hi everyone i would just like to ask has anyone got any tips for better reversing as i am not so good at it any help would be very helpful thanx
After my last nights escapade with a six wheeler and tri trailer I’m not qualified to answer your question, but welcome to Trucknet fozzie.
What I do intend to do asap is practise, then practise some more. I’m going to make sure I’ve lined up before reversing, I’m going to take it slow, and I’m going to make sure that any manoeuvre is minimal.
If I do need to swing it around while reversing I’m going to pay more attention to line up my pivot point on the trailer before I do swing it in. This I have particular problems with as it tends to swing too far before I’m straight and I end up going back where I came from.
What I have found is that the size of trailer really does matter, and the difference between a 4 and 6 wheeler unit is remarkable.
So, to all you who find reversing a breeze please let us have your 6p worth, I can’t keep on getting the shunter do it 
I am going to say the same as the other persons the moreyou practise
the better you will be at reverseing. When I was delivering liquid-
food products into GB. We had a customer where we had to reverse
left hand side into a narrow entrance with a wall om either side
AND mate I had to ask the firms driver to reverse in for me on the first
time that I deliveried but after a time because I practised it was easier
to do, If I rember correctly JOHN POWER who was a ownerdriver
also said when he first got a WAGON AND DRAG combination
that he spent a lot of his spare time learning how to drive
correctly and this included reverseing, SO MATE TAKE IT EASY
AND PRACTISE WILL MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER FOR YOU:
thanks alot for the advice 
Hiya Fozzie, and welcome to the trucknet family…
On the point of reversing, normally try and get the trailer heading into the direction your trying to get it in too as much as poss, take your time, and any movements on the steering wheel should be slight. That way you can correct it if you start going wrong, without over correcting and having to start all over.
If your in a place where people are watching, don’t worry about them, let them watch, if they offer to help then let them, if they don’t offer and you want help, ask. Sometimes when it’s all going wrong and you’ve got all flustered, have a break, have a ■■■ if you smoke, or simply take five and then give it another go… Most of all don’t let it be the bug bearer of your driving career. Get practise wherever you can, and be just be proud of yourself.
Everyone has there off days where reversing is concerned, sometimes you’ll get the tightest of spots in one and the wide big open spaces in however many shunts. What does it matter as long as you get it in there eventually.
Good luck and let us know how you get on
Tiggz
Hi Fozzie and welcome to Trucknet Uk. When this stupid machine’s decided to stop crashing, I’ll post the stuff I’ve been trying to for half the afternoon. Let’s see if this works 
.
Hi Fozzie and welcome to Trucknet Uk .
And good luck with the reversing Fozzie
what’s up with your computer Liberace
and have you got service pack 2 on 
As has previously been mentioned, keep the steering adjustments small and often. It is advantageous to be able to stop the vehicle slightly off straight when you are lining up to the bay i.e. you can see along the side of your vehicle by looking out of the window and line it up with the bay (and hopefully, the bay markings).
If you need to reverese in a straight line it is easier to use your mirrors so long as they are correctly set-up (in the 1st third you should be able to see the side of the vehicle thus allowing you to use the middle third for the area directly behind the vehicle and the last third for the distance behind the vehicle). Try to keep an even ‘picture’ in the mirrors; if one of the mirrors shows more of the vehicle than the other then you need to steer to correct it i.e. in the left mirror you can see more vehicle side than in the right mirror - you must steer right-hand-down.
Above all, take your time and just keep practising. If in doubt GOAL (Get Out And Look) as it’s better to take your time to get on the bay than to hit something. If there are other drivers stood around ask them to watch you back; they’ll just think ‘oh well, we all started somewhere’ as opposed to ‘daft ■■■■■ just hit that other wagon!’.
It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it and before you know it you’ll be after the shunters job!! I made a point of trying to use the mirrors only, after a ‘wet’ experience of having to hang out of the window during a HUGE downpour one day. 
Arh forgot a good one, when your lining up on the bay you’ll see a bay bumper with two spots on it (bolts, get the trailer so it’s lined in the middle of those bolts and you’ll be straight on the bay everytime… never fails. Don’t trust the lines either, can be painted by the mindless
thanx alot everyone you have give me loads of good advice cheers
Ok, if it goes again, it’s going in the bin. For starters, your not going to get it overnight, (sorry), but your not. Took me about 3-4 months going forewards and 4-5 to become halfway competant at reversing and this was doing multidrop, so I got quite a bit of practice. I still stuff it up after 2 years and make a complete wazzak of myself (usually when their’s people watching - they never see the first in blindsides you do for some reason :mrgreen:). Maybe add another 0 to the 2 and I’ll be putting it in first time everytime.
A few tips:
-
Don’t hit anything. Obvious I know, but the golden rule. You can take as many shunts as you want, the other drivers can take the wee wee every time they see you and probably will and, for me they’re welcome to
, but if you start lamping things (rather than the occasional tap 
), your P45 might appear pretty sharpish. -
To follow the golden rule, the easiest way is to get someone to watch you back. Not give you directions mind, just make sure you don’t hit anything. Failing that, Get OutAnd Look before you hit something and give the gaffer another coranry
. -
Sounds a bit new age, I know, but try visualising the reverse. See yourself going into the space you want first time and plan how your going to do it. Use the enviroment around you and make it work for you. Pick some “control points.” That seam in the road that’s running parallel with the gate, you don’t want the back of your trailer over that or you’ll clip the wall. Etc.
-
I think it’s been said. but try and avoid blindsides (reversing using the passenger side mirror. They’re called blindsides because they’re exactly that. You reverse in virtually blind. It makes the job a lot more difficult.
. If you can turn round and put it in using the drivers side mirror, then that’ll make you life a lot easier . -
I find that putting lock on slowly and taking it off quickly works best for me, but as Steve says, the difference between units and trailers is huge. Takes me the best part of a week to get au fait with the different ones when I’m being bounced around on agency work.
-
Relax. Difficult one, I know, but if you don’t stress about it and are totally concentrating on the reverse, then it’ll be a lot easier mentlally than if your stressing about it and wound up. Defeated before you start.
-
Practice, Practice, Practice. It all comes with time and practice and it will get easier, I promise you. Might not seem like it, but it does
.
Hope this helps some and I’m not spouting drivle again :mrgreen:. Once again, Welcome to the Trucknet family and don’t be a stranger.
Cheers
Ian.
cheers ian thats great advice thanks alot
Liberace:
It all comes with time and practice and it will get easier, I promise you. Might not seem like it, but it does
You wouldn’t be saying that if you saw me yesterday.
Go on then Krankee, Spill, Walkers stuff is stuck at Peterlee for a couple of days, so I’m not working. I need a giggle 
.
Get a few shifts as a shunter!!!
The shifts I’ve been getting at Royal Mail through my agency have involved putting trucks on loading bays between collection runs. Sometimes I’ve done up to 10 per shift. Although they were 7.5 tonners it had to be done quite accurately as the levelling dock ramp just fitted into the truck. It’s been great practice, and paid for!!!
Gordy
It’s nothing outstanding. Just a case of going to places I’ve been to numerous times before, but not recently, and being complacent in ‘setting the vehicle up’ before reversing. As regards getting onto a bay in ‘one hit’, then if I can do that once a month, then that is about average. But yesterday, none were less than two shunts and the worst was four. Tesco’s Didcot angled bays are no problem, even if I have to bend it around another motor before getting a view, but yesterday I was imitating a rank amateur.
But, looking on the bright side, Agency pay, the longer it takes the more I get paid.
Krankee:
It’s nothing outstanding. Just a case of going to places I’ve been to numerous times before, but not recently, and being complacent in ‘setting the vehicle up’ before reversing. As regards getting onto a bay in ‘one hit’, then if I can do that once a month, then that is about average. But yesterday, none were less than two shunts and the worst was four. Tesco’s Didcot angled bays are no problem, even if I have to bend it around another motor before getting a view, but yesterday I was imitating a rank amateur.But, looking on the bright side, Agency pay, the longer it takes the more I get paid.
I went down to Tescos Didcot Today. Got it on with one shunt, that suprised me and had my 45 when they eventually tipped 2 palletts off me 
. If I see you down their. I’ll say hello/
Cheers
Ian.
Liberace:
To follow the golden rule, the easiest way is to get someone to watch you back. Not give you directions mind, just make sure you don’t hit anything.
There’s nothing worse than somebody giving it large circular motions in your mirror when you just wanna know how much room you got.
“Yeah thanks mate! I worked out which way the truck goes when you turn the wheel one way or another a long time ago” 
Take your time and trust your own instinct over people who are trying to ‘help’. Help is the operative word cos you are in control and they are only assisting.
A god send is a trailer that has been pulled off a bay in the wet, just put your tyres on the tracks that have been left and follow them in. but as above it all comes with time.
what’s the difference between the 4+6 wheeled units then chaps,
guessing that it’s a tighter angle between unit and trailer for given
amount of steering.