Making turns

Minimum space to make a turn is going to be kingpin to center rear axles plus a few feet..... This space includes the width of the road your turning off of (depending on how much you use) measured at the Apex of your turn and the width of the road your turning onto again measured at the Apex of the turn you may have multiple Apex's such as turning onto a divided highway..... Hope this makes sense as I'm trying to turn what I see in my head into words and that may not work out quite right

 

This. This is why I tried to stay out of the infamous right turn thread when everyone was arguing the correct way to turn...

The fact is that everything can change the dynamics of a turn. The turning radius of the truck can make a huge difference in how a turn has to be made.

When I go home, after I get off the freeway I take two consecutive right hand turns. They don't look all that different, really, but there are differences you need to watch out for. The first one, I have to swing into the far lane on the road I'm turning onto. I don't care how wide I try to swing before my turn, I can't make that turn if someone is in the left turn lane on the street I'm turning onto. I just have to wait for it to clear.

The next one I can make just fine if I make the turn that @scottied67 would say I did wrong. It will get me safely through the turn if there is oncoming traffic.

And most turns I have to take wider than most trucks. Longish wheelbase truck and 48' spread axle just won't turn the way others do.

 

Trust but verify. Do as your instructor tells you but watch your tandems. If you run over the curb, stop line or yellow line you turned too soon. You either didn't go far enough or rounded the corner. If your tandems go into the far lane you turned too late. The point of taking the left lane is so a car has somewhere to go if you turned in front of them. If you come out of the turn in the right lane you blocked the entire road for a long time. I've had cars do that. They were curving to the left past a truck stop on the left that I was coming out of at night. I couldn't see jack, couldn't tell if that was headlight or street light. If I hadn't been holding the left lane it would have been under the trailer or into a ditch at 45 mph.

 

There are so many different truck and trailer combinations out there that all turn differently, making a instructional comment as such is just stupid and irresponsible.

 

Just turn as wide as you can it won’t hurt anything.