Cornering at night?

After two pages of posts and no one suggested rolling your windows down when backing at night!

 

Swinging it wide is great but if u ever been on some PA/WV backroads, there is no such room to swing it wide. Throw in some rain all over ur mirrors or snow , there is no way to see wats going on . sometimes just got to let the rub rails do what they was designed to do

 

i cannot see how you can say that the 4 ways do not help you??

whether they be incandescent or LED bulbs, THEY ARE bright enough when you get into very dark areas.

i used them all the time at 2 of my stops, where there were, trees, and bushes or garbage dumpsters near the buildings, and they cut down on the light on the building that was like 30-40 feet AWAY from the loading dock door.

they always worked for me.

anyone backing into a dock/hole with no use of any available lighting, is asking for scrapes, dents, tears into the trailer siding.....

 

you should be able to back into a dark hole. js

 

i cannot ever recall, just blatantly backing into a dark area, with out some sort of lighting. either my 4 ways or a flashlight on the ground..

i "chanced" nothing, and took nothing for granted.....

that's what separates the professional drivers from the steering wheel holders.

 

I used to drive at night, still drive in the dark most days depending on my start time. Two things, both important. One has been discussed at length here, the other usually gets left out.

1. Using 4-ways backing up? Absolutely. Just because you can get in somewhere during the day without them, or someone says you should be able to do it without them, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to not use them. Any additional light you can provide to the situation is always a better idea.

2. During nighttime driving, especially in wet weather, it becomes especially important to make sure you have clean, functional heated mirrors and clean glass (since I operate in the PNW, I use RainX on my side windows only, it helps dissipate the spotting and streaking as your driving down the road). And if you think it may help, open your passenger window if you’re able to approaching your right turn.

 

Pay attention to where the nose of your truck is when you make turns of different types.

You have been driving in daytime-only for long enough that you have things on 'autopilot' for turns. Since you do occasionally drive at night, you really should make an effort to learn the turning parameters of your truck instead of just turning based on habits.

I approach every non-interstate intersection and try to calculate my approach at least a couple hundred feet in advance, or as soon as I get a clear look at the turn. I always try to use more space than I need, if I can, and won't hesitate for a minute to wait 50 feet back from a intersection of two roads for an opportunity to run a buttonhook if needed.