Never heard of that one. Learn something new everyday. :lol:

 

Well it does make sense to a degree. When I was towing using a conventional tow truck, to get around tight underground garages etc, I would lift the car the highest it would go and pull the wheel lift in closer to the truck to close the turning radius. But rarely did I have to do it, except for some those really tight alleys and garages in SF.

Didnt have to do it for TT though.

 

Look at volvos, tight turning raduis b/c they have the shortest wheelbase for otr tractors. 3/4 of the engine is under the cab as well...

 

Roehl has gotten smart and has placed a red tape line down the side of the trailer. Don't go beyond the line and nothing crunches. Works quite nicely.

Soladad

 

I think most of the new aero's have the same turning ability. Pete 387 has the same as the Volvo (50 degrees). They are both tighter turning than the long hoods. It must have something to do with the set back axle perhaps?

 

Man, where are you guys pulling into to have to jack up a truck that hard to get into a dock?

If you set yourself up right from the get go, you wouldn't have to pitch off-axis that hard at all, regardless of how tight it is.

I wish I had a picture but last week I had to put my truck on a stage dock with a water ballast on the passenger side and a pair of CAT generators on the drivers side and it was a blindside 90º only. I had 6 inches on my right side and 2 inches on my left of room, and all it took was a nice gentle curve to get in the hole... if I had jacked the truck like some of you guys, I'd be missing mudflaps and mirrors.

 

I used to hit a place with a 45' trailer and about 47' of room from the dock to the edge of a sheer 100' dropoff. Had to work it so you wound up in a hard jack, and square. Tricky.

We used to joke "The good thing about BJ's is that if you miss the shot and go over the cliff, the power lines down there will catch you before you can hit the ground."

 

Yea, I can picture that... sounds like the Gorge Amphitheatre in Quincy, Washington... but it seems like the exception to the rule to me. When I hauled freight, I saw one tight dock for every 12 easy dock... with entertainment, everything's small and tight.

I just had to pull 10' wide flatbed trucks into a deadend street in Brooklyn, NY to forklift about 96 or so loudspeakers on top of them for a parade... that was tight!

 

It was a place that I had three ramps, one next to the dock I was backing into and the other two were across from me. if you went straight from the dock one was to the left one to the right when I was trying to back it any way but from straight I would run into the ramps there to back over one found out how to rip your mud flaps off.