Is there much less backing running flatbed?

Securement and safe driving practices are the biggest things. With a box hard stops might result in product damage from the load sliding inside, with a flat it can result with the load on the ground. As long as you remember that and keep extra following distance, there is no reason you can start out with open deck.

 

This morning we pull on county rd. 5 of us. Ld pull forward then tie down. Next trk. Up please. Then we back up 1/2 mile with full blades on our dozers. Then make a left... last evening hang a hard right. Unhook. Back across a main road. We had flaggers. Then out. Oh don't hit the porta john behind you
Or stop raise trl. Turn left unld back across the road then hang a left to get out.. who says heavy haul and flatbeds don't backup lol

 

Not odd at all. You set up better the second time. The trick to backing is your set up.

 

Depends what you hual. I used to do flatbeds with cranes on the trailer. Backing up on 80% of job sites through mud, over curbs, and all of that. Downtown Chicago mostly. Fun times.

 

This is what I do. If there's two spots open I'll blind side just for the practice.

 

Thats what I tell all of my trainees. You can jackknife and your setup doesn't matter as much. Or you can setup, but I'd you setup wrong it's three times harder. Once they get a repeatedly system down they're good ie go three spots past, crank hard right, then hard left and you'll be setup perfect.

 

+1 I do that as much as possible.

 

The biggest benefit of flatbed versus dry van is you make more money. Once you have your feet wet in flatbed you can start playing "work up" toward heavy haul and make more money.

Another benefit of flatbed is it is just WAY more fun than dry van or reefer IMHO. Depending on the company you drive for and their customer base you will get into far more interesting places for pickup and delivery.

Another great benefit of flatbed is respect. I remember during my days pulling a dry van it was a RARE occasion to be addressed as "Sir". Usually at big warehouse operations you are checking in with a low paid employee or security guard that don't like their job and hate truck drivers. At least with my customer base in flatbed it is a rare occasion to NOT be addressed as "Sir" or "Boss", as in, "How do you want me to load this generator Boss?" In flatbed if you are delayed they apologize, in dry van they could give a rats hiney.

As for backing: YES we back and in some "interesting" situations. Don't let backing or lack thereof determine your decision. As has already been noted in this thread, go right at whatever you fear and get good at it. You will KNOW you "have it" when you look forward to a nice challenging blind side back, maybe even show off a bit at the truck stop and choose the hard hole in front of the fuel islands and nail it without a pullup. Since I switched to pulling a spread axle flatbed my backing has become better than ever. You can't get into a full 90° jacknife or you rip the tires right off the rims. You learn to setup longer and slide into the hole.

 

No, actually there is more precise backing required to get into some docks and sometimes a truckstop parking lot.

It's hard to explain. With a Ravens spread axle, you have a toggle in the cab that raises the rear most axle putting ALL of your weight on the forward split axle. Suddenly you got a 40 footish behaving trailer that pivots like crazy on that one axle really well. It's ok because now you can sort of back to a pivot spot, swing and then straighten out and you are in. I compare to a tug boat horsing a barge around to get into a dock sometimes the way it behaves. With ordinary tandems you have to follow them around a imaginary curved path and sometimes you don't have that room. Does that make sense?

I recall an awful lot of sight side backing, blind side backing and so forth. No different than any other mode of trucking really.

Flatbedding requires more of you as a Professional. When you rise to the challenge and look good doing it. Things will be well for you.

 

I was up in Vermont the other day.....I started calling the drivers "Bernie"