Hints & Tricks to help with parallel parking & alley docking

that actually WILL help....

and P.S. in the real world, you will rarely ever ever ever use an alley dock. even if you do, you get infinite pull ups... 99% of the time you can pull straight back and if you cant pull straight back you will do a 45 not a 90...45's are very easy..

 

i personally have not seen radio controlled semis for cheap money. please provide a link so i can check them out as well.

 

Yeah... 90% of those companies were garbage bottom feeders. Stay AWAY FROM werner...swift sucks too in my opinion but a lot of people seem to like them... i know a guy who was OTR with swift and he only gets 500 bucks a week solo... thats crap in my opinion. TMC, Garner, Modular, and Maverick are all decent companies. If ur interested in running teams, apply to con-way. US Express is so-so. NTB is a good company too. I heard schnieder sucks too but they are good ONLY for your 1yrs experience. they have a good training program but after 1 year get out!! you can get a job just about anywhere with 1 yrs experience.

 

doesnt have to be radio controlled, just a basic toy trailer/tractor will do. you get the basic idea of how much you need to bend your trailer to get it to back into where you want it to go

 

Are you parallel parking blind side (passenger) or sight side (drivers)?

One trick is to remember that you have to "push" the nose of the trailer the opposite direction you want the back of the trailer to move. Don't over steer, the correction is multiplied 5 times to get back where you were. You need to constantly be looking in the convex mirror to see where your tandems (trailer wheel group) are positioned, and adjust to the tandem movement, then bring the nose of the trailer back into "square"...it's a constant "give and take" scenario.

Why they have rookies....ultimate rookies...parallel park is beyond me! Even 4 wheelers don't parallel park anymore, and we in big rigs just do our level best to avoid the situation!

Here is some help on backing in general:

Use the steering wheel to your advantage! Everybody teaches "steer the opposite direction"...bad thinking, poor instruction!

Your visual part of your brain is already doing a "reversal" with all the information coming in through the eye...it has to reverse the image to be processed. So when you try to think "opposite" you actually are stressing yourself a bit more. Here is the trick I taught all my students for 15 years:

The top of the steering wheel turns the direction you want going forward, the bottom of the steering wheel turns the direction you want to turn going backwards.

The set up is the most important part of backing into a dock or parking location. Let's learn what I call the "Banana Profile":
1. With the units in a straight configuration, drive across the front of the location until the space between the tractor and trailer is at the midpoint of your location.
2. As you cross this midpoint, turn right to a 45 degree angle away from the point. Drive straight (45 degrees from the location) until the tandems are at the midpoint of the location. (You must be watching your driver’s side mirror) As the tandems attain the midpoint turn the wheel left (again) to put a bend in the tractor/trailer until you have achieved the "Banana Profile". (The tractor/trailer has the same shape as a banana.) Now straighten up and continue until you have clearance of the driver’s side rear corner of the trailer and the location the trailer will be backing into.
3. At this point, you should be able to smoothly "track" right into the "hole". Just visualize the line and adjust the turn aspect (declining) as you enter the hole and straighten up as you go.

LET THE TRAILER DO THE WORK...ADJUST TO THE TRAILER, DON'T FORCE THE TURN MOVEMENT BY OVER STEERING. The longer the trailer, the more time it will take to show its movement. Don't get anxious, be patient, and let the trailer make some movement, then you correct the tractor to the movement of the trailer.

1. When backing, place your hand palm down on the center bottom of the steering wheel.
2. Use the bottom as your guide for the direction you want the back of the trailer to move.
3. Having your hand, palm down, gripping the wheel will prevent you (with the natural limits of movement) from over-steering. DO NOT LET GO OF THE WHEEL!
4. Grip the window post (the separation bar between the wing window and the door window) with your left hand, and again, DON'T LET GO. This "anchor" stops you from moving around in your seat...every time you move it changes the visual perspective in your mirrors...SIT STILL!
5. A tractor/trailer combination will NEVER back in a straight line...you need to "add" and "subtract" turn movement constantly. A little adjustment either way will keep the units straight and where you want to go.
6. If there is no "guide line" painted on the surface, visualize the straight line you want to line the driver’s side (sight side) of the trailer then the tractor onto.
7. When you start backing, pay attention to the tandems (trailer wheels)...these are your first and primary points of lining up the unit. As soon as the tandems have gone into the box, begin reducing the turn aspect of the tractor (bring the nose around to the "square line" with the trailer. Now change your focus to the midpoint of the trailer...just before the midpoint gets to the "line", get the tractor square with the trailer so there is no turn occurring...you have achieved the aspect of straight line backing once the tractor is square with the trailer and the midpoint of the trailer is in the box.
8. Keep in mind there are 3 "pivot points" to a tractor/trailer combination.
8a. Tandems are the rear pivot.
8b. King pin (drive wheels) is the center pivot.
8c. Steer tires are the forward pivot.
To move the tractor trailer either direction (right or left) you must accomplish an "S" configuration/movement with the tractor/trailer. Which direction you need to move the units is the direction you begin the movement. (This is for forward adjustments...if you have not centered the units in the dock.) To move it will require 3 steering movements...make sure the movement is sufficient (far enough forward in distance) to achieve the moving distance required (right or left). Just imagine you are driving on an "S" painted on the ground and follow it COMPLETELY.

 

"Rarely use an alley dock"?????

Maybe if your a flat bed operator....but vans, docks are 95%+ of what we do! what about truck stops...pull through is a lucky find most of the time!

 

Lots of good tips on this thread from DRIVERS. I am not a driver yet, but I played one for my CDL. LOL.

Maybe a few things that I learned, and just recently posted in my blog may be of help. Good luck!

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/entry.php?b=5356

 

I said REALLY gumptious. I know they aren't cheap. R/C anything isn't cheap.

 

Backing is what grows thick skin on instructors! Learning to back is the toughest thing next to getting people to stop pushing the clutch to the floor. Backing is a skill. It is an unknown to most people who start to learn it. And all we have is a few tips and if the instructor is sharp (as in gets his or herself off their butt and actually observes what the student is doing or what they not doing) then they can offer some other things to try. BUT! Backing has to be learned by the student and NOTHING the instructor can do to magically make this happen! You will be lost until it "clicks".. until that happens, backing is going to be hard and confusing. I have had grown up people hop out of the cab ready to beat me because they could not understand what they were doing and they just couldn't hop in a truck and make it work. Take frequent breaks and practice practice practice. Once the concept clicks in your brain, you can back anywhere.

For the record, I am glad that I am not instructing new folks with all this parallel parking stuff and offset stuff. I had to teach an experienced driver to do it a couple of months ago.. it was NOT fun!!