Backing issues

Don't think of yourself driving a truck pushing the trailer backwards. You're driving the trailer, and the truck is merely the steer axle. Just as the front tires on your car have to turn to make the car go where it needs to, your truck has to pivot in relation to the trailer to do the same thing.

Backing is a very important skill to have...never know when you'll end up somewhere like this:

 

I once had to back 3 miles down a curvy and hilly one lane country road ( more like a wagon trail), there was just no place to turn around, that should be good for more kind of reward. I finally found a place to turn around in a freshly harvested corn field, it wasn't ideal and I took a risk of getting stuck but I'd have had to back about another 5 miles if I didn't turn there.

That was when we used to do a bunch of hauling for a power line right-of-way outfit. A lot of the jobs were so remote that all you had was gps coordinates. We finally quit hauling for them because they would want you to deliver and pick up in places a truck had no business going to.

 

...but those sorts of places are my FAVORITE places to go! It is boring as hell running the interstates and bumping docks in paved lots. I like a good challenge.

 

Your tractor has a specific turning radius you can apply to a trailer of any length. A short trailer will try to fold on you really fast. A long trailer will respond more slowly.

All trailers have a tandem set back there. You can possibly have it come back close to the dock you are aiming at, go into a full left jackknife and shove the nose clear around pivoting both trailer axles so one is turning forward and the other reverse. Once you approach the straight line at about 40 degrees and closing for that dock, unwind your jackknife and then make very small corrections to prevent your trailer from continuing to turn outside of it's assigned space and hit something.

Always eyeball your drives under that trailer plate. It serves two purposes. Backing for angles, and a jackknife early warning when driving forward, 10 degrees should catch your attention to get ahold of it before she comes around on you.

In my view backing is one sentence.

Spin the wheel. Trailer goes the other way, unwind that wheel she will straighten out. Your whole tractor is the front steering of the entire trailer, get it?

 

Davey Tree, give them a call. They are probably looking for somebody and the pay was actually pretty good. You're going to have to have a lowboy and setup to haul 10' wide. I only ran TN, AL, and GA.
I also like to get off the beaten path but they got to be too much. Every once in awhile is fine but it got to be too much and I knew I was pushing my luck and would eventually get into a bad spot and cost a bunch of money to get out.

 

You hanging in there brother?

 

Several years ago I saw a driver at a truck stop with a RC truck using wooden blocks for other trucks working on backing. I was impressed watching him.

 

Hate that but maybe that isn't the company you need to be at! As much as I don't care for Averitt when you finish training you go to finishing. School which was a week of backhand more of you need it. Just keep your head up and keep pushing forward. Also you will now have a better understanding of backing when you go to school.

 

Man my spell check on my phone got me on that post.