Backing those 18-wheelers are hard as h*ll!!
 

:!: Okay, Tuesday of this week was the first time we got to drive. We drove for Tuesday, Wednesday, and yesterday (Thursday). We get Fridays off. The first thing I ever did to drive an 18-wheeler was back it up. The first day we practiced straight-line backing. After a few tries I picked it up just fine. But then we had to do the lane-change (where you pull up ahead of one lane, then turn while your backing to back in the other lane right beside it), parallel park to the left and to the right, and the 90 (where you alley dock it), and it's hard as hell.

I can straight-line back fine, but I f@ck up on the lane-change, and I can't even begin to do the 90. I can do the parallel parking but ONLY BECAUSE THE INSTRUCTORS ARE WALKING ME THRU IT; TELLING ME WHICH DIRECTION TO TURN, AND WHEN TO TURN IT Without them, I couldn't do it worth a crap.

Now, I know it's only the 1st week of driving, but I still don't know that I'll be able to get all this down pat within 3 weeks. It's tough backing one of them motherfudgers. I know it's easy enough to remember to turn the opposite way you want the trailer to go right now, but when in the middle of a sharp turn you tend to get confused.

Did anyone else here have tons of trouble when they first started learning how to drive?

Douglas, parallel parking is tough, you are right. It might seem at first that you will never get it, but trust me, once you start practicing it more and more you will be able to do it more times than not. We had to do both blind side and sight side parallel parking, and I thought I would never get it. Eventually it just came to me piece by piece. Set up is very important for both of them also, try to start with the rig completely straight if you can.

Don't lose confidence in it man, if I can do it I'm sure you can. Best of luck.

Tom

The hardest back you will ever do is to go into a 21 door warehouse and they tell you to put it in door 10 and you are the only truck there and there are no lines painted on the ground. :wink: :wink:

With time you will get the hang of it, then once your in the real world you will use those techniques to do the impossibles, Yesterday in Toledo Oh, going to customer, the road to them had a police road block they were directing traffic to the back roads, You simply dont take a semi into residential streets. Well this was on a two lane road, pretty much impossible to turn around a semi, I jacknifed the trailer till the cab extenders were 1/8 inch from trailer, had to take the curve with steer tire. My trailer was over hanging the sidewalk, good thing there wasn't a pole there. Then today In Alcoa, Tn the dock was so tight you have to over shoot it and jacknife it in then unhook, while employee cars are right in front of your bumper.

It gives you a pretty good feeling after making in docks like that...

As far as the 90 degree dock goes, you can simply learn alot just by paying close attention to other drivers and the instructor when they are doing the manuver, then you can learn to do the same when your in the seat, just remember your pushing the trailer.

I always feel like an idiot doing 5 pull ups trying to get it completely straight with the dock plate, No line makes it pretty annoying.

Anyone been to the caves in KC or Joplin Mo ?

I've been to Joplin twice this week, no idea of caves you may be talking about though.

Underground food warehouse Ive only been to the one in joplin once . kind a pain to back into the docks because its kinda dark shadows .

My first dock that was in building was a major pain from me, you got the walls on both sides, you have to get it straight in, it was a tight one to had to know what you were doing. Took me at least 10 pull ups, after 3 or 4 pull ups a driver walked up and offered help he kept telling me to turn the wheel the wrong way, then when he went to back in next to me it took him close to half an hour to get in..

Thing is you cant see anything in the building theres a line on the ground but near impossible to see.

Douglas, everyone has given you good advice here, just keep a positive attitude and you will do fine. If you did so well with the parallel parking, it wont take long to learn the rest! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll try harder! But I only did well because the instructor was there to guide me the whole time. He pretty much drove the truck for me.

Douglas,

I know when I was in school the instructions (for parallel backups) did not work for me. Everybody has different approaches. Like another poster, I do better in tight situations, and my instructor was insisting that I use all of the space with slight adjustments. Worked for 90 percent of the class -- but not me. No matter how you approach it, I would suggest that you GOAL incremently (every 20 feet or so), so you know why you are positioned where you are. It beats guessing with the mirrorS and getting frustrated. Eventually the need to GOAL will taper and you can JUST use your mirrors and trust your instincts (especially while in a blind spot) with confidence.

It will come. Probably a non issue in a weeks time (at least the basics).

You are using the back of the tractor to push the trailer where you want it. Remember that and it might make it a little more intuitive.

practice practice practice. I had a hard time learning how to back up. I was over thinking it. just take the time now to cut the wheel and learn what the truck and trailer will do. do not over turn the wheel and get back under the trailer before you think you need to. after a few months you'll notice that it just becomes second nature and then you'll have to think about how to back up bobtail.

Yeah, but I have a college degree so I took FOREVER to figure it out! LOL

Douglas, the big thing is learn to relax. You can easily try to hard and get too frustrated and then everything gets worse real fast.

When I was in school the first couple of days I couldn't even do a good straight line back, then one day things clicked and I noticed big improvements each day. By the time I tested out I only got docked 1 point on the entire skills and driving tests. I assure you that I am not one of those drivers that was born with a steering wheel in his hands and teethed on a glad hand. :wink: :wink: :lol: :lol:

Douglas, I feel your pain! I am at exactly the same place in school as you are. We spent about an hour today doing straight line backing. I couldn't figure out how you could be centered in front of the hole and not be able to just keep the wheel straight and back right in. It was sooooo frustrating!!!

I am also having some difficulty with down shifting. I told the instructor I hope they had rubber gears in the transmission!

I think the best thing you and I can do is to remember its baby steps and it will all come together. Even a monkey can be trained to drive a truck. It takes more to learn to shift and back up. I think we are right on track. I know I haven't been approached by my instructor regarding concern I won't make it. Next week I'm hoping things start clicking on the things I'm having trouble with.

All I can say is hang in there.

You should have seen the warehouse we had to deliver to for K-Mart when I had just started OTR. It was outside of NYC, seemed to be an Asian neighborhood. Anyway, this place was so tight, I was on my drive time, I woke up my old man because I knew I could never do it. He did my manuvering for me, and even he had a hell of a time. I think we were with Werner on that one. Just to many of these places were built to accept trucks half the size of today's trucks.

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Don't feel bad, some people get backing right away, some don't. I still don't get backing, and I have had my license for almost 2 years. I just can't figure out why I have so many problems.

Everyone one of us experienced drivers were rookies at backing once...
It just takes practice. There are somedays I could not back my trailer to save my life... 8) My trailer is real fun to back ... its a spread axle. :shock:

There is a produce cold storage place up in Santa Maria California that is like that too...they forget to turn the lights on and your backing into darkness...

Once I went up to the woman dispatcher and asked her to get off the phone and get on the lights.....she wasnt amused. But she did turn them on.

We all have are rookie days i know i do :oops:

Try having to blind side back into a dock! One of the Walmarts was not properly designed for truckers. In order to get into the docks there is just enough room to fit a 53' trailer around the corner, then you have to blind side back into the dock.

To top all that fun off, you hope no one parks next to you as you cannot get out because there is no room to make the right turn to get out. I wish I would have taken pictures to better describe it.

It sucks!

:D Backing just take plenty of practice. Also remember when backing TURN YOUR CB OFF!! What you DON'T need are some yahoos on the CB making snide and rude comments when you're trying to push a 53' trailer into a narrow parking space. 8)

We haven't started practicing shifting yet. In about 3 weeks or so, we're going to get on the road and probably go down to Fargo, GA. It's in the middle of nowhere, with hardly any traffic. I know I'll probably have a tough time learning to shift, too. :wink:

Useless, you have been watching too nuch TV....lol

[quote="Midnight Flyer" Also remember when backing TURN YOUR CB OFF!! [/quote]

I'd have to disagree on that one! Just ignore an A-holes, but this way you could be warn, or advised, from the "normal" drivers.

How long is your school? See my screen name, I went to mtc, a run down school that needs to get thier S&&t together. Its a 2 week course but after the first day of the second week I basically showed up did one manuver and went home, the head instructor got pretty mad ready to throw me out... I was called Valivictorian by the 45 students in the class with me.

The pre trip was hardest thing for the rest the rest of my class, I doubled as an instructor once I pissed off bill.. Showed them the pretrip.. Got a 104 my self the guy said I didn't touch the power steering pump, I meerly pointed at it.

Before you know it you will be on your own.. I'm already planing on leaving this Otr Driving after my year is over. Its hard to keep in shape out here.

[quote=solo379] :D You're absolutely right solo379, sorry 'bout that! Keep the CB on but ignore the A-holes and listen to the normal folks who are trying to help you! :rock:

I find the following with our students and it seems to happen with them all.

Why they struggle is because they do not believe that the mirrors tell them the truth.

The worst thing a person can do when backing is to get out of the truck and look backwards to where they are going. When they do this they almost always get back in the truck and turn the wheel the wrong way.

It is much better to get out of the truck, walk to about 20 feet behind the trailer and look forward. Then think what you need to do with the wheel.

Also, never think right and left with the steering wheel. You have a 50% chance of being wrong.

If you are trying to straighten out the unit, look in your mirrors and see where you have more trailer. If there is more trailer in the right mirror, steer right, if there is more mirror in the left mirror steer left.

You will not need to steer very much, if it is not out of alignment very much.

As far as parallel parking and alley docks, that is a function of time and experience.

As far as having a CB on while you are doing it, I would never trust someone else.

If you don't know what is behind you.....STOP.....get out and look.

Some said that it is embarrassing to get out five time and look.

I would rather see that than have some one try it once and drive over someone.

You cannot give me a reason why you backed into something where I will not be able to not only show that you where wrong, but make you feel stupid because you did it.

If you back into something it IS your fault.....YOU backed into them, right?

G.O.A.L Was drilled into my head! I always turned the CB off, turned the radio off, and it made it much easier to back in.

I used to rack my brain thinking "if the trailer needs to go left ,then turn the wheel right".One of the older instructors at my school gave me some of the same advice as Rockymtnprodriver . Turn towards the trailer drift.Drifts left turn left,drifts right,turn right.Seems to be alot less brain strain. And that right mirror,its a liar for sure. dont stare at it for very long or you will get off track. 8)

Re: Backing those 18-wheelers are hard as h*ll!!
 

Yup. Your not alone there, I had a hell of a time at first but I got it and you will too. 8)

Re: Backing those 18-wheelers are hard as h*ll!!
 

Do you have a garden tractor and trailer available? If so, use that on the weekends to practice backing. You'll have much better view of what the relationship is between the tractor and trailer. But keep in mind that the response of a CMV is much different, as well as what you get to see in the mirrors. I've found that trainees that come from rural areas, and grew up operating farm equipment seem to have a much easier time of it because of being used to the relationship of the tractor and trailer when backing. Also, "AIM" the trailer by using the bottom edge and extending a line to the edge of where you are trying to back into.

It takes a lot of practice.

Yep that's one of those schools that cater to the impatient. Most decent schools are at least 6-8 weeks for the basics, and longer for more advanced training.

All of the recruiters I talked to, seem to ask the first same question, "what school did you go to and how long was it."

The more time you spend at backing and driving the better you get.

It's 10 weeks long. I go to Moultrie Technical College (also abbreviated MTC! :shock: ). So far it's pretty good. I'm going to try hard tommorow. :)