Hooking doubles with dolly attached to lead

It's pretty easy. I have successfully backed the dolly in angles with the pup deep back between two 53 footers.

I'm working on trying to back a set. I can back for 10 or so feet maybe a little more before it gets too crooked. If you let them get too crooked you can end up pushing the pups into eachother. Or you can even put the rear pup on it's side.
I'm still a long ways from figuring it out. And the fact that there are not many situations that I can utilize to practice, I don't know if I ever will.

 

Have backed a set out of several fuel lanes ... but that’s not like putting the tail into a spot .

 

I've seen one guy back doubles with con on the rear to hook a third trailer for his roadtrain.

Some people have alot of skill and some people have a lot of time. I also think there is a mix of both somewhere down the center and people just practice alot.

It's better to have the skill and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Invest your time well.

 

If companies insist on using doubles (still not clear to me as to why.....) then why don't we just switch to this kind of dolly?

C-dolly ?

 

Those are probably more expensive, heavier, and more maintenance intensive. Plus that application could put a lot of twisting pressure on the mounting points for the pintle hooks in hard turns.

Companies do what is practical and economical, not what is convenient for you.

 

Tire wear . That will have to basically slide sideways in turns.

 

I love the concept of that dolly, but I simply don't see how it would work in a turn. Smol branes.

 

Years ago I noticed a Batesville Casket set nosed in at a truck stop. Since I am nosy and was curious how in the world he was going to back out, I looked at his set more closely. It had a cable on each side of the dolly hooked to the rear outside corner of the front box. I don’t know how it effects turns if at all.

 

We used to call it super hooking.I used to work with a veteran intrastate driver with one eye that could put the back box to the dock.

 

I've come to know it as "hero hooking". When I was on a hub turn that had about an hour to two of delay time and multiple football fields worth of open yard, I'd practice doing it. I got to the point where I was gorilla hooking it... got the job done but it was in no way shape or form pretty. I'm sure if I was still on that run and practicing I'd have developed more finesse with it.