Passed classed 1 last year and have been driving one since then, I was pretty pleased with my reversing and would pick up o/t shifts shunting which is great for practicing.
Then I got covid and was off for two weeks since I came back I’m all fingers and thumbs while reversing, my depot has bananas and I’m now taking countless attempts to get on the door, I wasn’t off for that long and don’t know what’s going on, has anything like this happened to anyone else?
I can’t really relate, I passed my reverse last week and my total class 1 driving (forwards) time is about 60 minutes, so up to you if you want to listen to what I have to say lol. Is it just spatial perception or the visualisation of the truck and which way to turn the wheel?
I found four things helped me:
- The way you want the back of your trailer to go is the way the bottom of the steering wheel moves.
- To straighten the cab, turn towards the image of the side trailer in your mirrors.
- If you cab is off the centerline, then your mirrors are lying. Stop and stick your head out the window to get a true spatial image of where your trailer is in relation to what you’re trying to reverse up in/onto.
- I found that if I stopped the truck then I would have to think more about it and was more likely to get something wrong or misjudge, rather than if I kept the truck constantly moving slowly it would come more naturally.
Don’t know if that helps at all. I’m sure with a few reverses under your belt again you’ll pick it back up.
Peg, can you explain your point 3 a bit more please? I get some of it, but not sure all of it.
I think my biggest problem is predicting what’s going to happen, eg I see it’s maybe time to get back behind the trailer, but then it just takes too long to get there.
I’m a rigid driver first and foremost but do cover an artic and currently been piloting both for a couple of months as no other driver.
I can put my drag most places but in our artic I am not so hot. I have good days and bad days, it happens.
My best advice is to not have the truck straight before starting the reverse. Let’s say you want to reverse into a bay on your right side. As I drive past I would swing slightly in towards the bay then back out again so that the angle is better than a 90 degree right angle. Also I would not stop the truck and trailer straight but put a touch of right lock on just before stopping so the the unit is just hooked round a touch, then when you select reverse and with a touch of left lock the trailer will start bending round much quicker.
It’s a difficult thing to put into words but it works for me!
stu675:
Peg, can you explain your point 3 a bit more please? I get some of it, but not sure all of it.
So when the cab isn’t straight with the trailer and because the mirrors are convex, they give a distorted view of where the trailer is Vs the dock both in terms of its position and the distance. This gets worse the more the cab turns because you start using the outer most edges of the mirror in order to see the end of the trailer. The more convex the mirrors are, the more objects reflected in them appear ‘behind’ the mirror or deep in them. With this in mind, the end of the trailer will appear further away in both width and length from an object than it really is. Any objects to the side of the end of the trailer will appear further from the trailer’s side than they actually are.
When the cab changes orientation because you’re swinging the cab around or whatever, the mirrors move with it and the objects now appear in areas that are less convex than the edge of the mirrors. This slightly changes the depth perception in the mirror, objects now appear slightly closer than they were before, the apperance of the trailer is bigger and any objects will now appear slightly closer to the trailer than they were before, despite not moving in reality.
You then also get parallax error when looking at an object below your eye level in relation to a part of the truck, this will happen even without the mirror. You can test this by putting a mark or cone the ground, reversing and stopping when it looks like the part of the trailer you want is directly in line with that mark. Try to line a part of the truck up with a cone and when you think you’re on it, get out and look. You’ll be infront of where it appears you were and this gets worse the further back whatever part of the truck you’re trying to line up is.
I don’t really feel confident talking about all this, remember i’ve literally bearly even driven a truck. A lot of this isn’t really important either as most people I would imagine get an inate ‘feel’ for it and thinking about the actual science behind it only serves to overcomplicate things.
Peg:
stu675:
Peg, can you explain your point 3 a bit more please? I get some of it, but not sure all of it.So when the cab isn’t straight with the trailer and because the mirrors are convex, they give a distorted view of where the trailer is Vs the dock both in terms of its position and the distance. This gets worse the more the cab turns because you start using the outer most edges of the mirror in order to see the end of the trailer. The more convex the mirrors are, the more objects reflected in them appear ‘behind’ the mirror or deep in them. With this in mind, the end of the trailer will appear further away in both width and length from an object than it really is. Any objects to the side of the end of the trailer will appear further from the trailer’s side than they actually are.
When the cab changes orientation because you’re swinging the cab around or whatever, the mirrors move with it and the objects now appear in areas that are less convex than the edge of the mirrors. This slightly changes the depth perception in the mirror, objects now appear slightly closer than they were before, the apperance of the trailer is bigger and any objects will now appear slightly closer to the trailer than they were before, despite not moving in reality.
You then also get parallax error when looking at an object below your eye level in relation to a part of the truck, this will happen even without the mirror. You can test this by putting a mark or cone the ground, reversing and stopping when it looks like the part of the trailer you want is directly in line with that mark. Try to line a part of the truck up with a cone and when you think you’re on it, get out and look. You’ll be infront of where it appears you were and this gets worse the further back whatever part of the truck you’re trying to line up is.
I don’t really feel confident talking about all this, remember i’ve literally bearly even driven a truck. A lot of this isn’t really important either as most people I would imagine get an inate ‘feel’ for it and thinking about the actual science behind it only serves to overcomplicate things.
Oh thanks, sorry I only drive a mirror cam Actros, so not sure that applies to me. I’m sure it’ll help someone though.
Celky, you’re your own worst enemy, you’re convincing yourself you can’t do it.
You can do it, you know you can do it, you’ve previously done it.
Take your time and don’t fluster yourself. If you get it wrong, pull forward and have another go, repeat as necessary. Stay calm. I’ve been playing this game for over forty years and still stuff up on occasions. None of us were born reversing Gods, but you will improve with practice.
Well Celky, did you sort it?