Question:
Well since the other Journal is on the old site and will be a while before it wanders back over here to the new site I decided to start a new topic here. I have one more day left on my Personal time off.
Tommorrow I head back to the hotel to wait for my last trainer. I hope at least it will be my last trainer. I have about 145 hours left of driving before I can become a qualified driver. Of course I know that I could be pulled out sooner depending on how I get rated by this next trainer. Pete gave me a darn good rating most of the categories were 4 which is the highest rating you can get. I found out that I do indeed need alot of practice backing. There were quite a few places where I was at a loss on how to set up. If I get dropped off at the Omaha terminal I will take part in the backing course they offer and I will remember to look at every dock I back into very carefully before I set up to back in. If there is a way to set up for a straightline back I will attempt that every time and I will try to stay away from blind side backing as much as possible.
You may all say out there, there is a guy who is paranoid about backing and you will indeed be correct. I have found out that most of the accidents newbies are involved in happen during some form of backing and I want to try to keep my license as clean as possible. A clean License in trucking will get you the job a heck of alot quicker than a License will two or three reported accidents. Although I think it is the DAC report where the accidents are listed.
Anybody have some tips on how to back in an area that was constructed for 48' trailers with a Long nosed Classic and a 53' trailer. I have seen some real dooseys out there that I would have been lost if I had had to set up and back into as a solo driver. These were places that even a 90 degree backing with the truck was impossible. I still don't believe that my trainer was able to back into those places. Although I admit even the trainer pulled up almost a dozen times when backing in. Thanks ahead of time for any and all replies to this post.

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Hey dont put so much pressure on your self and just do it. You will find that it will come to you when you least expect it.
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Slide tandums on trailer all the way back for tight spots. It helped me alot
Kevin

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Don't worry about "learning" how to back-up. There are no short-cuts or special tricks. You get better automatically by just doing it over and over again i got pretty good at about six months. But it was probably two years before I reached a skill 'plateau'.
The only important thing is to not hit anything. That means getting out and looking, especially to check your right side.
Relax Drafter. You're goling to do fine. It just takes a while. Most of your skill develops AFTER training -- as you develop experience with repitition and repitition and repition..... ...
note: The Classics are the hardest trucks we have to manuever -- they don't turn worth a darn, partly because Werner adjusts the steering stops to keep you from cranking too far and snapping the front end on a curb or pothole, etc.... When you get your own truck, you'll find ALL SIX other trucks models we now drive turn tighter. Even the long-hood Petes turn a LOT tighter than the Classics, as do the KW T-900s. The Centurys are the favorite for tight manuevering.

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I have written elsewhere today on this very topic. Like the others have said, just relax and allow yourself to learn it. Get out somewhere and PRACTICE "moving around in reverse".
Thoughts from another thread:

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Drafter - All I can say from my very limited experience is Get Out And Look (G.O.A.L.) before every back. In my case, I can then visualize the moves I have to make and pace off the distances. And don't let the other drivers comments about you doing what is SAFE, get to you, you'll be around with a clean MVR and DAC long after they are history...
Anytime you lose the visual picture of where your trailor is heading, stop and get out and look again. You would probably have laughed at me when I got out on a 90 degree five times just to make sure I knew where the blind side of my trailor was.
Good luck!!!I ride for those who can't! POW/MIA - You are NOT forgotten!!
Lead, Follow or get out of my way!!!

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Thanks for the replies peeps they reentforce basiclly what I have been told and thinking during my own training cycle. I realize that once training is done the official training that is I will still be in training for the next few years if not longer. I hear from my trainers that they learn new things every day of thier driving carreer. Although the learning curve is nothing like what I experienced in IT I know I better be learning something new each and every day of my new career. If you stop learning and become too comfortable in driving then that is when you are going to have an accident.

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Wifey updating here.........
After one week of PTO, we drove to the Lakeland terminal Saturday so hubby could check into the hotel and get a room. Usually trainees share a room, two to a room. Then I drove back home, this time without him. He got his trainer much sooner than we had thought, which was yesterday (Monday) They're headed to Alabama with the load, and after that, who knows.

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Don't worry... ...YOU WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's when you feel like you've stopped learning that you have to get out. If you ever start believing you finally know it all -- a dangerous mind set that can get you in big trouble -- you must hang up your keys. A lot of what you learn after a couple years is deepr and more complex. You'll discover things about YOURSELF that will suprise you, and it ain't always a good suprise either. The accumulated stress and pressure, not to mention the day-to-day hardships, can destroy folks who don't keep the whole thing in perspective. Trucking truly is "what you make it", and there's nothing sadder or more pathetic than a driver who sinks into perpetual unhappiness with the job. Some say it's the dumb ones who stick around. Some say only the smartest can handle it and keep their sanity and perspective. But when it's all said and done, if you don't like it, don't continue doing it. It's just not worth it unless you're diggin' it.....well....diggin' it MOST of the time. This philosophical side will make more sense six months or a year from now....

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Try to stay to the left of the space and the trailer at a slight angle till you need to be straight that is the sight side ,if you get to the right of the space or the trailer that is the blind side, and as others have said Get out and Look. G.O.A.L.
Good luck and I hope you get better than your trainer. Sounds to me like you do not have far to go to achieve that, sorry to say.

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VERY CAREFULLY! Seriously, EVERY FACILITY is different! What matters is that you learn HOW to set up your rig!
You've been given a BUNCH of the most valuable information one can get! LEARN!!!

No truer words have been spoken! Know where your trailer is AT ALL TIMES!

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EVERY PLACE IS DIFFERENT and it really is impossible to give one piece of advice like slide your tandems to the rear to make it easier because it might just make it harder.
The only two words of advice I can give you on backing that WILL work every time. Make your set up as perfect as possible, and GET OUT AND LOOK.
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I hear you on the backing. i still am having some troubles. The setups are my biggest trouble now. How come you have yet another trainer? I should be home next week sometime and will update all on whats happening with me.
Take care "D" please continue to keep us updated as often as you can.

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Drafter hasn't had an easy time. His first trainer was incompetant and he got off the truck. His second trainer sounded much better, and he's now apparently onto his third for the last couple weeks -- hepefully he'll get to keep him and finish up quickly.
It's not uncommon, at Werner at least, to have two or more trainers. Usually not because there's a problem, but because it's sometimes more effecient for them to put you in another training truck when a trainer goes home for 5 or 6 days of home time (instead of sitiing in a motel waiting for them). When I trained at Werner a few years ago, students were REQUIRED to have at least two diferent trainers just to give them a couple different role-model influences (trainers could sometimes work around this rule if they wanted to keep a particular student).
I like to hear about smooth training experiences -- same trainer for the whole thing and they get their required hours behind the wheel in five weeks.
But in the long run...............what Drafter is going through may make him a better driver. He's been exposed to a wider variety of skills and attitudes - including some bad ones which he's identified - and has successfully negotiated some unexpectd challenges, which can only help prepare someone for all the bs and stress they're going to face doing the job all by themself. If it doesn't kill you or make you quit, it only makes you stronger.......I hope! Looking forward to Drafter's next update to find out.

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Your answer is in what you wrote. We had a Classic and a 53' trailer and had a hell of a time parking at a TA in Colorado, (although they didn't help because they liked decorating the parking lot with boulders ). It took an hour and a half to park, mainly because some idiot didn't know how to park between lines and another idiot was parked in a no-parking area at the end of the row-we were parking between those two idiots.
Hubby pulled up SEVERAL times, (yes even experienced/good truck drivers have to) and I was sitting on the door half in-half out of the truck so I could help hubby see. He got out and looked several times and finally got it in there without hitting a truck or a stupid boulder.
My point is; at some points you'll be forced to park in what seems like an impossible place, (maybe you're out of hours and rest areas are full, but there IS one spot at a truck stop) and parking is like working a puzzle-you have to try several different ways to get the piece, (truck) to fit and you can't stop concentrating or get careless because that could result in hitting something.Follow Christian's Battle with Brain Cancer