Backing Practice™ 04

I'm going to guess and say you backed in from the east. I don't know why I think that except that you seem to have eliminated all other possibilities.

Ok so here's how I did it:

There was no way I could come in from the east, so I knew it was gonna have to be a western assault. And since there was no way to exit from the east either, it was gonna have to be a rearward western assault so I could head out the same way. The school couldn't move the forklift further than that brown patch in front of their building, I assume for insurance liability reasons or something. Or maybe because they were just lazy, or they just wanted to see me attempt this crazy thing. Regardless, backing in from the west was really my only option and I had to make it work.

I wasn't gonna do a blindside back in that situation, so I came around from the north. As I approached the alley, I slowed down and turned on my flashers. I then waited for a lull in the traffic and when it was clear, I began the blitzkrieg.

Here's the close-up pic again for reference:

First I hogged the east side of the street as I passed the alley, then curved it back a little to the west and followed the curve of the road. This set my trailer up so it was at least pointing towards the alley at a little bit of an angle. I also made sure to pull ahead a good distance, pretty much as far as 89 Ave, so I could make smaller turns with the tractor as I backed and avoid big crazy angles.

At this point I was blocking the road and traffic was starting to back up, so the pressure was on to allow all these people to carry on with their days. Some started doing u-turns to find alternate routes around, but most just stayed and watched.

I started backing towards the alley, making gentle corrections and slowly trying to hook my trailer around the southern utility pole. But as I backed, I realized I wasn't quite gonna be able to get it in straight without clipping the cars parked on the west side of the street. So I began a long, tedious series of tiny pull-ups to start angling the trailer further and further without allowing the tractor to swing too wide. It was painstakingly slow, and embarrassing that everyone was watching me.

As I was doing this, I suddenly noticed flashing red and blue lights in my passenger side mirror. There was a cop car parked right there, and the cop was getting out and walking towards my window.

When he got there, I began trying to explain the situation, but he immediately cut me off. "I just need to get through, I have a call to get to," he said.

So I had to pull all the way out, let him pass, and then start all over again.

This was around the time that the good Samaritan showed up. I just looked in my mirror and there he was, spotting me. He helped me make sure I didn't hit either pole, and finally I got the trailer in there.

But my tractor was still sharply angled towards the south. And right off my front right side was a parked car, literally within a foot or two. If I kept backing at that angle, I would keep pushing the front of the trailer northward, angling it and risking hitting the utility pole or the houses on the south side of the alley.

Thus began another series of tiny pull-ups in order to sneak the tractor by the parked car while keeping the trailer relatively straight. The good Samaritan came up there and was now guiding me so I wouldn't clip the car.

Once I cleared the front corner of the car, I needed to straighten out the tractor as quickly as possible. I could see that I had just about enough room between the parked car and the one behind it to squeeze between them. I was gonna have to plow through the snowbank which was about a foot high, over the curb and onto the sidewalk to fully straighten out, so I just took it as slow as I could, praying I didn't damage the bumper, as the good Samaritan made sure I didn't hit either car.

Once I was up on the sidewalk, I was basically lined up perfectly, so I just did a straight back and finally got off the street. The cars began rolling by again, and I stopped there at the entrance of the alley to say thank you to the guy who helped me. He made a couple quick jokes then walked away, never to be seen again. I often wonder what happened to him. Sometimes I imagine he went on to roam the Canadian countryside, seeking out adventures and helping the innocent. Ok I'm exaggerating there, I actually never think about him. But he did make a huge difference for me that day.

Getting out was much easier. I just hugged the right side of the alley as much as I could, made as wide of a left turn as I could, did a couple of zigzags with the tractor to jackknife it enough to get by the cars, and once I passed the cars I turned back as far to the right as possible to keep the trailer from hitting the southern pole. Then I was home free!

I was going through each of these with great enthusiasm- sadly the Pictures do not show

Thanks for pointing this out. Brett said as much a few days ago. I'll work on an update in the next week or so.

Got one for you Errol.

1951 W Hwy, 30 Missouri Valley, IS

Woodhouse Chevrolet Warehouse is on the back of the lot. Dock is facing East

Got one for you Errol.

1951 W Hwy, 30 Missouri Valley, IS

Woodhouse Chevrolet Warehouse is on the back of the lot. Dock is facing East

Haha that's right next door to the Petromart where I stopped for coffee whenever I had an overnight run of fructose to KC! Had no idea there's a dock back there, but then again, I never looked for one.

It's fun, that's for sure. The dock wasn't all that bad, just a slight blind side with the biggest obstacle being a workers truck who didn't want to move it.

Getting in and out required them to move 2 cars and a pickup.

"The other guy didn't have a problem" Other guy being an RL driver in a day can pulling a 48.

Bump

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