Jacknife while making a u-turn

Mirrors

 

Yup. And GOAL.

 

Sounds like you didn’t drive far enough past your dock before starting your first turn, then when you started your second turn your trailer was still in the middle of your first turn, and you turned back into it. If you’re going to flip around in there you should go all the way down toward the south end of the building, that way your trailer will be straight behind you when you set up for your back. The times I’ve been there I just hug the docks on my right and turn to my left to set up to back in. You can dang near do a straight back if you set up correctly.

 

What’s happened is you didn’t just do a U-turn to the right, you actually kept on turning the tractor, which tightened your turning circle even further, right into the trailer. The turning circle of the trailer is like 100’. The turning circle of your tractor is probably 60% of that, which creates the interference point. Gotta’ keep that in mind and always checking your mirror, when spinning a trailer around, either direction.

I always U-turn to my left, so I can keep a better visual on the trailer and what’s going on. Going to the right, you lose sight of EVERYTHING except what you see out the windshield and passenger window. That’s a HUGE blind area for so many things to happen. Don’t put yourself in that position.

I do U-turns multiple times per day. It’s part of this local gig. Not sure how others don’t ever do them.

 

We all make mistake. I make more than most people. I made almost every one you can make as a driver except dropping a trailer on a public road or running into another vehicle on the road. Once the dock is on your left side why can't you just make a 45 degree alley dock? If you had enough space to get straight in front of your door, you have about twice as much space as needed to do a 45 or 90 alley dock, which is supposed to be the bread and butter backing maneuver in trucking.

In most trucks if you continue a u-turn long enough you will bend the cab extenders as the tractor bends beyond 90 degress to the trailer. I think new drivers have little practice in any maneuver except pulling 3000 yards in front of their dock or parking space and so use u-turns and pull-aheads when those are not always necessary or more dangerous than the common 45 degree alley dock. You need to get competent at multiple backing maneuvers, not just straight back. Imagine trying to fish for a living, but only knowing how to catch fish with just one fishing lure. Imagine trying to be a bartender but only being able to make one type of drink. "Put more tools in your tool box." You don't have to be perfect, but you need to learn from your mistakes. Veteran drivers understand that new drivers are not getting as much training, or they are avoiding backing more than was common in the past. It's just as much your job to practice the skills you will need as it is a school or company's job to give you that training. Watch the videos on YouTube some trucking schools and drivers have posted about 45 and 90 alley docking maneuvers. Watch and re-watch the video until you understand what to look at, what to do when, and what a good backing maneuver looks like. Then practice at a customer or truck stop. I recommend you find 2 empty parking spaces with painted lines between them. pretend one empty parking space has a parked truck and trailer and DO NOT TOUCH the painted line on the ground between his parking space and the one to the right of it where you will put your trailer. Practice every day until you start to get more comfortable. Practice is the only wa to get better at any skill.

Also when making u-turns, if the trailer tandems are not at the farthest rearward position, you risk hitting something, like a trailer next to your parking position, with what is called trailer tail-swing. When you spin a trailer, it pivots about in the middle of your two trailer tandems. All of the trailer behind that tandem mid-point swings outside of your turn and you can hit whatever is beside you. I had someone hit me when they left the dock door beside me. There wasn't much space in front and they turned hard away and the rear of their trailer (tandems were set at some reasonable road position, not to the rear) hit my passenger-side fuel tank.

 

So if you had enough room to do a u-turn... Why didn't you just set up for a 45° or 90° alley dock???

 

more like im the one that has to pay the bill on my equipment so i dont go about tearing it up... there is no need for a u turn ever..

 

A shorter trailer axle length means a tighter turning radius. All the way back makes it turn wider. When it's tight up it's hard to catch the trailer, but much easier when they're all the way back. Use your eyes not what you think will happen and it won't happen again.

 

It does not really matter where your tandems are...to the front or to the back, in the middle, it don't matter if your doing a U turn or an L turn or an S turn, whatever. If you turn so sharp for so long something on the cab is going to hit something on the trailer and you should be able to look out your window/mirrors and say "oh, lookee there, things are squishing......."