My advice on backing

Saw a guy at a TA the other day working on backing. He was making a big square... backing through the lines, doing 2 90's and backing through them again a bit down the lot.

I thought about showing him up but realized my sk1lLz would make more of a pretzel shape. Oh well.

 

Lol

 

If your still in school then What I would do is get a small Tractor Trailer (Toy) and see how it pivots. If that sounds to lame then just wait and you'll get tons of experience when you get started.

 

Ya, I rented a trailer and hooked it up to my suv and practiced in the parking lot near my house for a few hours....
I've been working on the 45 degree for four days..

 

I never struggled much with grasping the concept of backing a trailer. I know our foolish pride makes us want to back perfectly every time with no pull ups, but some days it seems you will be dialed right in and other days it seems to take a few pull ups to get it right...nothing wrong with that as long as you get into the spot and don't hit anything along the way. You will hear a million times "the setup is everything", but sometimes you don't have decent room for a good set up, so you gotta pull up a few times to get it right. When I first backed a 28' pup trailer after going to LTL driving I was amazed at how much different it was from a 53', especially with a single screw daycab. It's VERY responsive, sometimes I zig and zag a bit to get it lined up. The thing I have a tough time with is backing a 5th wheel dolley attached to a pup trailer. I see more experienced drivers do it and I practice when I can but it gets VERY frustrating for me...especially when I am in a hurry. I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I still get out and end up pushing the dolley by hand to where I need it.

 

I mean spots that are 90 degrees to the truck if you are driving straight through the aisle, like most Pilot or Flying J lots. Obviously you set up to get the trailer angled as well as possible.

 

A small trailer behind a suv is actually harder to back than a 48/53 your tandems are close to your pivot, like a 28 pup.

 

The one peice of general advice i will give is, when your backing remember the trailer doesn't respond instantly to your steering input, most times new drivers think "i turned the wheel, why isn't the tail swinging?" So they give it a little more, by thwn the trailer is starting to swing and now its over swinging, so the driver panics and saws at the wheel to fix it, ends up all kiddie wampus. The toy truck idea is a good one, get a large tractor trailer toy, push it backwards with your fingers on the cab, its a good visualization tool.

 

When I was training for my cdl I downloaded the Euro Truck Simulator 2 game and practiced backing up on that. It got me more of an understanding than any of the live practice I did on the range. Initially at least.

I was able to watch the truck from an above and see how it reacted as I turned the wheel and get a feel for it.

 

IMHO--the key to backing(as w/most everything else) is practice---the more you do it...the easier it will be......Ive probably heard a million different concepts about HOW you back properly--and they are all right and all wrong.....it is what works for you....there is NO substitute for experience...having said that...all too often I have seen drivers...look for what appears to be the easiest way to get in a dock--pkg space etc....especially in some of those extremely tight spaces and situations we all encounter from time to time.....so for what it is worth here's my $.02----
The first and only hard and fast rule is---there are no hard and fast rules....it's what you are comfortable with...the only rule(if you want to call it that)is to get docked/parked w/out incident...and straight into space where you are ONLY taking up your designated area
Patience---more incidents happen from someone being in a hurry and or getting frustrated.....
Practice....constantly challenge yourself to prepare for tough situations.....just do it in easier situations...ie:when you stop mid day and TS is quiet--park out back and back into a couple of spots w/no one around...just use the end of the lines as a reference--as if there are two other trucks already parked...and blindside in these situations as well...the more you do it the more comfortable it will become.....
and finally ACCEPT the fact we all have good days and bad days--just roll with it and relax.....