High Hooking A Trailer Is A Simple Mistake.
To be honest, high hooking a trailer is not easy to do. You really have to be distracted or the set up of the trailer has to be really off. High hooking happens when the kingpin on the trailer is higher than the fifth wheel. Since the fifth wheel pivots on a horizontal axis, the kingpin will hit the fifth wheel, slide across the top, and come to a rest in front of the fifth wheel.
Hooking a trailer to a big truck is not hard to do. I have done it 1000’s of times in the 20 years I’ve been driving a truck. Once you learn how to do it, it becomes second nature. And there-in lies the problem: COMPLACENCY! Now, high hooking trailers is not such a hard thing to do.
If you properly follow the procedure to hook up to a trailer, you can do it without incident time and time again. If you get in a hurry, get distracted, or just don’t care, you will have a problem someday. You may get away with it for a long time, but it will catch up to you.
Don’t do this.
So, what do you do?
- Line up your truck with the trailer. One rule of thumb that I use is, if the drive tires in your drivers side mirror are lined up with the edge of the trailer, your fifth wheel should be lined up with the kingpin.
- Back up to the trailer slowly. The fifth wheel should be at an angle facing the trailer. If the fifth wheel doesn’t pick up the trailer, STOP! All trucks are not created equal. The height of the fifth wheel to the ground is not the same for all trucks. My rule of thumb; if the tractor doesn’t “squat” and pick the trailer off the ground, GET OUT AND LOOK. Make sure the trailer is not too high. If it is, roll up the landing gear until the trailer apron touches the fifth wheel.
- Continue to back under the trailer until you hear and feel the fifth wheel jaws lock onto the trailer kingpin. After you feel the hook, put the truck in low gear and “tug” on the fifth wheel. If it doesn’t come loose, then we are almost ready.
- Hook up the air and electrical lines, roll up the landing gear, and do a pre-trip inspection of the trailer.
- Lastly, DO NOT MOVE YOUR TRACTOR TRAILER UNTIL YOU “TUG” ON THE FIFTH WHEEL AGAIN! I have seen trailers come unhooked many times AFTER going through all the process above. You, the driver, have to be sure that your tractor-trailer is ready to hit the road.
You are the Professional driver and you will be responsible if things don’t work out on the road. High hooking can cause damage to the trailer, a refrigerated unit on the trailer, or the back of your tractor. It can be very difficult to get a trailer high enough to get the kingpin back over the top of the fifth wheel, depending on the weight in the trailer. So, do yourself a favor: Don’t High Hook A Trailer In The First Place.
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I did it once. Now I get out and look every time. Lifting 40k pounds of beef in -10 was not a good time.
Jon, I used to hand unload potato chips but I’ll bet that could not have been as hard as a load of beef. Thanks for the comment.