Parking at truck stops

Ok so I have been driving truck for 4 months now and I am actually liking it. Because I am constantly trying to learn and get better I ask a lot of questions. When I pull into a truck stop and if there is plenty of room for others to get around I will take that one spot just on the outside of the parking slots where they end. 90% of the time I am driving a 4 axle tanker or a split axle flatbed loaded to the max and trying to back those into a space is a huge pain in the ### when your tired and its dark.... That or I just don't know what the hell I'm doing. With a regular tandem or I am in a gravel parking lot where things will slide I can do fine but the split axles and 4 axle on pavement I just cant seem to get it. So to keep from smashing into somebody I will snag the end spot. I see it as a case of "well if I don't snag it somebody else will" kind of situation and 99% of the time it is. Is parking on the end spot one of those things that other truckers look at and shake their head in disgust or one of those things where "eh no biggie, wish I woulda thought of that" kind of thing. Me being new and wanting to be one of the good guys trying to improve the way others view truckers I want to do the right thing. Am I in the wrong snagging that end parking spot?

 

Ah ok.... So to help me from making a jerk out of myself, ya have any pointers or tips on how to back a 53' split axle or a 4 axle tanker fully loaded and the only way to get into the spot is to jackknife it in? Or am I totally doing it wrong. Sucks because I got my CDL at a Community College and they did an awesome job teaching us but unfortunately backing a fully loaded trailer on a surface where the tires don't slide very well wasn't one of them. Backing in a gravel yard with an empty flatbed is easy and I can do it with my eyes closed but this situation has me perplexed and I cant really just go out somewhere to just practice. Sometimes I hate being a Noob.

 

I once tried to jackknife a fully loaded flatbed split axle into a spot one night and the dang trailer twisted like a pretzel and I thought I was going to dump my load. There wasn't enough room to angle it in either because there wasn't enough room to get the angle right to get it in. I figured if a split axle is that hard doing a 4 axle fully loaded tanker would be impossible.

 

I always make sure there is a ton of room to get around... If there is not room for at least 3 trucks to get through side by side I wont take it. One time I parked on the end spot and because I had a shorter trailer that night I backed up to where the corner of my truck was out of the way and wouldn't get clipped. There was hardly room for myself, there wasn't a parking spot left anywhere and I was completely out of hours so this was more out of desperation than anything. This spot was kinda iffy and I hated parking there but I didn't know what else to do. I wake up in the morning and there is a guy parked on the other side of me and I was totally amazed. I knew I was in a bad spot and tried to do what I could to make it better for those around me but this guy said screw everybody else and made things 100 times worse by parking next to me almost blocking off the whole lane for others to get through. How he didn't get clipped through the night I do not know. I felt bad because I thought because I parked where I did it gave that idiot the thought he could park there too.

 

I hate when I try to give it a go and there is people just watching me make an ### out of myself. I usually give it 2 or 3 tries and if not, I drive away in shame and embarrassment. Everybody else is in nice box trailers where they only have 2 axles that pivot very nicely into place and I have this goofy setup that makes things extremely difficult and looks like hell trying to get into place. I'm sure I got the "look at this idiot trying to park... haha" plenty of times.