The dreaded 90

You can't expect it to be perfect every time. When I do a 90 I always get under my trailer to late but I just do a pull up and it fixes everything. Keep practicing and I wouldn't worry about over/under steering because that can be easily fixed.

 

Dreaded? Don't psych yourself out. When you think you can't do something, it's easy to prove yourself right.

 

20 years in and sometimes the EASIEST docks kick my ### and make me look like a rookie. Seems when I'm trying the hardest and concentrating and doing everything right. I can't get it straight no matter what. Had my account on a run and did a crazy blind side 90 one shot. He's going wow!!! Next day straight in, 3 pull ups to get straight. He's looking at me like, WTF? It happens, don't be hard on yourself.

 

Yeah don't sweat it. You'll never stop learning. If your handling the rest of things as well as you say, your gonna be fine.

 

O were talking about that 90. I was thinking to myself who the hell take interstate 90 through downtown Chicago if you don't have to go that way. Everyday it's parking lot

 

This may be taken as a very stupid comment; however, in reality, this type of learning curve taught me how to back up a trailer in all conditions.

When I started OTR driving I was only 19 and figured I was the best double clutchen, gear jammin truck driver in the world. When I applied for a job at Trans America (Boston & NY, 1959) they wanted me on their payroll but would not give me a truck. Too young and too ####y . Even though my nose was badly bent, I accepted their offer to be a yard monkey docking trailers. Though a yard donkey (a yard shunter) ( the jargon has changed since those days) has a different turning ratio than a highway tractor it still taught me how to back a trailer into spots that "most" OTRs could never do. The company eventually let me use an older tractor, (a MAC- COE) to meet drivers on the outskirts of Boston to haul their trailers to the yard. (Only the old timers will remember what it was like getting a highway trailer in and out of Boston in the late fifties and early sixties) Yup, it was seven long months of of bent nose yard shunting, but, there were very few holes that I could not get a trailer into with no more than one pull up.

Maybe swallow some truck driving pride and find a job as a yard monkey for a spell to learn how to maneuver a trailer in tight spots. It is usually a low paying job, but the experience sticks with you for a life time.

From an old timer:

 

Dreaded? HAW... you scare yourself Friend.

Stop it. You will encounter the deep dark horrors hidden underground where there are walls that are not going to give you much room for a decent pullup. Some are not even walls, just the formations left behind by miners in the earth. (Civil War Road Food Distribution, Missouri comes to mind)

Wind the wheel all the way over, as the trailer begins to move and turn, get about half of that wheel off before you reach a 45 degree angle that you want on your drives to trailer. Follow trailer back adding wheel or taking off wheel as necessary to follow your trailer into the hole. You will notice your tractor become some what straight but not quite. You probably will have to do a pull up or two, if not also get out and walk back to look at your work in progress before you hit something.

Ive been off the road a long time, but there is no problem putting that trailer into the hole and eventually when I understand that trailer well enough I'll glide into the dock in one move. Which was one of the things Ive enjoyed doing. Or used to. Spread axles are the easiest becuase you can put everything on that forward axle and get into anything. Even your cat's litter box if you had to.