Anyone else ever do this?

Posted by DDClown502@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 33 comments

Today when I picked up a loaded trailer everything checked out pre trip inspection wise until I started to try moving the trailer. I could get the trailer moving very slowly at about 3 to 4 mph but after moving some the trailer and then my whole vehicle would come to a complete stop. I thought for some reason either the brakes or tires were locking up for whatever reason. I called my company and told them I needed service out to my location. Long story shot the technician quickly noticed what was wrong. My blue airline was hooked up to where my red airline was supposed to be and vise versa. Has anybody else ever done this? I’m quite embarrassed still about it as I made a rookie mistake and already have 2 years under my belt in this profession.

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33 Comments

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shadowmib@reddit

I had my blue line pop off today. If you ever have that happen the pedal feels really weird and even an empty feels like its got 100k in it. Had to pull over and put it back on.

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Sir_Unaru@reddit

I've had that happen. The trailer glad hand was a bit loose, but seemed like a solid connection because of some ice buildup. Took off, ice melted, and hit a bump. Next time I hit the brakes, I heard the air and slowed down less than it should. Problem was, there was nowhere to pull off (two lane road with no shoulder.) Drove like that for about 10 miles before I could fix it.

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shadowmib@reddit

Yeah mine happened on the freeway, stopped at the next truck stop

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HowsThatView@reddit

I've ripped my glad hands off completely from a trailer. Just going through the motions, thought I was safe on autopilot. I was not safe on autopilot.

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SleepingGiante@reddit

Swapped airlines? No. Forgotten to put airlines on? Absolutely.

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Inside-Definition-53@reddit

I almost did this, but luckily, the company put a stopper on the glad hands to keep it from being placed in the wrong slot.

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RoadStocks@reddit

Thats funny shit. Na never did this but i make tons of other dumbass mistakes, like driving over my chocks and making them explode because I forgot I put them down (Im local lol)

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Brightone13@reddit

I did it during my test ran over the chocks, it was raining shit happens to all of us just gotta shake it off lol.😆

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Sir_Uncle_Bill@reddit

Done that a few times too but it was the quarry's chocks. I don't have any of my own.

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FantasticAd410@reddit

Done that a couple times 😄

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hamboner3172@reddit

Some Army equipment has the gladhands swapped on different families of vehicles. It's fine if everything is color coded but gets interesting when gladhands get replaced without getting painted. I had a blue line crack in really cold weather one time and only had red on hand so we swapped it out and moved out. Of course, there's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix so we left it like that. It would catch you off guard if you weren't paying attention.

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PartyEntrepreneur175@reddit

I’ve done it but caught it myself.

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Theworkingman2-0@reddit

Never did this but I caught a falling trailer off my can at the last min. Was used to using an electric kingpin and this one time I used a Manuel one. Long story short I forgot to unlock kingpin thinking it automatically locked due to it being open already, and tried to pull off smh scariest time I had in trucking

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amazonallie@reddit

Yup.. I did that

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Slinkity-@reddit

I have a new Freight Liner, 2025, short sleeper. I was in northern New Mexico and the wind was blowing 20ish with 30 mph gusts. Not a big deal really. I pulled into a rest area to take a leak, turned into the drive way out of the rest area and heard a pop and all the air vacated my trailer with my trailer brakes now locked up. In the driveway.... What happened was one of the chain covers had blown up from the wind, and when I put a bend in my trailer, the cover hit my glad hand and pushed it hard enough to break the metal of the coupler right where the airline donut sealed. Had to wait 3 hours, blocking the driveway, for a new coupler. Literally over heated the clutch trying to drag the trailer out of the way. I've done what the OP has done once. I had a hammer out trying to smack it into place because newer glad hands/couplers wont fit in the wrong one. I don't remember what had me so distracted but another truck driver walked up, asked me if I worked for CAT because I had a CAT shirt on, then pointed out I was putting the wrong line on the wrong coupler. JFC.. We all have those days bro. Bet you'll never do that again.

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Human_Lecture_348@reddit

About 1.5 years in. Dropped a trailer once (fortunately i always pull out slowly, so it dropped onto my tires and not all the way. Only took about 10 mins of turning the handle to be able to back under it again with 40Klbs in the trailer. Also pulled out with my glad hands/elec cable still attached. I've high hooked my trailer once as well, but that's an easy fix as long as you don't crash the back of the cab into the trailer. All 3 were very eye opening and have made me a better driver. As long as you acknowledge the mistake and learn from it (and don't let safety know), you should be fine.

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Hour-Reading-5416@reddit

Happened to me but when I was teaming and it was my teammate… the trailer we were picking up had an air leak so we had breakdown call a tech out. Then he left and we still couldn’t move so we had them call another tech out, second one was like “yall had the airlines on backwards” and that was that.

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4_string_bean@reddit

2 years? You're still a rookie! All jokes aside, I'm sure everyone has done this at some point or another.

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Leto_ll@reddit

Yes, but called road service? No. $300 fine for not getting off your ass is hard to explain.

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No_Inflation7432@reddit

I've never done that. But I've done worse. Late night hook. Thought I had had my airlines properly connected. But .... Moved 100 feet and boom, brakes lock. I didn't have the glad hand seated completely and it fell off/disconnected itself. Thank you truck Jesus it happened in the yard.

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Wskytwn@reddit

Never done that, but did have a kink in one of air lines cause the brakes to drag.

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famcz@reddit

Yep.

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duhrun@reddit

Dammit boy, you need to go over the whole deal a few more times before making a call due to stuff like this.

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steveteeg1@reddit

Old equipment? You can’t put the service line from the truck on the emergency glad hand on the trailer with newer equipment

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1morepl8@reddit

Newer equipment doesn't necessarily have polarized glad hands.

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Sir_Uncle_Bill@reddit

Correct. I've got a brand new trailer I use occasionally and they'll take whatever you give them, they just might not work

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DDClown502@reddit (OP)

Yeah I’m local and the company I’m with has older trailers unfortunately. But it’s a trade off. Not my dream company but it’s my first local job and I got it with 18 months experience so when I had the opportunity i grabbed it.

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Sir_Uncle_Bill@reddit

Did it once at my second company at the terminal. Was 50ft from the first bag of the shop so got a mechanic to walk out and check it out. He couldn't figure it out and got a second mechanic..nobody could figure it out so I got dispatch to get me a different trailer. As I was hooking the airlines up to the new one it occurred to me what I did lol.

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TapWaterKY@reddit

It happens to everyone. Whether it’s lines backwards, rocking the trailer for 15 minutes because you forgot to pull the tandem pins, throwing your hoses into the back of the cab because you forgot to unhook them, or dragging your landing gear a few feet before you hear the terrible grinding of metal on concrete. Little things happen on occasion when you do it thousands of times. Eventually you get to the point you triple check everything just to not overthink it all lol.

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FantasticAd410@reddit

I had a trailer with the crank handle over on the passenger side. Checked the 5th wheel jaws, hooked the airlines and took off. Got a couple miles down the road and it hit me, I never raised the legs back up, forgot the damn crank was on the other side of

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shadowmib@reddit

The glad hands on my truck are. Made so that they wont hook up the wrong way. Now if someone switched the lines on the trailer thats weird

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OrganizationNo6167@reddit

Hey my excuse would be in colour blind lmaooo no harm no foul

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12InchPickle@reddit

I did this when I was a yard dog. It was especially embarrassing as I was chatting with a UPS driver and this mf saw me swap the lines and didn’t say anything. After he left and I got back inside. Yup. I was there calling over the radio “my trailer is broken plz help” 🤡