Ray
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by Ray on Jan 20, 2004 20:41:57 GMT -5
Hello,
Just wanted to hear how quickly some of you came along with your backing skills. I would say that I'm just as good (or not so good) as the next newbie driver out there. But I wanted confirmation that I'm not the only one who has a little trouble.
Second part:
if I'm backing to a dock, and I can clearly see both dock bumpers (or whatever they're called) evenly in both my mirrors, will this ensure a straight-line backing?
Thanks, any advice would help.
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Post by truckertom on Jan 21, 2004 22:33:28 GMT -5
Ray
If the two mirrors look indentical, that just means you are centered. The other consideration is if you are a perfect 90 degrees to the dock. You can be centered and still have a crooked trailer. It is just going to take practace to get it perfect, but you also have to realize that no one is perfect. I love it when they have a line!
I have seen a row a trailers down the doors and because the first one is a little off, they are all off and get worse down the line because everyone used the trailer next to them as a guide.
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Post by Christopher on Jan 23, 2004 8:00:41 GMT -5
I'm not an instructor, but ditto everything Tom said. I think all drivers like those painted lines at the docks - it just makes things that much easier, and who doesn't enjoy that? Everyone has their strengths & weaknesses - I had been driving straight truck for 15 years (different trannys, floating gears, etc) and yet when I was in school, because of my bad habit of jack rabbiting through the gears, I kept grinding the hell out of them for awhile. Backing didn't come naturally too me either - that took awhile to develop (actually, more on the job than at school, probably because I was more relaxed without someone looking over my shoulder). Even now, I find it easier to back properly into those "tough" spots than a wide open set of empty docks (nothing to judge against, such as another trailer). When you get out there, just remember to take it easy - there's really no need to get on the gas in reverse. Also remember that everyone has their good days and bad, and you'll be no exception. And something to think about - unless you get an LTL city job, you're probably doing more backing now than you will on average when you're in the workforce! ;D
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Post by fozzie on Feb 3, 2004 3:47:34 GMT -5
Woo Hoo! I backed my first trailer today! I did a couple pull-ups, but it was easier than I anticipated. The funny thing is, I was driving a thirteen speed cabover tractor for the first time. What a bear that thing is to drive! Kind of fun, once I got used to the squatty shift lever. After a couple laps around the campus, (about 1/2 mile per lap) up and down shifting was smooth. It just took a lot of energy! I was sweating by the time I'd done five laps and it was 40° F outside.
Actually, today was a pretty big day for me. It was my first time to hook a 28 ft. van to conventional tractor. Then I drove my first drive across town to an area called the "Tide Flats" where a lot of trucking and shipping goes on.
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Post by truckertom on Feb 6, 2004 22:52:44 GMT -5
I love it when it is cold in the cab and my students are sweating through the seat and trying to turn the AC on!
Do they not have any longer trailers? Pulling a 48 or 53 footer is going to be vastly different than a 28 footer. Backing the longer trailers is going to be way different too.
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Post by fozzie on Feb 7, 2004 0:52:02 GMT -5
Oh yeah... they have 28', 48', 53' vans and reefers. There's at least one flatbed and a couple lowboys. The students start with 28' vans on the campus and the first few times out on the road. Then they progress to 53' vans and the other assorted trailers and doubles. That's the nice thing about being in a 22 week school. We get the time to experience all the different configurations in an assortment of road conditions. We went a field trip to Gordon Trucking today to visit their facility in Pacific, WA. They had one of the "finishers" there to talk to us. He said the trainers fight over the chance to get a Bates graduate. ...makes their job a lot easier... One thing we could use is a Qualcomm set up for training.
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Post by al1460 on Feb 8, 2004 0:10:42 GMT -5
AN AID TO BACKING STRAIGHT.
Something that has been helpful to me is to find objects on the ground that line up with one another and will be in line with a spot on the dock, bldg or whatever you are backing to.
If you can stay paralell with this imaginary line it will help in not letting the trailer get away.
P.S. Don't get to intent on this line or the sudden stop and the loud noise will be very disconcerting.
Anyway this was something my Dad taught me when I first started farming and couldn't see the marker line the corn planter was supposed to leave so the rows would be straight and spaced the proper distance apart.
Good luck.
al1460.
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Post by Mike on Feb 8, 2004 9:32:38 GMT -5
The way I have found to do a good Straight line back is to put my hand at 12 oclock on the wheel and never turn it more then the 9 oclock or the 3 oclock. Also remember it takes at least 12 feet for the trailer to respond to any command when backing.
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Post by truckertom on Feb 8, 2004 14:46:21 GMT -5
I have taught it that way and it works. As long as you catch the trailer at the beginning of the drift. Let it get too far gone and it will take a hard turn to get it back behind you!
But when you get the trailer straight, you have to center the steering wheel again or it just keeps going.
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Post by Mike on Feb 9, 2004 7:10:10 GMT -5
As long as you catch the trailer at the beginning of the drift. Let it get too far gone and it will take a hard turn to get it back behind you! I agree with you on this, If you let it drift to far you would have to pull up and start it over again. But I would hope you turned into trouble before it drifted out to far and recoved it.
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Post by truckertom on Feb 9, 2004 20:54:46 GMT -5
I had a student go to the DPS (DMV) and take his test today and he passed the straight line and parellel parking. But the funny thing was right before he began this test he got nervous and changed every thing I had taught him in the backing yard, practice dock and curb.
I had to pull out the "hard nosed instructor" routein and tell him to pull his head out of his A** and stop second guessing what I had been teaching him for two weeks now.
He passed with a 87 on his road test but as a result, he sweat through my driver seat.....I get that alot. I thought he was going into thermal runaway!
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Post by Scott on Feb 16, 2004 12:50:48 GMT -5
truckertom, I tell students if the steering wheel gets too wet they have to fill up the "Steering Wheel Resevoir" when they get done. Ya gotta have some fun once in awhile!
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Post by truckertom on Feb 17, 2004 23:13:15 GMT -5
I did have some students looking for the brake fluid the other day......they couldn't find it for some reason.
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Post by vintage54 on Feb 18, 2004 9:08:54 GMT -5
Re looking for brake fluid. If you have any "cowboys" in class, don't be surprised if one looks for the nitrous oxide tanks (rocket booster fuel) lol. Your posts remind of my driving school days. Nice to see an instructor who cares wether his students "get it" or not. Some people will never make drivers.
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Post by SilverBullet on Feb 18, 2004 19:05:16 GMT -5
I did have some students looking for the brake fluid the other day......they couldn't find it for some reason. Isn't the brake fluid resevoir beside the flux capacitor?
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