I had to pull the old Jug today to make a tight turn. I guess it wasn't that bad of a turn really I just didn't look ahead and saw a small delivery truck parked on the inside of my turn on the street i was turning onto. i came close but you could still see just a little bit of light between his truck bumper and my trailer. I had to have made it by a 1/2 inch easy. :roll:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...borg/turns.jpg

Quote TomB

this is correctly called the "square out"--

the "button hook" is the where you swing wide.

the "safety" people want you to always use the "square out" WHEN possible- despite the fact it's much harder on tires and axle barrings/seals--- you drive streight out until your trailer tandem clears the corner-- then you Pivot on those axles( to keep as close to the curb as possible to discourage 4-wheelers from cutting in between.)

Now, When do you use the "Button Hook"??
when you HAVE TO-- since the "square out" usually requires you to push back traffic from the center/left turn lane to complete. A driver is suppose to be Looking/Sizing up the intersection and planning ahead- if there's a center curb or sign post or other obsticle( or simply a double lane
to single lane) a "button hook" will need to be employed.

Didn't realize bumpin a curb was that big a deal til I ruirnt a wheel last fall. That's the only thing I can figure as it didn't hurt the tire just bent the lip of the wheel.

Made that turn in El Centro many times. You can look at the curb and see how many people have run it over. It is gonna get worse there now that they put an In and Out burger at that intersection.

We had a driver making a right hand turn into a parking lot in New Jersey. It was a three lane in each direction divided highway. He was in the right lane driving, then moved into the center lane to make a wide turn with his right blinker on. An impatient driver behind him, sped around him to pass him on the right. Our driver was already in the middle of the right hand turn (taking up the center and right lanes). The 4 wheeler jumped the curb, flew OVER (not through) about 15 feet of bushes and slammed into the right side fuel tanks of our truck, rupturing them. The DEA was all the way up our drivers ass about the diesel spill (which our driver contained the best he could, we carry diesel spill containment kits in all our trucks.)

The 4 wheeler claimed he was doing only 15 mph.

The police gave our driver a ticket for making an illegal right hand turn, the 4 wheeler recieved no ticket.

The judge said that the law in New Jersey says it is illegal to make a right hand turn from any lane other than the right one unless otherwise marked.

You will also find LEFT TURNS that require much the same thing. Off one narrow street into another, and traffic, as usual, will be half way across the stop line. You'll soon learn that you can start making your corner, but in order for you to complete it, the other traffic must back up out of your way so that you can complete your corner.No matter how tempted you are, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HIT THEM.

noted.

A tractor trailer combination will always take 4 eighteen foot wide lanes from start to finish to complete a turn. We teach this to our new drivers every week. Don't believe me? Count next time you take a turn :wink:

An intersection going from two lanes to two lanes (the most common kind of turns we make) will require you to "swing wide" into the adjacent lane, and occupy both lanes of the street you are progressing onto. This would make the lane you started in 1, the one you pulled wide into 2, and the two on the street you were turning onto 3 and 4.

This works for pull throughs at the truck stops as well. It's the same as going from 3 lanes into 1. You don't think about it when you do it, but it still requires the same amount of space. The driver that has problems doing this is not taking enough space to complete the turn to get the trailer straight to the tractor before entering the single lane, or there isn't enough space to swing out three full lanes.

I have drivers every week that claim they can do a turn in 3 or even 2 lanes...and every week during the demos, they are the ones that run over the curb. If you only take 3 lanes, the trailer will find a 4th one....usually over a curb or into a light pole, or god forbid, a 4-wheeler's hood.