WorkinMan
New Member
Hunting is not a hobby, it is a passion.
Posts: 20
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Post by WorkinMan on Mar 19, 2005 12:12:28 GMT -5
Down south we have several of these docks where it looks like the dock was built before the road, and the dock can be entered only by jackknifing the truck. One that really sticks out in my mind looks like a tight squeeze for a pickup truck pulling a 16' flat trailer, not 68 feet worth of truck.
How in the blue christmas do you set up and enter these docks?
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Post by truckertom on Mar 20, 2005 12:10:52 GMT -5
It takes a real good look and a plan. You may have to take alot of pull ups to get 'er done. Getting a trailer around a corner means nearly hitting the trailer against the sleeper, try to set it up so you can do it from the sight side.
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Post by Pcuthbert on Mar 21, 2005 11:41:46 GMT -5
Then if you can, Hit the dock really hard. If enough drivers do this, then the building will be far enough back that there will be no mor problems. ;D
Pat
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Post by truckertom on Mar 21, 2005 20:00:23 GMT -5
"Then if you can, Hit the dock really hard. If enough drivers do this, then the building will be far enough back that there will be no mor problems."
Kinda like a tackling sled!
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Post by Rachelle on Mar 25, 2005 1:23:41 GMT -5
Always my weakest back: the dreaded jackknife. I still hate them to this day. On the positive side, they get easier... sorta.
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Post by truckertom on Mar 25, 2005 10:20:42 GMT -5
I make my students do a 180 degree, out of one dock backwards, into the next backing. With about two truck widths between them.
I had a job for awhile hauling into a General Motors plant in Arlington Texas and you HAD to be able to back up. Some of the docks had ramps that lifted the trailer deck up to the dock floor level and you had to be good of you would be tearing up tires. Many of the drivers were hitting the blind side trailer trying to jack it in there.
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WorkinMan
New Member
Hunting is not a hobby, it is a passion.
Posts: 20
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Post by WorkinMan on Apr 11, 2005 4:11:42 GMT -5
I had a 1980 chevy 3500 dually for a while and I pulled a drag racecar from my buddies house a few times. Just picture an extended cab, long bed dually chevy with little dinky mirrors pulling an 18' enclosed trailer. I had to wiggle it into his garage one night about 3 am. His house was close enough to the road that when the trailer was against the garage door the back wheels were still on the street. I wheeled in and tried my best to impress his wife with my driving skills. I never turned my head, I used mirrors only. I flattened his mailbox, his garbage cans and missed a 2001 dodge dakota by inches. Nice legs and short skirts should be banned world wide, their dangerous, lol.
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Post by truckertom on Apr 12, 2005 9:02:57 GMT -5
Was it a gooseneck? I love it when my students turn around to look out the back window of the sleeper....the one that was never there!
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WorkinMan
New Member
Hunting is not a hobby, it is a passion.
Posts: 20
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Post by WorkinMan on Apr 13, 2005 6:51:05 GMT -5
Naw TT my friend this was a ball hitch rig, if it was a gooseneck I could have done it no problem.
I have looked out the back window into the front of the trailer so many times, its like checking a watch you're not wearing, lol.
What is really funny is when you have a kid that brags that he can drive any vehicle pulling any trailer and then finds a way to jacknife a 2 wheel trailer behind a datsun pickup. My Lord, how many times you gotta tell these kids: Put you hand at the bottom of the wheel with one finger extended, then if you have a problem in your mirror while you're backing up, point to it in the side mirror. I had one boy that did just as I said: He held the wheel just like he should, bottom of wheel, right hand, index finger straightened, when he had a problem he pointed at it. With his dadgum left hand. GRRRRR some poeple were told to stand in this line for brains, thought they said rain and left to get their rubber boots and rain slicker.
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Post by truckertom on Apr 17, 2005 8:28:43 GMT -5
What is funny is when they use the same method for a four wheeler in an 18. The turn the bottom of the wheel toward the problem and then wait for the trailer to catch up....and they wait.....and they wait and by the time you get them to stop, the trailer is about to kiss the sleeper.
They are stairing into the left mirror while the trailer is jacknifing to the right....and after telling them 230,795 times what they did wrong, they are still going to try to convert their "fourwheeler" skills into driving an 18 wheeler: They are not compattable.
I tell my students to crumble up everything they know about driving and throw it away. Everything they know about shifting a Datsun is gone...it won't work. They have been rolling through stop signs for years; get rid of it. They have been resting their hand of the stick since Moses was a baby....trash it! But they all do it.
But the first time they have to stop the truck, walk back and apologise to a curb they ran over, they get the idea that shame is part of the learning process! I had one student that walked to the truckstop bathroom right beside a bullwagon....he didn't do that again!
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WorkinMan
New Member
Hunting is not a hobby, it is a passion.
Posts: 20
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Post by WorkinMan on Apr 17, 2005 9:44:50 GMT -5
Keepin' your hand on the stick when you're not shifting is probably one of the most often broken rules, it wears the shift fork out (at least it did on my 4 speed in my truck, I figure the constant pressure would do dang near the same thing to a 18 speed)
I do have one piece of advice for the new kids on the block, If you are given the chance to jockey the trailers around on a dock yard, it is good experience. however (I think this advice would work with all trucks, it is a good thing to remember anyway) if you are handed the keys to a pretty old truck, like mid 70's DON'T PUT YOUR THUMBS THROUGH THE WHEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, keep them out of the center, not between the spokes. If the truck hits a groove on the yard just right the wheel will kick out of your hand and fold your thumbs back onto your wrists. (I learned it the hard way, summer job, hauling gravel in an old Pete, no CDL, too young to get em, never hit the highway, left thumb shattered)
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Post by Pcuthbert on Apr 17, 2005 10:29:57 GMT -5
QUOTE What is funny is when they use the same method for a four wheeler in an 18. The turn the bottom of the wheel toward the problem and then wait for the trailer to catch up....and they wait.....and they wait and by the time you get them to stop, the trailer is about to kiss the sleeper.
They are stairing into the left mirror while the trailer is jacknifing to the right....and after telling them 230,795 times what they did wrong, they are still going to try to convert their "fourwheeler" skills into driving an 18 wheeler: They are not compattable. END QUOTE
Just wait until they have the pleasure of backing two trailers. Easy enough when you have a "B" train (fifth wheel on the back of the lead trailer). A bit more difficult with a "C" train (double pintle hitch converter with the fifth wheel on the dolly). Almost impossible with an "A" train. (single pintle hitch converter with the fifth wheel on the dolly).
You can bend these almost 27 ways from Sunday.
Pat
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Post by truckertom on Apr 17, 2005 14:59:04 GMT -5
"DON'T PUT YOUR THUMBS THROUGH THE WHEEL"
LOL! Kinda knocks your thumbs off.
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