AZ School is 5 weeks away...what to do in the meantime?

Oh man, this makes me think of SO many things that I didn't learn at CDL school or from my training driver.

Keep PB Blaster or WD40 or whatever for lubing the mechanisms on the underside of the 5th wheel. Do it once a month, more often in winter, to keep the 5th wheel latching and unlatching smoothly.

Get conductive grease (NAPA, AutoZone,, etc) for the contacts of the electrical pigtail, and apply some weekly, both ends.

Also once in a while lube the 5th wheel latch pins and rails, just in case you need to slide it.

When you adjust trailer tandems, ALWAYS inspect the locking pins visually after you slid the tandems. Do NOT trust that rocking it back and forth will lock all the pins. It may not.

Always always always check those blind spots 3 times before changing lanes. Always.

Man, I can go on for pages.

 

Backing is a tricky thing, everyone explains it a bit differently and everyone understands it a bit differently.

Search this forum for threads on backing and you will find every possible explanation there is, lol. Read 'em all and then forget them all.

Don't overthink it and it will 'click' before long.

For me the key was to focus on where the trailer tandems are going and to follow them in.

 

There's a video on you tube made by swift that's decent and it does include an overhead view of the 90° dock back.

 

This guys backing videos are BAR NONE the best there are.