Problems with Alley Dock testing

sounds to me like your over correcting your trailer, they can not fail you if you get out and look. By doing that you can see what your trailer is doing and get a bigger picture of what you may need to do. with a 90 alley dock it takes practice if you need see if an instructor will work with you on it any good instructor will help you out. One thing I did with a student is believe it or not is set a toy tractor/trailer have him watch what the trailer would do then went out on the range and practiced it over and over until he was doing it without second thoughts . Don't get discouraged you'll see alot of people have problems with this kind of backing just take your time go slow .

 

Yes they can.

in our skills test once once you open the door you can't move the truck and the test is over. So if you're not set up right, then you fail. That, and we only get 1 pull up. Sure, it's not what is available in a real world situation, but we need to be able to do a proper ally dock w/o needing to correct 3-4-5 times before we get it right.

 

I think you will find they will fail you if you DONT get out and look. I do know this to be a fact for the companies I did work for, as well as when I got my license 3 years ago.

 

another thing to think about is your set up it's easier if one of us can be there and see what your doing wrong initially but we cann't . It's hard to say if your setup is all wrong or what the case might be .Just relax you sound a bit discouraged, don't, we all have good day's and we have bad even us that have been out here a while.

 

go to youtube and type in how to back a tractor trailer. you will get a video and some tips

 

For the DMV test here in California, once the skills test is begun we were told to stay in the truck or automatic fail.

We had four main tests:
Measured Stop
Straight Line Back
Blind Side Parallel
Alley Dock

Of those we could only lose 10 points total and no more than 5 points on individual test. Pull ups are a point each.If you stop too soon for measure stop and decide to get closer oops that's a point. Kiss a cone, go home.

 

Straight line back (mandatory)
45' degree offset blindside or drivers side
parallel blindside or drivers side
Alley dock drivers side

In Florida you must do the straight line, an offset and a parallel or blindside. I love doing a blindside parallel because thats the way I learned.

Edit: Once you get trailer going where you want it to follow the trailer in. Be sure to not hit the cone in the rear but make sure the trailer is between the lines on both side and all the way in.

KH

 

Couple of tips:

Less is more when it comes to steering wheel movement. I watch so many drivers crank crank crank jack jack jack that wheel to they're blue in the face. Most of the time, you just need to be patient and "let it happen"

Use shadows, they are your best friend. Shadows always touch the ground somewhere, you just need to remember where it touches and that particular time of day.

Best advice I ever got for straight line backing was to remember this saying.

"Drift left turn left. Drift right turn right."

I think the "U haul" suggestion is a great idea actually. Any time spent moving backwards is going to be a benefit. Backing a little tiny U haul you'll find things happen very fast, unlike a tractor trailer where it goes much slower.

 

How much room do they give you to pull up? I have always pulled way ahead, start the trailer turning, and keep the truck straight in the lane. Don't know if it's right, but it works for me, probably got it from driving EDp's, where the truck has to be on the pile, and the trailer has to be 90*.

Practice makes perfect.

And hearing what they make you do in school, and what they fail you for irks me. Who cares if you get out of your truck and look, I rather see someone do that than run over something. Driving schools are a joke.

 

I like this advice and look forward to trying this set-up. Should come in very handy especially since my test site has no reference points and counting down a specific number of seconds once my left shoulder hits that first left cone feels unreliable.