Parking with yellow valve only? Lack of training? 5 backs total before they are upgrading me.

Parking with the yellow valve only is safe as the tractor brakes are designed to hold the entire rig under “normal” conditions on dry pavement. If you park on a hill with snow/ice set them both. This has been done for years in cold climates to prevent trailer brakes from freezing overnight on drum brakes.
You can practice your backing in a vacant parking lot somewhere and you won’t ever get good without experience. That will take you actually doing it over and over. If you are certain you aren’t ready then don’t do something. When you first start you will be frustrated trying to back in certain places until you realize that we all were rookies/inexperienced at one point. Don’t ever let someone else cause you to rush when backing as this will cause you to hit something. Let them wait and in some cases you will need to pull out of the way and wait until you can back without the stress of people lined up waiting watching you. Some times you will have no choice but to hold people up, get out and look and don’t worry about some impatient person.

 

Yellow valve alone is fine.

As soon as you go solo just find a big lot to practice backing

 

Yellow valve? Smh

 

Welcome to trucking! Just take your time and stay calm. You ain't seen nothing yet.

When in doubt ask...or stop and assess the situation.

Don't use the excuse......"well nobody trained me to that"

In all reality you need to step up your game and figure out most stuff by yourself.

Never quit learning.

 

Hop in your truck.
Every minute of extra time you get,go to the back
Of the truck stop and practice backing.
We do 10 times more backing at truck stops
Then we ever do at customers.

 

For those few who need it technical I shall further explain. The rest of us may just call it the red or yellow valve, service and emergency is how some of us also refer to it. Many ways to call it detailed or just generic.
“The red knob is the trailer charge valve. It’s also called the push/pull PP valve. The yellow knob is tractor parking valve which is also called push/pull or PP valve.”

 

Remember some trucks are spec with only 2 parking brakes. Some have 4 so when you only pull the yellow one. You might only have 2 parking brakes Chambers holding the truck and trailer. Some truck have 4 parking brake Chambers.

You can ride the brakes a little before stopping to heat them up and dry them. You can also once parked. Wait 20 minutes and move the truck and trailer 5 feet. So if they did start to freeze you will brake the ice. So the trailer brakes won't freeze up.

 

It is common practice to not use the trailer spring brakes when parked. It is problems with them locking up. Then you gotta at least bang on the drum with a hammer. Or more...
I Oil Field. It is common practice to not use the trailer brakes. Those puppies are heavy. Licensed 105K pounds.
Yes you are left to actually learn on your own. Many say they didn't learn diddily in training. Had to do it themselves. Practice in the back of a truck stop on open spots around the one your backing into. It does help to look out the window. Easier to get perspective on driving the trailer. Rather than thinking about the mirrors.

 

When I started (when Moses was a young boy), they tossed me the keys and said "take this to Calgary".

Just drive the truck.