My advice on backing

The best advice on backing is not to do it unless you have to. Obviously you have to at some point, but I see guys at truck stops all the time making clowns of themselves trying to get into some spot when a patient trip around the lot would have revealed a half dozen pull-through spots and/or straight-line back spots that would be super easy to get into.

My personal favorite is the straight line back spot because if there is enough room to pull up and get the trailer straight, there should be zero drama getting out of the hole in the morning. Pull-through spots will piss me off sometimes if the aisles are so tight in some poorly designed parking lot to where you're wondering how close you are to nailing somebody's fender on the way out with tail swing...yeah don't like that at all.

The ones you have to be the most careful with are the 45 degree angled parking lots like you commonly see at T/A or Petro. Because you lose sight of the tandems it is very easy to over rotate the trailer and put the rear driver's side corner of the trailer into the truck off to your left (which in fact I did do one time back when I first started.) 90* degree alley dock spots are safer since you never lose sight of the driver side tandems or trailer edge when done properly.

 

Its way simpler than that...
STEER TOWARDS THE PROBLEM
simply put if left side if trailer needs to go right, steer to the left/problem and it will go right and vice versa.

 

Maybe because you don't like bananas?

I'm down in SoCal several times every month....if you want some help...shoot me a PM, we can see what can be arranged.

 

I was Air Force. I flew everything from T33's to B2s. We didn't back up.

 

Just wanted to add my technique for manipulating the steering wheel as an alternate method for anyone who might find it easier like I did.

 

You're nuts. A 45 is much easier than a 90. Put a spread axle into a 90 and you just might be visiting the suspension shop to weld your axle back under the trailer.

 

All the tricks and memory aids just make it harder to learn to back properly. You need to learn to drive in reverse. The same way it becomes instinctive when driving around corners going forward, you need to learn to just 'drive' the trailer where you want it to go. If you have to think about which way you're turning the wheel, you need more practice in an empty lot.

The task of learning to be real driver is all about getting to the point that maneuvering the truck is second nature, requiring little conscious thought. This leaves your brain free to pay attention to what's going on around you. YouTube is full of videos of folks who screw up because they are too busy worrying what they have to do to drive the truck, and fail to pay attention to what's happening around the truck.

 

If you are serious I'm in need of help.... just let me know when.

 

Honestly the fastest way to learn how to back is get a job delivering for Family Dollar or something similar. After a couple months of backing up into some of those pita places you will be better than the average 20 year vet.

 

I'm still in school so that's not an option. ...lol
I just started behind the wheel last Monday.