ground. Anything short of that practice is simply ignorance or rookie, untrained habit.
 
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