darkseeker:
I’m sure I’ll come up with plenty of questions but here’s a few to start off with;
(I got my class one on thursday 
)
Right, heights; Some, if not most, trailers say “13’3” based on a ■■? height fifth wheel" How do you know the height of the fifth wheel and, if it’s different, how do you work out the overall height?
Mudguards; I’ve noticed, especially recently, that many units have had the top of the mudguard removed; by the looks of it, it’s to clear the trailer. Especially on renaults and foreign units. Why would the fifth wheel be so low as to need this!?
Finding your way around; Obviously, you can get away with a fair bit more in a rigid than an artic when it comes to being where you shouldn’t - I’ll give you an example;
I went to m&s faversham yesterday, no idea where it is and all I had on the paperwork was;
M&S faversham
faversham depot
faversham
kent
(postcode)
So, on went the satnav which took me to within about 5miles of the place and then directed me through alsorts of residential streets (nearly didn’t make it in a 26tonner) and we’re there. BUT on the way out I could see a much easier way back to the motorway. I’d’ve been in trouble in an artic, I’d’ve had an outragous amount of reversing to do 
So, how do you get round this? I couldn’t plan a route with my map because I didn’t know where it was - what can you do?
My first day out in an artic was last month. I’ve been doing agency work driving 26t’ers for National Hickman pretty much solidly since January. Delivering floor joists and decking, to residential building sites, throughout England and Wales.
I passed my class 1 in January but hadn’t made any use of it. Then one morning the yard manager says: ‘Right six drops, Oxford, Romsey, Eastleigh, Bracknell *2 and Brentford on a night out. Oh, and it’s in an artic’. ‘Yup. Great. No problem’, I say. He bungs the keys at me and off I go. Get the delivery notes, check the load and strap up, then go fill the unit, hook it up and do my checks. No worries, just like a pro… Well alright, a bloody nervous pro that triple-checks everything, at least. 
Oxford was easy enough, a bit tight getting to the site (these building sites are quite often in residential areas down 7.5 ton access only limits etc) but a straightforward reverse and job done. My problem started with the second drop, just North of Romsey in a little village called Upper Timsbury.
Coming south down the A3057, Mesh road and Staff road were both 6’6" limited and way too narrow for an artic with a 15’ high, tri-axle trailer. The next road, Hill view, looked a bit sketchy but there were no limitations on it, so in I went.
It is quite a posh little village and I couldn’t help but notice the looks of horror/disapproval as this dirty great monster of a truck forced its way into their tranquil little haven, trees rubbing against both curtains and branches cracking overhead.
I got to the turning onto New road, squeaked around the corner and duly headed north. Now even I could tell that the right turn looked tight on the map, but I thought, ‘the delivery instructions made no mention of an artic prohibition, the TM wouldn’t have sent me on my first day out in an artic somewhere too inaccessible, surely?’ Wrong.
I had a couple of attempts at making the turn but it wasn’t happening. All I was going to do was end up destroying this bloke’s garden wall.
Fortunately, he popped out just as I was considering my options. Turns out he was an HGV driver too and he kindly offered to be see me round. I had to turn left up Hackupps lane then reverse back into manor farm lane, pretty much all unsighted because of the trees. It took me 5 or 6 attempts to get the reverse and a lot of sweat and bother. I could then turn left down Rudd lane. My banks-man then left me with directions to the building site and a dire warning about not trying to exit the site by continuing down Rudd lane. He said he’d pop out and help me repeat the reverse to get out, when I came back.
Off I trundled down this narrow little country lane with a feeling of unease beginning to build, 1/4 of a mile later, I came upon this.
Duly turning left, I headed down to the building site. You guessed it. Nowhere to turn and cars parked on every corner. Bugger!
I made the drop and then wriggled my way backwards maybe 150 winding meters or so (taking out the units offside indicator lens on a gate-post in the process) to the triangle, where the site manager informed me that the only other artic he’d seen come down there, reversed back south-east into Rudd lane before heading back North-West.
Try as I might, I could just not make the turn. Either the telephone pole in the triangle was in the way of the front of the trailer or the drive wheels would just spin as I tried to push the still pretty much fully loaded trailer up the hill and round the bend. I tried everything, diff lock on, lifting the mid axle and raising/lowering the unit suspension to get more grip. But it just wouldn’t have it. After about 30 minutes, the smell of nicely warmed through clutch plates and getting increasingly frustrated and completely drenched in sweat I had a good quick shout at myself, switched off the motor and had a calming moment or two. Deciding that the site manager didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, I got out to survey the situation for myself (again). Having thought about it properly, I pulled forward, and then reversed out North-West (the way I had come in). Made it first time too. Then I pulled forward on Rudd lane and reversed back down South. This time I had the hill on my side and with the trailer going downhill I could finally get traction and the ■■■■ thing turned round. Even then to avoid the telephone pole I had the unit at a very odd angle with its nearside wheels half-way up the bank on the left of the road.
Almost free I headed back up to the tight corner and good as his word, my banks-man popped out to help me with the unsighted reverse. Which I made fairly easy work of the second time round. My thanks must go to that fellow driver who helped me; he really did make the difference.
A drop that in a rigid would have taken about twenty-five minutes, ended up taking me just over two and a half hours.
Drained and too late to get to the next drop, I parked up in a lay-by, stuck it on rest, cooked up and had a glass or two of wine in a pleasant summers evening. The next day the remaining drops passed without incident and seemed a breeze after the previous day.
Talk about a steep learning curve…
Having said that, I actually really enjoyed the challenge and now having done three or four weeks on artics, I’m a lot less phased and more considered about any ‘situations’ I might come up against. Oh, and I am getting much better at judging real-world reversing now. 
A bit of preparation and google maps/streetmap go a long way to reduce drivers anxiety syndrome imho.
I couldn’t turn round, I couldn’t reverse as there was a queue of traffic behind me from the traffic lights so I thought I might have to do a runner