Any tips for 90 degree back in?????

The set up is the most important. Im a new driver but I've gotten a lot of advice here. You wanna be 15 feet out from the spot then get the trailer about 15 feet past it. If you pinch the trailer as hard as you can and then watch the trailer tires. When they start to stop and roll backwards that's when you steer out of it and get under the trailer fast. If done right you will go right in. This works best if its trailer to trailer with no room to work your way in. I personally prefer to drive a fewholes past my spot and slowly angle myself in. Just keep an eye on your trailer tires that's the key.

 

One tip for when the tandems have reached the point when you want to be able to pivot into the hole, but you know they will continue too far and the pivot will be too late:

The concept of using small "jogs" to "get behind" the trailer and back in also apply to using small "jogs" to increase your jackknife to make the pivot.

By "jog" (I've heard many other ways to describe this) I mean pulling forward about 5-6 feet with the wheel cranked one way, then backing up 5-6 feet with the wheel cranked the other way.

Many's the time I'm backing into a hole in a truck stop or getting into a dock and realize that as I'm getting into the jackknife I'll be late getting to a complete 90º to pivot around the trailer tandems. As soon as the tandems are where I want them to line up, I'll stop and crank hard left and pull forward about 5 feet, then stop and crank hard right and back up about 5 feet. Repeat as needed until I'm in a full 90º jackknife and then pivot the trailer into position just past lining up straight to the dock or straight into the parking slot, then start jogging to get behind the trailer.

This technique is especially important if you are in a yard that doesn't have a lot of room in front of the dock or hole to make long moves, like a truck stop with narrow lanes between the parked trucks. It's better to get the tandems in tight to the hole and jog into that 90º jackknife and swing it into place to start jogging to follow it in.

 

I agree with the get out as many times as necessary. The best backing up is done in forward gears....get in a place where it may be easier to back up with less corrections. Having said that it will not be made available all the time. When blindsiding you need to bend the truck in relation to the trailer and , because you can't see crap through the right mirror, you have to chose a truck trailer angle that you think might work and maintain that angle. The passenger side mirror CAN provide that info if nothing else. If you keep changing the truck trailer angle you can't hope to guess what the outcome may be. The relationship with the cone, chalk line, trailer beside you, or dock will stay constant in passenger convex mirror if the truck trailer angle is correct. Again get out and check. Hope that helped....and when you get it right put another trailer behind it and make a proper challenge

 

You know, the 90 degree is taught and tested in driving schools, but I've yet to see a place in real life where the 90 was the only way to get backed in to a hole. Arguably, it's the most difficult and dangerous backing maneuver that can be done. Why do trainers focus on the 90 so much?

 

You need to talk with the instructors....If the manuever has been taught to you properly
you would already know the reference points on the tractor/trailer as you look in each mirror.

One of the mental images that helped me during 90 degree alley back was visualize the invisible line the trailer
tandems take when leaving the spot...and while backing retrace that same line .

If you know your reference points well enough offset left and right can be done as a one shot in and
barely even looking at a cone. Again...your instructor should have explained that.

 

I think there is so much focus on this particular skill because when you NEED it you better have it down cold, otherwise you will be struggling for a long time and possibly putting your equipment and other property at risk. I know when I was first learning there were times I knew I wanted my trailer tandems farther one way or the other, but just couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it done. It was frustrating and in real world situations I'm sure it was frustrating for other drivers and customers waiting for me to get into a dock in a tight yard.

I've been to customers that have very technical (read "SMALL") yards that really put you through the paces, far more challenging than the skills test for the DMV. At least with the DMV when you fail you might knock over a couple of cones. In the real world you can do tens of thousands of dollars damage to another truck.

 

Experience is the best teacher. I learned to back up delivering chicken feed to chicken house built to get feed from short bobtail trucks yet I was driving a tractor trailer with a 40 foot trailer. And I learned working the 3:00 PM till you get caught up shift. No, we hardly ever stopped at 11:00 PM, working nights we had to work until ALL the chicken houses had chicken feed. And of course most of this experience happened at night time around chicken houses that did not have no lights anywhere near them. Did have lights mounted on each side on the fenders above the rear axle, that helped lots.

Prior to that the only thing I had ever backed up was a boat & trailer with my 67 Chevelle SS 396 during the daytime at the lake.

One night I had just pulled out on the highway from our feed mill & a car came right up behind me with his lights on bright. Wow, they were blinding me though the rear-view mirrors. I thought, if I turned those backup lights on & off rel fast that might make them back off & dim their headlights. So I did. I was watching though the rear-view mirror as I did so & those bright backup lights lighted up a black & white city police car with lights on top of the roof & I could even see the policeman setting in the front seat all lit up, the instant I saw that I thought, I'm now in big trouble. Yet the police car dimmed his lights & backed off & I went on my happy way. I suggest that no one ever do as I did, it might turn out different for you here in modern times & make everything unhappy for you!

 

The GOAL advice is great. But in the school I was in, you couldn't do that. Only in the CDL test did you get 2 'get out and looks'.... Doing the 90' dock for the school test it was an auto failure if you exited the truck. But that was a community college where you had the CDL requirement tests AND the tests for the school grades. They didn't want you to GOAL during practice.
One thing along with the other great advice on this thread that helped me was when others were practicing, I watched. I didn't talk football of look at the sky, I watched others doing it. I watched their angles, their wheel positions, when they made certain moves, I watched their mistakes and how to fix them, when they moved the truck. I got so I would know how to fix their mistakes....
But still.... it takes practice... I had to back up into a enclosed dock under 'The Egg' in Albany NY a couple weeks ago. Basically you go into a tunnel, hang a right into underground parking garage, get analized (hahaha) by the NY State police, then do I blind side back into another tunnel like dock to unload into the theatre. I had to pull up into the exit road, back accross the entrance road into the dock area,,,all with parking garage columns everywhere and trucks and cars wanted to get to the trooper shack. I had 4 troopers watching me. Took 3 pull ups but I got it! But I'm a rookie.... so you e,experienced guys would nail it I'm sure....
School will prepare you for your test.
In the real world...every back up is a bit different...

 

The setup is everything, put the spot no your left, pull in about 5 feet from the parked trucks front ends. When you open your door to get out and check out the space you should have about a foot between your door edge and the truck next to the space your backing into.

Your drive tires should line up with approx the middle of the space your backing into. Get out and look, turn hard right as you pull forward, pull up about 20 feet I think then cut hard left still pulling forward, stop when you think the trailer corner lines yup with the left side of the hole.cut hard right to start pushing the trailer around. Gradually swing back in front of the trailer as you come around.follow the trailer back into the hole, song and getting out to get your position any time your not sure where you are in relation to the hole.

This may not be perfict, but trying to write what I normally do without thinking about it to much is interesting to say the least. In the produce world, where I'm at now , this is done almost every where I go.

Hope this helps, I'm sure anything I have wrong some here will correct it.

 

Most of the truckstops I go-to you need 90 degree backs, most of the warehouses like super Mercado in Mira Loma, Melissa's in los Angeles, even about of the jbswift plants are the same . I think it is a need skill. I guess it depends on where your circles take you.
Be safe