Parking at the truck stop head first

I can see that with a van or a reefer but I pull a 57 foot double drop in a long wheelbase Pete so I stuck out no matter what .kind of like a sore thumb

 

57 foot double drop with a long nose pete?
Yup I guess you do stick out the vast majority of time. Do you stick out more when you back in or pull in?

 

Same nothing slides! But lots of times I pull in because I would rather they take out trailer and not hood!

 

Whatever trips your trigger.

 

That’s only true if you pull a trailer with the tandems up. Some of us are the same length no matter what end is at the curb and I’d rather have my trailer hit instead of my truck.

 

Yup that is true, but you and Deere Hunter are anomalies. For the vast majority of us (even bedbuggers and car haulers) we stick out over the rear more than the front. Good point though.

 

Im approx 3ft longer in the rear than the front with a 48ft spread axle flatbed and that's only because out axles are set forward a bit. If 3ft sticking out causes someone like badmom to hit my trailer then that's on them.

 

Do it for a couple of reasons:

1.) I'm so dead tired I can't even see the mirrors let alone what's in them. The guys on either side of me were here before I got here so maybe the spots will be empty in the morning. If nothing else, at least I'll be awake by then.

2.) protect my tractor.

3.) I'd rather look at trees then the hood of a Volvo across from me.

4.) privacy

5.) (and this is probably my biggest decision.) I find I sleep best with the nose slightly uphill and one side higher than the other. If I pull into an empty lot, that might be the first thing I look into.

 

Plus you don't have to breathe the exhaust fumes from your next door neighbor's ACU exhaust pipe six feet away that is pointed straight toward your head head while you sleep.

I woke up one night and my whole face was so tight it felt like a lobster was twisting around on it. The air was real thick as someone had pulled in next to me and turned the ACU on full bore. I stood up and fell right back down in my bed. I had a headache and my nasal passages were clogged. As soon as I could pull myself together I moved to another spot.

I will never back in for the night next to someone running an APU pointed at my head.

Men swung from the gallows at Nuremburg for gassing people in Nazi Germany but if corporate America wants to make a contraption that gasses truckers then somehow it's supposed to be OK.

 

Be nice if they routed those apus exhaust with the truck or at least as high.

One dump truck I drove with engine blowby. I routed the blowby to the back of the truck. So I didn't have to breathe that crap when I was sitting still.