Tips for backing.

Actually, that is great advice. In a tight spot, you will find yourself concentrating on 6 things at once and if you are not careful, you will hear that sickening, heart-sinking crunch as you peel away another driver's mirror (and possibly his door skin along with it.)

 

Someone's not paying attention if that happens.. Tip... Pay attention

 

1.5 spaces past your whole. Or line it up with the last drive tire. Hard right. Then left and line up your tandems with whole by looking in the mirror or head out the window.. leave yourself enough room to work your tractor

A basic traditional drivers side

 

Simple, for example, if coming from the right, once you're dead center of your spot, look 90 degrees to your right, that is what you want to see when you're done your turn! Head for that, once straight on the spot, easy straight back!...

 

So how does one define a straight back.

 

When your backing up and looking in your mirrors....."Steer into danger"...that means if your trailer is going to hit something to the left, then steer to the left.

 

Its actually better to have your trailer 45 degree angle to the hole you want to back into on your driver's side, and your tractor at a 60-90 degree angle. It's called hockey stick set up and there are plenty of instructional videos on it. You also want to do all big maneuvering far away from the dock or parking spot. You don't want to have the wheel cranked when you are in tight, never work out good. Always avoid blind side backing when possible, even if you have to go around a block or two to get the approach from the correct side. With time your skill will increase and backing will not be a stressful event for you. And always remember, whatever you do to your steering wheel will have opposite effect on your trailer, ie., turn wheel right, trailer goes left - turn wheel left, trailer goes right. And SLOW is the key to backing. Idle speed is plenty until you get better at it.

 

Be careful of drivers coming out to help you. They may not see that you are crunching your trailer against the tractor bunk. Happened to me twice. Once one of the black plastic fairing strips fell off. Whose fault? Mine.

 

How the heck do you not see your getting that close and doing that.... Common sense isn't so common now a days...

 

Posting a mistake I made is for the benefit of others who are stressed and having a lot of trouble in the new job, not you.