backing is a breeze for me except one part.....

well good i thought I was the only one that had that problem ......... i do cheat if I go out to see how far i have to go to hit something behind me i get a spot where my front tire should be. .. that works sliding the tandems too ... but docks you just bump

 

I dont often bump docks but when I do, i always leave a 1-2" gap after the bump. I find this saves those little rubber buggy bumpers on the back of the trailer. It's probably different unloading a single 35k piece of machinery than palletized stuff, but I can't see how a 2" gap will affect forklift operation all that much .

 

I think it depends on the trailer. I own a 2019 reefer Utility trailer and the rubber bumpers stick out a bit. I hate it when the forklift guy has to come out and tell me if I can back up the trailer a bit more or to slide the tandems. My solution to these problems is to always slide my tandems and have my trailer as close as possible to the dock without damaging my equipment or the dock. So far my rubber bumpers are not broken or worn out after almost one year. I am the only one who drives the trailer. I wonder how exactly people damage the rubber bumpers.

 

Perception it’s hard. Look at it like this 10 years down the road and a million mikes later you’re going to back behind another truck at the truck stop and think you’re close. You’re going to get out and go look.... you can still park a hummer between your trailer and the guy behind you lol.

 

I make it a habit to back up as far back as I can when parking at a truck stop, and I hate it when I have to get out 2-3 times to make sure I won’t back into the back of someone’s trailer. A few months ago I accidentally bumped someone’s trailer, and I was very lucky to discover it was just a dropped trailer from TA’s mechanic shop. I should have bumped it one more time.

 

If you have a 53 foot trailer with the last axle around the 48 foot mark meaning about 5 feet of overhang do this.,..

If you know for a fact you intend to dock there with that silly dock the truck but don't hit the dock exercse today...

The first thing you do when arriving at school in the morning. Grab a broken pallet wood, snap it so that's short enough that no one cares about it

Go to the dock edge, back up against it feet together stick in hand.

Take 4 normal steps and bend over to deal with the lace of your shoe, put the wood down right there. Take care of your shoe.

get up, show of dusting yourself off while walking off. Try to DO THIS BEOFORE it is your turn to back that #### thing.

WHen others have done it before you that dock, eye the ground and see several pairs of wheel tracks from what the trailer did as it constantly backed into the doc alldday

You will see where just about all of the tire tracks rolled back more or less straight and stopped.

Your stick will be right next to the rear axle on that trailer. More or less.

When backing guide towards your stick. And when you see those straight lines, settle your trailer tandems onto them. When you reach the stick or run out of line stop.

If you are docking against a wall dock, eyeball the top rear corner of your trailer there is a shadow coming up that wall made by your rig that wants to meet the corner of that trailer. That is where you stop. The cinder blocks on the building wall is about a foot. If you get within a block of touching trailer to shadwo on wall stop.

 

If you can do everything else that you mentioned I don’t think you’re gonna lose that many points by getting out and looking if you need to so that you don’t back it too far.

 

never heard of a school that woul pemalize you from getting out and looking ....... especially when you hear how many experienced people have too

 

My school did the same thing. @x1Heavy has some good advice there...