Youtube Videos

Please don't hold this thread against me!!

Not at all, Joe.

I spent a lot of time watching instructional videos thinking that it would be beneficial. It wasn't. Not because the guy in the video did anything wrong, but because it doesn't look the same and it's impossible to get the same setup and mimic the steers. With repetition, you pick up your own cues and figure when to "give it some" and when to "take it away". Even then it was difficult because if my set up was off it was new backing not repetition. When I figured out timing and making sure I see what I have to see, it got a little bit easier. Even then I would still make mistakes like oversteering or steering as if it were a car and then I have corrections to make. You don't see that in those videos.

PackRat, that was a joke. lol.

I made it 'cause I'm aware getting in the truck and trying to back is something that could never be replicated or substituted, and I definitely don't think it's in any way going to be easy.

All I'm saying (literally all I'm saying) is using those particular videos is going to give you an advantage over going into it blind. Like Errol said about watching the mirrors and knowing how to turn the wheel just enough, one of the big issues I've read students tend to have is to oversteer. If you internalize different versions of the same backing maneuver in his videos, you'll have watched that wheel turn as the view in the mirrors change, as you visualize how the trailer as a whole moves from overhead... so when you're finally in a similar situation, you're going to know it's wrong to crank it too much at that point in time.

To me, that's a big leg up because it's already going to be a challenge to learn how to back. If you already simulated a mental representation of what needs to happen and how that will look if you do it right, your brain will have more resources for tackling everything else that a video could never provide.

All I'm saying.

All I'm saying (literally all I'm saying) is using those particular videos is going to give you an advantage over going into it blind.

All we are saying is that you're dead wrong about that. The day is coming when you'll realize why we tried to help you understand what a waste of time those videos are.

You wanna git dat hanz-on 'sperience @ home?

Get a broom or mop. Hold the handle end on your hip next to your belt. Walk around the house and don't touch anything (table, chairs, the baby, the dog) with the mop or the handle.

Now working backwards (look over your shoulder), push the broom head in a 90° back into a doorway or between two chairs. Ta-Dahh!

Now make your YouTube vid on that and post it!

Thing is Midnight you are going to go to cdl school on a high horse because you binge watched YouTube videos but what will happen is you will end up with bad habits before you even start. And the cdl instructor will give you a prompt boot outta the truck when you tell him you're doing something you're way because that's how Indiana Jack does it on the tube. You need to go in with a clear open mind.

You wanna git dat hanz-on 'sperience @ home?

Get a broom or mop. Hold the handle end on your hip next to your belt. Walk around the house and don't touch anything (table, chairs, the baby, the dog) with the mop or the handle.

Now working backwards (look over your shoulder), push the broom head in a 90° back into a doorway or between two chairs. Ta-Dahh!

Now make your YouTube vid on that and post it!

I did something like that in the supermarket, with the shopping cart backwards and both hands behind my back as a pivot point on the middle of the handlebar.

It went right when I turned left.

I agree that the backing videos will not help. Learning to back a truck is about gauging distance, angle, and timing. You can't get any of that from a video, unfortunately. If there were techniques a video could teach, that would be helpful, but there really aren't any techniques to learn.

I sometimes relate backing a truck to throwing a baseball. There's almost nothing in the way of technique to learn. It's all about repetition. Your body just has to learn the motions of throwing a baseball properly by doing it repeatedly. The same is true for backing a truck. Your mind has to learn how to gauge the distance, the angle, and the timing between the steering inputs and the trailer reaction. The only way to do that is through repetition.

You're much better off spending your time studying our High Road CDL Training Program. Master the Hours Of Service Rules so you know how to maximize the use of your time. Study our Weight And Balance section so you understand how to load cargo, how to shift weight between axles, and how to calculate fuel burn off.

Study all the sections labeled "Permit" to prepare for the CDL permit exam or the sections labeled "Endorsements" so you're ready for the written tests to get your CDL endorsements.

That's the best way to use your time before you begin schooling.

The thing about backing is that until you've done it, you simply have no basis for a comparison vs a video. You can't possible get a leg up when the two are 180° opposites.

Watch all the videos you want, but the minute your butt is in that driver seat, you'll forget everything you thought you learned from them.

Backing is a "seat of the pants" skill. It's impossible to even have a clue until you're in the seat, holding the wheel, smelling the exhaust, feeling the torque, binding the tandems or spreads, squinting in the sun, "feeling" the truck.

Learning to drive/back a tractor trailer through YouTube videos is like my grandson telling me he could win the Indy 500 because he's so good at the video game.