Truck Backing Ep1 The Offset Law - What experienced Truck Drivers know that most beginners don't.

the following video should be viewed for entertainment purposes only the maneuvers depicted herein have the potential to cause damage to both persons and property including death if not performed correctly none of the actions you see here should be attempted without the close supervision of your driving instructor or trainer you and only you are responsible for what you do behind the wheel of any vehicle by watching this video further you agree to take full responsibility for any action you take in the future hey future truckers shelton here today i want to talk to you about some simple backing physics the understanding of which will help you become more confident with alley dock backing as well as help alleviate some of your oversteering beginners tend to feel a need to continually turn the steering wheel while backing up i've sat in the passenger seat while practicing a backing maneuver and observe their hands go back and forth from one extreme to the other most of the time they aren't even aware that they are doing it in fact on more than one occasion after showing them an example of what their hands were doing they had a hard time believing it experienced drivers turn the steering wheel a lot less than beginners do the reason for this is that they have acquired an in-depth understanding of how the trailer will behave especially if the steer tires are kept straight while backing up they use the trailer's natural offsetting tendency to their advantage instead of fighting against it i refer to this natural behavior as the offset law the offset law is a specific set of rules that describe your trailer's behavior while traveling in reverse remember the first couple of times that you tried to straight line back if you didn't continuously make minor corrections to the steering wheel the tractor and trailer would get out of sync you were experiencing the offset law that same force that was a pain in the butt during a straight line back will become your ally when performing an alley dock back when i'm mentoring new drivers i like to have them memorize a few simple rules that govern the offset speed then find a place to watch the offset law in action from the driver's side window keeping the steering wheel straight and backing up until the tractor and trailer starts to approach 90 degrees being sure to stop well short of any jackknife risk after about 15 to 20 minutes of practice they start to become familiar with its timing i've observed the offset law in action over and over many times it's something i use to my advantage every day if you're not taking advantage of it it will take advantage of you here are some things worth committing to memory the base starting point for this involves the steer tires being straight later you'll see how turning the steering wheel speeds up the offset or slows it down any offset between the tractor and trailer will always offset further until jackknife occurs the speed is governed by two factors the amount of current offset and trailer length it starts out slowly and gets increasingly faster as the offset increases so the speed doesn't follow a linear progression if you looked at a graph of offset speed versus time you would see a graph shaped like this the more offset you have the faster it offsets further so as you can see when you start to approach a 90 degree angle it will jack knife very quickly causing damage to both units trailer length the longer the trailer the slower it offsets shorter the trailer the faster it offsets the first time that you back up a pup trailer which is a shorter trailer you'll notice that it's more difficult to control that it can get offset very quickly important to note the length is not determined by the actual body of the trailer it depends on the distance between the kingpin and the pivot point the pivot point is where the trailer contacts the ground at the rear tandems the 53 foot trailer with the tandem slit all the way to the rear will offset considerably slower than the same trailer with the tandems move forward i can control the speed of the offset by turning the steering wheel i don't like using the terms left and right because students are quick to memorize these words and it's too easy to confuse them later better to know what's actually going on and let your brain instinctively make the correct move the tractor should always be viewed as a separate unit it responds to steering the same as any car or truck turning the wheel in a direction that would follow the trailer and move your tractor back towards the front would decrease offset and slow the process down obviously any move that would increase offset would speed it up from my experience once students become aware they start to see it they start being able to time it which allows them to predict what their trailer will do ahead of time which is huge not just for their confidence but to help eliminate a lot of the over steering i believe the offset law will be one of four absolute fundamental principles that i use every day to help me back my trailer efficiently i'll take you along to a different customer location in each episode so you can see each fundamental in action i will walk you through my thought process step by step from set up to finish so that you can see what i'm trying to accomplish where i'm looking when i'm looking there so that you can start to see what i see before we go there notice in this diagram the difference between the trailer and position a versus the trailer in position b the tractor's trajectory never changed as it traveled in a straight line this was simply for illustrator purposes only in a real backing situation you would rarely want your tractor and trailer to finish at a 90 degree angle tractor trajectory is something that students should develop an awareness of as soon as possible the danger zone anytime i set up to back into a target space i consider everything down the entire passenger side as the danger zone and i want to make sure to always leave a cushion of space between it and my tractor here's why when i turn the wheel sharply to follow my trailer as it offsets into my target space the front end is going to swing out to the side it's a common accident this is especially so with newer drivers who may inadvertently drift closer to the danger zone while being preoccupied with what's going on at the driver's side window at the rear of the vehicle all it takes is a few seconds of inattention i don't want my eyes fixed on any one area for too long i try to keep my head on a swivel being diligent about keeping my trajectory parallel to or away from the danger zone significantly reduces my chances of taking my front bumper off on the passenger side the device set up to perform an alley dog pack in a case like this i would view that gap between the parked cars on the right as available space i try to make my first steering wheel turn during an alley dock back a small one to avoid a big swing of my front end i might use this area for a more significant turn if i needed more offset straighten the steer tires again to let the offset lock continue working this way my tractor trajectory is moving away from the danger zone giving me additional room to maneuver there's more than one way to do this i can't tell you what you should do i can only tell you what i do and why i do it the first thing i want to know where my dock is and how much setup space in general do i have to work with my dock happens to be this one here which is on the passenger side of my vehicle which means i have to perform a blind side backing maneuver or does it it's called blindsiding because i lose the ability to see the length of my trailer from my window that makes them extremely dangerous i tell my students to avoid them whenever possible there will be instances from time to time where you have no other choice but if you can drive down the road for five minutes and find a place to safely turn around to avoid one then it's time well spent did you notice the damage to the fence on the right an employee at this place told me that a truck driver rips down their fence or gutter about once a month the concrete walls on the sides are scraped and gouged from d.o.t bumpers hitting them this is a narrow dock on a tight dead-end street so my question now is do i have to actually do a blind side here is there a way for me to safely turn my vehicle around and get it facing the opposite direction doing a u-turn with a 53-foot trailer with zero cars on either side of the street in a day cab might be an option but i'm not a fan and this is not the case here i noticed an alley way across the road next to that dumpster i'm going to back into there first two side sides to avoid a blindside especially this one i'll take that trade any day i'll show you how to do a blind side in an upcoming episode i'm not going to take an unnecessary risk just to prove that it could be done that would be dumb the setup the most underrated overlooked aspect of backing is the setup if you think that you can just throw a tractor and trailer out there in any position and your backing skills are the only thing that matters you are going to struggle these things are big they only move in a limited number of ways get them in the wrong position and you will struggle that includes me i'll be honest with you as an ltl city driver i back into numerous docs per day making deliveries and pickups i've gone extended periods of time without needing to do a pull-up and it's not because of my backing skills which are fine it's because of my setup skills and attention to detail you see i've spent way more time studying and observing the setup than any sane person would i kind of nerd out on this stuff one thing i pay a lot more attention to as an experienced driver than i did as a beginner is the ground that may sound weird i get it but i noticed different colored patches tire paths where previous tires have been for example let me show you what i have in mind for my tractor and trailer position after completing my setup i want my tractor somewhere up in this area on a safe trajectory which means facing parallel two are away from the danger zone i want the back end of the trailer closer to the hole our target space than the front end this will give me a little offset to start with and make it easier to create more offset importantly i need the trailer's tires on a good path tire path what is an acceptable path i was hoping you'd ask me that question to find that out we need to start with the desired end result and sort of work backward in any given target space there's an area on the ground where the tires should rest here for example it's apparent that they should lie between the yellow lines now let me interrupt this train of thought briefly here and point out something important to keep in mind so that hopefully all this talk about path makes a little more sense the trailer behaves very much like a wheelbarrow since the trailer tires are fixed and do not rotate sideways a very long wheelbarrow with that in mind if i miss this path by any significant amount to one side or the other the only way i could fix it would be to pull it out drag it onto the proper path re-aim it and push it back in in a perfect scenario this box or target space would extend straight outward far enough to allow you to drive onto it then straight line back into the hole that does happen on rare occasions but most of the time there's just too much stuff in the way then what well then we have to find another acceptable path it turns out that the most natural way out of a hole our target space is also the best way back into it if you ever watch a trailer exit a dock after a fresh snowfall or when the tandems were sitting in a puddle of water the tires will leave visible tracks and a gentle curving arc i can imagine many possible paths of similar shape converging at the mouth of my target space for the sake of simplicity i can just focus on one track preferably the one on my driver's side somewhere around the mouth of my target space i will pick out a distinct tire target tire targets play a critical role in my success or failure rates i find that i do fewer pull-ups when i take the time to pick out an exact spot to aim for that i can see clearly from my window after my setup in the case where i have yellow lines my target might be just inside i will try to keep the side of my trailer pointed at it and attempt to make my rear tire roll directly over it if i see that i'm going to miss my target by a significant amount i will do a pull up and try again in a case like this when i don't have yellow lines i have to be more creative i'll decide where the tire should sit gauge how much room for error i will allow based on the width of my space i also try to notice some details along the driver's side path that i can use as a target if need be i could drop an old leather glove out the window roll directly over it and pick it up afterwards a common mistake is to end the setup a little too early before the trailer tires have reached an acceptable path because of the wheelbarrow effect the tractor would have to do something extraordinary and usually impossible based on the obstacles nearby to get into the target space here i would have politely asked these gentlemen to back up and give me a little more room if i felt i needed it i determined by looking rearward at my tire position on the ground that i could make do the setup for the dock will be almost identical i will stop and take a look at the target space i know from experience that the trailer tires will usually line up with these small rubber dock bumpers i visualize a line straight down and back towards me and try to find something to use as a tire target at the mouth of the target space this dock is tight there will be very little room for error on either side so i need to be sure i don't miss my target by much the order of importance is always the same tires first side second tractor third i get my tires onto my desired path once they enter the box or the extended box i switch focus to squaring the sides of my trailer i always try to maintain that tire position if i lose it or notice that i'm going to lose it i will stop and pull forward in a direction that drags them back onto the path then resume scoring the sides of the trailer by comparing it with a yellow line or a seam in the concrete anything perpendicular to the dock will work then i try to get the tractor back in front of the trailer [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in the next episode i'll show you how i score the sides of the trailer with those yellow lines i'll share with you the unique way in which i visualize my trailer and show you how it helps me to control it more precisely also i'll explain the most common problem i've noticed with students who struggle the most with backing and how you can make sure you don't fall into that category so make sure to subscribe and click the notification bell so you'll be notified when the next episode is ready please share this video with any of your friends that may find it helpful if you'd like to see your name and the credits of an upcoming video consider becoming a supporter of this channel every little bit helps be sure to check the description below for useful links thanks for watching be safe out there [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Advanced Truck Backing

Views: 727,118

Keywords: Shelton, CDL Class A, Truck, Truck driving, Truck Backing, Offset Law, Oversteering, angle back, alley dock back, tire target, danger zone, tractor, trailer, trailer backing, set up, backing, first street, offset back, offset backing, semi trailer, 5th wheel backing

Id: -K2ewZkj-5s

Length: 16min 13sec (973 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021