Parallel Parking...

Matt, Like the others said above, small moves and wait for a response. The trailer is never really lost, it is exactly where you put it! (That was not a dig at you, that was a slow down and think about it for a minute.)

If you are in reverse your foot should never never ever touch the throttle!!!! I once tied a guys boot to the seat so he could not touch the petal (huge flat lot where he did not need the brakes) and his backing improved 50%.

You can ride the brake while backing to slow the truck even more, just know that when you let off its going to speed up.

you may laugh but It works, find a cheap truck & trailer radio controlled toy and run it on vinyl or hard tile floor the seam lines are your curbs, watch and see how the trailer reacts to the turns of the cab both forward and backward.

This will give you an understanding of how the whole thing works, this is like no other truck you have ever driven, the pivot point is twice as far forward as a pickup and a boat.

Number 1 rule of backing "Never Push a Bad Position"! Pull up and fix it then start again.

In my experience pulling up two or three times farther then I needed to allowed me to make even smaller adjustments when backing into a tight building or dock made my life a whole lot easier.

When sight side backing I have stood on the fuel tank and watched the trailer as I was backing into a hard tight 90% dock, what ever it takes to get the job done without damage!

With 2,000,000 miles under my belt I still get out of the cab and walk back to look all the time! Forget the peer pressure, cool is when you can back into a spot no one else could! (Harvard medical College Boston, Houston Convention Center when vans are parked on the retaining wall. 100's of buildings in Brooklyn)

If you tell me what you mean by "lost" I can offer some more exact suggestions to help you.

I'm just east of Nashville, If your already on the road and passing through, I could give you some pointers.

Jimmy

James suggests:

You can ride the brake while backing to slow the truck even more, just know that when you let off its going to speed up.

...unless of course your foot is tied to the seat, then you can't ride the brake.

James offers this teaching technique:

If you are in reverse your foot should never never ever touch the throttle!!!! I once tied a guys boot to the seat so he could not touch the petal (huge flat lot where he did not need the brakes) and his backing improved 50%.

Never touching the throttle is good advice for a rookie learning. Most Paid CDL Training Programs discourage throttle use while learning how to back. However, the tied up boot? I've heard of a lot of unorthodox teaching methods,...but not one like that. I would not recommend tying the drivers foot to the seat even if on the Bonneville Salt flats,...but that's me.

James, appreciate your post, albeit a bit over-the-top. Lyght passed his CDL exams on Monday so he must have been able to figure things out using both of his feet. Looking forward to hearing more tidbits of wisdom from you...

I once tied a guys boot to the seat so he could not touch the petal

A bit extreme to say the least! If not EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! I don't think I need to tell you where my boot would have ended up had you tried that with ME! BTW...... Flowers have petals, Trucks have pedals.

He didn't say his foot was in the boot. Eh, I know. One could use the Jonny brake for braking if needed, and of course eliminating the right foot forces a trainee to feather the clutch to go slower than idle, which is what you have to do to keep things in control in a manual anyway. On top of that, the instructor is right there to pull the yellow and red if need be, so I wouldn't freak out to much about this 'unorthodoxy'. Perhaps the story of this method will get around at his company and no trainee will ever need 'the boot' in the future.

I must say, this post has excellent timing.......

My schooling has been going well for the most part but today was the day that I failed miserably on a test for the 1st time & this is what I was trying to do today.