Rear steers, how much difference do they make?
I’ve driven a Volvo rigid with a rear steer and it didn’t feel like it made a difference, I actually found it could get into tighter drops by lifting the axle?
But I’ve pulled rear steering 10m trailers and they tend to follow you more like a wagon & drag trailer, but makes them difficult to maneuver with the back axle twisting around?
Is it just me or do others find them a bit pointless too?
I quite like the rear steers. I took a 10m trailer when I was agency at Morrisons. Went to a supermarket in Blackburn and there’s not a chance you could’ve made it into their yard with anything else.
I like them, both in rigids and on trailers. A few of the tesco trailers we pulled had them and they were a god send at some of the drops.
I’ve driven both rigid and bendy rear steers.
Rigid forwards - watch the bloody tail swing, nightmare 
you have to cut corners as tight as hell or you’ll do damage, backwards, great as long as you keep a good eye on the mirrors, once you get used to it its great.
Bendy forwards - you can almost forget you have a trailer on, it will follow you like a dog, backwards takes a bit of getting used to but will get you into places you wouldn’t dream of getting into without the rear-steer.
I have one on now and I find it great, I will take a few pics of a job I’m at now to show you what the access is like! You will see why they are such a good idea!
This is Tredegar park in Newport, I just picked up our tracked loading shovel, just shy of 43 tonne gross train at the moment and I’m now trying to navigate all the cars on this tight roundabout and exit through the gate in the park… It was a lot easier when it was raining as there wasn’t one car! The red VW is causing the biggest problem here!
/attachment]I watched a lad down in Brum last week trying to reverse on to the bay with a rear steer, brilliant bit of kit but as he had to almost jack knife it on the rear axle was pointing the wrong way, he ended up having to just push the thing where he wanted it, scrubbing the two rear wheels sidewards.
C10HOO:
I watched a lad down in Brum last week trying to reverse on to the bay with a rear steer, brilliant bit of kit but as he had to almost jack knife it on the rear axle was pointing the wrong way, he ended up having to just push the thing where he wanted it, scrubbing the two rear wheels sidewards.
It should lock when in reverse… Well our does, anything under 5mph and it locks.
this one must have been on the blink then as it was on full lock to the left and he was reversing in from the right.
I find the rear steer trailers are great, brilliant for getting in/out of very tight deliveries - some of the supermarkets on High Streets and in small villages have nightmare loading areas and the rear steers slot in no probs.
Take a little getting use to the first time you use one
Can save a bit of rubber me thinks. the ones I had you had to lock the rear axle via a switch before reversing but you could only do that providing the rear trailer wheels were straight ahead.
ibson:
C10HOO:
I watched a lad down in Brum last week trying to reverse on to the bay with a rear steer, brilliant bit of kit but as he had to almost jack knife it on the rear axle was pointing the wrong way, he ended up having to just push the thing where he wanted it, scrubbing the two rear wheels sidewards.It should lock when in reverse… Well our does, anything under 5mph and it locks.
That’s not rear steer, that’s a floating rear axle, and it’ll lock if straight when reverse is selected, or you can manually over-ride it with a plunger on the trailer and then just pull forward 10’ and it should lock.
Rear steers are usually cable driven or rod driven or similar (I’m sure there’s many variations) from the kingpin, so when the turntable is moving, it pushes / pulls, hence they steer the correct way. You have to make sure the wheels are straight when hooking up or you can cause damage, but other than that, they’re amazing bits of kit.
The artic rear steers I’ve driven are hydraulically operated off the king pin.
Bloody hilarious when they go out of line though, try driving down a country single track lane with your trailer sidestepping by a foot . Scares the hell out of oncoming traffic 
.
Apart from when I did my training/took my test, almost all my C+E work has been with a 10m rear-steering trailer. I am pretty sure that a good few of my regular drops would not be accessible without the rear-steer. 95% of my drops are hospitals, most of which are quite old and were not laid out with articulated trucks in mind.
We’ve got them and they’re brilliant. Saves a fortune in tyre wear. My trailer for example is knocking on 700,000 kms and most of the tyres are original. It also helps if the front axle lifts too, tyre scrub is almost non existent. They also follow beautifully even with the front axle raised. You wouldn’t want to go back to a normal trailer afterwards.
As for reversing, just make sure you’re in a straight line when you start and it should lock. If it does kink out, stop, pull forward a bit and try again.
waynedl:
ibson:
C10HOO:
I watched a lad down in Brum last week trying to reverse on to the bay with a rear steer, brilliant bit of kit but as he had to almost jack knife it on the rear axle was pointing the wrong way, he ended up having to just push the thing where he wanted it, scrubbing the two rear wheels sidewards.It should lock when in reverse… Well our does, anything under 5mph and it locks.
That’s not rear steer, that’s a floating rear axle, and it’ll lock if straight when reverse is selected, or you can manually over-ride it with a plunger on the trailer and then just pull forward 10’ and it should lock.
Rear steers are usually cable driven or rod driven or similar (I’m sure there’s many variations) from the kingpin, so when the turntable is moving, it pushes / pulls, hence they steer the correct way. You have to make sure the wheels are straight when hooking up or you can cause damage, but other than that, they’re amazing bits of kit.
Your right, I didn’t explain myself very well, it is a floating axle, but it’s a form or rear steering and that’s why I mentioned it, no over-ride though, as long as your under 5mph and straight it’s locked.
I took these today, the trailer also has a front lift axle.
We have a Nooteboom triaxle with a similar set up, the rear will track or float but it also lifts. I had it today and with the axle down going forwards you can almost forget the trailer is there, with the axle up it does cut.
I had to reverse into a narrow gateway to load today, pulling out of there with my 8 wheeler would have meant I’d have had to get the whole thing out before attempting to turn and taking umpteen shunts to get on my way, however being an artic with the steering axle meant that I got out easily in one hit. (Shame it took about 3 to get it in though )
great bit of kit , my rear steer is only a tandem axle trailer with a positive mechanical linkage from 5th wheel turntable to rear axle , so it works the same backwards as forwards , although it’s a pain when you get into trouble & you’d love to lock the axle straight , loads of drops i wouldnt be able to do with out it matter of fact , i sometimes find it better than an 8 wheeler !
We’ve got a mix of follow and positive steers on our scanner fleet.
The follow steers are handy enough going forward but being as there not the newest then some can be a pain to lock up for reversing. A couple have got quite a spread on the axle too so can be a little hard to push round while reversing.
The positive steers are great once you get used to them and are a real help in some of our tighter sites. The only problem with them can be that if you need to shuffle a trailer left or right say a couple of feet and you don’t have much forward/backward room to play with the steer can work against you.
One thing to realise when tracking forward on a turn is that any kind of steering will kick the trailer out. On a previous job I was given a brand new stepframe plant trailer. Within a couple of weeks I turned up at a regular job of ours where you had to do a U turn in a wide road and unload in front of a cemetery. Not difficult but you had to hug the curb on the left to get round. On arrival for the first time I positioned myself as normal and when the gap in the traffic appeared I slowly swung round. As I turned the steer pushed the follow axle up onto the curb and I managed to hook out a newly fitted lamp post as well as trashing the rear lights on the trailer. The electric lads were still connecting in posts further up the street and looked upon my carnage as “one less to do”. I gave them my details but the company never heard a thing about it. Mind I certainly heard about it when I arrived back at the yard with a 2week old trailer needing a new light cluster.
Cheers
Neilf
