Oh man, that’s exactly how I felt, thought of calling the gaffer and telling him - put me back on class 2. Will be doing lots more reversing after the holidays.
Went to GIST in Hemel the other day and bays were pretty close together and I had to reverse between 2 brand new Scanias. What made it harder is that there wasn’t much room to play with as in to straighten out the cab. You can see roughly on diagram how it was. On a tri axle which of the 4 points would be ideal to get back end into to start straightening out? Or does it all depend on situation at the time due to differences in set ups?
Romik -
Given some of your replies and diagrams of where you’ve had to reverse into I think that your seriously underestimating your ability.
You’ve got this far and the more you do reversing the easier it will be and you’ll look back and wonder what the issue was!
Nobody is a natural at reversing, whether bendy or rigid, it’s comes with doing.
Your definitely further on in the skill level your giving yourself credit for.
Take each as they come and do slowly adding to your experience and you’ll be fine. Don’t let it get to you. Your doing good.
dcgpx:
Romik -Given some of your replies and diagrams of where you’ve had to reverse into I think that your seriously underestimating your ability.
You’ve got this far and the more you do reversing the easier it will be and you’ll look back and wonder what the issue was!
Nobody is a natural at reversing, whether bendy or rigid, it’s comes with doing.
Your definitely further on in the skill level your giving yourself credit for.
Take each as they come and do slowly adding to your experience and you’ll be fine. Don’t let it get to you. Your doing good.
+1…Romik’s doing blooming well, i think we’re all impressed with the picture of the pound universe back door jack knife delivery.
Proper old lorry driver trick he’s pulling (i don’t recon he’s a newby at all 
), claim to be useless then when it goes in everyone’s happy, result 
…the other sort tell everyone how good they are then when it all goes ■■■’s up… 
Funny. Seriously, I wouldn’t BS you. Took me over 2hrs to get in there, finished day with an infringement as well.
Not read everything on this post but just thought Id tell you a little story.
I passed my test on a friday in a 2 axle unit and 2 axle trailer, all went fine. Come monday morning tell the office and the boss says “great, take the decker round to the garage and reverse it in for him”
LMAO, well get to the garage, not having a clue really what I doing as this thing is soo much bigger that what I was taught in. Anyway, finally manage to get it lined up (blindside reverse of all things) but it was still going in squint, didnt help that one of the mechanics kept calling me a useless ■■■■ etc etc. Finally got the thing in and took me about 35 mins.
The went and picked up our little urban trailer and went out and did some deliveries in it. Didnt make much difference, still cocked that up.
2 years later Im doing the night trunk and dont get much chance to reverse onto bays etc. so still cant reverse properly.
Since I am spending holidays indoors (I know lucky me, but since I am LTD I don’t get paid for the luxury) I keep watching videos of reversing into docks in slow motion and also been reading this book, which I found to be really helpful in understanding capabilities of an artic, various setups depending on situations, as well as other helpfull tips on safety checks, etc. smashwords.com/books/view/257661
made it look easy.
This is what I will probably be like on my first few months
Unless you would be be causing an obstruction, ■■■■■■■■ to trying to get the cab straight in places like that. It doesn’t matter. Of all the shunts you took trying to get into that difficult bay, how many of them were because of you worrying about getting the cab straight? Lesson learnt - just get the arse of the trailer on the dock. Job done.
Yes stick with it hun. The last time I hit another trailer was 2 weeks ago reversing between trailers.
rob22888:
Unless you would be be causing an obstruction, ■■■■■■■■ to trying to get the cab straight in places like that. It doesn’t matter. Of all the shunts you took trying to get into that difficult bay, how many of them were because of you worrying about getting the cab straight? Lesson learnt - just get the arse of the trailer on the dock. Job done.
Yeah I had a driver comment to me a while back when I connected up to a trailer coz it wasn’t dead straight.
Sorry sir, wasn’t aware you were giving me marks out of 10 
Passed my test in Oct and started driving in Nov. Reversing is a problem that i keep working on. Delivering to RDCs, Stores etc. if it takes me time then its hard luck. Any other driver who gets impatient is more than welcome to do it for me. Lol. Had one guy at a store wonder how i had passed my test cos i struggled to get the wagon on the bay. “All the other drivers manage it easy.” He changed his tune when i suggested he give it a go. When i got back and mentioned it the other drivers all said it was a difficult delivery so guess they dont always manage it first time.
Keep at it and ignore anyone watching. I just tell myself no one starts out being good at it.
Hello guys! Just to report, reversing is getting better. I do oversteer in some cases, but that’s most likely because I still don’t understand fully how to maneuver the trailer in certain situations. Examples would be getting trailer to the dock straight, so that the ramp doesn’t hit one of the sides, have to keep going forwards and adjusting. Went to ALDI today, got onto the bay 1st time, but took about 5 shunts to get back of trailer onto dock properly.
Another one which I am not keen on at all at the moment is squeezing the trailer between 2 wagons, tight space (the one you can’t open doors when you back onto bay) and also not much of an area to straighten out the cab. In fact, I don’t quite know how to do that reverse.
Hello guys! Just to report, reversing is getting better. I do oversteer in some cases, but that’s most likely because I still don’t understand fully how to maneuver the trailer in certain situations. Examples would be getting trailer to the dock straight, so that the ramp doesn’t hit one of the sides, have to keep going forwards and adjusting. Went to ALDI today, got onto the bay 1st time, but took about 5 shunts to get back of trailer onto dock properly.
Another one which I am not keen on at all at the moment is squeezing the trailer between 2 wagons, tight space (the one you can’t open doors when you back onto bay) and also not much of an area to straighten out the cab. In fact, I don’t quite know how to do that reverse.
romik:
Another one which I am not keen on at all at the moment is squeezing the trailer between 2 wagons, tight space (the one you can’t open doors when you back onto bay) and also not much of an area to straighten out the cab. In fact, I don’t quite know how to do that reverse.
Reverse back as far as you can taking your time only turn the steering wheel a little wait till the back wheels on the trailer move & turn then open back doors then do back taking a shunt if need be
Let the trailer work for you look at where the wheel are & where you would like them to go but remember left to bend right to mend & what you have turned 1 way you will have to turn other way + a bit try not to worry take your time
If there is another driver about ask them to watch you back
I got onto a bay first time the other day. One of the shunters was working on the bay next to me, so I jokingly pointed out to him how I’d not needed any shunts. He just smiled at me and said this might be true this time, but the next one I might need 100 shunts. None of it makes any difference, just don’t hit anything…
To tweak your position on the bay try moving forwards as slowly as you can but steering as quick as you can. If you want to shimmy to the right then start by steering hard to the right, then hard to the left, then quickly back to the centre again to straighten up and reverse back onto the bay again. This ‘snaking’ ought to help drag your back end over a little - it is actually the left steer that pulls the tail to the right.
I’m still working on this so I may have it completely wrong, but somehow or other I manage to get by okay with it these days. Honestly, the hard bit is getting the trailer straight back pointing at the bay. If you’ve managed that bit then the final shuffling around shouldn’t be any stress - just play with it until you land it lucky. 
Romik, you mention you are not sure of how to reverse between two closely parked vehicles, you prob have 3ft space each side I’m guessing, however this is the most fun of all reverses!
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Drive along side the headboards/cab fronts of the parked vehicles at 90 degrees to them, leave yourself about 5metres minimum between the side of your truck and the trailers/trucks on your drivers side opposite your truck.
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Reverse backwards in a straight line until your centre trailer axle is level with the approx the centre of your parking bay space.
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Apply full left hand lock to the steering, once the cab side air deflector is very close to the side of the trailer apply full right lock and hold it applied until the unit it straight with the trailer.
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You will as if by magic be perfectly lined up to enter the bay between the two vehicles without lacking vision down either side as a result of doing a reverse screw turn, it’s that simple.
Avoid backing into a tight space at a gradual angle, you screw it in as you don’t have the space to do it any other way, if you want to have a go, just let me know and come to see us in York, just did a 30 minute session this evening for a driver before a job interview tomorrow at Reed Bordall.
It’s a lot of fun, hard on tyres but it’s the only way sometimes. Be careful to watch your near side as the unit turns, for this reverse you actually need more space on the left of your truck than the right, strange I know.
Thanks v much for that, will try it out. Could you PM me your fees for 1-2 hrs.
romik:
If you can see Volvo’s bonnet sticking out, another 4 cars next to it, I had no idea how to straighten the cab as it would ram the parked cars. Bloke at Poundworld said regular drivers do it fine, but how does one connect tail lift cable with tiled cab, it’s still a mystery.
Ok, this needs care but you can extend the reach of tail-lift power with a set of regular car jump leads. Connect the anderson lead to the trailer and on the other end that would normally go to the unit you need to release the metal terminals from the plastic plug housing. They are held in by a sprung piece of metal, if you look down the end there should be enough space to depress the spring metal with a knife or small screwdriver then yank the wire and it will come out with a metal lug still attached to it. They just push back in when you’ve finished.
Once you’ve done both you need to attach the jump lead clamps to the battery and then the metal lugs you’ve just removed form the plug. You will need to be careful to check you have positive and negative the right way round you can check by following the wiring on the plug mounted on the unit. Make sure to wedge a glove or something to stop the two exposed metal lugs touching. Also this will have probably bypassed a fuse but it should be fine if it isn’t or you screw it up and it all goes wrong then hurriedly put everything back together, hide the jump leads and plead ignorance when the tail-lift engineer arrives.
Take your own jump leads and you can often scrounge some from the boots of staff’s cars etc. and you can link together to make even longer if need be. It’s also useful as a plan b as it’s not unknown to arrive and find the connector has been smashed off the trailer by someone.
Hi guys,
I’ve tried a few games to practice reversing an artic, but haven’t really got on well with any of them.
But, I found one for my phone, Android, I don’t know if they do an iPhone one.
Anyway, here’s the play store link:Take a look at “Truck Parking Simulator”
play.google.com/store/apps/deta … ck.parking
It’s free. You can pay to download news trucks etc, and also an interior view, but to be honest the outside view is enough to help me at the moment.
Enjoy,
Jay