Applied for a class 1 job and was asked if i had wagon n drag on an a frame experience ,how different are they too drive ,reverse etc. i thank u…?
Very easy to drive, very hard to reverse.
skids:
Very easy to drive, very hard to reverse.
I’m with you .
The word nightmare springs to mind. 
Very rewarding to drive once you’ve mastered the reverse but a lot more work than an artic !
I think they are a lot better to drive than artics, reversing isnt an issue once youve done it a cpl of times.oh and hooking up the drag can take a few shunts for a while to you get your eye in …I Prefer W&D overall …
Drove one for nearly a year going back years ago, when dropping drag try keep front wheels of drag in a straight line as it makes it easier to hitch back up you also might need a stick for the A frame so it’s the correct height.
As for reversing try and keep the wagon and drag in a straight line as possible, it will be hard work if you try reversing to tightly, but in time you’ll master it and its so rewarding reversing one on a bay first time in front of a load of watching drivers 
Keep steering wheel movements as small as possible, otherwise you’ll end up all over the show. Well, I was many times
I only reversed one once and the tip I was given was to reverse it like a long rigid - that seems to work for about a 45 degree good side reverse
I agree about the rewarding experience, it really does take some concentration but when you get it right, you will be looking forward to the next reverse situation, oh and they follow like a dream.
Many of the Dutch & German drivers were brought up on them and they make it look so easy 
You won’t notice the difference going forwards but when you come to reverse you’ll be in for a shock. Definitely worth doing, just so you can say you can.
I used to drive one of these with de-mountable boxes. The job involved dropping the box off the trailer, un hitching the trailer and going to tip the front box, drop off front box and pick up second box, tip that and return to hook up trailer and empty box before heading home. Despite having ‘learned’ how to drive an A frame on a milk tanker job I’d done once or twice, the first time I tried it still took me 45 mins of messing about to get the trailer in the right place under the empty box so I could pick it up again. It gets easier with practice though and after a while I could more or less do it with my eyes shut. As with any trailer the slower you go the easier it’ll be, just more so with an A frame.
If you get into difficulties reversing be careful not to get too much lock between the A frame ‘drawbar’ and your motor. You’ll end up breaking something.
You can do some unexpected things with an A frame…
As others have said, going forwards they are absolutely amazing to drive, stay in the lanes on roundabouts, take corners at immense speeds and angles.
Reversing, well, you only learn by trying.
1st time I got to my 1st drop, a driver offered to put it on the bay for me, I said “no thanks, I’ve got to learn sometime, might as well be tonight”… I ■■■■■■ it right up, and the driver said “don’t expect me to fix that”
Took me about 20 mins or so to get the drag on the bay, drop it and put the rigid on another bay, apparantly that’s pretty good for 1st time, but I was knackered and sweating like a fat kid in a sweet shop 
Anyway, after that, I got the hang of it, was never GOOD, but I’d get it anyhwere, even on an angle into a gap between 2 other wagons - to give a clue on the gaps at that place, the mirrors get folded in.
Even if you’re going ‘straight back’, you have to keep doing little movements of the steering, kinda just like bouncing it left to right, sorta left, straight, 2 seconds, right, straight, 2 seconds kinda thing. You’ll get your own feel for it, but don’t think because it’s perfectly straight it’ll go in, it’ll just bugger off unless you keep moving it slightly.
Trev_H:
Very rewarding to drive once you’ve mastered the reverse but a lot more work than an artic !
+1
That feeling when you’ve only been there 2 or 3 days and you are jumping in and out and putting them on bays and parking them up and going through really tight gaps 
Wheel Nut:
Many of the Dutch & German drivers were brought up on them and they make it look so easy
…and the odd island monkey too 
Still waiting for the “They are the devil’s spawn” post
Inselaffe:
Wheel Nut:
Many of the Dutch & German drivers were brought up on them and they make it look so easy…and the odd island monkey too
Still waiting for the “They are the devil’s spawn” post
It wont come from me. I loved them, but I had an advantage. I worked in the yard for 6 months as a shunter before going out on the road. The yard was just about big enough for about 20 trailers. We had 30 trailers and 20 rigids
gray_nw:
I think they are a lot better to drive than artics, reversing isnt an issue once youve done it a cpl of times.oh and hooking up the drag can take a few shunts for a while to you get your eye in …I Prefer W&D overall …
If it was a 'normal W&D then I’d agree, but an a-frame is a totally different beast. I had one for almost 3 years on night trunks & it took me a few months to get used to doing an off-line reverse without totally screwing it up, & in a tight area they are almost impossible - usually ended up getting a forklift to back it onto some bays.
raymundo:
Keep steering wheel movements as small as possible, otherwise you’ll end up all over the show. Well, I was many times
As above. Once you can see more than a foot of the trailer headboard in the mirror, you need to start again or you’ll be chasing the thing all over the shop.
Thank god this thread wasn’t about a notoriously repetitious video not posted since last month. Oh nooooooooo.
Snudger:
Thank god this thread wasn’t about a notoriously repetitious video not posted since last month. Oh nooooooooo.
Sorry 
Just joshing. The thread isn’t about that video, which regularly appears and features what is to me an amazing bit of driving after all. I predict it will possibly appear once more before the year is out!