kcrussell25:
I am lucky that I work for a firm that would firstly take me on as a new pass and then after a few weeks of struggling for reversing I spoke to the driver trainer who arranged me 4 hours in the yard with him practicing. I am far happier now and I know not everyone has this opportunity but just want to say in a very rambling way that with some time and practice a new pass will get there even though it wasn’t detailed on the test.
What a forward thinking company, and decent stick of a trainer, more power to their elbows
After reading some of the posts I am surprised at how difficult some seem to find reversing an artic.
Maybe I learned the best way…drove tractor and trailer as a kid although with no mirrors it was always looking behind.
Reversed A frame draw bars of and on for about 10 years.
Never bothered about blind side reverses. Relished the challenge.
Taught my teenage daughter and she would put a lot of drivers to shame.
Reversing an artic is not hard. It just takes some practice and someone who knows how to explain the theory properly.
Don’t overthink it. It takes as long as it takes - the most important thing is not to hit anything.
Get out and look if you’re not sure what’s going on. You’ll have to do that from time to time when reversing on your good side too.
If you’re holding someone up, they’ve got a choice - speed things up by hopping out and helping you, or wait for you to be done. (Obviously if you’ve got an easy opportunity to let them past, take it, but don’t break off once you’ve committed.)
Do everything slowly and deliberately and you’ll be fine.
I wouldnt bother with practicing you will learn through experiance and sticking to the basics. And the people on here ptelling you to blindside at every oppertunity would be the first to snigger at you when you fail.
You have to do a job as a proffesional driverif you can blindside very well then you may well be beyter off driving sraight and reversing in a straight line and just driving into the parking spaces
Not having read through all the replies I apologise in advance if I’m stepping on someone’s toes here; my thoughts on blindsides are if you can avoid it then do so. No point in making life more difficult than necessary. Obviously there are going to be times where a blindside reverse is the only or the preferred option in which case I prefer to get the hard work done whilst travelling forwards, ie get as straight as you can before engaging R.
It’s important to have a plan also, visualise exactly what you are trying to achieve before even starting the manoeuvre as that helps a lot. Also remember GOAL (get out and look). There are no prizes for getting it on in one, there are however penalties for knocking stuff over.
There’s probably lots more tips but you can overthink things and have too much advice! My last bit would be to do it slowly on tickover if possible and if it’s going awry, simply stop, reassess and start again.
