Blindside backing
I have ran into (no pun) a few shippers/cosignees in the past few weeks where blindside backing was not an option, you HAD to do it.
I saw somewhere on YouTube, that one driver came up with the idea of putting a mirror on the passenger side sun-visor that was a 12-18in wide and 4-6in tall. Not sure how much more visibility you'd get, but i just bought a $5 mirror that i will have to trim down, and attack via velcro or elastic. anybody have any thoughts about blindside backing? any tips, etc.? One place i was at, I had already bumped the dock, and another swift driver blind sided right next to me. He was a mentor, and he looked like he knew what he was doing. He'd back up 2-3 feet...then GOAL. back another 2-3 feet and GOAL. took forever, but he got it in without hitting anything. without this mirror idea, that is how i would go about it....thought maybe there was a better idea out there somewhere...... |
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Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! :D
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one place in lovely winnipeg, i had to blind-side into a crappy old skool dock that wasn't exactly built for 53ft long trailers. i used GOAL countless times even though it took me 45mins to get bump the dock. it was a mission accomplished. didn't hit anything other than the rubber thingies. i got out and looked every 2-4 seconds of movement. nothing can beat and replace GOAL.
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As stated above, NOTHING replaces GOAL.
As far as mirrors go, I find that I get a whole lot more use out of my convex mirror than I do the flat one...but stuff is really, really small, so it's extremely important to get out every couple of feet. |
Ahh another reason i love driving a daycab with back window and a flatbed. You can see everything. If i was blindsidin' a big van with a sleeper i would definalty ask for a spotter from the forklift driver. Espicailly if it was a tight dock with lots of crap around
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Make a few trips to LA and you will surprise yourself at fast you learn how to back a trailer.
About all the docks in LA are a challenge and some are a nightmare. The place I load at in the morning has 1 dock and you back in off the street. When you bump the dock your tractor is still in the street. They give you a orange cone to put in front of your truck. Blindside backing is not that hard. Before you move the truck look at the surroundings and picture the back in your head. Like Rev said use your power mirror on the passenger side. Go slow and remember what you pictured in your head. If any doubt GOAL. I am a self taught O/O who drove a flatbed for 4 weeks with a guy who bought a truck while we were still in trucking school. He was scared to hit the road by himself so I went with him and we scared eachother. LOL I bought a truck and took off to LA. I go to LA everyweek and haven't had too many problems in the 6 months I have been doing it. I very seldom even turn on the GPS. I only go to about 6 different places and know my way to them now. I bet I could fill out my logbook for next week and be within 2 hours of every stop I make. This week I seen different scenery because I was a chicken after I looked at the weather forecast for FLAG and I took the southern route across I-10. 200 miles further but no snow. I seen on the weather report Flagstaff got almost 2 feet of snow in the last 24 hours. Home the southern way tomorrow. |
I once had a safety director that said "THERE IS NEVER ANY REASON A DRIVER SHOULD BLIND-SIDE INTO ANYWHERE". Of course, it had been a number of years since he had been out in the real world.
The electric mirrors that rotate do not go far enough to serve you well enough to use them instead of GOAL. I had never heard of a mirror in the passenger's side visor. It might actually be very helpful. Something I might want to try myself. If properly mounted, I can imagine it would be very helpful when the trailer swings beyond the view of the outside mirror. Something else that I have done, when I have another experienced driver that I know and trust, is to give him a hand-held radio and listen to his instructions over the CB. Using this, I've backed a 13' wide load into a 14' opening for a door, without having the tarp on the load touch the sides. Unfortunately, this is usable on rare ocassions only. Back up a couple of feet, get out and look, back up a couple of more feet, get out and look... |
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