Been doing class 1 for a week now, going out by myself on Sunday night doing our usual trunk run. Getting the hang on putting it on a bay etc but I can’t seen to figure out how to slot the trailer in on the dock at Immingham. The trailers are all lined up yet I can’t seem for the life of me to get it right. I’m either too far away and I’ll hit the trailer next door or I’ll be too close and scrape the side of the trailer on my drivers side.
Any tips for this newbie clown?
Line it up as far as you can in front. Without a picture I can’t really comment.
A popular thing I’ve heard on here is to picture how you’d drive off such a bay, then try to replicate the manoeuvre the other way round.
Usually when I get off a bay though, I can’t be out of there quick enough, so that plan has never worked for me.
Sent using smoke and mirrors.
Best advice I can give you mate is to keep the speed to absolute minimum. More time to think and to react. And try not to startle yourself, ideally keeping as much visibility down both sides of the trailer as possible. Take as many shunts as you need to get it there.
Keep calm and it’ll click. It took me a good while to crack it, but it’ll come.
Good luck
My advice would be take as much room as you can and make sure your arse end is well past the slot your aiming for giving you more time to adjust things going backwards. Then slow and steady mate, don’t let the dockers rush you as they are an impatient bunch when tipping or reloading the boat. No damage is the key Radar!!! Try and get the trailer at a bit of an angle like the trailers either side of you rather than going at it from a right angle. I’m certainly no expert mate and have good days and bad…just remember nobody’s watching you or judging how fast you can get the job done. Once you’ve worked out how to reverse one into a slot on the right hand side in your yard, please post on here as I’m particularly ■■■ at that!!! Hope it’s going well for you pal!!
Try to imagine that it’s the same as your rigid, the trailer is only a bit longer with a bendy bit on the front, once you get the trailer in the right position, (like you would with your rigid) follow it round with the tractor, trying to keep the same angle between the tractor & trailer, only small movements on the steering wheel should be enough to bend it or straighten it as desired.
(HTH, that sort of makes sense to me [emoji12])
Please, please, please, please don’t just sit there turning the steering wheel one way then the other without moving [emoji57] I’ve had a couple of Filipè Flops do that & it does my Jeffing Nut in [emoji23]
If you get the chance, on a big bit of wasteland, old airforce site like the one at Eye-IP23 7DH or even an empty truck stop (like Markham Moor on the A1, around 09.00 in the morning) have a play at straight reversing & reverse it round in a circle/both ways [emoji6] it will help you understand what’s happening at the back.
Don’t worry about it, it will all click into place after a couple of weeks.
Same as i always say to anyone new to artics or wag/drag…oh and don’t think for one minute that i don’t take any and every opportunity to keep in practice, especially blind siders, cos i do.
Don’t keep practicing you lose the skills.
I’ll bet you that if there was a tricky reverse and 50 of us here undertaking it, there would be 50 different ways of going about it, what you have to do is find the way that suits you and comes naturally.
So, on the journey take any and every opportunity en route to do some reversing where you can do no harm save drive up a kerb.
MSA’s and truckstops are good when they are quiet, but so is an empty large layby for practicing parallel reverses between two lorries which arn’t there.
lowest gear possible, every lorry behaves differently, there is a fine point of throttle feathering that produces movement without juddering and false starts, sound obvious i know, but it took me many many months in my then new MAN to perfect this, you want slow controlled moves.
manual gearbox and clutch is best as it always is for this, but those who know best have saddled us with Arsetronic and other assorted crap, so tight maneuvering harder for drivers of the last ten years than it was for us oldies IMHO.
So, every single day and several times a day if you can, you select an spot to reverse into that no matter how big a ■■■■ up you make of it you can’t do any damage.
Find which way suits you
some do it solely on the mirrors, even on their own side
some open the window and lean out
some open the door on own side reverses and lean out…this is my way and i’ve done it for 40 years without falling ou, there are several reasons not obvious which i will explain if any wants to know.
blind side it regularly, its a bloody sight better perfecting blind sides in a quiet MSA well away from others than it is trying to get the thing between two bloody lorries already on a bay, especially in the shadows with arc lights blazing in yer eyes and making mucky windows even worse.
last but not least, spotlessly clean windows inside out and mirrors the same, mucky windows you are losing before you even start.
Keep a squeegee rubber blade with you and a spray bottle of water with a couple of drop of Fairy in, before you start your reverse get those nearside mirrors and windows clean if you’ve driven through rain, salt spray especially which you can wipe all day long and not actually remove, only water will do that.
Down mirrors are fantastically important in tight work, keep em well.
Mirror adjustments so important, you do not need to see the top of the trailer unless you are going into restricted height, you need lowish and as wide a spread as possible, i have done a posting before about mirror setting for general use and am happy to do so again, it might sound patronising though its not meant to…i have jumped into lorries so many times where the mirrors might as well have been chucked in the bin for all the use the way they were set, and then filthy to boot, can’t see? you aint got a hope in hell.
plus, and this is much more important, the very last lady who dresses to please might pass you by today, so, be prepared like any good boy scout to maximise your leching potential through spotlessly clean windows 
Juddian:
lowest gear possible, every lorry behaves differently, there is a fine point of throttle feathering that produces movement without juddering and false starts, sound obvious i know, but it took me many many months in my then new MAN to perfect this, you want slow controlled moves.
manual gearbox and clutch is best as it always is for this, but those who know best have saddled us with Arsetronic and other assorted crap, so tight maneuvering harder for drivers of the last ten years than it was for us oldies IMHO.
That’s unlike you Juddian, shoehorning in a dig at autos!
Rest of the advice was good though. All it takes is practice. If there’s an option of an easy or a hard reversing manoeuvre pick the hard one, if you’ve time. Practice blind side too. In my experience very few drivers are any good at blind siding mostly because they avoid it at all costs, but doing that means when you’re in a sticky situation and the only option is to blind side it out you find you can’t and end up getting flustered. My final point is adjust the mirrors correctly, as Juddian points out. They should show just a thin sliver of your truck, not as many drivers seem to do when they fill up 50% of the mirror with their own vehicle
Some good advice here, so not much more to add. I do remember trailers on the docks being parked quite close together, so I can understand why you’re finding it a challenge.
My main piece of advice is Don’t Panic,
I was working with a bloke a few years ago, just got his licence so tried to help him as much as I could, and he got to point where he could produce a half decent reverse, but as soon as we got to a circuit and the team would be there waiting for the trucks to park and the organisers would be waiting for us to park so they could get the next trucks in, the next trucks would be queued up waiting for us, he’d go to pieces and forget everything he’d got right before and the more he tried the worse he got and no amount of me trying to guide him in or giving him advice how to position himself seemed to help.
As for blindside reversing, in these days of remotely adjustable mirrors I find adjusting them out as you’re reversing, gives a decent view of your trailer for longer. And also don’t be shy about getting out and having a look now and then if you’re not sure how how it’s going.
I just started driving an artic last Monday and I’ve also been finding it quite difficult reversing onto bays but I’ve found just asking some of the other drivers to show me back has been a great help and they have given me some really good advice.
I think it’s just going to be lots of practice and it should all come together.
The worst place I’ve had was the tesco services on Ipswich where I must have had at least 20 shunts to get into what I at first thought would be an easy space with loads of drivers just watching and having a good laugh!!
Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk
graemem106:
The worst place I’ve had was the tesco services on Ipswich where I must have had at least 20 shunts to get into what I at first thought would be an easy space with loads of drivers just watching and having a good laugh!!Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk
They weren’t lorry drivers mate, and they never will be as long as they have holes in their arses, a lorry driver would have come and asked if you wanted someone to watch your blind spots so you didn’t crunch summat whilst you did the biz.
Tell yer what, i’ve got the motor into some astonishing places in one shunt when not a soul is to be seen, give me an audience and it can all go to pieces, don’t matter how long you’ve doing it…but you’re right practice and more practice will improve things.
some sound advice here, i passed my class 1 a year ago and was given a new wag/drag Volvo fh in March this year, some days my reverses are spot on, others not so when I overcook it bringing the unit back round, I think it happens an equal amount on good/bad side reverses resulting in a shunt forward to straighten and proceed backwards.
I too try and drop into services along my routes to practice reversing, it can only be beneficial.
Thanks for the advice guys. Took me 5-7 shunts to get it on the bay tonight but I didn’t hit anything so that’s all that matters.
Radar19:
Thanks for the advice guys. Took me 5-7 shunts to get it on the bay tonight but I didn’t hit anything so that’s all that matters.
That’s the attitude mate. Nothing else actually matters. If you ain’t filling out insurance forms, it’s a success!
Look at the ground for any lines or cracks that may guide you. Try not to go in to deep, use all the space available to get her as straight as possible before sliding in. You can always make minor corrections when your angles off and you can use your mirrors. I find my nearside gives a more realistic finishing guide.
Remember your pivot point (centre axle on a standard tri) and most of the hard work is done driving forward to get a good starting position.
Take her steady and don’t forget to utter the immortal words to other drivers: " howszat, like she grew there"…
Due to my level of skill I now have to deliberately ■■■■ reverses up to spare other drivers feelings.
Oh and @ Luke your mirrors are a fraction out, but I’ll put that down to camera angle. That wouldn’t be a Volvo FH16 750bhp jobby would it. 
Juddian:
They weren’t lorry drivers mate, and they never will be as long as they have holes in their arses, a lorry driver would have come and asked if you wanted someone to watch your blind spots so you didn’t crunch summat whilst you did the biz.
Am I the only one (as a newbie back in the day) who got even more embarrassed and flustered at the thought of someone coming over and offering to help or worse still if they actually did start helping without asking?
If at any time I was asked I used to say “I’m alright at the moment thanks mate, I’m a stubborn bugger and I’m determined to crack this myself” that’s how we learn isn’t it?
Obviously if I thought that there was no way on gods green earth that I would get it in unaided then I’d gladly accept the extra eyes and I’ve recruited people off my own back if I’ve needed those eyes, but I’d sooner get myself sorted by myself, but then I am quite an anti-social bugger irl.
So for this reason I tend not to jump out and play the “It’s ok here comes an expert to save the day” card, Instead I tend to make a point of not watching them so least they are confident that at least one pair of eyes is not judging them.
Takes all sorts, i don’t go trying to make out i’m some sort of expert (bloody far from that), just if its tight i ask the driver if they’d like me to watch the blind side for them so they can concentrate without worrying.
Never had one refuse yet, usually grateful that the bit that might touch is being watched for them.
Something we all used to do, offer a little bit of professional courtesy to one another, and we all learn a bit from each other if we have any sense, there’s always another way to do things which we might not have thought of.
I suppose what I’m trying to say (or at least another way of looking at it) is…
IF (and as you can see it’s a big if) I want or need help I’ll happily ask for it, I’m not too proud or insecure to not ask for help if I deem I need it, otherwise I just want to crack on and figure it out for myself and learn in the process.
What happens if you become so reliant on others assistance that when you are then on your own and have to (god forbid) think and problem solve for yourself?
I appreciate where you’re coming from Juddian I’m just trying to show you that there is often another side to it.
I still do a bit of yard shunting at our place during the really busy periods and the best piece of advice given to me by an old hand was “use as much room as there is available, the whole yard if you need to. Take your time, and ask for help if you need it…we’re were all inexperienced at some point lad” I’ll still ask for someone to bank me in if I’m not sure there’s no shame in it.
if you have enough space try to get it in a straight line before you are anywhere near the other trailers…
then take your time…
and if you’re not sure get out and have a look…
I’ve been doing this for 39 years and still have to get out occasionally just to make sure…
there’s no shame in it…
in fact it’s better than hitting something and looking a ■■■.
