If it were me it’ll be diff locks traction control off and hit the weight transfer button for maximum traction. On the MAN TGX the midlift will lift right up eventually when loaded on the weight transfer.
SWEDISH BLUE:
Juddian:
Interesting replies so far, thankyou.
I will add the road surface is reasonably grippy there unless its actually wet from rain, tarmac onto concrete entrance, tight enough that you often have to put one steering wheel of the tractor onto the opposite kerb to get the vehicle in the gate at all.I’m going to let this one run for while if thats ok before commenting on what i do in these circs…not saying i’m right by the way and each and every situation and state of ground will be different.
When i referred to training i wasn’t thinking of just the driving test training industry, more thinking of on the job training where possibly a bit more real life driving tips and a bit less box ticking might actually be to the company’s benefit
Donkey, yes the MAN of Doom
, though to be fair once you carry out the right pre maneuver adjustments it romps in better than some others
Are you talking about a drop in Bristol, I think. Slightly downhill and a normal, not blindside reverse? Uphill?
No, but won’t mention the town, and its a jack knife blind sider too just to make it the one drop everyone loves 
.
Bristol’s got some bloody hills to make you wince mind, would rather Mrs Hill and her Bristols
Vid:
If it helps 30 odd years ago, admittedly with a rigid, a lack of traction was resolved with a number of work mates (they’d be called ‘colleagues’ the days) jumping up and down above the wheel having issues until it caught and enabled the reverse. Of course this was before the days of H&S, but no-one ever got (badly) hurt
Love it, and couple of weeks ago was at a drop that was like a breath of fresh air, no H&S ■■■■■■■■, really nice people at the factory, had a good chat with another old bugger of a driver who was collecting finished product from there, who then rode down from the lorry deck on the forks , haven’t seen that in years, no kittens or nuns were killed which was amazing.
eagerbeaver:
GORDON 50:
I was in a similar situation a few years ago but in a 4 x 2, dif lock sorted it, so if this was me it would be lift axle up and dif lock on.The example given by Crusty was a loaded wagon so you wouldn’t be able to lift the mid.
Eager you can lift the mdlift on a fully freighted vehicle …Just forgot the name of the system ,(I blame the beer for that ) but it will lift and it will stay up as long as you stay below 10 mph for example ,again I cant remember the speed …The idea as you will know is to get more grip to the drive axle…
Just turn traction control off and dump the air in the mid axle just as u hit the corner.
Diff lock engaged on a tight corner?? No chance that will put u into a worse mess or break the diff.
For the newbies…
Traction control drops the revs when its senses wheel spin causing u more problems when u are trying to go uphill.
The middle axle takes weight off the drive axle when it is down, a button in the cab will dump air out of the middle axle and put more weight and traction onto the drive axle.
Diff lock will lock the drive axle wheels so they only want to go in a straight line, only good if u r off road i.e. quarrys, forests, landfill. On tarmac it will cause problems.
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K
Stick it in crawler, avoid using the brakes, and try to keep a slow smooth movement going so it’s not fast enough to tip going around the bend at that speed, but fast enough that the clutch doesn’t start straining when the inevitable braking occurs when taking the corner. You really don’t want there to be potholes on the outside of the bend either, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to “walk the course” before coming up to do the move.
Above all else, you don’t want to be going into any bends too fast. You never know what might be on the ground to obstruct your otherwise smooth movement. 
bubsy06:
Just turn traction control off and dump the air in the mid axle just as u hit the corner.
Diff lock engaged on a tight corner?? No chance that will put u into a worse mess or break the diff.For the newbies…
Traction control drops the revs when its senses wheel spin causing u more problems when u are trying to go uphill.The middle axle takes weight off the drive axle when it is down, a button in the cab will dump air out of the middle axle and put more weight and traction onto the drive axle.
Diff lock will lock the drive axles so they only want to go in a straight line, only good if u r off road i.e. quarrys, forests, landfill. On tarmac it will cause problems.
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Spot on that 
TC or ASR (in MAN’s) is the kiddie, allows you to keep the power on, dumping the air and indeed being MAN the mid lift will raise fully gives you the added grip plus one less unsteered axle trying to prevent the turn.
Norb, on MAN’s the air dump valve works up to and switches itself off at 20mph’ish (hmm or was it 20k’s, in all this excitement i lost count, d’ya feel lucky punk ), its a handy thing to know the speed so if you’re negotiating a slippery hill you can hit that button when the speed drops to 20mph for some added grip.
The other thing, MANs especially is that the compressor is hopeless, and with a couple of violent shunts (and they are violent at this drop) you can soon exhaust the air supply, so make sure you have full tanks before you start, bloody embarrassing if you’re stuck across the road revving the ■■■■■■■■ off it trying to build the air up again and a Police BMW X5 comes round the corner 
Agree about diff lock, at the place in question i haven’t needed it and agree you would be in danger of breaking summat expensive unless the ground is slippery enough, even wet i’d be wary at this drop until i’d straightened the unit out, never had to do this one with snow on the ground, not hoping to either 
Its all trial and error, no two events are the same, and we learn from each experience, never stop learning.
Interesting one chaps, thanks all for the input.
Simple, stop, hazards on, make a brew then post on here and await for all of the bull crap.
Juddian:
bubsy06:
Just turn traction control off and dump the air in the mid axle just as u hit the corner.
Diff lock engaged on a tight corner?? No chance that will put u into a worse mess or break the diff.For the newbies…
Traction control drops the revs when its senses wheel spin causing u more problems when u are trying to go uphill.The middle axle takes weight off the drive axle when it is down, a button in the cab will dump air out of the middle axle and put more weight and traction onto the drive axle.
Diff lock will lock the drive axles so they only want to go in a straight line, only good if u r off road i.e. quarrys, forests, landfill. On tarmac it will cause problems.
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Spot on that
TC or ASR (in MAN’s) is the kiddie, allows you to keep the power on, dumping the air and indeed being MAN the mid lift will raise fully gives you the added grip plus one less unsteered axle trying to prevent the turn.
Norb, on MAN’s the air dump valve works up to and switches itself off at 20mph’ish, its a handy thing to know the speed so if you’re negotiating a slippery hill you can hit that button when the speed drops to 20mph for some added grip.Agree about diff lock, at the place in question i haven’t needed it and agree you would be in danger of breaking summat expensive unless the ground is slippery enoug, even wet i’d be wary at this drop until i’d straightend the unit out, never had to do this one with snow on the ground, not hoping to either
Its all trial and error, no two events are the same, and we learn from each experience, never stop learning.
Thats the problem, new drivers never learn that sort of stuff at the learning stage. And we always learn in this job.
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Lift the midlift
Traction control off
If there’s a crawler mode for reverse, depends on the situation, sometimes you just want full beans!
Lock it in manual when going forward
Diff lock if you’re going straight or one drive wheels is being lifted off the floor
If still struggling, drop the air out of the trailer and if necessary lift the unit so that all the trailer weight is on its rear axle, on a fully loaded trailer that will transfer around 2t to the unit and take away the scrubbing effect when turning.
If regular issue, move the slider further back
Use momentum when you can, start the manoeuvre in a slightly different positions so you’re starting on the level instead of uphill
Load the trailer front heavy if you get the choice and you know you’ll need traction
In many ways its harder now for new drivers to learn these techniques.
The bloody lorry wants to do everything, some operators even have manual input programmed out of the autoboxes, so even if they wanted to try manual driving an auto they can’t, and if they did more than likely some shiny arse boring bleeder would spot an anomoloy on the telematics screen he’s glued to and raise a disciplinary.
Also with so many drops now being RDC’s so many lads just never have to use these tools, so when they do need them, and we all do at times in winter, then they’re trying to learn with a bloody lorry skating all over the road, which isn’t ideal…
oh and on the subject of skating, why do so many drivers run round empty with the mid lift still down? most lorry’s are a bloody menace like that empty, they must be ■■■■■■■■ themselves on damp roads.
Juddian:
In many ways its harder now for new drivers to learn these techniques.The bloody lorry wants to do everything, some operators even have manual input programmed out of the autoboxes, so even if they wanted to try manual driving an auto they can’t, and if they did more than likely some shiny arse boring bleeder would spot an anomoloy on the telematics screen he’s glued to and raise a disciplinary.
Also with so many drops now being RDC’s so many lads just never have to use these tools, so when they do need them, and we all do at times in winter, then they’re trying to learn with a bloody lorry skating all over the road, which isn’t ideal…
oh and on the subject of skating, why do so many drivers run round empty with the mid lift still down? most lorry’s are a bloody menace like that empty, they must be ■■■■■■■■ themselves on damp roads.
Juddian it aint even winter yet ffs hahaha
Probably see u in lane 4 passing me in lane 3 of the m25 when we have 1cm of snow.
Car drivers rammed into lanes 1 and 2.
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stevieboy308:
Lift the midlift
Traction control off
If there’s a crawler mode for reverse, depends on the situation, sometimes you just want full beans!
Lock it in manual when going forward
Diff lock if you’re going straight or one drive wheels is being lifted off the floor
If still struggling, drop the air out of the trailer and if necessary lift the unit so that all the trailer weight is on its rear axle, on a fully loaded trailer that will transfer around 2t to the unit and take away the scrubbing effect when turningUse momentum when you can, start the manoeuvre in a slightly different positions so you’re starting on the level instead of uphill
Load the trailer front heavy if you get the choice and you know you’ll need traction
More good points
Dropping the trailer suspension at the drop in question is a no no as is a level start (a rear window in the unit would be a Godsend here), you’d end up ripping the rear stabiliser legs off the tank, but another handy one is to check if the trailer you are using will raise the front lift axle when loaded, some will some won’t, i’ve even had the odd auto lifter that would raise the front lifter loaded if you dropped the suspension, rare (and maybe not supposed to work that way at all) but you won’t know till you try and its a bloody handy wheeze to put even more weight on the drive axle, might get you up a slippery hill in winter together with the unit mid lift raised.
Diff lock is a funny one, on some snowy hills its actually worked against me, cos with both wheels spinning the tractor will slip sideways just as bad as drifting, sometimes its better to let one wheel slip at a time and it will dig down to find some grip, the other wheel not spinning prevents the oversteer/drift effect.
bubsy06:
Juddian:
Juddian it aint even winter yet ffs hahaha
Probably see u in lane 4 passing me in lane 3 of the m25 when we have 1cm of snow.
Car drivers rammed into lanes 1 and 2.Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Hah, some hopes, it doesn’t even like the tram lines on dry motorway.
I’ve had a bloody 2 axle MAN on rent that got stuck in half an inch of ice/snow, tried rocking it (Arestronic, some hopes 
) and after about 10 mins the gearbox overheated so had to shut down for a half hour break while it cooled down, luckily that melted enough snow for me to get moving, that same lorry’s gearbox shut down in London traffic too
Following week i’m in 6" of snow in a blizzard in a square cab manual Merc Axor which simply refused to get stuck anywhere, reversing uphill into delivery point it just romped in, very underrated lorry.
Juddian:
bubsy06:
Juddian:
Juddian it aint even winter yet ffs hahaha
Probably see u in lane 4 passing me in lane 3 of the m25 when we have 1cm of snow.
Car drivers rammed into lanes 1 and 2.Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Hah, some hopes, it doesn’t even like the tram lines on dry motorway.
I’ve had a bloody 2 axle MAN on rent that got stuck in half an inch of ice/snow, tried rocking it (Arestronic, some hopes
Following week i’m in 6" of snow in a blizzard in a square cab manual Merc Axor which simply refused to get stuck anywhere, reversing uphill into delivery point it just romped in, very underrated lorry.
I learnt what i know now by working 3 years on the round timber in a volvo V3 midlift, Anybody who is into timber uses a tag usually, great fun and an experience.
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I find the crawler gear really useful in situations like that. One of our yards has a tight uphill spiral to get out. Loaded and in the wet, the only chance you have of getting out is crawler gear with midlift up.
Great post Juddian, thank you for this. Even though you had a little dig at me. I have actually learned from this. I do not profess to be the most knowledgeable driver with driving in general and this is the sort of tip that could really be useful. I always pay attention to more experienced drivers for help on driving. I mastered my reversing from a very patient driver that could reverse with a blindfold on. This post I will put in my masterclass file.
McGurke:
If it were me it’ll be diff locks traction control off and hit the weight transfer button for maximum traction. On the MAN TGX the midlift will lift right up eventually when loaded on the weight transfer.
“huh?”
UKtramp:
This post I will put in my masterclass file.
I still reckon you’re pulling our legs with your posts half the time hmm?
However, i’ve also learned a thing or two last night, which only goes to prove every day is a schoolday no matter how many years you’ve been doing the job, which itself is always changing.
I’d never thought before of (was it Stevieboy, sorry if that’s wrong i’ll edit ) dropping the trailer suspension and raising the unit to full height to transfer more weight onto the tractor unit…i sometimes drop the trailer suspension to check if the trailer lifter will rise when loaded, no my current tanker won’t bloody cooperate , but i shall be experimenting on one of our weighbridges when its quiet at work to see what the difference is using the trailer dump/unit increase method mentioned…anything to help ensure i don’t get stuck and have to endure another single bloody night out in a tin can
Funny thing with the MAN’s i’ve found, Stevieboy mentions sliding the fifth wheel back to increase weight on the drive axle, which makes absolute sense and was standard practice on 4x2’s…except when i first got my 6x2 MAN i experimented for several weeks with moving the fifth wheel to find its ideal spot, cos where it is makes a huge difference to how it handles, horrible when fully back, on the MAN moving it further back increases the weight on the mid lift (itself only a 5.3 ton axle if i recall correctly, we’re on small mid lift wheels) not the drive axle and if fully back can actually overload the mid lifter whilst the other two axles are fine, it still baffles me a bit to be honest how this works quite like this 
As a general comment for newer drivers, i’ve always tried to learn my lorry and all its idioisyncrasies when conditions are favourable and you don’t need special techniques to do the job, it’s NBG trying to learn your gearbox and air dumps/traction controls intimately for example when you’re mincing along in 4" of bloody snow just trying to keep the sodding thing moving and on the road, or as in the original post when trying to do some extreme maneuvers.
Don’t be afraid to test your lorry out to see what it does and how it behaves, it will have good points as well as bad, just be careful with the bloody diff lock on grippy surfaces cos transmission wind up is a grave possibility.
Thanks for all the contributions, the funny, the ■■■■ taking, and the serious.
Can’t do that, tip it from the roadside.