Help! I’m The Worst In My Class At The Reverse Lane Change!

Like I said, I’m just not getting it. Everyone else has moved on to parallel parking. I’m starting to get very discouraged. I’m doing pretty darn good on everything else. I could probably pass my pretrip(I’m almost there on the in cab.) and I did really well today on the road shifting. I’m going in the morning to buy a little toy truck to maybe help. Any tips? I’ve asked all the instructors so far. They can talk me through it, but I can’t get it myself. It’s just not clicking!

Stop stressing and beating yourself up. Take a deep breath, relax, have fun with this. Them telling you how, isn't going to help you. Honestly, you just need to figure it out. Play around with the rig so you can see and get the hang of how it reacts. Do serpentine maneuvers and watch how the trailer reacts.

My guess is you're talking about an offset? If you're offsetting to your right.. turn your wheel hard left until you see the center of the landing gear and then counter steer to get the tractor back in line with the trailer.. use your convex mirrors to see the cone you need to pivot around.

My guess is you're talking about an offset? If you're offsetting to your right.. turn your wheel hard left until you see the center of the landing gear and then counter steer to get the tractor back in line with the trailer.. use your convex mirrors to see the cone you need to pivot around.

Yep. I just don’t seem to get it. It took me longer than anyone else to just get the straight line back too. It’s been a steep learning curve for me. Everyone else in the school is young, so I feel a bit out of sorts about that already, feeling like a dummy isn’t helping! 🤪

We’re off until Tuesday for Memorial Day. Do you think it would help me to rent a uhaul trailer to back with my pickup while I’m off? Everyone else is ready to party, I’m willing to break my back getting this figured out!

Reading this back it sounds so whiny! 🤣 I’m just really frustrated and stressed right now.

Trust me I understand.. I was slow at getting the backing also. You have to believe in yourself and KNOW that you CAN do this and WILL.

Reading this back it sounds so whiny! 🤣 I’m just really frustrated and stressed right now.

Don't be. I too struggled with the straight line back. It seriously took me 3 days to figure it out. Another member here, Jeremy, struggled mightily with backing which he discussed over in the diary section as well as in a thread in this section. It took him a little longer than he liked but it finally clicked for him. Don't beat yourself up, it's just going to make it worse.

Do you have any idea what it is about the offset that's causing such problems? I'm not sure renting a Uhaul trailer will help as they're much smaller and much more sensitive than a 53 foot trailer when backing.

Relax Rob and you will get this. It is just a matter of time, trial and error. You'll probably get different opinions on this, but if you've got the spare time and means, renting the longest trailer you can and practicing with that might help you - it did help me.

Reading this back it sounds so whiny! 🤣 I’m just really frustrated and stressed right now.

Thanks everyone. I’m trying to focus on the positive. What’s causing the difficulty is simply confusion. I’ve had it explained to me so many times, and it’s always way more steps than the basically two steps that Susan described. When I go through the process in my head it seems so simple, but when I get on the range, I lose it. Even though it’s been a week, I was three days on straight line, so I’ve only done the offset two days. In that time we’ve of course learned tons of other things too.

Not many people master the offset in the first week of training, Rob. Of course this varies with how much actual seat time you get versus time spent waiting, etc. Never fear....next week you will get the offset down and have the next one to be tortured with :-). The torture will end in a year or two.....

Thanks everyone. I’m trying to focus on the positive. What’s causing the difficulty is simply confusion. I’ve had it explained to me so many times, and it’s always way more steps than the basically two steps that Susan described. When I go through the process in my head it seems so simple, but when I get on the range, I lose it. Even though it’s been a week, I was three days on straight line, so I’ve only done the offset two days. In that time we’ve of course learned tons of other things too.