Help needed reversing

[juddian]

obsessivecompulsive2:

ROG:

obsessivecompulsive2:
practice is what it takes,you’ll get there.

That is the issue - how do they practice without the use of an artic ?

My part of the post there wasn’t made very clear,what i should have put was,once you get yourself into a job driving artics,then practice…i.e,reversing onto bays or into premises. I was bloody useless at reversing artics for my first month or so after i passed the test,then it just suddenly “clicked”

Don’t always get enough practice that way, and on customers or delivery premises is not the ideal place to perfect your own techniques, but you’re certainly on the right road.

A good plan is to every time you stop somewhere for a break, pee, whatever, try and make it on a lorry park or similar large area…find a really awkward place to park thats away from anyone else and you can do no damage, then practice, 90’ reverses, blind sides, on mirrors only, hanging out the window, hanging out the door, until you perfect your own routine…do this a few times a day every trip and in no time at all it will come together.

Conversely i see some drivers that whilst obviously needing the practice go out of their way to never reverse unless absolutely forced to, making their own jobs twice as hard in the process, but some can never be told.

[obsessivecompulsive2]

Juddian:

obsessivecompulsive2:

ROG:

obsessivecompulsive2:
practice is what it takes,you’ll get there.

That is the issue - how do they practice without the use of an artic ?

My part of the post there wasn’t made very clear,what i should have put was,once you get yourself into a job driving artics,then practice…i.e,reversing onto bays or into premises. I was bloody useless at reversing artics for my first month or so after i passed the test,then it just suddenly “clicked”

Don’t always get enough practice that way, and on customers or delivery premises is not the ideal place to perfect your own techniques, but you’re certainly on the right road.

A good plan is to every time you stop somewhere for a break, pee, whatever, try and make it on a lorry park or similar large area…find a really awkward place to park thats away from anyone else and you can do no damage, then practice, 90’ reverses, blind sides, on mirrors only, hanging out the window, hanging out the door, until you perfect your own routine…do this a few times

Conversely i see some drivers that whilst obviously needing the practice go out of their way to never reverse unless absolutely forced to, making their own jobs twice as hard in the process, but some can never be told.

No you’re right,you don’t always get enough practice that way,depends on the job i guess!

Agree about using a lorry park or really large open space with nothing to hit,but i’d never recommend hanging out of the door to reverse,if you fall out of the vehicle,there’s nothing to stop it running you over and the running away with itself until stopped by something as big as or bigger than itself!

[armagedon]

Boss & Driver where are you based and what age are you?

[scaniason]

Most of my life I’ve been OK at reversing vehicles - I had a trailer for my go-cart as a child , which I learned to reverse very early on, then as I got older I’ve had car trailers & caravans etc, and never had any worries about getting them where I need them to go. But setting out in an artic for the first few times was a whole different ballgame. My first ever reverse for real was an easy one, off of a road, round to the goodside, through a wide entrance. No problem there. The second one I still cringe over - I set myself up totally wrong, I tried to blindside instead of turning round at the end of the road, it was in front of god knows how many people, and I took forever. Got there in the end though.

I don’t stress about reversing at all - if it can go in, I figure I’lll get it there, just have to take the right approach. The only time I’ve ever given up was at PCL in Hoddesdon, when I had to get onto the bay at the end of the yard - it was on my goodside, the bay had a wall on the blindside and another lorry parked on the bay to my right. No matter what I did, I could not get myself into the space without either getting too close to the wall or the lorry. In the end I asked the shunter to do it - 2.5 seconds later it was there bang on. I made a point of watching how he did it though, and realised that I’d been trying to angle it in too tightly and too close - by getting the ‘turn’ part of the reverse done away from the wall / lorry, it just slipped in a treat (oo-er missus).

Recently I went to Lidl at Enfield, and had to blindside onto the bay (no71), with another one already on 72. If you know the site, you’ll know that there isn’t much room out the front of the bays, and it’s a bloody tight turn. I had help from another driver who watched me in, and after a couple of shunts, it was in. One other tip, make sure you’re on the correct bay - I should have been on 70, which would have been so much easier

Several people have said it before, but it’s a good idea to picture how you would drive out forwards, to picture in your mind how you need to go in backwards.

Enough waffling from me - all I meant to say was that it does get easier, and after a while you’ll look back at your early worries and laugh, as you face new worries!! I get some days where I don’t have to do any reversing, and actually miss it when that happens!

Gary

[phantom_mark]

The only time I’ve ever given up was at PCL in Hoddesdon, when I had to get onto the bay at the end of the yard

Bay 14 ■■? and the pallet trailer in front right where you wanna be, blind side is the only sensible way mate , I love that one, one of the few chances I get to practice a blinder with any regularity, cracked in one a few weeks back and felt like a hero for all of 10 seconds, no basterward was there to pin a medal on my puny chest sadly

[commonrail]

Boss & Driver:
But dose anyone have any bright ideas

Rc Truck´s in Madrid

might be worth a go

[bigbravo]

i think it would be a pretty good idea to buy a big trailer and connect it to your car just to get some practice reversing and a bit of length with driving around im not saying it would make you great in an artic but it would likely give u a bit of feel for the touch and skill needed to reverse an artic plus i think it would be cheaper than paying for a few hours with hgv trainer for some practice just a thought guys

[scaniason]

Phantom Mark:

The only time I’ve ever given up was at PCL in Hoddesdon, when I had to get onto the bay at the end of the yard

Bay 14 ■■? and the pallet trailer in front right where you wanna be, blind side is the only sensible way mate , I love that one, one of the few chances I get to practice a blinder with any regularity, cracked in one a few weeks back and felt like a hero for all of 10 seconds, no basterward was there to pin a medal on my puny chest sadly

Bay 1 I thought? Right next to the goods-in portakabin? I’m at the milk depot in Bingley Rd, not the big one up the road. Looking on Google Earth, looks like it was a Sainsbury Depot at the time the photo was taken. I’ve only been there the once, would like to go back just to give it a kicking by getting in on the first try Never give up, if it can be done there’s no reason why you can’t do it as well as anybody else - the one big lesson my Dad always rammed into us as kids.

Gary

[phantom_mark]

Ah yer, they have 2 yards, clearly both have a PITA bay then lol…

The white trailer I pointed at in this pic is the awkard bay, pretty sure it is bay 14, nearly always crap at the end so not enough room to go in on the good side, and just for good measure normally a pallet trailer directly opposite to keep you on your toes, whilst you could probably wiggle it in with a million shunts it is much easier to blind it in IMHO.

[scaniason]

I see what you mean - that one does look like fun!

I have been to that yard, thinking about it, I had to take some paperwork to the girls in the Arla office there when I delivered to the other yard. I just had to park in the main yard though, no buggering about on bays that time!

Gary

[nick2008]

crengland.com/content/driver … 0Space.pdf

yeah is an Americn company but it works just gotta think RHD not LHD but the set up is the same

[boss_amp_driver]

I dont rely have a problem with backing them up on busy roads ect. (as I did a few times today in London)
its just when I have to put a good lock on like backing round a corner or onto a bay
like its a tight fit in forward but imposible in reverse

I can see the point about using a car trailer as good practice as my van has a tow bar fitted to it
But its just not the same as a 5th wheel
When I put full lock on an artic and turn the steering wheel the other way the trailer wont go in the other way for some reason
will this happen with a car trailer?

[snarley]

Thank you for being honest and asking, you will get many drivers that laugh and criticise, they will never admit to having problems as they believe that they are the elite. That is bull, I have seen many “seasoned drivers” mess up.
IMO the most important thing when reversing is the get the intitial positioning correct. try not to get yourself too angled ie. jacknifed , as the correction will screw you everytime.
Get yourself at a diagonal right to left ( goodside) or left to right ( blindside) .
Practice at the yard continuosly, do not be intimidated by piers, they will never admit to being crap when they began.
You have an honest attitude, that will do fine. practice makes good, never perfect when trucking.

[the_maoster]

Not much help to the op, but just like I can’t shoot a straight pool or snooker shot, I find it easier to set up the trailer so that it’s not a straight reverse. Wierd or what?

Also, some of my most spectacular blindsides have been when no witnesses are present Almost makes me wanna pull out and wait for an audience before I try again.

[robinhood_1984]

Thats the problem with learning to drive. You dont really learn to drive at all, you just learn to meet the criterea of the driving test, that differs somewhat from the real world you will find your self in afterwards.

I couldn’t reverse all that well after I passed my test. I knew the princepals and basics as I’d grown up going with my dad in the truck since the age of four and would often be allowed to shunt his truck as a kid in the yard or on a quite bit of industrial estate etc but even now to this day, I regularly mess up reversing, usually when I have too much room.

All I can suggest is either getting a driver mate to let you practice in his truck, or if you dont know anyone who could help, just go knocking on doors of local haulage companies and tell them that you want to practice your reversing and offer your services on a saturday to do some shunting or such like. Obviously the big companies wont touch you for insurance reasons and all that old nonsense but you just might find a sympathetic ear at a smaller, more informal firm. Worth a try, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Or…do what the rest of us did, get a job with a company who doesn’t fanny about with assessments and learn by making mistakes away from prying eyes, down the road, on the job.

[juddian]

robinhood_1984:
Or…do what the rest of us did, get a job with a company who doesn’t fanny about with assessments and learn by making mistakes away from prying eyes, down the road, on the job.

Wot in a bloody old wreck with no power steering, no air assisted clutch, flat non heated mirrors and a heater that only gets warm in the blistering heat of summer?

Our modern replacements ain’t up for that me old Lord of Sherwood…

[frankydobo]

My old man gave me a simple piece of advice when I was practising reversing in his wagon as a youngster, If the trailer wheels show more in the right hand mirror then turn the wheel to the right, if it shows more in the n/side mirror turn the wheel to the left, after a bit of practise doing this you soon got used to how the trailer behaved. Later when I was doing it as a job it became instinct to have a good look about when approaching the delivery point, weigh up the gaps and distances to check how much room you will have.
Blind side reversing can be avoided mostly if you do a quick looksee and plan, try to sweep into the point you want to reverse into, whether its a gateway, space between two trailers on a loading dock or under a crane etc, if these are to the right of you get as close as you can with the offside rear of the trailer and do a left so you end up, space allowing, with the unit and trailer in as straight a line as possible to your opening then simply do a straight reverse as you can now see down both sides of the trailer in the mirrors. Something like below, granted you don’t always have the room at some delivery points but if you can back between two parked trailers then you should be able to get into most places and practise makes perfect! Franky.

[spooky558]

This might sound a bit simple, but what about making use of your computer and trying a truck simulation game? There are plenty of them out there, including the odd free one on the internet.

I downloaded Tricky Truck ages ago, it’s free on the net and can be found at Tricky Truck PC game. It’s a fun game, but does offer the chance to practise reversing for free - and you can choose different camera views.

I’ve also tried one called Trucks and Trailers, you can find it in the shops, it’s an accurate game, really detailed, and gives lots of different scenarios and challenges. They give you the opportunity to get your head around certain things.

It’s free, or relatively cheap, much cheaper than going to a trainer. It might not replace the detail of actually going out and doing it for real, but if it helps get the idea in your head, it can’t hurt, can it?

[degsy4wheels]

When i first started driving artics it took me forever to learn to reverse. I had other drivers who would help and always gave advice, while others would stand and watch and laugh. The company i was working for had a shunting job come up, i put in for it and that sorted my reversing. The yard was small and the bays were tight, initially built for transit vans, and we were putting 40 foot trailers on them. Took a few days to learn where to position the trailers so not to have to turn too tightly and hit the wall. Now i can put a trailer anywhere in a tight space, it’s with the loads of space i get it wrong. It is just practice and doing it regulaly imo.

[pirate]

I started on agency work, which was a mix of DC tips and farm or factory collections. This was great for me to learn how to reverse. Most of the work was at the weekend which usually meant I had a bit more time and space to make a mess of my reversing If I ever had to wait I would watch how the other drivers were reversing. I would then position my truck as they did and try to come in on the same angles. If they came in on the blind side then I would take it that was the easiest way and try and do it. Give yourself as much space as you can and take your time. It’ll click one day and you’ll wounder what all the fuss was about. Good luck.