Airbags in the Dark

How often do you practice with these?
So, we all have these on some piece of our fleet. Most places will have a set of these on every truck.

The questions that I want to pose are these: How often do you drill with them? What are the instances that you would use them? Do you every practice with gloves and low/zero visibility?

I know that where I am we don’t use these very often but the potential certainly is there. I have seen many drills where they get aired up and then put away. It is also important to understand where they are useful other than vehicle rescues.

The main area I am pointing to here is RIT or FAST activities. If you include this in your RIT cache, do you regularly drill in zero or low visibility. Let me tell you, it is a totally different experience.

You must understand leverage points and counter points or balances. Whatever terminology you want to use, if you lift from one side, you have to expect the opposite to move as well.

So, when you drill for these, lift something, anything, like pallets with full visibility. Watch what happens to the opposite side of the lift and make notes. When you get into the dark you will have to crib, raise, and lower all by feel. Oh, and up on red and down on blue is difficult at best.

After training, let us know how you identify the difference and how you communicate those instructions.

Keep up the good work and train hard.