A lot of times when backing, especially at truck stops, I can get the trailer perfectly aligned and into the hole.

I'm using just enough clearance on the swing.

Many, many times I get into a jam where the tractor is 45-90 degrees off the trailer and there is not enough room upfront to clear the truck/things infront of me.

What am I doing wrong or what can be done to fix this?

Thanks

 

Start bring the tractor around sooner.

 

Keep it simple...Park on the front row.

 

Colts Fan is correct...I'll elaborate a bit...

If you start cutting the wheel to the left(on a sight-side back) sooner, your tractor and trailer will start moving backward sooner...BEFORE the trailer is exactly lined up. If it's exactly lined up with the hole, but still out in front of it, you will need ~70 feet of clearance to straighten your tractor out and back straight in...which is room that many truck stops don't have.

Now, remember though...bringing the tractor around sooner requires a hole that's wider than the trailer is, by at least a couple of feet...as this involves the back of the trailer being inside the hole, at an angle...which takes more than 102" of clearance to do! It's best to GOAL once you get it set up, to make sure you clear your blind side...

This is something that helped me last Friday night, trying to park at the Pilot in London, OH. The back row has more room than many pilots do, and there was an open spot next to a straight truck, who was about 15 feet shorter than i was; he was backed all the way in, leaving 15 feet or so of room in front if him, in addition to the spot I was trying to back in. Two trucks attempted the spot before I did, and both gave up out of frustration, for the same reason you just mentioned! They were trying to get it PERFECTLY straight in the hole before moving rearward...while there wasn't sufficient clearance out front to do so. I calmly set up a back at a moderate angle, and started to bring my tractor around sooner than the other two drivers did. I cleared the curb by at least 3 feet, and never came near the straight truck on the blind side.

 

Yep your jacking your trailer into a 90 or near 90 out in front of the slot so ...you need to not hold the bend so long and recognize the pivot better ... But no one on here can really help you with this as it's all based on your own perception and timing , Which will only come with time/practice ...My suggestion is when you have room/time practice learning the pivot and how much bend you really need to angle the trailer in a slot ...I did this between junk trailers in werner drop lots ,But like I said this something you learn by practice and learing to judge pivot angles ,which can only learned via trial error ...

 

It depends on just where your tandems are set too. The farther forward your tandems are, the more likely you are to get into trouble on the right side. The more tail-swing you have, the more likely you are to hit the truck on your right. Unless you get a straighter shot into the hole.

 

Dang BJ...some days you just jump out and surprise the hell out of me. A fantastic piece of advise for the Rookies.


Go figure! You must be feeling very "Santa-ish" today!! :clap: