Backing up, let me get this straight

I think you've got it, but on your bout trl and camper the axles are close to the center NOT on a 18 wheeler! In a way that makes it easy and harder. You will see. Another thing and very importent! You always want to sight side back NOT blind side! Whats the diff? When you have a sleeper behind your seat that makes a HUGE blind spot, when your jacked around like that you can't see the tail end or either side of the trl! And remember Get Out And Look =GOAL

 

easyest way my grandfather put it to me was if the trailer is goin one way an u dont want it to steer that way. small ajustments r best never over steer backing up i feel. gud luck u will get it im sure

 

Backing, was the hardest part to learn. Mostly because you will have a bunch of people yelling opposing suggestions to you. If you have the opportunity to get your hands on a truck (big truck) and trailer, the best advice I can offer is to practice ALONE. No one in the truck, no one outside of it, no one watching. That is what I finally had to do.

The other main thing to remember is not to oversteer. Even being out on the road for nearly a year, I will still oversteer on occasion. Oversteering will shoot it out of the water every time, and frustrate you to the point where you wont be able to do anything except bang your head on the wheel in frustration.

When you to get frustrated to the point where your sweating, your leg is on fire from clutching and your ready to explode with irriation and anger....STOP. Pop the breaks, sit, and THINK about what you have done so far and WHY it hasn't worked. Try something different. Get out and look, pause, think, regain your composure and start over.


It does get easier, but backing will always be the hardest part of driving a truck, at least for me.

 

Backing is the worst part to me and I'm pretty good, but like has been said practice practice practice ! and when you think you have it down practice some more. and remember where the tandems are will change how the trailer swings. so works today may not work tomorrow. good luck

 

I can relate to this, I couldn't stand trying to back up with my trainer telling me what to do, I couldnt get it at all. However without him I found it was quite easy.

We approach problems in different ways, there are actually many different ways to back into most docks. The common problem is that many people think wrongly that the way they do it is the only way or the best way. If it gets in that door and nothing gets damaged that is what matters.

In general I try to think of the angle my trailer is at, this means I prefer to get the straightest angle I can to setup from, with a straightline back being the best, but there are others who find it easier to line up for a 45 degree back even if there is room to setup a straighter angle, and that is fine.

In general aside from that I just remember it as "turn towards the problem" so when my trailer swings out I turn towards the part swinging out, so it comes back in.

 

The hardest part of backing up to a loading dock is having to put up with an "audience". You all know what I mean. If there is nobody around you can probably get it on a couple of tries. But if it's a busy place with a lot of people watching you, sometimes it seems like you can't back up if your life depended on it. I know it's hard to do, but you have to be able to ignore what is going on around you and just do your own thing, whether it takes you one try or twenty. Especially when I started pulling trains years ago, when I would get back to our home terminal, instead of backing or pulling in to the easiest spot to park, I would look for a more difficult spot and see if I could get the rig in there. Start doing that on a regular basis and you"ll find that out on the road some of your harder spots to get into will start coming a little easier. Just remember the biggest key is patience. Some skills don't come to you overnight, but in time with repetition and experience you will eventually catch on to it.

 

One of the things my husband likes to do is watch others back up, how they are going about it. You can almost see the gears turning in his head and his hands move, as he thinks about what they are doing. Mostly at truck stops, where some of the parking spaces are tight and some at weird angles. But also at docks, even if he got in fine, he will still pay alot of attention if he thinks the other dock is harder to pull into.

 

backing a truck is not hard

when i get home, i cannot seem to back the car up without taking a moment to remember what to do

 

Backing is not hard.. it is simply new. How hard is tying your shoe? When your momma was trying to teach you to do that, it was the hardest thing you'd ever tried to do at that time in your life.

Backing is theory, once you grasp the theory, you can back anywhere. It's mainly a game of being able to see where the trailer is going and making corrections. Once you get down where to LOOK its just a case of steering (correcting) to get the trailer back to the desired path and keeping in there with small corrections. Looking is the key, staring is a problem.

You'll get it eventually.