OTR tractor 5th wheel failure

Has anyone ever had the pin on the trailer the lock or whatever else can or could fail on a tractor trailer ? I was wondering, there was a very unfortunate accident, somewhere in NY, trailer load of crushed cars came unhooked and wiped out a family in a mini van. Seems like if something actually broke, what are the chances. Would seem that if it was not locked, the trailer would not stay hooked long enough to get on the road even if there was a lot of weight bearing down on it.

One of the things that stick in my mind is the idiots on IRT that slam the heck out of the pin in the cold, they don't seem to appreciate getting their lazy butts out of the cab and raising the legs until its just right, I always did that when hooking up, back in firmly but never saw any reason to slam it in and raise the trailer a foot while doing so, don't care if its empty, they go on just as nice an lock just the same without all the extra momentum.

Of the 38 years I drove I never seen a pin fail but have seen fifth wheels fail.In the the time I drove two of our drivers had the ear that comes around behind pin break. Both were lucky one went off road and the other the trailer was empty and the driver saw it in the mirrors drop off tractor and he brakednot loosen hoses and slid on dollies and rode up againest frame of tractor.Both trailers dropped on expressways around big cities. I don't know where you drove or not truck but if a trailer is dropped to low and loaded in temps in and around 0 degrees you can't crank dollies even if they are in low gear( you might with new trailer but not with an old trailer) and we pulled a lot of trailers that were 15 years or older. The only way you can get under them is to hit them.

Those kingpins will take more abuse than the truck is capable of giving them.

Fifth wheels can fail.

You'd be surprised how far guys can get with the trailer hi-hooked. Sometimes the bottom edge of the pin will trip the 5th wheel, and the pin will sit on the locking jaw.

Others, the pin will sit on top of the 5th wheel.

At a lot of companies, a hi-hook means immediate dismissal, even if it does not result in any property damage or injury.

They can break, but it would be incredibly rare. High hooking would be a more likely cause.

After over 30 yrs in this business I have never seen a kingpin fail but a 5th wheel can break. Usually the jaw that wraps around the pin breaks.

More often than not if a trailer comes loose it was caused by a high hook; and I have seen guys pull the trailer many miles before the trailer came loose.

Both Jon, John La, right... "high hook" that I have not thought of in a long time, I always inspected the connection and of course tried to pull out with the trolley brakes set, seems to me that is a drivers responsibility, as part of the pre-trip.

more or a chance of fail when legs are raised by the crank then when truck is used to raise the trailer. IRT guys are doing it right in my book.
if pin or 5th wheel breaks; it's best to do it when hooking up. I lost a trailer once from a new truck when the 5th wheel failed. happened in Denver CO on a city street!

Right, I did drive in cold weather down to zero way back when. I can see that dolly crank gear box getting stiff and or with a load on, in extreme cold, something I did not consider with my post here. They can be a b$tch as I recall now, like the old job trailers we had, 50's era. More than likely where I drove, as I recall, I was the only one using the trailers, so when dropping them I would most likely have them close, usually did not load unhooked.

Really hits home when such a tragic accident occurs, like this one, we had another right over the hill, tractor trailer wiped out some poles in a really bad thunderstorm, had some funnel clouds, rain and wind, 2 wreckers to get it out, 10hr power outage, thankfully I have a back up battery bank, not sure how the driver made out, went over an embankment into a tree, and sheared a huge limb off.

I can see why now, busy yard, pre-loading trailers and all the variables, tractors being at varied heights, uneven ground if not paved, etc. and of course old stiff grease in the gearbox, heavy load on.

I suppose my view on ramming them home comes from trying to be careful with equipment, not be abusive, however there are times when you have to do things like that, just wondered if it had any association with any kinds of failure, the repeated shock loads on these.

I drove for a number of years, still have a clean CDL A with a current DOT medical card, use to haul lumber out of the railyard, large roof trusses and lots of building materials, as well as lowboy moving D8K's, D8N's 627 scrapers, 980 loaders and 235 excavators, graders, tandem site trucks job trailers and the like. At that outfit I ran a '68 AutoCar, and a 72 AutoCar with a real heavy Rogers low boy type trailer. Ran a few R model Mack's, owned a GMC astro, 435 detroit 8V-92, 13spd fuller road ranger.

Right, see my post below, I kinda forgot about the other conditions, they don't have much of a choice, LOL so who is the idiot now LOL ME, open mouth, insert foot !!!, but uh well thats ok, LOL, its kind of a human thing, and we do forget some as time passes LOL !

Billy I drove for the same company for 38 years. We were a small mom & pop commercial carrier and we were union. We only pulled van body trailers and when I started out we thought the 35 & 40 foot long and 8 foot wide trailers were big but by the time I retired the fleet was made up mostly of 102" wide and 53 feet long.Our company ran Ford,Chevy,International,and Freightliner tractors with all kinds of engine and transmission combinations. We had some Ford gassers that they changed the bell housing and put 427 Chevy engines in them. We ran in winter when others wouldn't go out( even when the roads were closed under state of emergency) but we hauled a lot of medical supplies at that time. I still have a class A CDL and medical card active but dropped Haz-Mat endorsement the last time I renewed it.

We were always told to hook on trailer and give her a couple of hard jerks to make sure fifth wheel was locked and we also took a flash light and looked to make sure pin was latched. If I thought there was an doubt about it being latched I took it to our shop and had it checked if they gave you the ok and you dropped it you never heard a word from boss.

When I was at Schneider, they bought some old trucks off Crete for Walmart dedicated. Schneider-spec'd trucks had a switch for applying trailer brakes on the dash and no hand brake. The Crete trucks did not have that switch, but did have the hand brake. When you came around to the shop with a trailer with inoperative service brakes, they would ask how you knew. "Put it in low gear, hit the clutch, pulled hand brake, didn't stop".
"You're not supposed to use that"
"Please explain how I am to test that my trailer brakes are operating without using it"
Then they'd go out and fix the trailer brakes, and disconnect the hand brake, so if you really wanted to get p***y with them, you could refuse to pull a trailer with the truck because you had no way to test that the trailer brakes were working.

They would even disconnect the suspension dump if one of the mechanics saw you use it to pull out from under a trailer.