I am thinking about buying a trailor for my car so I can practise reversing. Would this give me a better idea on reversing when I start applying for jobs ?. I did pass my reversing with one shunt but at times I did struggle.
I could go and pay for a 4 hour lesson but that would be around £300 to £400 I think.
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Craig2222:
I am thinking about buying a trailor for my car so I can practise reversing. Would this give me a better idea on reversing .
Yes because the principals are the same
Box trailer is best
It would help you yes, but a 3-axle trailer is probably easier to reverse. Most drivers think about it in a much more basic way - why would I buy equipment to save a company a bit on wages while I learn? This is one of the few professions where the worse you do the job, the more you get paid. It is that simple. Develop a bit of a thick skin about it all and crack on. There are other aspects such as foul weather, poorly painted lines, and badly designed yards that all the practice with a car trailer in the world won’t help with.
Being able to put a trailer on a bay with no shunts is of little actual benefit to anyone if the driver subsequently stands around for an hour a shift talking to his mates. Similarly, standing around for an hour and then driving at 56 like the world depended on it is of little actual use to anyone, and indeed is more costly and inefficient. If you take 5 minutes to do a reverse it makes little actual difference to your day if you get on with it for the remaining parts of the day.
The two previous posts I partly agree with so I don’t want to appear critical. I assume you have passed C+E on an artic… you managed the tests’ dog leg’ reverse following the instructors advice on how far to turn the steering wheel which is fine. Given how fast a trailer can move out of control… well done.
I’ve now been driving C+E for two years and had some challenging situations to deal with but that’s all part of the joys of driving for a living. But when one is in one’s early days it is ‘nail biting’ until one gets over that… be prepared to spend maybe two months to feel confident. It could well be that long whatever anyone tells you. “Develop a bit of a thick skin about it all and crack on. There are other aspects such as foul weather, poorly painted lines, and badly designed yards that all the practice with a car trailer in the world won’t help with.” - well put from PP! The other niggle is other drivers who will be a bit intolerant of your early efforts and want to get parked up quickly themselves… hassle you which is a distraction.
Using a car trailer to practice reversing? Well I have a 2 axle car transporter and I partly disagree with the “…principles are the same”. True BUT the pivot is completely different and that is a big difference. I knew how to reverse a car trailer but the artic trailer moves much more. To reverse either in a straight line is easy e.g. right hand down on steering wheel- cab moves left - 5th wheel (pin) right - trailer left. Think opposites some folk say right down and trailer goes left. Others use the analogy cab left (right) - trailer left (right). Choose which you prefer! On a curve it is similar but you apply more or less cab movement either side. Using a car trailer and doing some practice may help but not that much in my view due to the pivot point difference.
The most important thing with reversing the artic trailer is POSITIONING. Considering the common reverse onto a bay. You drive down to the allocated bay, lower window and stop just before to open the trailer doors leaving about 3 ft space from neighbouring trailers if there, look down the bay to check for obstacles like bricks or trolley to remove, you then do the reverse ‘S’ manoeuvre to POSITION the trailer with an APPROPRIATE ANGLE so you imagine a nice smooth curve to that bay with the RHS looking out of the window. I look down the side of the trailer (to line up on the bay’s vertical strips for trailer sides) some folk use the trailer wheels (front axle best as it is easier to avoid oversteer which you will get if watching the rear axle). With reversing you must think trailer angle and strictly speaking ‘you push backwards’… that is what you are doing with the unit balancing on the pin. Reversing is done slowly inch-by-inch in order that you have maximum control and ideally one does not stop. A shunt is to correct trailer angle and should only be a short move forward. The trailer angle throughout the reversing manoeuvre should be the same as if one was pulling out of the bay.
Positioning is most important which few new passes seem to have explained to them in reversing practice. I had to help out a new pass last week as he was about to hit my trailer and quite clearly had not been told the basics. I got him to pull out and come round again and we went through the procedure with me guiding… from the concrete. Being a former teacher I can break down the manoeuvre into easy to follow steps which I think helps - his instructor was I’m sure a good driver but couldn’t put the steps in place for him to follow.
The length of the trailer and pivot point means you have to learn the correct amount of ‘feel’ to control it and it takes a while. One of the best exercises one can do is to weave a trailer in and out of a line of cones appropriately spaced… you’ll certainly develop a good feel then. Too much steering and the trailer will go too far.
You don’t need a car trailer for the points i’ve mentioned… you can borrow mine but I don’t think it will help that much - positioning and angle of trailer are most important.
I agree with Jessejazza, whilst the principles are the same the pivoting and positioning are so far removed from a typical artic as to be not worth spending money on, unless of course you want a trailer anyway, but one of those little box things from Halfords you can put in your pocket would be of no use whatsoever.
Ask anyone who’s swapped betwen artics and close coupled (but not A fram) wag’n’drags, even though similarly sized the methods of reversing are completely different.
I’ve always advised the same, practice every day, that is the only way anyone cracks it, no one was born brilliant at maneuvering they practiced whenever possible.
So, on every journey pull into a quietish MSA or lorry park of some sort, find a marked bay well away from possibility of doing damage and reverse into that bay from every angle possible, including blind side which almost everyone avoids.
I still perform a blind side every chance i get to keep my hand in, use it or lose it.
As JJ says, its how you start that dictates if its possible to get in, so drive out of a bay then stop get out and look at the tyre tread marks you made, note how far you went out with the tractor before starting to turn…well the way back in is exactly how you went out.
If you find road warrior chimp who imagines he’s king trucker laughing at you just ignore him, chances are he picked a drive in drive out parking bay because he ain’t no expert either, any lorry driver worthy of the title would approve of what you are doing, better perfecting your maneuvers out in a safe spot than between two lorries with general yard detritus preventing you taking room for the tractor.
Do this every day until it clicks, don’t worry even when you’ve been doing the job 40 years when you change jobs and get a new type of vehicle/trailer you’ll still be learning just like the rest of us.
A few tips.
Spotlessly clean windows and mirrors, if you can’t see properly you’ve already failed especially in the dark and in low winter sun conditions.
Properly set up mirrors, you are not practising ornithology so a superb view of the top of the trailer and the sky beyond is useless, similarly admiring the vehicle bodywork is of no use either.
Trailer axles, on flat even ground a triaxle pivots on its middle axle, a tandem pivots between the two axles, if you are unfortunate enough to have a rear lifting axle (detestable things as are urban trailers with rear steer until used to them) suggest switch the ignition off and allow the axle to drop down before starting your reverse, a front lifter depending on how tight the reverse is i usually leave up because it lessens the rear overhang due to trailer pivoting between the two rears when axle is raised.
Tractor unit, if you have a 3 axle unit, dump the air on the mid lift be pressing the appropriate button, if empty the mid lift will raise (some will also raise when loaded) but on almost units all the mid lfit weight will be transferred onto the drive axle, gives better traction and the unit turns easier because the unsteered mid lift is no longer doing its best to stop the vehicle turning, you rarely see many do this these days.
Juddian:
I agree with Jessejazza, whilst the principles are the same the pivoting and positioning are so far removed from a typical artic …
Those were the words I was trying to think of!
I learnt to reverse on a night job job going into a Tesco RDC. If I didn’t get the position right… pulled out and started again. Not one watching so… I just did 3-4 attempts each time for practice. One must build up confidence… then all is much easier - even though one can make a bosh shot. From that job I went into London - almost everywhere one goes is a challenge BUT I love it and that is the position one needs to be in. Not easy and I’m still learning as I cope quite often with an LST (Long Stupid Trailer… well Stupid = steering).
jessejazza:
Juddian:
I agree with Jessejazza, whilst the principles are the same the pivoting and positioning are so far removed from a typical artic …Those were the words I was trying to think of!
I learnt to reverse on a night job job going into a Tesco RDC. If I didn’t get the position right… pulled out and started again. Not one watching so… I just did 3-4 attempts each time for practice. One must build up confidence… then all is much easier - even though one can make a bosh shot. From that job I went into London - almost everywhere one goes is a challenge BUT I love it and that is the position one needs to be in. Not easy and I’m still learning as I cope quite often with an LST (Long Stupid Trailer… well Stupid = steering).
I was out of the HGV game for 7 years and my first day back was a night shift
When I got there I practiced a reverse 3 times to get the feel of it again and so glad I did
No pressures and not too many people about
One bloke said what were you doing up there and I just said im back on day one week one and practicing the reverse again
No one cares, they want you to succeed so just practice when given the chance
Watch a few videos on YouTube and read the comments, reversing is a skill and many people respect that hgv drivers can reverse these massive vehicles
to put it into context, ive seen plenty of car drivers mess up parking a blinking car and needing to take shunt haha
Buying a small car trailer can be good reversing practice but un-needed.
Generally speaking, if you are buying a tiny little trailer half the size of the car you will struggle reversing it. Because reversing a car trailer is much harder then reversing a hgv trailer.
This is because the car trailer is a lot smaller so it will jack knife while reversing very easily.
For a cheap way to practice reversing I would recommend Euro-truck simulator.
store.steampowered.com/app/2273 … mulator_2/
Costs like £15 on PC. There are similar games on PS4/Xbox.
Good thing about the PC version is it has a free demo.
At a yard I worked at we had a van with a tiny little salt spreader trailer on the back. The majority of the drivers could not reverse it because they could not see it in the mirrors. The only time you could see it in the mirrors was when it was about to jackknife. Most people just un-hitched the thing and pushed it in the bay as it was just easier.