cdl school update

Practice, practice and more practice!
Take it slow and make small corrections.

Eventually it will come to you, main thing is to not get frustrated.

 

This is something that helped me. When you want the trailer to go LEFT turn the wheel to the RIGHT. And then if you want the trailer to go to the RIGHT turn the wheel LEFT. Also remember that it takes a bit of time to see your steering input actually effect the trailer.

Something I saw a couple people in my class do was gently move the steering wheel back and forth and it would keep the trailer straight going backwards.

 

turn the wheel towards the mirror that the trailer is growing in to keep every thing straight, start out straight. like brownsfan said left to go right- right to go left, try and remember no one was born to go backwards, it takes practice. best wishes

 

If driving a truck was easy there would not be any reason to go to school now would there.

Straight line backing......The trailer does not have a mind of its own. It goes where you tell it to. If the tandems are perfectly aligned the trailer will back straight up. The chances of 8 wheels all being perfectly aligned are only slightly higher then then chances of someone who works for Swift being voted the Sexiest Man Alive. The Trailer will go either left or right. It will not go one way once and the other way later on. If the trailer creeps to the left, put a correction in. Do so in short moments. Put the correction in then take it out. Each time it creeps put the correction in. Then out. Small movements.

What you are leading up to is the ability to back your tandems next to a painted yellow line. You will find this is easy once you look out the window and actually watch your tandems. Your hand will turn the correct way after awhile without your thinking about it. Use the mirrors to check but stick your head out the window is easier.

 

that depends on the truck.

drive a w9 with the exhaust on each side and your going to be breaking your neck trying to see the trailer. LOL.

just watch the mirrors. they are your friend. when straight line backing.

EVERYBODY struggles at first. some just catch on easier then others. no different then anything else in the world that one has to learn to do.

to this day, i still struggle with any backing that involves more then 45 degrees. but i have way more local then OTR. now i pull a flat. backing isn't something that's an every day thing for me.

 

I felt the exact same way you do right now when I was in class. I got so discouraged that I wanted to quit. Spend most of you time straight line backing and get that perfected. Then do the alley dock. If you cant get it right in the straight line you'll never alley dock ( that was my experience) You need to understand how to get the trailer to do what you want it to do. It is surprisingly easy! After school I got the chance to dock a 53 foot trailer in a tricky situation and I did it without any trouble. Good luck and keep trying!.

 

During straight line, Keep your right hand at 12, leave the left hand off the wheel and when making corrections turn your hand to no more than 9 o clock or 3 o clock, and as stated in other posts, turn the wheel in the opposite direction that you want the trailer to turn...I hope this is understandable and not to vague. I have a bad habit of that.....(being vague)

 

Do the stacks on a W900 really impact backing that much?

Also for the other backing moves just remember this. If you setup correctly to perform the maneuver the trailer will do exactly what it's supposed to do. I messed up the alley dock in the beginning because I just couldn't setup the truck properly.

So I had no chance of pulling off the maneuver because it wasn't setup properly. After the proper way to setup was in my head it all came together. Now I know if I have the proper setup whether it's parking in a truck stop or doing a alley dock the trailer will go exactly where it needs to go and chances are even if I am off a little bit there is nothing a pull up or two can't solve.

 

Oh, Oh, Oh, I forgot the most important thing. Cussing helps.