First time posting on hear and looking for a bit of advise.
Passed Cat C before christmas and after hanging on for DVLA to get my licence back to me, attempted C+E last week but failed on the reverse, should have I been able to nail that manoeuvre in 2hrs of my 12hrs training or was that a bit optimistic, bearing in mind i have never towed anything before. Now not too sure as to try again or try to get Cat C work to gain experience with size and handling then apply again.
Also for when I next attempt are there any pointers you can give with reversing trailer and will borrowing a trailer to pull on my car for a while help?
I’ll join your club today Steve, I failed because I forgot to tug after coupling trailer. Other than that everything ok 4 minors. Booked in for 7th Feb again
attempted C+E last week but failed on the reverse, should have I been able to nail that manoeuvre in 2hrs
Firstly, sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you this time. The question “should have I been able to nail that manoeuvre in 2hrs” is simply impossible to answer. For some, this is loads of time, for others it’s barely enough and for the remainder, it wont be enough.
For my own satisfaction I always aim to get my candidates to achieve a test standard reverse on w+d within 40 minutes and 60 minutes on artic. It will then take further practice to get confidence. And, as I’ve already said, some will need longer because that’s just how it is.
Did you train on a properly marked area? Was it different when you went for test? This alone can cause all sorts of difficulties.
How annoying is that!! I’ve never had a sound answer for why that is a serious fault. If the trailer isn’t coupled the dog clip (on artic) wont fit or the pin wont have fully dropped (w+d). Absolutely agree that it’s the correct procedure but baffled as to why it’s a fail.
We had a young lady the other day who simply forgot to pull the pin to release the coupling and attempted to move away - gently. Promptly picked up a serious mark. Once again, I don’t understand. There is no safety issue (the trailer brake was applied and the legs down). Personally, I think that was wrong. But once again, clearly the correct procedure wasn’t followed.
I have been known to try and move away with the trailer brake applied. But although it’s daft, it’s not dangerous.
Car and trailer has the same reversing principals as artic or W&D
When I was instructing it would be VERY unusual not to get TWO trainees to artic test reverse standard outside of two hours - that is one hour each in total
My way of teaching it was VERY different to how the other 2 instructors taught it
I completely agree with Peter it’s impossible to answer…
I can have someone who nails it every time in training then makes a complete mess of it on test and similarly someone who has struggled in training nails it first time on test.
Thanks for replies guys. I guess my issue is a mental one as i understand the principal and can get the trailers going passed the first cone, then revert back to normal steering when the panic sets in seeing the bay.
Gonna get some practice with car/trailer until it becomes second nature
I’d never even touched a trailer prior to learning to drive CE, I took 45 minutes to get the hang of it and instructor got me to continue for a further 30 minutes until we moved on. I still didn’t feel happy about it but instructor ensured me it was more then adequate and on test day I’d nailed the manoeuvre in minutes. Good plan with car an trailer I’d say good luck with your next attempt
Bad luck but better luck next time, as with anything it’s down to how it goes on the day. Don’t beat yourself up just dust yourself off and get RE booked in.
You didn’t fail mate, it was deffered success, took me three times to pass, due to nerves .
Look at it this way, the next test will be familiar ,so you know what to do .
How longs a piece of string pal?! We have people who nail it 1st time. We’ve also recently got some one who we can spend most of the lesson time there. They could spend all year there. Some people just don’t get it. Take your time and think it about. The faster you go, the faster you’ll ■■■■ it up
I know your pain regarding reversing, poor Chris at PSST must have been pulling his hair out trying to teach me to do it, but I will give you one piece of advice: Use the shunts! It’s a bit like using “the force” except you don’t need years of Jedi training or a Yoda sitting beside you, but thats exactly what I did on my test earlier this week and it worked.
Personally I found the hardest part was working out how much to turn back after the initial “kick” so that you’re curving back towards the B cone. In class 2 you just turn until you see the cone, but in class 1 if you can see it, you’ve usually gone too far over and need to take the shunt.
[This bit may confuse anyone too close to their test date so be warned and I’ll get shot by your instructor]
I did adapt a trick also from this forum about reversing and the whole left / right swapover. No idea who originally mentioned something like this, so credit to “unknown genius”.
Imagine there’s a little piece of paper on the bottom of the wheel dead centre. You want the back of the trailer to go to the left, hold the wheel at the bottom and turn the wheel so the bit of paper moves towards the left of the cab. To go right, you move it so it moves towards the right of the cab. It also works great when you’re trying to reverse in a straight line and plan to use it for all reversing from now on.
[End of confusion bit]
I now get what Peter says about using the same area to reverse practice and test on, at least for class 1 due to certain “placement tricks” you can use to work out how far back to go. Me wonders if that position of the join in the concrete was “accidental” in it’s placement, eh Peter?
Whilst it’s clearly favourite to take your test on the bit of concrete you’ve been trained on, the main thing is to have a properly surfaced, correctly marked area to practice on.
There seems to be no end to the number of folks who are surprised when they are faced with the “real” reversing area because they’ve practiced somewhere that doesn’t accurately reflect the driving test centre.
When choosing your trainer and visiting ,as I hope you all will, have a look at the reversing area. Ok, you wont know if the dimensions are correct, but if it’s got properly painted yellow lines on a decent surface it’s encouraging. If it hasn’t, be wary. But most folks don’t even think about this - which is probably one of the most important parts of the training for CE and it’s significant for C.
As I said earlier, whilst the ultimate is to practice on the test area, a good replica is absolutely fine.
Thanks for that mate, that seems a lot simpler to work out in my head than anything I’ve heard. Hopefully a couple of successful manoeuvres things may come easier.
Chris who taught me the C+E emphasised the “take the shunt” and that’s what took the stress out of the reverse for me. Just remember, a “shunt” can be anywhere within that yellow lined area so make it count and use it to line up better with the final box, and get that pesky cone B to your right. It’s how you’d do it in the real world so the examiner can’t complain (and will probably secretly praise you for using all available space).
This^^^^
Get the trailer somewhere near the box…then drive to the end of the test area (straightening up as you go)then reverse back in a straight line.
Just one more thing, do you still think, steer into the trailer in the mirror to catch the trailer up and straighten up or still think bottom of steering wheel…hope that ramble makes sense.
Personally I found sticking with one technique worked best otherwise it totally confused my brain trying to switch. Did attempt to swap from using the back to the front of the trailer on one practice shot and got it spectacularly wrong. Everyone finds their own niche of course and you might have more mental processing capacity than me…age is not helping.
it’s impossible to answer…
