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My Truckalogue
Each visit to PT gets more intense. The exercises are getting harder, and now I feel like we're really getting somewhere. I told Carrie, the therapist, that I wanted to do the whole 4 weeks that Dr. Feelbetternow had prescribed, because.... She finished the sentence for me - "You want to be 100% when you go back to work."
Little Nursette had mentioned something about doing it in 3 weeks. She doesn't have the slightest idea how strenuous my job is, or how much I need this therapy. If I don't get it right now, I never will.
Source Even when the components are not "frozen" by accumulated grit or excessive force applied in locking the apparatus, in excess of 120 pounds of force is often necessary to open the fifth wheel, therefore, a degree of physical prowess is required to operate the device.
I was looking for confirmation of the force necessary to pull the 5th wheel open, and stumbled across this: JOB DESCRIPTION: JOB TITLE Truck Driver III: JOB CLASSIFICATION: Truck Driver III: DOT TITLE Truck Driver, Heavy.
The truck driver must push/pull 15 pounds of force while inserting and removing the fifth wheel pin. The employee may have to pull with a force of 20 pounds on an occasional basis for 3 minutes at a time for up to 1 hour total per shift while pulling the fuel hose while performing fueling duties. On a rare occasion the employee may have to open or close the hood of a truck with requires 40 pounds of push/pull force
15 pounds. Yeah, right.
Source
... a spring may be utilized that requires less pulling force to be applied to release handle 86. As a result, the pull force required to release the lock may be reduced to as low as 30 pounds, which is half that required for conventional release handles.
So it's 60 pounds just for a lightweight 5th wheel - like for towing a camper with a pickup truck.
Nursette called this afternoon to confirm our appointment with Dr. Feelbetternow on the 18th. So it's the 18th instead of the 19th??? At 9:30AM. Well.
