Do I need to adjust my mirrors or just not believe them?

**NewNashGuy** · 07.27.2012

Originally Posted by chompi

It just takes a little time behind the wheel and then that truck will be just like another appendage! For now just adjust your mirrors as you feel necessary and find what best works for you. You can also use landmarks at the docks such as other trucks parked or cracks or lines in the pavement. Sliding your tandems back though will make it tougher on you. Always slide them all the way forward if you want to make it easier for backing. Just keep in your mind the extra swing you add to the rear by doing this. If you slide them all the way back you won't have the swing but it will take longer to get a response back there and make backing a little more difficult. Also when going into tight little towns or places with smaller roads and such if you more your tandems all the way up this will make it easier to navigate through.

A lot of times no matter how you move your mirrors it will still sometimes appear slanted or look as if one side of the trailer is tracking. When in route I always run with my mirrors slightly aimed down and out so that I can see my blind spots a little better. Seat position and height also helps too. Another little thing I do when backing is to roll the windows down. This especially help in cutting down the glare and gives you a clearer picture of things. When blind siding it is definitely beneficial to move your mirrors as you are backing. As you are backing and making your turns constantly move your mirrors to follow the trailer. When in doubt though get out and look!

Hi Chompi, yeah I agree with you those are basic steps and I pretty much mastered them all since I have had unbelievable docks all over the US and Canada that I nailed in one try that other truckers would ask how I did it so easily. I know how to make the trailer go where I want, however once I am done and I look in the mirrors my trailer looks like it is perfect on the line on both sides and then I get out and see that I am about two inches closer on the drive than in the trailer rear and vice versa sometimes. I want to get it perfect every time and they still load me I just want to know how to perfect it. There are a lot of times when I backup and it looks like you could get a ruler and measure that I am exactly in the middle but I want to have that always so that is what I am asking, not the basics

**Onfriday** · 07.28.2012

Use your convex mirrors, if you have them.

**scottied67** · 07.28.2012

I've done that before, been perfectly aligned with the painted line on the ground but when I walked back to check the trailer was cockeyed. Just means they painted the line out of square to the dock door. All's you can really do is go back and check every time, my company's policy is that we get close (about a foot or two away from dock) then go look and complete the docking.

**Big Don** · 07.29.2012

Originally Posted by scottied67

I've done that before, been perfectly aligned with the painted line on the ground but when I walked back to check the trailer was cockeyed. Just means they painted the line out of square to the dock door. All's you can really do is go back and check every time, my company's policy is that we get close (about a foot or two away from dock) then go look and complete the docking.

Then pull forward again and open the dog-gone trailer doors. Then re-complete the docking.

And hey, we've all done it at some time or other.

**mitrucker** · 07.29.2012

IMHO you will make yourself crazy trying to be perfect every time. If you are within an inch on one side that is fine. Yeah perfect is nice, but walk down the dock if possible and look at how the other trailers are in there. Perfect doesn't happen all that often. Its like being backed in perfectly straight at the truckstop, doesn't happen often. I used to worry about being straight and perfect....not anymore.

**DirtyBob** · 07.29.2012

Originally Posted by Kittyfoot

If you want to get straight judge by the track of your rear wheels not the side of the trailer. No mirror set sights straight down the side of the trailer no matter how long or short it is. This works for vans, flats, tanks, etc. You just watch your trailer for clearances.

This is the easiest way right here. The tandems don't lie. I had a daycab that the mirrors always made one side look straight and the other looked angled. I just learned to adjust myself to them.

When lines aren't straight it can really screw you up though. I went to a Costco that my dock had one straight line and one angled that I didn't realized was angled. I kept backing in and the left side looked great and the right looked ridiculously out of line. Pulled up a good ten times trying to get it straight before I realized what the problem was. I didn't feel to bad though as the guy next to me saw this and when I got out told me he did the same thing thinking it was him not the lines.

**Gizmo_Man** · 07.29.2012

Originally Posted by Big Don

"They" say, (whoever the heck "they" are,) that the more experience you have, the less problem you will have with this.

well "this they says" does this..

i back up, lines, no lines, whatever. some nights i am "dead on perfect"

other nights...??

hey, i'm at the dock, i'm done"

after 25 stinking years

if it was good for government work, it was good for me...!!!!...

**transam pete** · 07.29.2012

a 2 degree difference means one side of the trailer off an inch?
you think the lumpers care
i am a slacker for sure but i call that perfect
seeing the whole rubber bumper on one side i call good nuff