Had my first of three 4 hour class two driving lessons yesterday.
Was in a DAF with a large rear overhang.
The only areas I struggled with was slowing down early enough at lights & negotiating the tight urban 90° corners in Manchester without clipping the kerb with my rear wheel.
Does anybody have any have any tips for tight urban corners.
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Make sure your mirrors are properly adjusted and you should be able to see your wheels and the kerb as you’re turning (in a class 2, not so much for a class 1)
If it’s your first session you’re probably tense and not using your mirrors enough yet, I was taught a four-point-sweep method where you: look out of the windscreen, then to your N/S mirror, back in to your speedo, then to O/S mirror, then back to windscreen. Basically you’re circling round all four, constantly watching every thing and everone, even to the point of checking your N/S mirror when you’ve passed a pedestrian on a pavement.
Best of luck, and don’t get too stressed, it’ll come together with practice (assuming you have a decent instructor).
If you don’t want to clip a corner you have to start from wider or turn later or a mixture of both. The rear wheels will Always follow the input from the steering wheel so it’s just practice to learn how much room you need.
Is it any better today?
stu675:
Is it any better today?
Next lessons Thursday & Sunday this week. Trying to fit my lessons around my other things.
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Instructor should be guiding you through it all, but if its a tight one SLOOOOOOOOOOOW down on approach so can get a better judgement of what space you need, move over as far as you can, wait for cars etc to clear the junction, often can need to turn quite late and if you need to steal other side of road to make it safely, you steal the space you need to make the turn safely.
my instructor took me round and round parts of stoke, lap after lap, till i actually listened to what he was saying, if its really tight. SLOW!!!
as above, late turn in and wide, if you have to stop and wait for traffic, then stop. also, as you go round the corner, if the insturctor tells you to turn away from the turn, do it, it pulls the rear end away, even though it feels alien as hell!
Thanks for all the advice, it did help.
On to Class 1 reversing next.
I’m told the artic turns a lot easer & tighter than a rigid.
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There are places where its easier to get in with an artic than a rigid, and you can drag trailers around sideways, but risky to tyres, suzies, the ground and you still need space, the long wheelbase and sometimes crap steering lock on some rigids, make things a pain because the turning circle, so you end up needing to shunt around, but you will get into plenty places that an artic can’t.
Wag and drag, depending on how its setup, while longer than an artic, will get in places it has no hope of