Is it advised to always swing wide with doubles

i never had to. that last pup will follow the lead with no problem.

but it was common for me, to forget i was pulling them, and yeah, i'd swing wider at times.

 

You can take it a little wider if you want. Nowhere near as wide as a 53. You’d be surprised how well and close they track. Don’t worry too much, you’ll be fine.

 

Pups track a little better than a 53. Now if your in South Dakota pulling twin 45’s or North Dakota where it’s common to drag a 42 behind a 53 your gonna need a bit more room but probably not as much as you think you would.

As far as the dolly damaging the tractor. It’s not a concern under normal driving conditions. However if you make too tight of a u turn you can make the pups kiss if your not careful.

 

He’s right, you don’t need nearly as much space, but you’ll figure that out as you get used to doubles. Nothing wrong with taking extra room if it makes you more comfortable.

As for hitting the dolly with the tractor, that isn’t even possible unless you’re going in reverse and literally not looking. Unless you meant hitting it with the lead trailer? In that case, you risk pinching an air line. I make tight u-turns all the time and only had to get a line replaced once (I was backing my dolly with my lead in the dark).

 

They track better than a single 53. As said by others.

 

That depends on the combination of vehicle that you're driving, if it's hooked with a pintle hitch and there's a draw bar then you have very little movement before you crash into something.

The twin dump trucks are the only ones I've seen that have a wide range of movement with that combination so they can dump with their straight truck.

 

my rule of thumb was if in doubt go wide as possible.

 

If you go back and forth from a long trailer to doubles or even truck with dolly and trailer then just always swing wide. If you exclusively drive doubles than you don't need to worry.

Delivering gasoline to a particular station I was always in a tanker truck with a trailer. I did it one night in a semi with a long trailer. Wasn't thinking about how they track different and was half way into the station when I slammed on my breaks hard. I don't know what dawned on me but when I looked back I was about a foot from opening up my tank on a fire hydrant. Since then I always drove like I had a long trailer.

 

Better to have to much room, as to little. The only real risk beside the air and electrical (you have to look at each set up to determine how tight is to tight ) is it is possible to turn over your rear trailer if you turn it to tight and do anything abrupt.