[BORN2DRIVE]

Could someone please help me?! My backing up is getting better. I can hit the hole after only 3 or 4 pull ups now. But, my set up sucks. I almost always screw up the set up, which contributes to my number of pull ups.

So, with all these "ups", could someone please step "up" and give me some good advice? Thanks in advance.

[eoplocust]

i am no pro by any means nor do i pretend to be one. heck my road tests tomorrow. but what helps me is th try and set up so the trailer is angled in towards the spot before u even start backing so it would look kind of like a crooked strait back. also GOAL . get out and look. i honestly did little to no goal during school and my instructors did not mention it at al. but then when i finally did it forthe first time about a week and a half ago. the instructor took notice and and its helped me to back everytime since with either one pull up or none as opposed to my usual 3 pullups. it looks a certain way in the truck but when u get out and see you will start to mentally visualize if its gonna go in .... wow longwinded for a rookie who still admittedly pulls up huh?

EDIT: also if its alleydocking perpendicular to dock (like from street) , try to go past like 2- 3 trailers worth of space from the spot so u have decent room to back. its something i kinda noticd from my yard at school and that helps to have enough room.

[repete]

To hit the spot time after time you have to find what works and do it the same way every time. Try pulling up even with the hole (@ a 90 degree angle) pull forward 3 spaces and while still moving cut hard right. then when your facing stright into the space ( or whatever) across from you then cut hard left and stop when your cab is @ a 90 degree angle to the parking space or dock.( at this point you should be lined up pretty close) Find what gear and speed and how fast to turn the wheel that will work for you and DO IT THE SAME ALL THE TIME. At times you'll have to make adjustments for other things that aren't under your control
AND DON'T FORGET! GOAL!!!

[Fourcats]

While you are sitting WATCH the way other drivers do it. I saw/watched a JB driver set up, quick & simple 8) .
You need to "see it, in your mind" before you start.

[silvan]

Originally Posted by repete

To hit the spot time after time you have to find what works and do it the same way every time.

This is so true. Case in point, I have this fairly annoying dock I have to hit where there just isn't enough room to do it comfortably. I can never get it straight in, and I always have to do a pull-up, but I can normally get the trailer straight as a razor, and perfectly centered. Jack around to here like thus, now pull up like thus, and finish it off. It's kind of like an elaborate K-turn kind of thing, where there isn't enough room to do the whole thing in one motion.

Anyway, I went in there one time, and I kept wanting to hit the gas meter or the Dumpster, but never the dock. I had to fart around for every bit of 15 minutes before I finally got in there. I felt like a complete retard. Then the shipper pointed out that the trailer over int he next dock had been pulled out, and parked to the side.

AH HAH! I was pulling toward that trailer, then hooking out just so. When they moved the trailer, it screwed everything up until I realized that I had to learn a new pattern. Now I do it THAT way EVERY time, and I look like a perfeshimal again.

As far as the right way to set up, I find in the real world that everything I do is a hard 90, and even when I don't have to do a hard 90, that's what I do anyway, because it's the most efficient pattern for me. I used to spend a small eternity doing this kind of back. I did it wrong for years, maybe as many as five straight years. I got in there, but I was doing it the hard way. Then I happened to notice how our yard jockey tackled the same problem, and I never had another speck of trouble.

Assuming you're doing a hard 90 between two trailers:

AAAAAAAAA
|
BBBBBBBB

• Steer sharply toward the hole so that when you pass it, you almost touch trailer A with your mirror
• Right at that point, cut the wheel hard to the right
• Steer out at an angle toward the ditch/bank/wall/pole/building, and then cut left, so the tractor parallels the outer limit of available space
• Drive far enough. Far enough depends on how long your trailer is, how far back the tandems are slid. It's a feel thing, but it's better to go a little too far than not to go far enough
• Now jack in, aiming like you're going to rip the corner off of trailer B. You can't be shy about it (if you try to shy away from trailer B, you'll wind up way too far toward trailer A), but until you know what the hell you're doing, you SHOULD GOAL obsessively and repeatedly to make sure you aren't actually going to cream the trailer (and sometimes I still cut it close enough I have to GOAL. I did just today. I was going to miss it, but I needed to verify that first-hand, twice, even though I was holding up a lot of people; screw them, they just have to wait and STFU)
• Follow it up, but not too fast. Follow too fast, you have problems, follow too slow, you have problems. It's a feel thing.
• Do a half pull-up if necessary to make final corrections, then line up straight and true and square, and listen to the Australian engineer guy say "You make that look easy, mate."

Really, the key is to figure out what works, and then repeat it the same way every time. It's amazing how often this is true. I used to have to do a U-turn in a small, car-sized cul-de-sac, and I always had just barely enough room. Until the day someone left the door down on their mailbox. That tiny change caused me to go a fraction too far to the left, and when I came around, I buried the truck up to the axles in a ditch. Got the passenger side drives too close to the edge, and that was all the wrote. Had the same problem in another place when someone parked their car on a white line instead of to the side of it. It's amazing how much 4" can change everything, considering how massive these vehicles are.

[BORN2DRIVE]

Silvan,
Thanks for your post. It does help. However, I do have a couple of questions for you.
1. How far passed trailer A should I go before angleing to the right?
2. What does "so the tractor parallels the outer limit of available space" mean?

[One]

2. means that after you cut right, get to about a 90 deg. angle, then cut left effectively cancelling the first cut, you will be close to whatever obstacle is straight across for your dock/ parking hole.

This is how I do it: I approach within 10 ft of the obstacle on my left, with the hole being on my left; look down it to check see; pull the tractor barely past it and the maneuver the truck so that my trailer is sitting at about a 45 deg. angle to the hole and it looks like if I back up straight ill hit the truck behind me- But since my tractor is at a 45 deg angle to my trailer, as I back up it will reduce the angle to the hole. Ill steer to aim my tandems to get within a foot of the trailer and chase the tractor in.
Remeber- go slow and make small steering adjustments, zigzaging around like mad wont help you, just wear you out.

make no sense at- all right? damn- Buy a toy truck and practice with it! youll be surprised what taking a step back and looking at the big picture will show you. hope this helped somewhat.

[ceb]

there are a million truck drivers.
so there a million ways to back up.
my advice is to take all the advice you can get and through trial and error do what you feel is the best way. always remember GOAL

[VitoCorleone99]

I may be in the minority here, but I think looking for a perfect setup is overrated. Sometimes there's room to set up the way you'd like, but more than half the time there isn't.

Sometimes the configuration of a lot makes me think a 90 degree back will be better than trying to set up an angle.

Sometimes the arrangement of the adjacent trailers makes me think that staying right, jackknifing the hell out of my trailer, and then doing fifteen pull-ups to straighten out my tractor will be the best approach.

A few times I've had to play with the setting of my tandems in order to tighten the turning radius and/or eliminate the tail swing as I backed in.

Occasionally, and I do mean occasionally, there's actually room to turn 90 degrees to the right and then turn 90 degrees to the left. More often, there are trailers stored in what was designed to be empty space, there are employee vehicles parked, the building was built before 53' trailers existed, or for some other reason space is limited.

About six months in to this little career experiment of mine, I basically stopped worrying about how I was set up. I set up however my eyes tell me it will be easiest, and then get out to open my doors. While I'm back there I take a good look at the angles involved. Sometimes I'm set up well and sometimes I'm not, but it rarely makes a difference. A bad setup is usually fixable within the first 10-20 feet of rolling backwards. Then, if it's tight, I'll get out and look as many times as necessary while I'm moving back.

[inmate1577]

My problem is not hitting the tight docks its hitting the dock with a football field's amount of room around me.

Funny how that works.