Youtube Videos

Check out "My Trucking Skills". If you use his videos right, I'm convinced it'll give you a big leg up when it comes to backing. On a lot of them he's got cameras on each mirror, his head, over the steering wheel, and in the air. I watch the same video multiple times, paying attention to different cameras at different times, until I gain an intuitive sense of which visual cues to use to know how and when to turn. I can tell things start to click when I put on a new video and can predict when he'll start turning, how much and in which direction he'll crank the wheel, etc. etc. Since it's all what you'd actually use and see sitting in the driver's seat, it helps the mind create a model that would otherwise be blank when you do begin.

No. Not the case...especially coming from someone who has yet to set foot in a truck.

Please do not hang your hat on watching a video and then become “convinced” doing this will give the student a “big leg up”. It might help...but not significantly.

Time well spent is studying the High Road CDL Training Program

Repetition, repetition and more repetition is what eventually yields proficient set-up and backing. I have repeatedly said this...there is no shortcut to getting in the truck and figuring it out for oneself.

G-Town Thanks not really looking to learn any skills from you tube, ive probably read about 3,/4 of this site already and find it great love how everyone tells it how it is. Seems to me alot of people who fail dont understand the commitment it takes. Past 27 years been watching 60 plus hrs a week and working on family farm about 500 acres long days and not home much is a common thing in my life. Have some experience driving grain truck (,straight truck) never got CDL agricultural exempt Definitely looking into company paid training.

I watched a few You Tube videos when I was considering this career. Mostly it was instructional type stuff. I understand the desire to view these things, and even the "feeling" that they're somehow helping you. Honestly, they don't help with any of the skills.

Backing a truck has to be experienced. It has to be repeated over and over continuously for months - sometimes years - before you really begin to understand the physics and the dynamics of a vehicle that bends in the middle. The variables are infinite, the scenarios are equally numerous, and after almost seven years in I still find it challenging at times.

G-Town Thanks not really looking to learn any skills from you tube, ive probably read about 3,/4 of this site already and find it great love how everyone tells it how it is. Seems to me alot of people who fail dont understand the commitment it takes. Past 27 years been watching 60 plus hrs a week and working on family farm about 500 acres long days and not home much is a common thing in my life. Have some experience driving grain truck (,straight truck) never got CDL agricultural exempt Definitely looking into company paid training.

My reply was intended for the content posted by Midnight Fox on the merits of learning from an instructional backing video.

None the less, good luck Joe.

Old School I’m right there with you. Almost 6 years and somedays I struggle as much as I did as a rookie. Thank goodness they are few and hopefully far between.

To be clear, I see the difference between having already developed some sense of the visual/spatial orientation involved and being able to physically execute the maneuvers once the student is actually behind the wheel.

I still see it as a big boost or advantage though when that kind of video in particular is used right. Not as a shortcut, but in terms of being ready and more able to get more out of the experience once you do start backing. Because the mind comes into it with a model of what you'll actually see the trailer do in the mirrors, how much the wheel actually needs to be turned and when to get those results, etc.

Midnight Fox continues...

I still see it as a big boost or advantage though when that kind of video in particular is used right. Not as a shortcut, but in terms of being ready and more able to get more out of the experience once you do start backing. Because the mind comes into it with a model of what you'll actually see the trailer do in the mirrors, how much the wheel actually needs to be turned and when to get those results, etc.

Geez I hope you are not our latest "Know-It-All"...

Just to be clear,... again; "It's not an advantage". Why are you debating with decades of real-time experience here? Conservatively I've attempted over 7000 set-ups and backs in my 6+ year career. No two are the same...similar, but not the same. I can assure you without any doubt, the only panacea for proficiency is months of repetition. Buying a die-cast toy tractor-trailer would be way more helpful than a video. I'm dead serious on that advice.

To be blunt, your hands-on knowledge is non-existent, so how can you state video review is effective at this point? You can't because you have no basis, zero point of reference for comparison. You Tube videos? Anyone can make them; they are not vetted one bit and at times suspect on validity, quality and/or truth. So how do you really know if what they are demonstrating is the right way to learn this and if it aligns with how your future school or Paid CDL Training Program wants to teach it to you? It might actually be a detriment.

Please do not enter into any school thinking you have a clue what you are doing based on a video...

For anyone who has never attempted to back a semi-trailer, your point is nothing more than a warm-fuzzy. If it ultimately helps you, even psychologically "great", but please, lower your expectations and your claims on how helpful watching a backing video is.

Maybe Brett should follow up on moderator approved videos that would actually help a new driver:

Trucking Truth Videos

You guys.....this is exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about a few days ago when I asked if we should setup a video section here on TruckingTurth.

I've surfed YouTube for good quality trucking videos and that's a painful process. 95% of it isn't really helpful to anyone that wants to learn more about the industry, the job, and the lifestyle. But the other 5% is really great.

So send more ideas like these! I can setup a video section with different categories like:

- The trucking lifestyle

- The realities of the job

- backing videos

- shifting videos

- cooking in the truck

- electronics reviews

...all kinds of different categories. That way people don't have to endure the painful process of sifting through 27,000 YouTube videos. I can embed the good ones right here on TruckingTruth.

Rob, I cannot speak for Brett or any of the other moderators. My 2c; if collectively we believed instructional videos were an effective, meaningful and necessary learning tool, they'd already be part of the website. The hard skills (especially backing and handling intersections) required for efficient and safe operation can only be learned by practice and/or repetition.

And even if Trucking Truth did develop a library of videos, the first time a member of the forum determined that their school or company contradicts one of the "TT Approved Videos", there would be an issue.

I'll make sure Brett sees this...so he can provide guidance and his perspective on addressing your request.

Almost 6 years and somedays I struggle as much as I did as a rookie.

That's 'cause you drive that deformed truck, PJ!