Backing maneuvers.

Junior Honduras best backing videos on youtube go check his out they helped a lot of drivers out

 

Best backing advice I've ever been given is take it slow, as slow as you need to. Don't worry about what people say cause in real world situations I still take it slow. Also Youtube has helped me a lot.

 

I remember my trucking school days. Our instructors were alright but for the most part I took what they said with a grain of salt and figured out my own way, but I do that with everything. One thing I will say is this, don't ever get frazzled and feel the need to "hurry up" when backing. Take it slow and get it in there. Don't ever feel ashamed to G.O.A.L. The worst thing you can do, is try to rush because some ####### has no patience. Also, one day for whatever reason it will just "click" for you and then the rest is history. Just give it time, don't get frustrated and keep practicing and keep a cool head.

 

This is a case where Youtube can help you a lot. I normally don't advise using it for general trucking info, but there are some great backing video's on there.

I'm surprised to hear that your instructor needed to do a pull up to get the trailer in. Any teacher who isn't willing to walk next to your open window and guide you through every step and turn isn't worth a crap.

 

I have a hard time doing those too, one rookie to another. I didn't get any teaching on 90 degree backs, only offset. But a couple weeks ago I had an opportune time to practice in an alley where I had to back at 90 degrees twice.

Still have a lot of practice but I learned couple of things. When backing at that angle, say sight-side so I could see, I tended to back too far to the right or the left so I didn't have room to maneuver my tractor one way or the other. It feels like the right thing to do, but you have to be able to maneuver. So the trick in my case was to start with my tractor somewhere around the center of the alley and my trailer already pointed towards the angle I wanted it to go. Then I just simply straight lined back. Doing that my trailer did most of the work. The more you back straight line with a curved trailer, the sharper the trailer will turn. And after that I had the room to swing around and get behind my trailer when the time came.

Its probably something you wont learn until you get out on the road. Because no school situation will be like a backing situation in real life. For the schooling I found just memorizing and doing their steps precisely no matter will give the best results.. and for me it did, I passed. But it just got me through school. Once I graduated, I had to start to learning to actually back. lol

At truck stops when you need to back in at an angle close to 90 degrees, scottied has a good video on youtube that helped me understand. A lot of it is setting yourself up properly.

 

Remember "steer to the side you see." So to get your trailer straight as quick as possible steer to the side of the trailer you see in your mirror. Also make micro corrections as you follow or "get under" the trailer. My first year I was always over steering and getting my trailer all jacked up. And always GOAL. Good luck .

 

Like Trav1 ended by saying. A lot of it is setting yourself up properly. Only IMO that accounts for about 90% of it. When I was in school we were setup left, right, up, and down. Starting from that spot everytime is critical when your learning. YIS

 

One hint I have seen is to go buy a toy truck and use that to practice your backing. If it has front wheels that turn, that's better. But once you get it in your head, you can still do it slowly to be safe. Another thing I've heard many times is "you can go too slow a million times, and too fast just once." So, take it slow, get out and look if you need to, and be patient with yourself.

 

That's exactly right. People get impatient with me because I back slowly. But I haven't hit anything. I know other new drivers that have hit stuff and they drive, back quickly. At first I thought they were just better backers than me... but then I realized they were over-confident.