Those #### bobtails...

I've always wondered this. Should a bobtail park even with the regular trucks in these truck stop spots? I always thought they shouldn't take a full spot and should go somewhere else but I digress. I just now almost backed into a bobtail that was way in the back of a spot and the truck was the color of dirt so when I began backing into the gap between the two rigs, all of a sudden all kinds of air horns went off. I didn't think my angle was that bad. Turns out it had nothing to do with my backing angle at all. Turns out the gap I saw in my mirror was not the totally open spot I had seen a moment earlier, it was a couple of trucks down.

I understand bobtails want to get away from the noise of the engines idling and such but parking in the back of a spot making it look open, in my opinion, is the recipe for disaster. If you want to get away from the noise go park somewhere else, like near the front where the 4 wheelers park. No noise up there. Most truck stops have spots where bobtails can park and they don't take spots especially over here right near Chicago where every spot is worth it's weight in gold. You're taking up one of the coveted spots that a tractor trailer could use, why not think about others?. Bobtails can park anywhere they fit.

I'm not faulting him for me almost backing into him but I think had he been where a normal truck would have been that would not have happened. In my years of trucking I have never done anything like that. Now I have been up 37 hours straight as I was unable to sleep last night due to taking a 10 hr break in the middle of the day and driving all night, so that might have had something to do with it, but I really don't think so. I made a mental note the gap was between the red truck and the dually and proceeded to back between the white truck and green truck. My head must have been quite far up my ### to do that.

 

Anywhere on the truck stop grounds that is not a full spot, like a 4 wheeler spot. Also most Wal Marts, mall parking lots, Home Depot and Lowe's parking lots, etc.

I've seen bobtails tucked into nooks and crannies in truck stop parking lots so as not to take a full spot. Had their curtains not been closed at the time I'd have thanked him. That's going out of your way to not take a full spot.

When I've been bobtail I will NEVER park in a full spot, at least not alone. I've doubled with another bobtail and that's fine. But never have I parked my bobtail in a full spot all by itself. I'd feel too guilty doing that to even be able to sleep. Heck a bobtail can park unmolested at most Wal Marts. It's the trailers that piss them off.

 

But a bobtail truck is about the same length as a full size Dually pickup. Most 4 wheeler parking lots aren't that tight where being that long would even be an issue. In Indy the bobtail parking is just 4 wheeler parking. It can get very tight in there.

I've parked my bobtail in a Cricket wireless parking lot that was 2 car lengths long with about 6 feet between the parking spots. I'd never seen one that tight and I managed in there. I didn't do my 10 there I got some issues with my phone resolved but the point is that you can park a bobtail in a tight spot if you're a decent driver.