How do you guys judge the size of your trailer when reversing?
what are some good methods?
thanks amigo`s
A lot comes from practise and experience
If you mean where exactly is the back end? - remember the mark you had on it when lining it up to the yellow line for the reverse exercise on test? - put your own on and make sure that where the mark touches the floor is exactly the same point as where the back of your trailer is
Good observation with forward (or is that reverse) thinking / planning, practice, and experience, I’m afraid. 
i`m not too bad at reversing onto loading bays to be honest as theres buffers anyway but had to reverse round a corner the other day after coming face to face with another arctic on a tight road, took me about 20 minutes to get round lol, really tight like so just wondered if there was any easy way to judge lol
iceroadrucker:
i`m not too bad at reversing onto loading bays to be honest as theres buffers anyway but had to reverse round a corner the other day after coming face to face with another arctic on a tight road, took me about 20 minutes to get round lol, really tight like so just wondered if there was any easy way to judge lol
GOAL Get Out And Look - work it out in your head from the outside of the cab before committing to doing whatever.
cheers guys will do, practice makes perfect!!
thanks again
look at the floor by the rear of the trailer and look for any shadows, even on the darkest of night syou will have a very slight shadow.
if not and its not a blindside reverse, hang out the window with a small torch (or 4 cell maglite if youre robk) in your mouth!
iceroadrucker:
How do you guys judge the size of your trailer when reversing?what are some good methods?
thanks amigo`s
Another vote for using shadows here! I’ve tried looking backwards out of the window but have only scared myself that way 
Your post reminds me of a time, many lifetimes ago on a different planet, when I was driving a four wheeler for a parcel firm (via an agency). I had to parallel park very close to the loading bay so that the stacker could drive on to the wagon from the side.
There was a waste skip behind me, and with flood lights pointing every which way I had to use a mark on the dock itself, straight down from the drivers side window, to know when I was in the right position, as the glare in the mirrors meant that I couldn’t really use them when I returned to the depot at night for reloading.
This worked well for several weeks.
Then one evening… CRUNCH 
Yep! Someone had been and emptied the skip, and dropped it a few feet from the original position. 
I suppose this is actually a vote for GOAL too 
Also once you have successfully reversed a few times, you can try and remember where the ground level at the dock crosses the side of the trailer when viewed from the cab, if you see what I mean.
“Z”
PS Edited to add: you can also get a good idea of where the rear of the wagon is from carefully looking at where the rear wheels are. I find this particularly useful when driving with just the rigid part of my vehicle, especially when it comes to judging allowance for the tail swing.
Not so relevant on this post but I will often pace it out and then use a glove to put on the floor so I could get close to a valve with a tanker.
Anyone who has driven a tanker knows that it is illegal to use a long pipe when you have a short one available.
A pair of gloves is also a lot cheaper than a new dome end for a road barrel
Wheel Nut:
Not so relevant on this post but I will often pace it out and then use a glove to put on the floor so I could get close to a valve with a tanker.
What a bloody good idea.
At night, I will often use the ‘pool’ of light cast by the hazards because often the under run bar will prevent the light spilling ahead of it.
On a similar not to what you’re asking.
Some time ago I regularly had to back a trailer up-to a wall in the dark, but in front of the wall were some steel piles sticking out of the ground at intervals, if I had to put the trailer in front of one of the piles it would often be completely out of sight so I couldn’t see how close I was to it
I generally used Wheel Nuts method, I’d stop short of where I wanted to be and then pace from the back of the trailer to where I wanted to stop, I’d then pace the same distance from the front wheel and mark the spot with a stone or anything at hand, even in the dark it was then easy to get within a couple of inches of where I want to stop by reversing until the front wheel was parallel with the marker.
tachograph:
I generally used Wheel Nuts method, I’d stop short of where I wanted to be and then pace from the back of the trailer to where I wanted to stop, I’d then pace the same distance from the front wheel and mark the spot with a stone or anything at hand, even in the dark it was then easy to get within a couple of inches of where I want to stop by reversing until the front wheel was parallel with the marker.
Yep, have done this too - usually with a boot scuff to mark the place to line a point on the steps up with. Less trouble with parallax error if the aiming point is more or less straight down
It has to be said though that I personally only use this where damage is the likely result of getting it wrong - under normal circumstances I’d just inch backwards after getting within a few feet, then pull forward about 2" after touchdown on the buffers. Then a physical check to make absolutely sure that the trailer is in a good place relative to the ramp before uncoupling the rigid (W&D here).
Yet more memories come back - once I was complemented on a blindside reverse into some rehearsal studios in London. “Nice one - new guys usually hit that fire escape” he said. The truth of the matter was I hadn’t seen it either - I’d just been more lucky than the others
In daytime I generally use shadows as a rough guide, look at other vehicles to see how offset the shadow is and then compare that to where your own one is at the back and gives you a rough idea. If you have a mudflap on the rear underrun bar that generally casts a nice line on the ground to see in sunlight and when you use your brake lights as it blocks them and creates a dark line. Add all this to hanging out the window and having a look and you can work it out fairly accurately.
Another trick in the dark, especially for ferry trailers is to take off the lamp lenses to make reversing lights, it was all we had, a pair of tail lights and a flashing indicator
slightly off topic but…
i have heard (on another post in trucknet which i cant find at the moment) of someone using cheap bicycle lights to put on things in the dark.
a good idea in my eyes but might not help you judge the size of your trailer but will help highlight hazards
Hazard lights, or if the trailer has them fitted and working, those rubber sticky-outy lights. All ours have them, and they’re a gods-send 
Another trick in the dark, especially for ferry trailers is to take off the lamp lenses to make reversing lights, it was all we had, a pair of tail lights and a flashing indicator
There’s not many, apart from our lot, who specified new trailers fitted with them in 2005, still running these antiquated 1960’s style Rubbolites.
im another shadow user im afraid - it works for me.
honestly the more you do it the better you will be - it sort of becomes 2nd nature if you know what i mean.
but if your unsure keep it slow and take a few looks if you need to - dont worry about getting it on in one - worry about not hiting anything.
Driveroneuk:
Another trick in the dark, especially for ferry trailers is to take off the lamp lenses to make reversing lights, it was all we had, a pair of tail lights and a flashing indicator
There’s not many, apart from our lot, who specified new trailers fitted with them in 2005, still running these antiquated 1960’s style Rubbolites.
At least everybody doesnt nick them nowadays,
but one thing that they are good for is that a bloke will put a new bulb in those rather than leave it for the next man, unless they have the wire cages on of course 
We have to do a full strip/build up with every trailer drop/collection, at port or customer.
The latest trailers, Schmitz CargoBulls (much better than the Krone krap) have at least got permanent lights. But only 1 set, with bulbs, not LED’s.
Everybody else now seems to get triple LED’s. Think they should be law, they can be seen in bad weather/heavy spray.