Question:
Ok I am not going to get into wasting your time with the basics here on how to make a right hand turn in a truck. What we are going to talk about is making a right hand turn in less than ideal weather and/or lighting conditions.
As you know you should carefully watch your trailer in your mirror when making turns, but what happens if you can not see what is going on in your mirrors due to it being dark or rainy or snowy out.
If you have been attempting to watch your mirrors while driving down the road you should have a good idea how much you can and can not see (especially your blind spot mirrors which is what you use to track your trailer through most of a turn). When you notice your visability limited or eliminated in your mirror for any reason and you need to make a turn be sure to do a few things:
1. Carefully note any and all obstacles close to the curb. Poles, fire hydrants, mail boxes, signs, ditches, so on and so forth as you near the intersection.
2. Slow down more than you normally would to make the turn.
3. Swing out farther than you think you might need to in ideal conditions. Exxaggerate the turn to make sure you stay well away from anything you might come in contact with. If you got the room use every bit of it you think you need to use.
4. Maintain a nice slow steady speed throughout the turn and be prepared to stop if something does not feel right.
Good luck to you and safe travels.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Another piece of advise. If it looks bad and a bit iffy. Keep going and make few lefts until you get where you want to be. Find a parking lot and make a uturn in it. Just do something other than make a dangerous turn you can not see.
Or be even smarter and stop and clean your mirrors so you can see out of them.
There have been lots of stories about drivers running things over on tight right turns. So to be safe if you can't see it don't do it.
'Carpe Diem' does not mean 'fish of the day'.
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Answer:
Another piece of advise. If it looks bad and a bit iffy. Keep going and make few lefts until you get where you want to be.
if youre in indiana and you see welcome to new-joysey..............youve gone too far
are you not entertained
the count of monte cristo
jim caviezel=ive counted every block in my cell,many time's
richard harris=yes but have you named them yet
everything that as a beginning as an end
Answer:
" Maintain a nice slow steady speed throughout the turn and be prepared to stop if something does not feel right. " That something that doesn't feel right would be something worth more than you made last month and a big old ticket for you. Atleast you would have run it over slowly.
Hahaha, funny again I see
'Carpe Diem' does not mean 'fish of the day'.
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Answer:
I'd like to add a little to this...
I spent some time delivering in Downtown LA, I learned some things.
PEDISTRIANS!!!!! WATCH FOR THEM, THEY GOT A MIND OF THEIR OWN.
Keep an eye on those rear trailer tires.

Answer:
Great advice as always, uturn!!
3. Swing out farther than you think you might need to in ideal conditions. Exxaggerate the turn to make sure you stay well away from anything you might come in contact with. If you got the room use every bit of it you think you need to use.
This one thing that I have always tried to do when it's dark out. I may LOOK stupid making a turn 10 ft away from the curb....but at least I didn't hit anything, and THAT is what matters.

Answer:
it isnt the mail boxes, the sign posts, etc you have to worry about when making a turn. There are also ditches too and by being ready to stop as soon as something doesnt feel right may mean the difference between being towed out in one piece and rolling the rig.
Also as far as getting out and cleaning the mirrors. What good is that going to do you when it is pooring down rain?????
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
Teach yourself where all your wheels are located on your rig.
Once you do that, you can make turns without even looking at your wheels or trying to find them in your mirror. You just "know"...
This will take some time to learn, but it's important to learn how to do this. There are going to be times you cannot clean your mirrors and there covered with ice, etc. There are areas of the country, like PA, that are so dark at night, you cannot see jack schit. You must "know" where those wheels are without seeing them at all. It's actually a "timing" issue that you learn.
This way, you can just concentrate on objects, bicyclist, pedestrians, holes, big and small, etc.
We had a driver pull into a customer's drive, his first time there. It was out in the boonies and "dark". He made the turn too short, ran into a deep ditch and flipped the tanker, blocking the only driveway.
Learn where your wheels are without looking. There are drivers out here today that have many years of experience, but never learned this technique. This is something that cannot be taught by someone else.
This is why I'd never be a trainer. You cannot teach someone how to drive. You have to learn how.
Someone else cannot hold that wheel for you.

Answer:
If you can't see, DON'T make the turn. You wouldn't drive the truck forwards if you could not see out the windshield, would you?
Of course, all turns require some judgement on the part of the driver, turns in the rain are no exception. So get a good look at the area for the turn in advance of the turn. If needed, turn around and approach the turn again, come back and make a left turn, or if the street is not busy, pull over, turn flashers on, and get out and look at the area for turning.
I have always turned on the mirror heater to get fog off mirrors. I find it also beads up the water and causes it to run off, allowing you to see more clearly.

Answer:
The problem with swinging wide is the little old lady in her small Honda who is not paying attention and sneaks in beside you.
This happend recently with one of our drivers. He claims he had completely stopped but you know who is going to get the ticket. The thing is that the officer will usually charge you with an improper lane change which is a serious CDL violation.
I contacted our attorney who talked to the officer on the scene and persuaded him to change the ticket to a failure to yield. We are hoping to get it dismissed but if found guilty our driver will not have a serious violation to worry about for the next three years.
If you receive a traffic ticket be alert to the exact violation. It can't hurt to ask the officer to charge you under another statute that will not result in a possible suspension.
morris
Speeding Ticket Central

Answer:
In the above post it says if you swing wide on a turn, it can be an improper lane change. So, if a cop sees you doing this, they can ticket you for improper lane change?

Answer:
Bottom line... regardless of what they teach at CDL school... buttonhook it if you think you need to (or whatever they call it).
Also a very neat trick I learned from another driver... instead of relying solely on the convex, if you have power mirrors, power that passenger 'west coast' side mirror on the passenger side of the cab waaaayyy out -- you can see the trailer (tandems) in real time rather than the distorted convex.
Works great for blindside backs too!

Answer:
In response to the improper lane change question:
Any time any part of your vehicle hits something outside of the lane you are travelling in, it is your fault. It does not matter if you were actually trying to change lanes or you were just making a turn and had to "borrow" some room from another lane.
If you are making a lane change and hit something in the other lane, then you are at fault because someone who is already in the other lane has the right-of-way and you must yield to them. This is an improper lane change.
Now if you are making a sloppy right turn, but go left to swing wide and someone gets between your truck and the curb, you could be found at fault for this. Your rear tandems need to stay close enough to the curb that someone cannot fit a car or anything else between you and the curb.
I know it is the stupidity of a four-wheeler that gets in the way of a tractor trailer making a turn, but the way the law sees things, the fault lies with the person who holds the CDL at the time of the accident.

Answer:
My advice ~ Drive the trailer, not the truck.
Stand up for what you believe in, Even if it means standing alone

Answer:
That's very true. Your are actually driving the trailer when maneuvering. Think of it as steering the trailer tandems.