long nose backing mechanics?

First off, the turning radius is bigger... 40-acre size for the Classic XL.

As for backing... inputs at the steering wheel will be amplified by the longer wheelbase, so make smaller adjustments as you back.

 

I owned a Classic XL once, it turned like a battle ship...

1) take your time its not a race to get into a dock or parking spot
2) pull up as many times as it takes to get safely backed in
3) get a spotter if you need one, there is no shame in asking for help

enjoy the ride those big long bastids do ride good !!

 

Your fifth wheel setting is probably different as well. With a fifth whell further forward a trailer will seem to take longer to change attitude. Further back will be twitchy. Or seems like that to me. A lot of it is adjusting to the way a truck pushes the trailer. Remember no one cares where the truck ends up just where the trailers is.




As GP said it is not a race. Concentrate on the mechanics of your task, speed will come later with experience.

 

funny thing is i drive a kenworth w900 and recently while it was in the shop the company asked if i could move a few trailers with a different tractor, it was a t2000, man i couldnt get that thing to back up for the life of me, was begging for my w900 by the end of the day!!! its what your used to so give it a bit of time and you will have it sorted out , enjoy the ride , long hoods rock!!

 

its embarresing switching trucks sometimes--my classic was in shop--and i took w-9
but neither one was over 244 inches----but totally different backing characteristics---with the w-9 it seemed it took forever to get the trailer cutting over--but when it did--poof it was gone---the classic-to me seemed to turn a lot quicker
but i guess it is what you are used to

 

Last week I started off driving a Kenworth in the yard doing four hours of off-set and 90 degree backing (School), then they swapped trucks so an very inexperienced driver could take that truck out for a road drive. I ended up driving a FreightLiner for the other four hours which backed a lot differently. It seemed that the Kenworth backed so much easier and I was doing really good with only having minimal pull-ups if at all. But the FreightLiner was totally different and I was getting really pissed at myself, oh man was I getting pissed. But eventually I got better with that truck.

I'm new to the "commercial" side of trucking, but did have four years experience driving trucks in the Military, but the trucks we used in the Military were all automatic transmissions and day cabs, which were pretty easy to move around.