About To Start My First Driving Job And Have Never Driven A 53 Foot Trailer Before. Any Advice?
Topic 29163 | Page 1
Backing a short trailer is much more difficult than a 53', but a lot more area is needed in order to swing around intersections, corners, and areas when backing the longer trailer.
It will just take practice and experience, so you'll get it. Don't worry or overthink this.
I learned how to drive with a 53' but my first job for a year and a half was pulling 28's. It took me about a week or 2 to fully have a better idea of how much space I needed for backing. It took about a month for me to have the same confidence backing as I did in a 28'.
Take all the available space, watch your tandems to clear curbs, don't be afraid to take it slow and GOAL. May understands you're fresh out of school. They don't expect you to be perfect.
Tandems:
Tandem 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".
Tandem:
Tandem 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".
Use all your space when making turns don’t cut corners you got this tell your trainer you need backing good luck
I'm about to start my first job as an OTR driver st May trucking company and I have never driven a 53 foot trailer before. I grew up with bumper pulls and but I know that doesn't count for anything lol and my school only taught us with a 10 speed freightliner, one was a sleeper and one was a daycab both with 28 foot pup trailers. I'm worried I'm not even going to pass the backing and road test the first day of orientation, does anyone have any advice? Maybe someone was put in a similar situation
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
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I'm about to start my first job as an OTR driver st May trucking company and I have never driven a 53 foot trailer before. I grew up with bumper pulls and but I know that doesn't count for anything lol and my school only taught us with a 10 speed freightliner, one was a sleeper and one was a daycab both with 28 foot pup trailers. I'm worried I'm not even going to pass the backing and road test the first day of orientation, does anyone have any advice? Maybe someone was put in a similar situation
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.