Question:
You need to slide your tandems. Problem with many trailers is that the handle won't stay out and your locking pins won't release.
Get yourself a good pair of vise-grips. Pre-set the grips to the diameter of the handle. Pull the handle out to the slot it is supposed to fit in. Place the vise-grips thusly:
Now the handle will stay out. Even if you can't get the handle pulled all the way out, you can still place the grips as shown. (This is why I said to pre-set the grips as you can hold the handle with one hand and place the grips with the other). This will help release the tension on the pins and you can then rock the trailer and release the pins.
One of our gal drivers is 90 lbs soaking wet. I showed her this trick and she is able to do it every time now.Sometimes you have to dig through a lot horsesh#t to find the pony.

Answer:
What kind of shape would we all be in if it wasn't for vise grips and duct tape? Never leave home with out them.

Answer:
Great Hint!
Also do not jerk or hit the handle hard.
Jerking on the handle will only cost you many hundreds of bucks the first time you get a pulled musicale from it.
Also releasing the handle were it snaps back into the carrier will damage it making it had to pull out.
The handle should pull out supper duper easy. With no real task needed. Some are older. These took all you had to pull them. Others are still new. They have just been mistreated.
Like kicked into open with the foot. While this is easy on the driver to unlock the handle. It is like 10 years on the equipment.
It causes the springs and handles to snap back. Bending and stretching them. Makes them very hard to pull open.
Also for only like 50 bucks you can buy a tandem puller. It holds the tandems open and also gives you much leverage. It is worth it. Let you carrier pay for it.
Most will. It saves them so muck in workmen’s comp that many will pay for it. Just ask.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

Answer:
I use to use about 15 feet of good quality 1/2 inch manilla rope. Just double up the rope and rap/run it over the handle and use your leverage with the rope to pull. You can also put your foot on the wheel and pull. You can lean back with the rope wraped around your wrist and get much better leverage. Saves the back.
15 feet of rope takes up little space and can be used for many other things, including hanging yourself if things don't work out in trucking, lol.

Answer:
i find that if i can get it out but it want lock so i can slide i just bend it a little bit not a server bend but just enuff so it will lock while i slide my tandems.
[if sh** was worth something.........poor people would be born without ***holes]

Answer:
Using the visegrips to hold the rod out is a good idea (I don't know if I could bend one, badman ; remind me not to (edited) you off ).
Being old, fat and lazy, the technique I use is to clamp the visegrips to the side of the trailer and then run a couple of bungee cords from the actuating rod, around the visegrips and back to the rod. This produces enough 'pulling' power to 'pull the pins' when I straighten the trailer, as Hoss suggested. The bungees will also keep the actuating rod out (pins pulled) until I get the tandems slid.

Answer:
it not that hard just hold the pull rod with both hands and lean forward or backwards and it will bend a lil. but it might help that i'm a 258pd former high school football player 2 so my weight helps in the process to.

Answer:
In our industry the tandam slide. Is like 3rd to workmens comp accidents.
Some companies will report these as preventable.
So do not slip on you azz. Tugging and pulling.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

Answer:
the company I'm leased to has begun to spec. new trls. with air-assist pins,when you set the trl. brake,only the trl. brakes,the air bag deflate and center the pin by it's self,then you pull on an air button and the pins are retracted.
On the spring loaded pins(there are a few left),I find it handy to keep a piece of broken pallet wood and JAM it in the hole or slot that the pin handle slides thru,keeps from losing vice-grips
just my 2cents

Answer:
Back to the original point of holding the tandem handle with Vicegrips...
The handle may "come out all the way" and seat in the groove properly but the pins STILL don't retract enough, even though they may look like they're retracted enough.
This happens on many of our older trailers because the mechanism behind the handle gets loose and distored over time. To fully retract all the pins, the handle has to come out FURTHER than the groove in the bar that sets it in the out position,
I take my vicegrips with me EVERYTIME I go to pull the tandems. If the handle pulls out past where the groove holds it in place, I use the vicegrips to hold it out as far as it will go. Sometimes it's 2 or more inches past the grove in the handle, because the mechanism has become loose and bent over the years. The spot where the factory put the set groove in the handle is no longer far enough out to retract the pins...

Answer:

Those things are nothing but trouble in the winter. Add to that the 200 (or so) Hyundai trailers we have where the air pin mechanism is plumbed to the emergency line (which, of course, won't work if you set your trailer brakes-what adumb design...), and you can see why I have a low opinion of these devices.
Once the weather gets below freezing, the valves will freeze. Then the drivers get frustrated, kick the valve, and it breaks. Oh, since there is no lever, we spend about $200 every time one of these things malfunctions. I see 2-3 calls on this every night during January. We have maybe 400 like this in the entire fleet.
Take my advice-carry air-line drier (isopropyl alcohol) during the winter. You'll need it to prevent freeze-up.