My setups are horrible

BINGO


BANGO


BONGO


Get that basic pattern down and eventually you don't have to "think" it through anymore, then you can start using your valuable thinking calories on how to modify the base pattern to fit weird & crappy situations.

BTW, I just passed a half million miles (roughly), and some days, my setup sucks and I can't fix it for beans...so don't let the spectators bother you or pretend that they get it right every single time. Every once in a while it just doesn't work.

EDIT: As far as when to make the turns, make the initial right just as the back of your sleeper is even with the left edge of the spot you're aiming for (see pic), then start turning left just as soon as that cab hits 90 degrees from where you started the right turn (2nd pic), get to just about 90 degrees left again (pic 3) and start working it back. Everything depends on steering after that, which just takes practice and repetition.

 

I've seen this G.O.A.L. on trucker's mirrors, and I've tried to Google it...what is G.O.A.L.?

 

But the glass bottles would be a good incentive to NOT hit them

PRACTICE!! Always try to set up the same. pull up the same distance form the trucks on your left (say6')go past the spot you want, the same distance (say 15-20') then start your right hand turn (at the same speed)when your tractor is facing the oppisite trucks then turn hard left only go as far as it takes for your tractor to face stright down the driveway. Your trl should now be at a 45degree angle(give or take) and the back of it should now be pointed at the parking spot and close to it. This assumes that you have this much room, some times you will and sometime you wont.
now just steer it in the hole. after you do it the same each time then start fine tuneing ONE THING AT A TIME

OH, DON'T FORGET G.O.A.L. = GET OUT AND LOOK!!!
you'll get it

 

get out and look

 

Stop worrying about the other trucks. Make a few tries, and then wave a few waiting trucks around you. If you start worrying if drivers are impatient you will hurry up and break something and then you'll really make them wait.

The advice I learned is to do the same thing each time, even if it's wrong. Only when you are consistent can you change effectively. The 90 degree start ( that's what I'm calling you driving down a row of dock doors or parking spots at a truck stop where the parked vehicles are parked side by side and backed into the final spot) is what I'll try to explain:

Drive down the row with your final park/dock position on your driver side. Imagine a big warehouse with 50 trailers parked in dock doors and you are going to park in one of those 50 doors. I would drive down that row of trailers just out the driver side widow, about as far from my mirror as my mirror is from my door. Farther away and that's wasted space you will probably need later. Drive at a walking speed (1-2 gear) and just as your front drive tire is at the "dangerous" corner of the trailer next to where you want to park turn the steering wheel as far right as it will go, however many turns that may be. The truck never stopped moving and you want that steering wheel to be turned to it's maximum ASAP, don't stop moving the steering wheel until it's maxed out. The instant it has been turned to full-deflection, turn it as far as possible to the left until it maxes out. You will stop the tractor as soon as you reach the maximum left turn the steering wheel can make. You should find your trailer is about at a 45 degree angle to the final parking line and your tractor is about parallel to your original pre-maneuvering path or slightly pointed toward the trailers but you will be about 1/2 to one full trailer length farther from the nose of the parked trailers.

Put it in reverse, and as the truck/trailer back up slowly turn the steering wheel from full left ("left ", as is you were driving forward) toward a neutral (going straight if you were going forward, which I'll call "centered.") Just as you begin backing up, and can see the rear of your trailer and the front corner of the trailer you will be parked next to you will have to judge are you too close to that trailer, or not close enough. All maneuvering will happen at idle speed, don't press the accelerator unless the steepness of the ground requires it to move.

If you are too close to the parked trailer that will be on your driver side you need to straighten up quickly, turn the wheel fully to "centered" or in extreme cases past centered and toward "right" (all steering wheel references are called according to their going forward condition).

If you are too far from the parked trailer that will be on the driver side, you need to delay centering the steering wheel so the trailer "bends" or "jacks" toward the empty hole.

Remember when backing the correction you would make is exactly the opposite of how you would correct if driving forward from the same spot. So notice what correction you were trying to make while backing, and was that correction making things better or worse. If it was making things better, as soon as you decide to pull forward you will have to turn the wheel the opposite direction you were turning while backing.

You just have to practice and see what works for you other wise you will have 1000 tips swimming in your head and confuse them.

Do the same thing each time and notice what does your normal technique cause to happen, too close on left or right, and then fix that .If you aren't first consistent, even consistently wrong, then you wind up trying random things which work randomly.

Here is a simple little game where you can try backing.

http://www.playtruckgames.net/game/276/Truck-Parking-Game.html

You use your left/right arrow keys to turn and up/down keys for forward and reverse.

 

Mirrors?

 

You may not believe this, but after nearly 20 years on the road myself, the past 3 maybe 4 weeks now, I have been setting myself up all wrong!

Why? I do not know. I think I just "fell into" a rut. I have had to do SEVERAL pull ups, but you know what? I'd rather do SEVERAL pull ups than to hit something and have to do SEVERAL pages of accident reports.

So it happens to many of us, maybe ALL OF US, that we have set up incorrectly, so what?

Just be careful, and if YOU NEED to do more than one pull up, DO IT!

You will do fine.

 

That's because all the other drivers are in church praying that their trucks don't get hit....




I don't care how many times you get out and look or have to pull up,just don't hit anything........

We all had to go thru this and everybody has a off day......
Practice when you can and just remember,"PLEASE DON'T HIT MY TRUCK".

 

it also comes down to how its explained to you, im fairly good at my backing for a noob, not great, and I get out nearly everytime, but the way i do it is get my s bend right, have that kink in the tractor and trailer and then if you set it up right it should just go back in nice and smooth, I also watch other guys reversing and see what they do, it gives you tips and pointers, or conversely you can critique their backing a little and say what you would of done, definately watch other people. My big issue until it was explained to me was my pull-ups, they were terrible, because no one had ever mentioned, or I had missed the bit after first going right or left, getting to straight then turning the opposite direction, instead i would go left, then go right without straightening