Blind side only parking at truck stops! Why!?

I cheat. Use my trolley brake and just step over to the passenger floor and look out the window. Sometimes I stand on my top step when site siding too. I'm weird like that.

 

I'll do the same blind siding. Lo Lo I can walk faster than it goes at 800rpm

 

Reverse was always the complicating factor spec’ing train tractor drivetrains. Mack had a couple of boxes that were perfect. The rest took some creativity. Three of mine have 15overs in them so we have the deep set, and the 2 with 18spds are RTOO’s with low enough rear ends that reverse is half reasonable to back trains with. Mine had an RTOO13 with 3:55’s when I bought it. That had to go. I was either going to take the clutch out of it lifting off loaded, or crash trying to back trains up at 35mph.

 

That's how I feel with the truck in my avatar. RTOO 14613 with the X pattern. Way too fast reverse, empty it's fine but loaded you better be very ginger on the clutch. If I step in the other truck and take off in 2H empty it still feels lower than 1st in the other truck

 

Was bad enough picking drivelines for train tractors years ago even with all the choices in transmissions and rear ends available. The few transmissions available now and the way they gear diffs for the newer engines made it worse. The weight we run at changes everything. My payloads are 15,000lbs more than Interstate gross weight and the trucks are over 40,000 empty. Gear low in the back with an RTOO transmission, reverse was low enough, but it wanted to melt pulling big weight with the aux section engaged all the time in high gear, gear high enough that an RTO would get it done you were a little high in the retreat hole but high enough you were running a lot of the time down a split with the aux engaged again and back to the heat problem. And high enough that if you were in a mill yard where it’s like driving on a mattress you might need a shove from the loader to get it moving. Our only options really were 15spd’s, compound sets, 20spd Spicer or one of the Mack’s. Up until 2000 I was still running a truck with a 6+4. The 6+4’s with an a-box with an under 1st were perfect. 3+1 was about the same as Lo in a 13 and both boxes in over you were higher on the top. My last one with a 6+4 ran 65mph at 1600 with 4:33’s on metric 22.5’s. 1+1 was low enough that at 140,000 gross I pull started a loaded 7axle logger with an old Cummins that was too hot to start itself, and it lifted the whole works at an idle without so much as a grunt.

 

I think all the answers above explain what you saw. Just something extra at older truck stops to consider.
There also was/is a anti-idling service that was installed at some truck stops called Idle-Air. You place a device in your passenger-side window, pay a fee, and get HVAC, internet, phone service in the truck without running your engine or APU. Most Idle-Air locations had trucks nose into parking spot. If you didn't need the Idle-Air service you could park nose-in or nose-out. There are some TA, Pilots, Petros, Flying J locations where you can see Idle-Air setup. I don't know if Idle-Air is still in service anywhere. The blind-side parking could be nose-in parking, or just bad design.

 

Well the positive about this parking spot would be there'd be less issues trying to find a parking spot huh? As no one would know how to back in, without a spotter.

 

Do your exhaust stacks block half of your west coast mirrors like many non-aero tractors? 1990-ish Petes not only had the turning radious of a battleship, the stacks blocked half of your mirrors.

 

Best trans I ever ran was the Mack 10 speed, I think it was the T310M. It had a yellow button on the side that switched to reverse, so you had 5 reverse gears plus a lo-lo and low forward. Perfect dump truck trans IMO. I will say though, those maxitorques arent as forgiving as an Eaton. Seems like if I missed a gear by 1 rpm it grinded like rocks in a blender

 

Mack transmissions are tough, but they’re not as forgiving in a lot of ways as others as a result. The older ones it didn’t matter what engine you had from a 237 to a V8, it came with the same transmissions and rear ends. The triplex and quaduplex’s did obviously, but a few of the others would give you multiple reverse gears. The one you mentioned, 6spd and 12spd’s all would anyway.