Tips for turning?

There is no such thing as "too wide," unless you hit something or have to back up. I cannot tell you how many times I've made a turn I thought was "wide enough" only to watch my trailer clear a curb, sign or other obstacle by inches.

As a rule of thumb, make a left-hand turn onto a two-lane road when your steers are half-way into the far lane of the road you're turning onto. Go slw, watch your mirrors and when you've cleared any obstacles, finish the turn in the lane you started in. (Right lane for instance if you started the left turn in the right of two left turn lanes.)

 

... and as a matter of courtesy, if you are on a narrow road approaching a stop sign and you see a trucker needs to make a turn onto your road, stop well short of the intersection. Give them room to complete the turn before proceeding to the stop sign.

 

Too wide encourages four wheelers to weasel whack their way into the extra space. I make it a practice when turning from a single left turn lane to turn into the left most lane and not allowing cars to squeeze by on my left, but obviously don't want to hit the median and traffic light on the left either.

 

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

 

From a single left hand turn lane, how would a 4wheeler get past you? From a double, no big deal. Worst that happens is you're stuck for a sec til you have clearance. RIGHT-hand turns, ID it's tight, block half the right lane with your right-rear and pull mist if the truck into the straight lane. Stop well before the stop line. As you make your turn, pull out into the center of the intersection into oncoming traffic lane and if needed, use the air horn.

I have made some hairy right turns where I had to block traffic for a full cycle of lights.. It was literally the only way physically possible to do it without taking out a street sign/lamp. I am NEVER in a hurry on surface streets. Just too easy to hit something, especially on narrow roads never meant for 53' trailers.

 

I actually had it happen once. A woman in a car tried to pass me on the left while I was making a left turn. She got midway up my trailer before she realized she was trapped. I stopped and waited for her to move. There's no accounting for what the 4 wheeler brain might think.

 

I was talking about medians. But the same holds true for cars stopped far up on or past the stop line.

 

Thanks for the replies.

And yes It was a divider median, and the turn is kinda dumb because the intersection is small and oncoming traffic is also turning so you have to angle to the left immediately, and on top of that it's hard to go wide because the oncoming lane has one of those little islands that separates forward traffic from the right turn lane. That said it's definitely doable I've done it before I'm just trying to figure out how to clear turns by a couple feet instead of going super wide, but that's probably not something I should be worrying about with my DMV test coming up...

 

You drag the trailer over anyone's hood yet?