My setups are horrible

True. 90% of a great back up is the setup. There is no easy way to "teach" this here. Every situation is can be somewhat unique. The best advice I can offer is look for abandoned parking lots at malls, closed facilities, etc. Go in when you have time and spend an hour or so. Use empty beer bottles if you have to to represent a truck's hood. Do 90 degree backs and try and begin the back with the trailer at almost 45 degrees to the desired spot (as setup from the initial approach) Practicing in a truck stop or at a shipper/receiver is obviously not very helpful. At some point you will have a grand awakening and realize where you'e been going off the beam, then things will begin to fall into place.

Begin by making it relatively easy on yourself, but then quickly work to increase the difficulty. Don't work at it too long where you get extremely frustrated. If you get that way. Leave, go have lunch, think about the mechanics of what's going on in a backup, then go back and practice some more.

What kind of tractor are you in? Many tractors today are very "quick" in their turns and many new drivers tend to over-turn and go way beyond where they should have in their turning of the wheel. Practice with your trailer tandems about half way between the rear-most position and the forward-most position.

 

Empty beer bottles wouldn't be good to have anywhere near a truck when your practicing backing in a public parking lot..... Let's go with soda-pop cans or traffic cones instead..... anything but beer bottles. Can you imagine the reaction of some overzealous cop.
Just giving you a little grief......
Excellent advice...... spot on.

 

i agree with the others just have to practice every chance you get till you find your sweet spot. I have always been very confident in backing but when i first started driving i would practice every chance i got i would go to the back and just do it over and over till i felt like i was confident to hit the hard spots at truck stops late at night

 

Go buy yourself a cheap toy semi and practise also, just to get a view in your head of what you are doing, if you wreck that, you're not out much.

As the others have said, take your time.

 

Hell for the last month I haven't had but maybe 3 backs that I got right, amazingly they were all blindsides. I still get out of the truck multiple times to look at things during the process though. Strangely my sight side backs have been horrendous, where the month before I could hit anything without a pull up. I feel like I am in a slump with backing at the moment.

 

what do you mean by 'watching the tandems ;

 

try to picture what needs to happen for the truck and trailer to go into the hole before you even get there. swing wide into your set up and then once your trailer is where you want it cut your wheel over to whatever direction brings your truck and trailer inline with each other. so your not starting your back with the truck and trailer at a hard angle to each other. different situations call for different setups. you will get it in time, don't beat yourself up over it.

 

I have not even started school yet, and the first thing they "suggested" to me was the same thing...get a small toy truck. JTL even has a very old rusty kids riding truck...they removed the seat, and use that as classroom demo for backing.

Now I have some experience backing up a boat in and out of docks...and a couple of the marina's on the river do not have an easy approach...I hope that if I could back my old boat up, it should help my experience in backing up a 53 foot trailer.

 

I am no expert, but I have improved by leaps and bounds this last year. Couple of tips, try driving up as parralel as possible and when your cab is passing the truck or trlr next to the hole start your turn fairly sharp out to the right, then before you run out of room turn back to the left to get back in a strait line. now slide your tandoms all the way back ( this will put your pivot point at the back of the trlr making it easyer to not turn your trlr to far.) now with a little practice you should be set pretty good. Also, small moves, small moves, and stop before you see your self too far out of line. its always easer to make a small readjustment than a big one. Get out and look, and if someone has to wait, well, they have to wait. a lot of times if im having a hard time, if possible i get halfway in and stop and wave them by. im not always able to but if i can its just common courtesy. Turn off your cb, especialy at truck stops, theres some real a#$%^*!$ who will entertain them selves at your expence. And like everyone else says, stay calm, even pull out and let everyone by, loop around and start over. hopr this helps.
stay safe yall
b

 

Great advice guys. It will come to you. When I first started out I use to find a spot where no one was really parked and practiced for hours at a time. You will get it in time as you will learn that every backing situation is different. Just be patient and if in doubt G.O.A.L. I wish you luck and we all are here to help.