I don't usually swear much, but read on and you'll get why I did it this time.
I was ordered to Plainfield, Indiana yesterday morning to pick up a load of merchandise for the Dick's Sporting Goods chain with three drops in Iowa then returning back to Plainfield with returns from the stores.
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The first stop in Davenport, Iowa went fine and I drove up the road to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the second stop. The store only has a single truck dock and they keep a trailer of their own in the dock for extra storage, so we have to unhook from our trailer, hook to theirs, move it out of the dock, drop their trailer, rehook to ours then push it back into the dock. It is even more laborious than writing it out, I assure you.
Anyway, I dropped my trailer and when I went to pick up their trailer I first made certain they didn't have anything blocking the kingpin, like a kingpin lock. It was just a normal kingpin so I bumped up against it once and it didn't catch properly, so I pulled up then backed up again while making sure I was aligned properly. Then I hear a crunch and I pull up and see a big chunk missing from the equipment under the fifth wheel plate. Oops.
What I suspect happened was that the angle my fifth wheel was connecting to the kingpin was off a bit because the dock angles down towards the doors. When the kingpin and the locking mechanism on my fifth wheel came into contact it was off just enough to hook up incorrectly and put pressure on the mechanism in an unusual way, and it snapped.
Anyway, I'm at the local Kenworth dealership waiting to get into the shop and get it fixed so I can try moving that trailer again...
