Had 2 days training on class 1 …yesterday done a little on the road today done reversing and uncoupling exercise all session. Anyone got any tips for me to remember when reversing to remember that it’s opposite lock.also is 3 and half hours for 4 days enough for a course I feel like it’s not.
Simple tip on steering the right way is to look at the bottom of the steering wheel, and the way that goes (left or right), the trailer will go the same way! 
Enjoy, take it very slow, and don’t be a chunt, take a shunt! 
We do 4 x 3.5hrs week after week and it works well. We also offer an additional 2.5hrs off road (reversing/coupling and uncoupling) for comfort.
Best is to not worry and it will come together.
Pete 
I’ve been driving them for 6 months, still can’t reverse for toffee.
Evil’s suggestion works for me too, much simpler than the other common tip about pushing the trailer out of one of the mirrors (I can’t remember the rule, it’s complicated… 
)
There are no prizes for speed so take it slow. The slower you go, the more opportunity you get to correct mistakes. That’s what the reverse is all about, a constant series of small error corrections to keep it on the desired path to the bay.
Im doing mine at the minute to although its in a wag and drag which i know is a different experience but im finding the reversing ok, was over cooking the steering at the start a bit but finding that with minimal movements of the wheel and at a crawl itl go where u want it and if you do go off a bit it takes very little to correct it again
Don’t worry about it,keep practising and it will just click at some point and you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about
Thanks for the help everybody going to be using evils tip made it clear I was waiting to c a bit of the headboard in either mirror then steering against it. Was getting better probably passed and failed the same amount of times on the reverse
Get yourself a truck model off eBay for a few quid… Sounds daft but practice your turn with that…
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
SouthEastCashew:
Get yourself a truck model off eBay for a few quid… Sounds daft but practice your turn with that…Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
…one where the front wheels turn!
Steer with the bottom of the wheel when you are coupled, and steer with the top when you’re solo.
You can often tell, at least - I can tell, when I’ve lost the “map” of what I’m trying to get the trailer to do. At that point just stop for a moment until you suss it back out again. Correct me if I’m wrong, examiners/trainers, but it’s only a shunt if you go forwards, if you just pause then resume going backwards, there is no fault. Don’t just keep rolling, hoping that you can fix it!
Into my 10th week class 1, cant reverse to save my life…felt like quitting many times over the last few weeks but this seems quite normal from what I read on the threads. Takes some people about 1 year to feel ok at reversing and some still say they are crap after that…so just join the club I suppose. The common take from those at the site is this “we had a driver come in just an hour ago with the cars and everything parked there, so why cant you”. Don’t care.
cannotgobackwards:
Into my 10th week class 1, cant reverse to save my life…felt like quitting many times over the last few weeks but this seems quite normal from what I read on the threads. Takes some people about 1 year to feel ok at reversing and some still say they are crap after that…so just join the club I suppose. The common take from those at the site is this “we had a driver come in just an hour ago with the cars and everything parked there, so why cant you”. Don’t care.
Hence the username!
Practice and it clicking is what counts. I did a lot of reversing with the job I had when I passed, now not so much and you can tell!
Sometimes i’ll get it right, and sometimes i’ll need more than one stab at it. I actually think my reversing has got worse due to the lack of practice, but what has improved is my ‘not giving a crap’ attitude of worrying about whether I need to take a shunt…
The 2 main sites I work out of are tight for reversing and it is something that comes with time, having said that we get guys who have been on the road for 20 years or more who can’t reverse.
The main thing is to take as many shunts as you need and remember if you need to shunt don’t just go a couple of feet double or triple that.
cannotgobackwards:
“we had a driver come in just an hour ago with the cars and everything parked there, so why cant you”
A few options here:
He’s probably more experienced than me…
a. Can you just humour me and watch my back end / front corner (whatever).
b. Can you just get someone to move this car(s) as it will be a whole lot easier than exchanging insurance details later.
c. If he’s still around, perhaps you can get him out here to help me. If not, how’s about helping me yourself.
d. Until I’m as experienced as he is I’m not risking it without help. If you won’t help then I’ll have to leave it today and someone else can come back another time.
All of these are courteous, professional responses to keep you safe. Don’t be pushed into doing anything you’re not comfortable with.
Am rather glad to hear I not the only one suffering from the reversing problems, as I’ve been doing bendies for approx 4 weeks and really struggle with it. Seems to depend where you’re reversing and if its a 90 degree turn which is where it all goes wrong.
Have discovered theres a delay between turning and any reaction from the backend which probably accounts for the over steering we all seem to experience. Also been given the advice of not to overdo the steering in one go, but do lots of little moves correcting a little at a time - sometimes works.
Think everyones best plan is to do ADR and try to get onto tankers, then we can follow E8B and not gave to do much reversing into. bays or building sites. That was partly my reason for doing it.
I’m thinking of it from a different angle.
“It doesn’t matter how long it takes me, because however long that is… is shorter than if I hit something.”
My two least favourite reverses so far are when I have to reverse from outside (bright sunlight) into a dingy shed, between queueing lorries and ones being loaded. That’s no fun at all. Also, tight truckstop bays at night. Bloody awful, though often a driver will pop out and watch you in which is helpful.