January 18, 2022

Backing an Offset With a Spread-axle Trailer is an instructional video for people who have an interest in possibly becoming truck drivers.. The video offers a formula for new drivers, learning to back 18 wheelers that will enable them to successfully learn how to back an offset, one of the required maneuvers for obtaining a CDL (commercial driver's license). However, the video emphasizes that the steps in the formula are only guidelines to get new drivers started, very similar to the milk a newborn suckles until ready for solid food. The solid food of any backing maneuver is to learn to read the trailer and to know what to do with the steering wheel to put the trailer where it needs to go. For true success in backing an 18-wheeler, new drivers must challenge and push themselves beyond suckling milk (the formula), to the solid food, strong meat, of reading that trailer. Because of too many variables in using the formula, if a driver locks himself into that formula, he/she will not be consistently successful with backing maneuvers.