Drivers Side Parallel Parking-Offset backing right side

There are many was to skin a cat. This might help some.

For the right offset you can pull straight forward to the boundary and stop. crank the wheel all the way to the left. back up and watch out the right mirror along the outside edge of the tractor tires and line them up with the middle of the landing gear. the frame will have a "V" on many of them, the bottom of the V is the middle. stop and crank the wheel the other way until it stops. then backup until the tractor is straight with the trailer. then straighten out the steer tires. Now when you look out both mirrors you should see the lines where you need to go, or be reasonably close. Getting a good "setup" will help alot.

The rest is up to you and practice.

The blindside parallel is similar. one way is to point the trailer towards the rear right corner of the spot. you want the trailer tandems a lil bit in front of the spot your backing in. By now you should have a lil more pactice from the offset and have the mechanics down a bit more to judge this better. You won't be able to "jack" it as sharp as the offset or you will go over the boundry on the right side. If they have cones setup then that makes it easy. if they use three cones along the rear boundry then you will want to see two out your left mirror, the third on the outside corner would end up in the middle of your trailer. This is your "setup". if your not pointing to the rear corner taking a pull-up now can help alot.

Backup and watch out the left mirror untill the front tire on the trailer tandems crosses the "line" of the spot. then all you need to do is paralell park the tractor the same way, cut it in hard and watch the trailer that you don't back up too far.


Getting a good setup will really help alot right now. It will give you less to worry about and you will pick things up faster. It's hard to get the mechanics down when your busy trying to figure out "where your at". I hope this was easy to read and that I made some sense.

 

I was taught two things that really helped me for backing a tractor trailer ... or any split rig for that matter. Always try to leave enough space in front of you to straighten your rig out completely. After that, place your hands on the bottom of the steering wheel at the six o clock position and move your hands in the direction you want the trailer to go. That may be a bit more basic than the answer you were looking for, but it has worked for me on the road and in some really fubar loading docks.

 

Hi dlhoffman56 and congrats on getting started. I wonder if you are going to the same school I just completed (Cecil) or another one? In any case, I just got my Maryland CDL last week. The yard skills were daunting at first but after a few days it clicked. Do not expect instant results. Take nice deep breaths before each change of direction and stay hydrated with water!

By the way for others reading: Maryland is 3 skills:
- Straight backing
- Blind side offset backing
- Sight side (driver side) parallel parking.

For both the offset and parallel, I recommend the following 2 pieces of advice:

1. Get really good at backing straight first, with very small steering wheel corrections.

Once you can do this, the other two skills get easier. As you get better at it, challenge yourself by going a little faster in reverse gear. You wont do this on test day of course, but it helps your skills.

2. Always try to get your rig in a setup that allows you to drive as straight as possible for as long as possible while going backward."

For the offset this means recovering quickly from turning the wheel to the left at the start (I did not turn my wheel all the way to start the angle. If there are 4 steering wheel turns total (stop to stop), then I only turned a maximum of 1 revolution of the steering wheel to get the angle of the trailer going. More than that and the trailer is jacked too far). Get the trailer at a good angle then get the tractor straight with the trailer again. For me this is usually when the back right trailer tires cross the line separating the straight back lane from the offset lane. You can then gradually ease it through a nice shallow arc into the parking space. With some practice you will be able to do it with no pull ups.

When using pull ups, I liked using as much of the lane forward as possible to give me the maximum opportunity to tweak as I am going back. Short pull ups do not really help that much in my opinion. If you have to use one, make it count!

For the parallel, I had success by starting just right of center all the way forward in the center lane. Turn the wheel just slightly to the right (maybe a half turn) to get the trailer going at a nice shallow (maybe 15 degree) angle toward the first cone, then straighten it out. Once the back trailer tires are behind the first cone by a couple feet, assess where you are coming into the box. Make slight adjustments on your angle as needed, and then as before, try to steer as straight as possible backward. Once the tractor drive axle is behind the front cone, turn the wheel hard to the left then hard to the right. to get everything inside. Do not let any of the left tires come into contact with the "curb" line. You will eventually learn the correct angle to enter the box and again, it is possible to do this skill in one shot with practice.

By the end of the course, my record was just under 3-1/2 minutes total for all three skills Not bragging, just saying it can be done in well under the 30 minutes total alloted time.

Hope this helps. You can read more about my CDL experience here:

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...and-now-what-decision-time-2.html#post2426567

Good luck !!

Perpetual

 

Just speaking for myself, and having graduated from the premier driving school in the country, CR England, I can say that the instructors really don't 'teach' you how to back. Their job is to do the minimum necessary to get your CDL, and get you on the road. I can only imagine what other lesser schools (according to CRE) are teaching students.

I am trying simulate backing on the computer. There are two programs I have found that might do the trick
Rings of Rods
http://www.rigsofrods.com/threads/73686-Euro-truck-simulator-2

This is an open source (free) vehical simulator. I have seen some videos of people backing trucks on youtube. It seems like it might do the trick.

The other is 'Trucks and Trailers' It is by the people who made Eurotruck simulator. It is supposed to focus exclusivly on backing. I am not sure if it is out yet and how much it costs though.

I just don't think I will ever learn to back until I can get away from all my 'instructors' and teach myself. Perhaps you are in the same boat.

 

relax and take your time

 

Firstly, that's just a forums, and the site they link to isn't even in English. I ended up just Googling the name of the game and DLed from there. But I have to ask, what good is a "Euro" simulator going to be for those this side of the pond?

You're being facetious, right?