Alley Dock Maneuver

Hello everyone! First off, want to say I love this website, helped me pass my CDL exam (General Knowledge, Air Brakes and Combination Vehicles) for my permit. Out of all the websites I go to, to read about trucking the people here seem the nicest, anyways today was our first full day in the truck, started off driving on a back road learning to double clutch , hardest part for me was finding the gears and getting the gear in the slot in a timely manner. Then we went to the range and did straight line backing, pretty easy, but after that we had to alley dock, I'll say I got it in there about 1 out of every 10 times I tried and even then it wasn't straight. I think my main problem is when I back it up and get the trailer in front of the cone, I turn hard right to make the trailer angle straight, but now my tractor is practically at a 90 degree angle and I don't know how to straighten it out without pulling out too far or not being side ways in the hole, any advice would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

Best thing my instructors told me was, "REMEMBER the trailer takes about 8-10 feet to react to your steering... you have to account for that."

For me it just clicked one day and I started getting the alley dock every time. It was like that for most of my class. We all sucked when we started, then suddenly we just got it.

Welcome aboard!

ThinksTooMuch is dead on. It will just "click" one day for ya. It does indeed happen to almost everyone. You'll understand most of what's going on but you'll have just one or two pieces of the puzzle missing. Once you figure it out it will hit you all of a sudden and you'll start nailing it.

It's really tough to give advice about specific backing situations without being there in person to see what you're doing and what needs to be done differently. But the timing of your steering inputs is tricky to pick up because of the delay in the trailer's reaction as ThinksTooMuch mentioned. You have to anticipate what the trailer is going to do and start your steering inputs 3 or 4 seconds before you want the trailer to react.

Also, watch other students closely. You'll learn a lot by watching their steering inputs and seeing how the trailer responds. You'll get a chance to see a variety of different mistakes and that will help you piece together what you have to do to nail it.

Yeah Brett is right about watching other students. It helps a lot. We'd stand in groups and watch the guy doing the alley dock and we are all like "steer hard left.... NOW! Oh man he missed it by a second, he's gonna come in too high." It's funny how you can see it from outside the truck so clearly.

When we started one of our instructors told us to stand behind the dock (the orange cones). It offers a VERY VERY good view of exactly what the trailer is doing in relation to the tractor angle. Try that if you haven't.

If you want a challenge in backing, try Jetro Cash & Carry in Jersey City, or Charles Ritter in Philly. Those places are tight. Almost anyplace that is fenced in, where your maneuverability is limited, is always a challenge.

Dave

Thanks guys for the tips, the 10 feet rule really helped and knowing your driving the trailer not the tractor really helped too. I always tell my self 10 feet 10 feet when I'm backing, I can get it in the hole about 3 out of 4 tries now. We did off set and that's a lot easier then the alley dock, still got to work on my parallel. Got three school days to get this all down before my test, still working on my PTI and trying to get better at driving, still miss a gear every now and then, and having problems staying off the white line on the right, and occasionally when I stop I stall the truck by taking my foot of the clutch too fast, even worse when you're on an incline and you have to hold the break to keep it from rolling back and easing your foot off the clutch, god I hope I get his all before the test lol. Anyways thanks again guys, if you have anymore tips on anything I would appreciate it. Happy Memorial Day!