Page 100 - Driving Commercial Vehicles Manual+

chapter 5 — skills for driving trucks and trailers

Other types of connections

A pintle hitch connection uses a hook on the vehicle in front and an eye on
the vehicle behind. Some pintle hitch connections have an air or hydraulic ram
to take up any slack between the hook and the eye.
When you use any coupling device (other than a fifth wheel) you must also
use chains or metal cables to connect the towed and towing vehicles. These
auxiliary chains or cables must be equal to the strength of the coupling device.
Attach the pintle eye on
the trailer behind to the
pintle hook on the vehicle
in front. Use the safety catch
to secure the pintle hitch
connection, along with
safety chains and/or cables.

The drawbar or other connection between the motor vehicle and the trailer
may not be more than five metres long unless you’re towing a pole trailer.
When a driver is towing more than one trailer, sometimes a converter dolly is
used.

A converter dolly.

A converter dolly has an axle, a fifth wheel and a hitch. Other devices may
driving tip also be used to couple and spread the weight of large loads.

When towing with a Coupling devices must be strong enough to hold the vehicles together when
converter dolly, make sure they’re loaded and must be fastened to a structurally adequate part of the
that the air brake lines from frame of each vehicle.
the truck to the converter
dolly and from the converter Coupling with a pintle hitch
dolly to the trailer are
properly connected so that Use these steps to couple a truck and trailer joined with a pintle hitch:
the brakes on the trailer
will function.

A pintle hitch is used to
connect this dump truck to
the dump trailer.

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