The only reason that you will be cocking a reverse up is that you are trying too hard, too much steering lock will just make you lose the trailer. go back to basics, Sometimes a drain cover or a pothole makes a good target or a clue, as does a well worn groove in the road surface
pull onto a deserted service area and find a white line, just practice on keeping the rear trailer wheel on the line. As the trailer follows the line, look at the angles of other bits, the distance your mudguards are out of line, the view of the mirror on the front corner of the trailer, even the shadows from the building or street lights.
Potter. if that manager at South Elmsall did that I would have reported him to his area manager and asked about the training they offer their own staff. obviously they don’t do any training in management, just let any useless numpty have an RDC to play with. either that or just give him a friendly Bransholme bounce, after all, you are never going back
Yeah I know ive gone too far and end up with trailer wanting to go all over shop and end up over doing it so im more or less at right angle. Will try the looking for a marker where I want to go back though never thought of that, if I can straighten up that bit earlier I will have much better positioning for the actuall reverse cheers
I always watch the class 1 guys reversing in the yard when I’m there, try and pick up pointers etc. Our yard is quite a tight one, especially in some parts when the rigids are parked up opposite the bays.
good thread this, and will let people see that they aren’t the only ones.
I didn’t get assessed at my work (need assesment before allowed to work the class 1’s) until 6 months after I passed my test, hadn’t touched once since, so that was interesting lol.
can only echo whats been said so far in the thread, take your time and relax, don’t constantly try and change the angles etc, start it going, add or remove some turn if it’s not right, go slow and give yourself time to project where the trailer is going to go before deciding on adding or removing turn so that it’s a gradual bend, let the distance turn the trailer, not the angle of the unit.
obviously the tighter the space the more you have to push it round.
One of those things people could spend days writing on here about, but it will come with practice and just click one day, and even then you still get it wrong now and then, I just laugh if so, got one way off the other day and noticed the guy waiting on the bay to unload it looking bemused, I just laughed and said “made a royal arse of that one eh” and did it again, there’s a whole lot more worrying things in the world than not getting a trailer where you want it first time, so just chill out, panic is the enemy.
PS - sorry for rambling, up early today and nothing to do lol
My first agency job over 7.5T was on Friday night, artic driving out of Crick.
Hmmmm, I need reversing onto loading bay practice. talk about taking a lot of shunts, a decent driver in ASDA CDC Lutterworth helped me in at one point.
On the plus side I got to drive an iShift 58 plate Volvo.
Wheel Nut:
The only reason that you will be cocking a reverse up is that you are trying too hard, too much steering lock will just make you lose the trailer. go back to basics, Sometimes a drain cover or a pothole makes a good target or a clue, as does a well worn groove in the road surface
pull onto a deserted service area and find a white line, just practice on keeping the rear trailer wheel on the line. As the trailer follows the line, look at the angles of other bits, the distance your mudguards are out of line, the view of the mirror on the front corner of the trailer, even the shadows from the building or street lights.
Top advice as always, I sometimes think it’s easier to reverse into a tight spot than a massive yard, as you have points of reference. Basically things you have to avoid hitting. The other thing I would say is getting the the truck nicely positioned in the first place helps a lot. Although not always possible.
In the end it all comes with practice, I remember losing count of the shunts I needed to got onto a bay in my early days, but now I reckon I can do it in under 20 goes. at least on a good day.
It can be very stressful trying to reverse, everyone want to make it look easy but frankly that takes a year to develop. I would say though that anything longer than a 10 minute reverse is a very long time. I was lucky, I had been backing up artics since I was 16 and it’s best to learn when your young.
What I found was best in tricky places is watch how other do it, you can learn a lot from watching other drivers. Also try and set yourself up as good as possible before you go backwards - this doesn’t always mean being straight especially in a tight spot. Try and not reverse on the blind side, turn round if you can and back it in on the drivers side.
Like already said, most people rush and steer too much, think about where your wheels are going, not where your truck is pointing because that almost pointless. Think about what’s happening when it goes wrong. You do seem a bit poor at reversing but just keep practicing and don’t let it put you off.
having only had my licence since june last year i am still pants at reversing but steadily getting better.
the 4 best bits of advice i have been given is
try to get it lined up or at most 45 degrees to where you want to be (if this is at all possible, sometimes its not)
if you want to avoid something steer towards it.
take as much time as you need forget everyone else, they can wait!
little tiny turns on the wheel, once you start to lose the trailer you wont get it back without a shunt
also if people cheer when you finally get it on the bay jump out the cab and take a bow, that normally shuts them up.
not advice but a point-
there was a young lad at lutterworth cdc yesterday afternoon/evening who was having major problems with his reversing, it was about his 6th trip in an artic and me and a driver were watching, after about 9 shunts the lad i was talking to went over to him (he was from the same company) and he jumped in the driving seat with the lad in the passenger seat and showed him how to do it in slow time, then drove out and got the lad to reverse it in and he got it in one. everyone that was watching said ‘well done’ when he did get it on and he was quite chuffed.
we all need to learn and some drivers need to realise that not everyone was born with a class 1 licence and the ones that laugh and mock arent worth talking to anyway, they all usually have a blacker cat than you anyway!!!
just keep it slow and safe and no one will complain mate but they will when you right off a cab or building cos youre rushing!
I forgot to add - it’s even more embarassing when the trainee does the parallel park in the same spot at the same time the very next day and gets it in one
LOL Rog! I love that remark - Been there and done that and worn the T shirt many time!
I always said that as an instructor I turned out drivers who were often better than me and this is a case in point.
Dont worry Ollie - you will get better with time and practice. All the advice the others have given is good advice and just make sure you ignore the idiots who are standing around passing stupid remarks.
Or try coming back with a quick quip like “Only 6 shunts today - I am going for 12 tomorrow!”
You are probably getting yourself too wound up about it and if you are wound up the reversing usually goes to pieces - then gets worse.
Relax, take your time and do your own thing. As for the idiots - you cant be that bad as you didnt run em over did you?
Well what a difference 5 months make, I am officially the daddy at reversing now
Our yard at work is very very small for spinning and parking artics and used to scare the crap out of me, fortunately although I didnt realise at the time of all the abuse(would you believe warehouse staff of 5 quid an hour most of which cant even drive a car ) I suffered, it soon went away as I got better in smaller spaces. I find it hard sometimes going onto bay 12 say when there is ■■■ all in the yard at and RDC yet give me the tightest and fullest set of bays and I bang it in first time almost everytime and straight. I guess I am lucky that I get to reverse every day and it is always a different reverse when I am not in RDC so as the guys said practise really is the only way to do it. I still dont like the paralel parking so gave that a miss but my blind side parking is coming on to if it isnt a really tight space its quite easy to learn how the look of the trailer in the mirror relates to where it is going to end up once you start coming back round.
Thanks for the advice gents I hope there are other willing to sit and read this stuff and they wont lose heart with it all after the ■■■■ heads in yards start having a pop
ollienotts after nearly five years i not only still take four or more attempts but also only this week jack knifed the reverse and snapped my electrical lead…some times are good some times its a nightmare there is so many aspects that make so many differences to reversing
■■■■■■00:
ollienotts after nearly five years i not only still take four or more attempts but also only this week jack knifed the reverse and snapped my electrical lead…some times are good some times its a nightmare there is so many aspects that make so many differences to reversing
perhaps its your stiletto’s getting in the way.
or maybe the strap-on?
This is one of the best pictures I have seen to show how to reverse an artic.
Just look how many clues there are to look at here. You are aiming for the number 20. You can see the nearside mirror of the FH. You can also see the white line you need your rear trailer wheel to follow. Look at the other vitacress trailer, you can see there is nothing else in the way, so forget that now, you are not even going to be close if you follow the drivers side white line.
Look at the angle between the MAN air deflector and the trailer, perfect, all you have to do now is unwind the steering slowly to get on the bay first time. Another good clue is that you have a full trailer length to do this because of the White FH.
The final telltale that everything is ticketyboo is when the MAN window is level with the FH window.
Great Picture Adam
PS. You will even end up with your wheels straight, unlike the FH who has had to shove the trailer across at the very last minute
One trick that’s worked for me is to think of it as using your unit (or rigid prime mover) to push the trailer where you want it to go. Simply thinking of reversing in these terms was a huge help to me.
This concept worked very well for me when I took up driving again about 18 months ago, and started on a-frames.
Back when I did my test (81 or 82?) I was taught how to do the reversing exercise in a very mechanical way - three turns of the wheel, so much bend, take the lock off when you could see such and such… that worked fine for passing the test but was pretty useless for actually doing the job
Zetorpilot:
Back when I did my test (81 or 82?) I was taught how to do the reversing exercise in a very mechanical way - three turns of the wheel, so much bend, take the lock off when you could see such and such… that worked fine for passing the test but was pretty useless for actually doing the job
I do not condone doing it that way for the test and have never used such a teaching method
Zetorpilot:
Back when I did my test (81 or 82?) I was taught how to do the reversing exercise in a very mechanical way - three turns of the wheel, so much bend, take the lock off when you could see such and such… that worked fine for passing the test but was pretty useless for actually doing the job
I do not condone doing it that way for the test and have never used such a teaching method
They tried that with me Rog. Apparently it was advice from the PDH Roadcraft.
I argued my case and told him I would do it my way as I had been reversing off road for 10 years
You could try a driving simulator game like Euro truck simulator.That way you wouldn’t have to worry about anything but keep practicing. Iv got it and its quite realistic.
talk about taking a lot of shunts, a decent driver in ASDA CDC Lutterworth helped me in at one point. 
) I suffered, it soon went away as I got better in smaller spaces. I find it hard sometimes going onto bay 12 say when there is ■■■ all in the yard at and RDC 
yet give me the tightest and fullest set of bays and I bang it in first time almost everytime and straight. I guess I am lucky that I get to reverse every day and it is always a different reverse when I am not in RDC so as the guys said practise really is the only way to do it. I still dont like the paralel parking so gave that a miss but my blind side parking is coming on to if it isnt a really tight space its quite easy to learn how the look of the trailer in the mirror relates to where it is going to end up once you start coming back round.