Can i nominate 3663/pullman foods at Scarisbrick
as a yard that i always find difficult, but a good test of skill.
Drivers who have been there will understand this thread,
I could name a few Tesco stores, there are so many 
Windsor comes to mind, a blind side back in off the street onto another blindisde back onto the dock at the back of the yard full of empty cages.
David14:
Can i nominate 3663/pullman foods at Scarisbrick
as a yard that i always find difficult, but a good test of skill.
Drivers who have been there will understand this thread,
3663 Scarisbrick easy peasey David 
after a couple of calls , 1 st time you think their taking the p just whizz in screw round hard as you can and back you go,even better I now have swinging suzie boon on my truck, no more twanging airlines, if the bald lads on its quick tip if the dark hair miserable hats on its not so quick, nice canteen , nice birds in the office opposite and to right of loading bays 
Use to load out of Highgrade foods Peckham , half the size of Scarisbrick yard, overlooked by council flats so you were pelted by the local kids if they where up to no good and when you pulled out the little angels use to jump on your back underrun bar and try and open your back doors bless um Now that is a crap yard.
I had a drop to a building site at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital the other day where the construction traffic has to go into the car park, through the barriers and take a ticket, I thought they were taking the ■■■■, good job I’ve only got a little lorry.
2 Sisters, Wolverhampton. 
Anyone been in there with an artic ?
Netto Peckham - not sure if it is still there, but you used to have to get there before the market set up in the high street, and it was so tight on the way out you would quite often have to raise the suspension to fly the front of the trailer over a bollard. Also Netto Stamford Hill, Blind side jackknife into an underground unloading dock with only a couple of inches to spare on the way in, there was a guy who used to park his car opposite knowing it would get hit and he could then make another insurance claim - Thinking about it, there are certain jobs I really do not miss
What are these swinging suzie boon things 
.
screw it round and putting it in the jackknife position
dont it stretch suzies and wear tyres down quicker or
does it look worse than it actually is . Also havent you
got to be careful of wind deflectors when putting it in
the jackknife postion .
Kwiksave…Everywere. 
Well some aint bad.
Clifton near nottingham is very tight. drive in round a skip between two walls then blind side jacknife to land on the door between another wall and a skip.
ill get a picture of it soon if i remember.
convoy:
What are these swinging suzie boon thingsscrew it round and putting it in the jackknife position
dont it stretch suzies and wear tyres down quicker or
does it look worse than it actually is
got to be careful of wind deflectors when putting it in
the jackknife postion
swinging boon, well thats what I call it, susies are connected to a bar which is fixed under fith wheel and bar comes out to front of trailer and all this pivots so susies always stay in front of trailer ,never stretch lines always stay pretty clean too. may not have explained it to well but when you see one you will know what I mean 
Some yards you gotta screw it round and not worry about the tyres, as for wind deflectors if you go that far round your in the brown stuff anyway
convoy:
What are these swinging suzie boon thingsscrew it round and putting it in the jackknife position
dont it stretch suzies and wear tyres down quicker or
does it look worse than it actually is
got to be careful of wind deflectors when putting it in
the jackknife postion
Hard to describe the suzie boom. It’s like a stalk pointing forwards from under the fifth wheel plate somewhere and instead of your suzie lines hanging off the back of your cab, they don’t, they sit in a big tangled mess at the end of this boom, pointing towards to the back of your cab. The idea is that once hitched to a trailer it’s a simple matter of just picking them up off the cat walk and connecting them to the trailer but 99 times out of 100 they get lathered up in grease from the leading edge of the trailer.
Once you’re moving along, whenever you make a turn, the boom moves in line with the front of the trailer, so say you’ve got your trailer at 90 degrees to the left, your suzie boom is also sitting at 90 degrees to the left slap bang underneath the front of the trailer so your suzies never get stretched like they would do if they were fixed to the back of the cab.
Personally, I hate them with a vengeance.
With regard to screwing the trailer round, never do when it’s medium to fully loaded and try to avoid it at all other times unless there is simply no other way out. If you’re fully loaded it can sometimes rip the tyres clean off the rims and it can heavily damage the wheel bearings to the point of collapse and you don’t want that happening when you’re going a full chat down Windy Hill for example.
As for catching the wind deflectors, you should never have the trailer anymore than 90 degrees so that wouldn’t be a problem. If you ever need to make any really tight turns or jack-knife’s, after you straighten up just gently steer the other way and look in the mirror you’re steering away from, ie. if you’ve just had a really tight left turn, once you’ve straightened up, turn right slightly and look in your nearside mirror at the same time and look at the front bottom corner of the curtain (presuming you’re pulling a curtainsider) and check to make sure one of the suzies isn’t caught round the ratchet lever 
.
We have these on our trailers and they are naff. 
They dont stop the lines getting covered in grease and usually make them worse and becasue the boom is always swinging left and right they seem to tangle very easy esp if youve got a 44’ on.
Thanks Suffolk ReeferBoy and Rob K for answering my questions
Bones:
We have these on our trailers and they are naff.
I love em we run 45 ft close coupled trailers where there really is stuff all gap between cab and trailer and with normal fixed susies I was snapping airlines now and again due to tight yards and lines snagging on corners of trailers and not springing back when I striaghtened out after scewing unit round
I think maybe we will have problems if the boon sezies up through age or gets bent by some fat arse standing on it when hooking up but as mine is on a nice new truck I will worry about that later
Building sites are nomally the worst. Was taking loads into Mile-End Hospital last year. Only get a 34ft trailer in there, and even then you have to vertually do a U-turn on a mini roundabout on the hospital grounds which is impossible if the Ambulances are parked badly, then at an angle through a tight gap between 2 buildings and then miss the cars in the parking bays round a couple more buildings and then into the site, then it’s a blindside reverse out then the wrong way round the car park one-way system on the way out whilst trying to avoid the confused OAP’s trying to get in.
try any pub or club,9times out of 10 theres room only for a push bike to get through,then we have the no legs problem (especially prevelant in worksop)think they have a devine right to park just where they want irrespective of the inconveniance to others.Sorry rant over.
I agree Muckles…
Nearly all building sites are well tight…typical attitude of site managers is we get big trucks in all the time…
Cab to tail my outfit is 60ft…i know where it will or wont go…if they argue the toss, i tell them they get the bill for damage, they soon say we’ll tip you somewhere else.
Builders Merchants are just as bad too… i artic and the place is full, let alone trying to manouevre round Joe Builder white vans…!!
convoy:
What are these swinging suzie boon things
We had those on Tesco They are a good thing It is attatched to the chassis just below the fith wheel and the air lines etc swing round with the trailer front
David14:
Can i nominate 3663/pullman foods at Scarisbrick
as a yard that i always find difficult, but a good test of skill.
Drivers who have been there will understand this thread,
How about Marks & Spencer, Oxford? In the basement, off a single track street. Shunting against solid walls - not like having mirrors overhanging the kerb! Plus part blocked by some shelving on the time I went.
The only time I went, about 5 years ago, I discovered that the traffic operator had cunningly planned a part load into a 13.6m trailer, although there were 40’ trailers empty in the depot.
Talking about suzies, I think it is a German thing but has anyone had those that come out from the rear off the unit and attach to the underside of the trailer? No grease I suppose but perhaps plenty of road dirt.
The worst yard I ever loaded at was a shoe warehouse in Como, Italy. Half way up a hill leaving the town, it was necessary to use the whole road to swing into the yard. This entrance was at the end of the bottom leg of an ‘L’. The loading dock was on the right towards the corner of the ‘L’. Swing left into the ‘upright’ using every inch to get the rear of the trailer as near to the line as possible, then jacknife one way then the other to get onto the dock. After loading pull forward a little and jacknife so hard left that you need someone to watch the cab and trailer don’t touch, if you were further than 1 inch away you wouldn’t make it. This same person or another needed also to watch your reverse swing of trailer tail and yard wall. Sometimes it required 2 or 3 short shunts at this as there was often a dropped trailer on a bay in the ‘upright’ near to the inside corner of the ‘L’. Finally untangle and clean the suzies, that is until you were an old hand and disconnected them completely with the trailer tanks drained (this was the old days). Fortunately with the minimal weight of shoes there were no worries about tyre damage.
Salut, David.
Last time i was in co-op in bellshill was quite a tight job ! saying that was really busy n the ■■■■■■■■ that drive for them had parked up anywhere n ■■■■■■ off !