Big Truck:
Keep watching your trailer wheels and where they are going rather than the sides of the trailer.
Don’t forget your spray suppression’s (mud flaps) on the bananas they can rip them off then you’re stuck at an RDC with a VOR trailer.
you just said a whole load of stuff I didn’t understand there mate, sorry :-/
Who me ? Bananas are the metal guides that well basically guide you onto the bays, some places don’t have them but most do and sometimes they’re painted yellow hence the name bananas, just watch your flaps, keep it tight offside so you know nearside you have plenty of room.
thanks bud, will keep that in mind, what does ‘RDC and VOR’ mean !!
You might be lucky and get a trailer with a soft dock system which automatically applies the trailer brakes when your almost on the dock.
In which case be sure to remove the electrical suzy on the drivers side as this disables the soft dock system and ensures a smooth reverse without the trailer brakes kicking in if someone ■■■■■ in a 100 yard radius and ends up making you look like a right ■■■■.
Course if you get a good one that isn’t as sensitive as your bell end just after coitus then make sure to check the trailer is on the dock as you may still be 8 inches away. Course the knack is to tickle them a bit and the brakes release, or go like the bollox - both techniques seem to work.
Dipper_Dave:
You might be lucky and get a trailer with a soft dock system which automatically applies the trailer brakes when your almost on the dock.
In which case be sure to remove the electrical suzy on the drivers side as this disables the soft dock system and ensures a smooth reverse without the trailer brakes kicking in if someone ■■■■■ in a 100 yard radius and ends up making you look like a right ■■■■.
Course if you get a good one that isn’t as sensitive as your bell end just after coitus then make sure to check the trailer is on the dock as you may still be 8 inches away. Course the knack is to tickle them a bit and the brakes release, or go like the bollox - both techniques seem to work.
Dipper_Dave:
In which case be sure to remove the electrical suzy on the drivers side as this disables the soft dock system and ensures a smooth reverse without the trailer brakes kicking in if someone ■■■■■ in a 100 yard radius and ends up making you look like a right ■■■■.
I hear what you’re saying Dave and I’ve done this BUT we had a driver reversing onto a bay at one of our collection’s and unknown to him a warehouse bod shot out from no where and was chatting to another warehouse bod who had the bay door open and it was only the soft docking sensors that potentially stopped a crush injury/death, needless to say our driver went ballistic.
Make sure you open your rear doors before your on the bay
I may have looked extremely silly once sat in my cab with a film on thinking im getting tipped…turned out I wasn’t
Good luck with your test, don’t worry to much just take your time the more technical stuff like levelling the trailer locking systems will be learnt in time, in a few months you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.
Better to ask what you may think is a daft question than to be inducted into the ranks of club plant pot.
mike68:
Good luck with your test, don’t worry to much just take your time the more technical stuff like levelling the trailer locking systems will be learnt in time, in a few months you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about.
Better to ask what you may think is a daft question than to be inducted into the ranks of club plant pot.
Thanks Mike, nervous jitters, also very excited about getting on the road to do some real driving
They’re the worst bays where you back into the warehouse and its like a platform either side of the truck. You can fit a ■■■ paper between the truck and the raised platforms, can’t open the doors fully either.
You can end up having shunt after shunt just to get the right position and keep it stright going back.
Lining the truck up first will make your life much easier. As others have said, take your time and if you find youself getting vexed, handbrake on jump out and have a breather whilst pretending (or not) to look at the situation. Oh, nearly forgot to say, if it takes you ten shunts to get in, nobody cares. It’s been seen a million times before!
Just reverse until it bounces off. Then push harder on the pedal and put it back onto the dock. It’ll bounce again but push harder until the bugger stops bouncing. Eventually the bounces will stop and you’ll be on. If you reverse hard enough you won’t even have to worry about waiting for someone to tip you!
Disclaimer: to those suffering the disease humour failiarous -I wasn’t being serious. Or was I?!
I started to type out some things but you know what, It sounded far to complicated in text. Like typing out how to make toast or boil a kettle. Don’t be worrying about this crap now. It really isn’t any big quizz. You’ll see when you have a go and the big mystery will vanish. Ask a bod or two at your first Job. 5 mins, it’ll be ticked off and you’ll kick yourself for wasting time thinking about it whilst preparing for your class 1 test. Enjoy your training!
But stop making problems for your self. Let your trainer show you what to do, practice it, when things go wrong you will learn what to do to sort it out… You have paid for an instructor so ask as many question as you can and get them to explain everything…
No point beating yourself up before you start the training…
First focus on passing d test and forget about after. The test is easy enough when you do a few lessons.
After you pass your test and you still think you not happy with the reversing nothing stopping you on going back and doing another few lessons but this time you will b able to tell d instructor what you want to do as he wont b thinking of getting you past the Test.
First artic job i did was about two years after passing the test. Went and did 3 lessons and did a bit of motorway driving,reversing etc.just to settle myself before starting the job.
When I did my test my instructor had a bay like the one for test conditions and what we did was made a loop with one of the straps on the trailer and as I looked in the mirror I just had to make sure that the loop was lined up with a certain point (think it was my shoulder in the mirror and that was lined up with a bollard) then that meant that the rear of the trailer was about 1or 2 inch from hitting the stop sign at the back on my test, worked a treat and passed first time
Good luck you’ll be fine and like others have said don’t be over thinking it
Dipper_Dave:
In which case be sure to remove the electrical suzy on the drivers side as this disables the soft dock system and ensures a smooth reverse without the trailer brakes kicking in if someone ■■■■■ in a 100 yard radius and ends up making you look like a right ■■■■.
I hear what you’re saying Dave and I’ve done this BUT we had a driver reversing onto a bay at one of our collection’s and unknown to him a warehouse bod shot out from no where and was chatting to another warehouse bod who had the bay door open and it was only the soft docking sensors that potentially stopped a crush injury/death, needless to say our driver went ballistic.
Thats a good point BB, as disabling any safety device is going to leave the driver wide open to trouble if something happens.
I’ve used good ones for culina that worked great I’ve also bad some nightmares that would barely let you go backwards 2 feet without kicking in and lead to a kangaroo wheel spi effect that any joey would be jealous of.
Also had a banksman once get a bit frustrated with me when I tried to explain that the trailer could see him and was braking on its own. He thought I was making it up, either that or it was some sort of magic he wasn’t aware of. In the end I disconected it but if something had gone wrong I would have been up poop river without a toothbrush.
Although this same banksman was a bit keen and had obviously just been on a signals course, unfortunately I wasn’t familar with these signals he was using so asked him to just scream and wave his arms violently if a potential disaster was about to happen.
Dipper_Dave:
I’ve also bad some nightmares that would barely let you go backwards 2 feet without kicking in and lead to a kangaroo wheel spi effect that any joey would be jealous of.
Some of ours have been known to suddenly slam the anchors on for no reason that’s why I take it slowly when reversing one especially with tall pallets on otherwise you open the back doors and you’ve got yogurts flying at you.
always reverse on / drive off on a green light !!..never take chances even when you are given your keys and told you are tipped !!
if someone is on the bay next to you use them as a guide as when your cab is nearly in line with theirs then you know you are about to hit the bay…unless they are driving a rigid then have just reversed your truck halfway into the warehouse !!
oh and if its a drop and swap…dont forget to take your number plate off the trailer first !!
Also when completed docking procedure, hand keys in at waiting room, hover around for 5 minutes then sneak back to truck and hide on the bunk.
This can lead to a ban though if caught. Not always a bad thing.
If attempting this be wary of other drivers especially shunters who will grass you up.
Dipper_Dave:
I’ve also bad some nightmares that would barely let you go backwards 2 feet without kicking in and lead to a kangaroo wheel spi effect that any joey would be jealous of.
Some of ours have been known to suddenly slam the anchors on for no reason that’s why I take it slowly when reversing one especially with tall pallets on otherwise you open the back doors and you’ve got yogurts flying at you.
I defect no end of our trailers that have had the sensors bent down facing the floor. You either leap across a yard in a cloud of frustrated rubber smoke or look like a right spanner going backwards one inch at a time! This is when I too disconnect the lead. Seems to be worse when the road surface is wet for some reason.
