Hi there smart drivers Rick with Smart
Drive Test talking to you today about
how to unhook a semi-trailer for the
purposes of a road test. This is not for
drivers who are going out and working
after they get their license. However
saying that, the sequence is the same
regardless of whether you're preparing
for road test or you're working--L.A.P
(landing gear, airlines, pin) Do it in the
same order every time, and you won't drop the
trailer on the ground,
you won't rip the airline's off, and you
won't bend the dollies. And let me tell
you, you bend the dollies, and every truck driver
from here to Mexico is going to make fun
of you for the rest of your career. So
we're going to be right back with that
information.
Stick around.
{OPENING CREDITS & MUSIC]
Hi smart drivers, Rick with Smart
Drive Test talking to you today about
how to unhook a semi-trailer for the
purposes of a road test.
L.A.P. - landing gear, airlines, pin. Do it
the same order every time! Just a little
note on the landing gear -
there's a crank handle here - in is low, and
out is high. You can be a little rough
with this. And then you need to lock the
handle in. I've seen people do this sort
of thing here... really screw around with
it. Actually what you need to do is lock
that handle in and crank it down
ok. So one of the ways you can remember
it, you crank it this way to put the
dollies down and you crank it this way
for the dollies to go up.
Okay, just a note when you're winding the
dollies down, two fingers on the handle
here--out here the end--
put your hand on the side of the trailer and
tuck your chin in because you don't want to
get smacked in the face
with the handle on here. So bring it down -
when it goes taunt like that, then you
put it into low gear and keep
cranking it down until you hear the air
out of the air ride suspension begin to
exhaust.
So right there you can hear the air
exhausting out of the suspension. Drop the handle.
Any time that you're not having the
trailer on the back of the truck you
don't have to stow it, you just drop the
handle like that. Now we go up to the
airline's. So the next thing we want to
do is unhook the airline. So L.A.P.- landing
gear... we drop the landing gear and crank
it down until we can hear air escaping
from the air ride suspension. Now we take
our lines and electrical lines off. It
doesn't matter what order you take them
off,
however I do suggest that you work
outside to in, that way you're not
reaching over and you're not getting
grease on yourself and all sorts of
things. Now when you take these off put them in
the dummy coupler on the back of the
tractor. Some guys will have a bungee
cord on the deck - you can just put them
into the bungee cord, but you get dirt
and grit and that kind of thing in the lines. So
if you've got dummy couples on the back
you can take that 30 seconds it takes and
you to put them in the dummy couplers.
And put them in there. So to unhook the
glad hands on the trailer, just grab on
the bottom here, pull up on them. They
come up like this - so pull this one off
first, pull this one up - you gotta lift
up on this because there's a catch on this.
You gotta lift up on the electrical and pull
out on the electrical line -lift up on
this.
You got all of them in your hand like
this, and then come up and put them on
the dummy couplers on the back of the
truck. So the electrical has a groove on
the top of it here you can see, and in
the dummy coupler there's a groove that
it matches up with. You stick it in the
top there like that. And then the 2 gladhands
90° degrees,
push it down. 90° degrees and push it down.
So your lines are stowed.
There isn't any dirt or grit going to get
into your airlines, so that's a good
place for them. And this too is not
hanging down [PULLING ON THE AIRLINES & ELECTRICAL] near the drive shaft or any
place like that that's going to get
ripped off and whatnot. So the next thing
we do - so that's the second step - Air
Lines and electrical disconnected and
stowed. And the next step is to pull the
pin on the fifth wheel. So the last step
of the uncouple - L.A.P - landing gear,
air lines and electrical - disconnect that. And
then we're going to pull the pin.
Now most of the time you're going to
have a pin puller, unfortunately I don't
have a pin puller today. Use a pin puller
because what happens is the fifth wheel
is covered in grease and all that grease
is going to go up on your arm and
eventually going to get into the cab and
you don't know where the grease comes
from. So try and use a pin puller. Go to
the truck stop and get one or just make
one - you can bend a piece of steel up to
hook onto this handle here. And pull this
out you can see that it's a bit gnarly.
If you've got a pin puller, it's a lot
easier.
So you can see that the handles out and
also this particular fifth wheel has a
bolt - an adjusting bolt on the front of it -
you can see that the adjusting bolt has
come out as well. So that you know that
it's unlocked and for the purposes of a
road test
you're gonna have to go in underneath
and make sure that the jaws in fact are
open. And it depends on where you are,
which licensing center you're going to.
Some of them will want you to go and
check the jaws, others will not.
I personally don't think you have to
because if you pull the tractor forward and
it doesn't come unhook, you know that
the jaws aren't open. But we're gonna go in
and check them underneath the truck here.
You just look up into the fifth-wheel
there and you can see that the jaws are
open. And all you do is you just come in
here have a quick look and say: "the jaws
are open." And you're ready to go to
finish unhooking the trailer. So we
finished everything outside - L.A.P. - landing
gear - we cranked down the landing gear
until we heard air exhaust from the
air ride suspension.
We've unhooked the airlines and we pulled
the pin. Now we're ready to finish
uncoupling. We get in the truck and we pull
forward a foot (20 centimetres). And the reason we want to
pull forward a foot is because we want the
kingpin out of the fifth wheel. And the
reason we want the kingpin of the fifth
wheel - there's a flange on the bottom of the kingpin -
you can see that in the image here.
And that flange will hang up in the
fifth wheel when you drop the air
suspension if you don't move the kingpin out of the 5th wheel. We've got to drop the air
suspension because we want to make sure
that the ground is supporting the weight
of the trailer. And we know that by
dropping the air suspension and putting all
the weight on the dollies of the trailer.
So that's what we're going to do next.
When you get in the truck and pull forward, drop
the air suspension, and come out and
check that in fact the trailer is being
supported by the ground. Because if it's
not being supportive by the ground and you
drive out from underneath the trailer
and it sinks [CHUCKLING], your employer doesn't like
you because it's really, really tough to
get that trailer back up off the ground.
So we're going to do that - pull forward,
drop the air suspension and check to
make sure that the weight is being
supported by the dollies on the trailer.
So we get in the truck, we move the truck
forward and the other thing that I
suggest when you move the truck forward,
use bull (low gear), that way you've got a bit more
control when you're pulling out from
underneath the trailer. So we pulled
forward 12 inches (20 centimetres), we get the kingpin out
of the fifth wheel and then we drop the
suspension. And you can see here in the
shot that there is now daylight between
the trailer and the fifth wheel, which
indicates to us that the trailer dollies
are actually supporting the weight of
the trailer. And it's unhooked.
[MUSIC: MEAN STEETZ]
Quick review of unhooking - we're all
done unhooking. You can basically drive
the tractor away at this point. So L.A.P. -
landing gear, airlines and electrical, and pin. So crank the
landing gear down. There's two gears on
the landing gear: 1)there's a high 2) and a
low and make sure that you lock the
handle, otherwise you look like a
rookie. Remember, being a veteran isn't
really knowing more, it's simply
looking like you know what you're doing.
So make sure you lock the handle in
when you crank the dollies down.
Crank the dollies down until they touch
the ground, put it in low gear and continue
to crank it down until you hear air
escaping from the air ride suspension on
the truck. Then you disconnect the lines
from the trailer and work out to in.
Hook them onto the dummy couplers on the
back of the cab. so L.A.P. - last one is pin.
Pull the pin - the handle is out and the
bolt is out on the front of the fifth
wheel. Some jurisdictions will want you
to actually get under and visually look
to make sure that the jaws on the fifth
wheel are open. After you've done that,
you get in the truck, roll down your
window so you can hear. Always when
you're working in yards and backing up
and those types of things, always roll
down your window so you can hear. Put the
truck into bull, pull forward 12 inches.
You pull forward 12 inches, dump the
suspension, get out and make sure that
there's daylight between the trailer and
the fifth wheel. That way you know that
the ground is supporting the weight of
the trailer. Because you don't want the
trailer to sink into the ground if the
ground is unstable. Because your employer
gets pretty excited when they have to get
a huge forklift or a crane out there to
pick that trailer up off the ground. So
that's the reason you don't pull out
from underneath the trailer right away.
You want to make sure that the ground is
supporting the weight of the trailer. Then
you pull away. Now oftentimes on a road
test what they're going to get you to do
is uncouple like this, and than you're going to
back up beside the trailer so that
you're offline with the front of the
trailer. They're going to get you to pull
forward and they're going to get you to
rehook to the trailer. So that's what
they're going to do for the purposes of
a license. And as I said, once you start
working, just keep it in that same order
all the time:
L.A.P. - landing gear, airlines, pin. If you
doing it in the same order every time,
you're not going to rip the airline's
off, you're not going to drop
the trailer on the ground, and you're not
going to damage the landing gear. So make
sure you keep it in that
order every time. As I tell students, semi-
trailers are easy to hook up and they're
also easy to screw up!
So make sure you do it the same way
every time. Question for my smart drivers:
have you ever ripped airlines off a semi-
trader when you've been on hooking a
trailer. Leave a comment down in the
comment section there. All that helps
us out.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. if you like
what you see here share, subscribe, leave
a comment down in the comment section
there. As well, hit that thumbs up button.
Check out all the videos here on the
channel if you're working towards
getting a license or endeavoring to
start a career as a truck or bus driver.
Thanks again for watching. Good luck on
your license. And remember, pick the best
answer not necessarily the right answer.
Have a great day. Bye now.
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