backing help for a newby

Lot's of good responses. I'm fairly new myself and was Verry poor at backing up. I'd litteraly sweat bullets the minute I started. Finally I just told myself to remain calm and go slow and the manuevers started coming to me. I always scope the situation out thoroughly before beginning and ask other drivers what approach they took if it's a tight squeeze. I get out of the truck all the time to check my set-up (the most important part IMHO).

About taking your time. I was down in Laredo a couple weeks back just doing a drop in a yard but all the easy spots were taken. I had to pick a blind-side hole with a big mud puddle in front of it. I couldn't hit it for $##t and decided to circle around and get resetup. Well, of course some super trucker who had been waiting went zooming to my spot. Dude got stuck in that big ##### hole in his haste and I've never been happier in my life. He had to be towed out

 

Hazel, glad to hear that Werner didn't kill your career as it sounds like they try to do to so many others. As a current student backing seems to be only so-so for me so far. But I've only tried alley docking 4 or 5 times. Guess I'm too hard on myself since I have had an enclosed trailer for a while, feel I should be better. But you are right, LOTS of good info here! I'll take everyones advice and just keep practicing! Thanks to all!

 

Lots of practice.

Plus, everyone has told me that if you turn the wheel in the opposite direction that you want the trailer to go in, it will work. A better way to think about may be this: Turn the wheel in the direction of the mistake. In other words, if your trailer is drifting to the left, and you don't want it to, turn the wheel left...in the same direction as the drift, or the 'mistake.'

I am in the middle of some cdl training. looks like I may have totally wasted my money. 6 hours with a very experienced and knowledgable personal trainer is probably not going to get it for me, in spite of all their assertions to the contrary. (With the outfit I chose, you get only six hours, and no extra practice time.)

I'm still hung up on backing and parallel parking. In alast ditch effort to get the physics of backing and parallel parking down, I rented what i could afford (a 5'x10' utility trailer) and hitched it to the back of my pickup. I've been practicing for hours. I have learned something from this. unfortunately, I not sure if it will help me when I return to cdl training next week. With three hours to go, I may be skrewd.

Good luck on your quest. And be careful out there.

 

Thanks for the words of wisdom

 

I'm not reading through 6 pages to see what's already been said...

...but my $.02 is to find a big lot somewhere without any poles or other things to hit and just teach yourself to back in circles. When you can do 3 or 4 consecutively w/o having to stop or pull to re-try you're doing good, just watch how much the trailer cuts sharper or loosens on the turn for the amount of steering input you give.

Also when backing after dark if you ride your brakes a bit, just enough to turn your brake lights on, they can be used as a sort of back up light...they will at least light up several feet behind your trailer and you can see curbs or grasslines at the edge of a lot, you can also use your brakelights to judge your distance from a dock, watch the light on the floor behind the trailer to see how close to the dock it is.