Offset backing

Go get your dads handtruck.. Ya know the carts for moving crates around. Put your hands behind you and pull it like a trailer. Now you are a semi. You arent allowed to sidestep, only move foreward and back, and twist slightly to simulate steering. And you cant bend your arms, your wrist is the only pivot point allowed to simulate the 5th wheel. Now throw some obstacles in the driveway and go practice. You will be steering the cart with limited motions, just like how a truck going in reverse steers the tandems.

Going forward it trails the truck and you dont have to think, just steer the nose wide so you dont trail into poles and curbs on the back end. Going in reverse you have to focus your thought on what the trailer alone needs to do. The truck is free to make very large angle changes in reference to the trailer, without moving far front to back due to constraints. So you might pull forward and back 3 feet but turn from lock to lock each time so the trailer is pointing north south but the tractor has now changed from west to east. Whenever you can catch either side of the trailer in your mirror, look down the trailer and pretend its a rifle scope. Youre aiming it for your target. Most of your aiming work is done in the setup while going forward. Once youve gotten the best aim that the situation will afford you, the backing begins and you are now steering the tandems.

A feeler gauge pack is another good model tractor to drive around on a paper parking lot. Just remember the points of rotation a trailer and constrain your feeler guage to the same movements. Youll figure something out in the process.

 

Its kinda hard to explain without being in person... But... While backing up watch your trailer tandem, either in your mirrors or leaning your head out the window. Your sole objective is to "drive" that set of tandems where you want it to go... Whereever those tandems are pointing is where the trailer will go. The tractor is nothing more than a steering mechanism to point the tandem this way or that.

It does take a little thought to wrap your head around the idea, and some practice... But once you start to get it, it will make backing way easier.

Think of the trailer as a vehicle with 3 wheels... The tandem makes 2 wheels (one on each side) that cannot steer... The tractor is the 3rd wheel, and also the only wheel that can steer. When you understand this it Will make more sense.

 

It's like pushing a rope.

There's not really any way you can tell someone because every combination is different depending on trailer wheelbase, trailer spread, weight on trailer axles, weight on truck axles, truck wheel base, how many degrees the steer tires rotate, 5th wheel position, asphalt road or dirt road heck even the way the mirrors are adjusted will change the way the trailer appears to be turning. Just gotta practice OP.

 

Yeah i just tried to park the daycab at pilot.. 5 pullups later i just want my 260" back. LoL

 

Get your torches ready, but I have been known to not only get out on the steps and back up in some situations, On real wide loads that I had to back a long ways,I have been known to run along beside it far enough out to see exactly where the trailer is headed. lol

 

I hear you. After getting used to a 53 ft spread axle I can’t back a 48

 

I’m sure His trainer would like that