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OK Hows come the steering wheel holder always get blamed 4 rollovers?

Apostolic

Apostolic

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Hows about the forklift jokey thats working the dock who loads these wagons?

Maybe they are loading to much weight on the ditch side,and when the trucker goes into a banked turn on a ramp,or any other low side of any other road for that matter.

Given the way gravity works the load would naturally slide toward the heavy side,and over it goes.

Just thinking out loud on my putter keyboard.

As many of the rollovers I see and post whenever there is photos on the reports.
I know that not all the fault should always got to the gear jammer pulling the buggies.
 
Apostolic

What have you been drinking/smoking? We have 70 yrs or so combined behind the wheel. Were we just lucky we never rolled one of those things?
 
Apostolic said:
Hows about the forklift jokey thats working the dock who loads these wagons?

Maybe they are loading to much weight on the ditch side,and when the trucker goes into a banked turn on a ramp,or any other low side of any other road for that matter.

Given the way gravity works the load would naturally slide toward the heavy side,and over it goes.

Just thinking out loud on my putter keyboard.

As many of the rollovers I see and post whenever there is photos on the reports.
I know that not all the fault should always got to the gear jammer pulling the buggies.
Click to expand...

You could have something here...
I have noticed several rigs in the last year that seem to be loaded heavy (either side), have low tire pressure, or a weak side suspension. Trundling right along at 70 seemingly unconcerned.

I just idly put it down to either lower maintenance standards by carrier or a drivers lower standards. One of the highest compliments I ever heard told on me by a boss was: "You can always tell when its _ _ _ _ _ coming in at night. every light on his rig is burning."

Also, a trailer tracking off to the side... Don't their mirrors show the difference? Don't they grease fifth wheels anymore? At least scrape the thickest road collection from bobtailing off.

Just observations....
 
I know I'm right on this issue with the 45 years of city driving before I hung up my tractor keys for the last time,and retired.
I saw dockworkers load heavy on the ditch side plenty of times.
I always squawked to my dispatcher and had the trailer reloaded to distribute the weight.

Most part time dockworkers have never sat in the seat of any cabs,to try and drive a loaded trailer that is leaning heavy on the right.
One wrong turn can put you on the side in short order.

I guess many (TB) members just don't realize I've been in this trucking business for many years and I might know what I'm talking about regarding most of the crashes I post.
 
I, for one, do not doubt your credibility regarding causes of wrecks and/or Driver errors.
I have only seen a shadow of things in Trucking compared to your lines of sight for the years you were Driving.

I do not doubt a bit the careless and reckless abandon with which Trailer loading is presented. I have seen such with Dry Vans and have had these reloaded because of weight problems being legal.
I briefly pulled Flatbeds and the main product was Coils of which I PREFERRED being loaded ******* because the ride was better than Shotgun which has a greater tendency to flip the trailer when turning.

Keep posting Apostolic as I, for one, greatly appreciate your viewpoints, for WE are constantly learning and not any one person has all the answers.
 
OleGuy said:
Also, a trailer tracking off to the side... Don't their mirrors show the difference? Don't they grease fifth wheels anymore? At least scrape the thickest road collection from bob tailing off.

Just observations....
Click to expand...
Greasing 5th wheels doesn't matter when the faulty ALIGNMENT is the culprit for Trailers doglegging to one side which IS noticeable in correctly aligned Mirrors.
Most Trailers are damaged by the careless or incompetent Drivers that slam Trailers into Curbs and other things when making turns, not from lack of 5th wheel grease.
ANY Driver (like me) can purchase 5th wheel grease from many Truck stops and other places and apply as needed or when after dropping or be4 hooking a Trailer, yet many Drivers do not because many of these simple minded people see this maintenance issue as some other Drivers' problem.
True, scraping the thickest collection of nasty polluted grease from the 5th wheel is helpful but again it appears as some other Drivers' problem at least with MANY trucks I've seen over these years.
 
Apostolic, I apologize for my comments. Lack of sleep. You have a good point. I have been pulling rail containers for the past 17 yrs. When you pick one up off the rail you dont know what you have. You can only make sure the unit is not leaning. If in doubt we have to call the company for permission to break the seal & take a look. Then when empty we usually pick up a preloaded container. Again you dont really know what you have. At every turn, curve, ramp you must assume the worst. So far so good.
 
Posts

Also, I really appreciate you going to the trouble to post these accidents. I read them every day & they keep me aware of what can happen out there. Thanks again.
 
Explanation, not correction

C K,
Greasing 5th wheels should have been separated from trailer tracking.
Reason for comment was that Friday I saw 13 good looking KW sleepers on a dealers lot with a name I recognized on the doors. Gee, had this one gone under?
So I drove thru the lot and circled the 13. 7 in a row, 6 behind the 7.
As I made the back pass, I noticed all the 5th wheels were dry, only old dry grease in the depressions.

I happen to know that these came in from a terminal 8 miles out of town and to the parking on clean dry paved roads. They did not just get that way coming in. 2 years old, in to swap out before 250,000 miles and had big power. Team driven (MS to CA Seattle areas.) Pititful....

My comment on lights was to indicate I kept things on my old rig working properly for my benefit. Single axle tractor, dry 5th wheel - steer left, it keeps going left-Straighten it back, keeps going that way. Manual steering made for a lot of unnecessary "driving".
A broken tie bolt in the old leaf springs;SA tractor-Right side, made the tractors rear run to the right, creating a left track for trailer. Some weird things go to the shop for simple causes.

A truism...
"At every turn, curve, or ramp, you must assume the worst"
Every old bull hauler had this running across the top of his windshield.
 
10-2, 10-4 OleGuy!!
Keep 'em comin' between the Ditches!!

:Off-Topic:On a side note about Lights or Chicken Lights;
I ONCE saw a Coca-Cola truck somewhere at night that was brighter than ANY Truck I've seen before or since what with all the Amber Lights on just the Trailer alone.
It Glowed!!
The Driver needed not have the Headlights functioning for the sight offered from the Light was enough.
I believe it was one of the first Combos with all LEDs.:Off-Topic:

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming or :ontopic:
 
I never felt that problem myself pulling dry vans, but seeing as I drove tankers for many years, with the liquid load shifting around, it was something I expected so I have always driven slower then average making turns or curves. My .02 cts.
 
Used to be lots of drivers wouldn't drain water on the older rigs I used to drive that didnt have air dryers. I guess pulling a cable was too much work. I can easily see a driver not keeping the 5th wheel greased after that.
 
I remember delivering 4x8 sheets of a teflon material to a truck repair garage east of Rochester NY.

The guy I delivered to claimed he had invented this stuff for Dump truck box floors,and Pete fifth wheels on their more pricy tractors.

He said the dump floors would cause nothing to stick to it,and the fifth wheels that this sheeting was bolted to never needed any grease.

Although I never did see any tractor fifth wheels with that stuff on them?
I did see Dump trucks he was putting it in,when I delivered to his shop.

Do any of you long timers ever remember seeing anything like what I'm talking about in any of your travels?

I did a google search,and couldn't find anything about this guys invention.
However I did find an interesting article about advances in fifth wheels as of 2000.
http://fleetowner.com/mag/fleet_whats_new_fifth/
 
Yeah, I think that's what it was anyhow. I pulled propane tankers one season with a KW day cab that had a type of amber colored "spacer" sandwiched between the fifth and the tank trailer. Owner took the landing legs off the trailer to get the weight down so we could load on more fuel on and get it past the chicken-coop legal. Cheapskate never drove a rig in his life, so he used that device since no way to grease the 5th. :biglaugh:
 
You said it! Rail containers are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you will get. Gotta love those broken landing gear boxes that dont work...not! :mad:
 
A_Post / Ranger.
The Teflon for 5th wheel was out sometime before 1959.
One's offered then were like a pattern for the 5th wheel (Cut rounded front, slotted back in middle, two prongs/ wings, a fitted skin. Thin, less than a quarter inch. Some raised places, prongs to stick down in grease grooves to position in place.
Never used one. Mostly kept a clean greased wheel under that same black cattle trailer in the avatar.

BUT did see a few in the trash/junk around shops. Problem was if you cleaned off your wheel, put it on and got under a trailer that HAD NOT been kept clean and greased, the dry rusty scrapes on the trailer plate would eat it up and spit it off in 3 pieces. The wings first, then the nose section when you went to hook again. Were not a practical item then with little swapping trailers, and certainly not now with the hands out there now.

If we recovered the grease on the leading edge plate lips; of all trailers out there, recycled it, the oil crisis would be over
 
Accessories...

ranger309 said:
Used to be lots of drivers wouldn't drain water on the older rigs I used to drive that didn't have air dryers. I guess pulling a cable was too much work. I can easily see a driver not keeping the 5th wheel greased after that.
Click to expand...

Air dryer???
Pull cable????
How about the little brass petcocks right out the lower back end of the tanks. You kept a pair of fairly long pliers so you could reach in and under to bleed off. Scrunch in between the saddle tank and drive tires, reach way in and down, give it the half twist. SPEWWW. Repeat on the other side. Didn't have any lower back problems back then... Kept flexible... Could do that at 20years old then.
 
WOW OleGuy.
Here I thought I was an old guy on this here (TB).
You make me feel a little younger,as I got my start in trucking around mid 1963,which gave me 45 years when I retired in April of 2008.

You say you remember the teflon fifth wheels as far back as 1959?

However around the late 90's,I was delivering those sheets of teflon to the guy who claimed he was the inventor.
I'm pretty sure he told me they were for the high end Pete's,and Kenny whoopers.

Like I say I never saw any teflon fifth wheels.
I did see him putting sheets in dump truck boxes,I guess it was supposed to keep asphalt from sticking to the bottom of the boxes.
When they were bringing the tar,stone mixture to road projects.
 
:Off-Topic: The very brief time I spent with Dump trucks delivering Asphalt, we were using some type (Teflon concoction?) spray prior to loading which eliminated most of the Asphalt from sticking. Very little shovel work. :Off-Topic:

We my now resume the :ontopic: portion of this Thread.
 
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