Backing Practice

I had this stop today that was a little tight and thought why not have some newer drivers give it a shot. Dock is marked with an X. How would you safely get backed in?

Address : 4513 F St, Amana, IA 52203

I see about three different options dependant on how busy the enterance road is, and how many cars are parked opposite the docks.

View when I got there

There's also 2 cars hidden parked in the spots in front of building to the left of the dock.

For context this location is part of the Amana Colonies. It's a very touristy area, particularly on the weekends, that has people flock to see the villages that embrace their German heritage. Today there wasn't any traffic on that side street my photo is from.

I've only been here 1 other time which resulted in me getting stuck in their dock due to it being on a hill a sheet of ice and unplowed. Thankfully they had an excavator and were able to get me out.

So I feel the need to preface, I have tiny amount of backing experience since I work as a mechanic at a beverage company. However , not much. Hopefully I can pick it up really quick with 53' trailers when I start at swift.

Like NaeNaeInNC said above, depending on how busy F street is I'd try a blind side back. I'd start with the nose of the truck facing in the left direction of F street based on the picture orientation. Definitely would be doing a lot of G. O. A. L.! It kind of looks like it could be a back in the shape of a big C.

I'm really curious to see what others say!

Well, I’m over two years into driving but still feel like a newbie in certain backing scenarios.

I’m going by the first photo posted, the satellite shot. If those 5 parking spots in the lower left are empty, things are much easier. First of all, I try to evaluate each situation to see if I can avoid blind side backing. In this situation I think I would pull straight in hugging the left, crossing those 5 empty spots and then steer the tractor to the right, diagonally up towards that inside corner where the one car is parked. This should allow me to do a drivers side back into the dock. But even if the driver had to back in and execute a blind side maneuver, it wouldn’t be terrible. However, like I said, I try to avoid blind side backing whenever possible, especially at night.

As was observed, much of this depends on where cars are parked at the time of delivery..

53' I presume. Work the tandems to help you get turned into the lot off F street, use that space to the left of the spaces opposite the dock to set up for a back in. Probably take a few pull ups, depending on the space and vehicle obstructions present. I find that using tandem slides during the back can actually sometimes make a tight back easier. If there are no cars there when you first get in, using the full side of the lot adjacent the dock (you can see the 18 tire marks driving along the sidewalk edge) might be the ticket.

If you take the address Rob listed and do your own satellite view, check out the rear of the building. Is that a 53’ trailer parked back there? If so, that would have been fun to get parked there. It looks to me that it could only have been done when there were no cars parked there at the time.

Id opt for Curmdugeons game plan as a first course, but if the issue of cars is present, its a fairly generous blindside. Id do the final blindside into the dock as a lazy 90, so just let the trailer run its own arc back without countering the tractor to eliminate nose swing on the tractor as much as possible. Id definetly run the tandems all the way up, as short as wheelbase as possible, just monitor your tail swing, but on a lazy 90, you dont have as much to worry about, its an arc, not a pivot.

Anyone elses first gut instinct look at just pulling straight up in and doing a 90 back, then offset forward to get to the dock if its the inside dock? almost looks doable.

Also, you can pull a block and come down F street from the opposite side so your first back would be sight side, but you would be driving through residential and youll have to blindside anyway to get to the dock, so its really a mute point.

I'm okayish at backing, I almost never do docks but I back into tight, awkward places regularly. I'd pull in, button hook in front of the dock in as wide an arc as possible into that little driveway across from it, pull through it as far as I could then back from there. If there's isn't a car parked next to it you might get it in one shot.

I'd also try to show up before they open or stay the night there, solves alot of problems with backing into places with alot of parked cars and busy streets doing it that way.

Rob, tell us how you did it at this stop. I think this might be one of your easier locations.