In my opinion it's not a significant difference. When backing. the shorter the trailer the more it reacts. It's very easy to oversteer a puppy trailer. It would make not hitting a curb much easier to do since you don't have to worry about that extra 5 feet.
Just keep in mind that you're only in school. You're learning just enough to pass the exam to get your CDL. By the time you do get the CDL you'll still be half clueless at backing and you'll still won't be very comfortable with driving. When you go out with your trainer that's when you get those skills sharpened.
Right now just try to grasp the concept of how to back. Don't worry about how long it is. There's very little difference between a 48 and a 53 when you're in a yard.
When I was in school we started with puppy trailers. The instructors told us that if we can back up one of those trailers then we can back up a 53' trailer. That short puppy trailer helped us to correct our over steering.
So my advice would be to just continue what you're doing and learn everything you can. Don't pay attention to the size of the trailer, it's really not a big deal.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Mark, there is virtually no difference in how the trailer pivots between a 48 footer and a 53 footer. The distance from the pin to the sliding tandems is basically the same. There is however more trailer extending past those tandems on the 53 footer which is where people get in trouble in tight spots because in a tight turn the back end of that trailer swings out more and will hit something if you're not careful.
This is not something that should be concerning you right now though, what Daniel said is true, you're just trying to get your CDL in school - you'll have plenty of time to get used to those trailers when you are starting on the road with a trainer.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
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Does learning with a 45 or 48 footer make a difference in training since trailers can be 53 long? Thanks, Mark