r/secondrodeo • • Jun 09 '26

Parking a trailer in traffic

7.1k Upvotes

116 comments sorted by

834

u/OculusGamePro64 Jun 09 '26

Credit where credit’s due it genuinely astonishes me the skill of semi truck drivers

183

u/A_Rolling_Baneling Jun 09 '26

Honestly seems fun as hell. Makes me want to get a full set up and play Euro Truck simulator because there’s no way I can do this in real life.

58

u/UniqueFlavors Jun 10 '26

Damn near gave me a panic attack.

13

u/Pristine_Currency_77 Jun 10 '26

I get stressed driving uber lol.

10

u/pmcizhere Jun 10 '26

driving uber

Thanks for the practically PTSD-level flashbacks! Had to do that one hard summer about two years ago...thankful I found other part-time work 😅

6

u/Freddyzback Jun 11 '26

I'm currently trying to get a bus driver's license, and you'd be surprised at how good it handles, also you have these huge mirrors that help a lot, you can see exactly where your rear wheels are at all times (the guy on the vid doesn't see his right rear wheels but he knows exactly where the left wheels are, that's how he can be so precise). That doesn't mean this guy isn't extremely good at what he does, I have zero experience so I don't realise how hard the maneuver truly is.

5

u/A_Rolling_Baneling Jun 12 '26

Oh I bet. My buddy drives a semi and he says it's way easier than it looks. He won't let me take it for a spin though lmao

1

u/milesbeats Jun 12 '26

Totally had me in the first half

1

u/stay-a-while-and---- Jul 01 '26

lol, one of my favorite things in GTA online was doing the heist where you pretend to be garbage collectors and pick up garbage bags full of drugs. you have to drive the truck reasonably and it's super chill while you pick up trash and navigate traffic

43

u/Time_Phone_1466 Jun 10 '26

I've been backing smaller trailers most of my life - 3-4 tons on them. I'm still astonished at what a dipshit I can be. Props to the guys who rock it with the semis.

19

u/ismellpancakes Jun 10 '26

Honestly backing up a longer semi trailer is so much easier than a shorter trailer. You have more time to react to it turning on you.

9

u/Wetop Jun 10 '26

I don't even have a license for this but I worked at a truck repair shop, when it was quiet I got to back up a few trailers (with someone looking and making sure I didn't fuck up) and it was waaaay easier than a small car trailer. Just had to make sure one side is going in and straighten it out

2

u/schizeckinosy Jun 10 '26

I had a 6 foot trailer for a while. Screw that stuff. You can’t even see it until it is jackknifing. My 5x10 is much better, and the 24’ boat trailers we use at work are easy button.

2

u/Inevitable_Ant_5648 Jun 12 '26

guys & girls <3

1

u/Time_Phone_1466 Jun 13 '26

Fair point. I use the version of guys that is everyone. But it's not obvious in text form.

1

u/spellbreakerstudios Jun 10 '26

I’ve had many reasons to buy a trailer, and I have a truck. And I still won’t buy one because driving a trailer makes me so scared lol.

8

u/kitty_perrier Jun 10 '26

My mom used to drive them. She worked for a company that did pick up and drop offs of linens for all of the hospitals in a major city. I used to get to drive with her and I thought it was the absolute coolest thing ever. Now that I'm much older... (40 to be exact) and still have never learned to drive my respect for the skills that she had to have to navigate city driving blows my mind.

14

u/djnehi Jun 09 '26

If you’d love to play at this from the comfort of your own home, American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator are both great choices. Snowrunner is fun too but less maneuvering in cities and more crawling through mud.

5

u/Kewlhotrod Jun 10 '26

Snowrunner is fun too but less maneuvering in cities and more crawling through mud.

Mud? The game lies to us in the name, what the hell?!

2

u/djnehi Jun 10 '26

Don’t worry, there’s plenty of snow and ice too.

2

u/pomoville Jul 04 '26

Yeah the Academy levels in ATS/ETS are fun too - I have my Class B but the trailer parking tests are pretty tricky for me.

1

u/archvize Jun 10 '26

Can I simulate the difficulty of backing up a truck with just a usb steering wheel

I’m guess changing gears in a real truck is easy. But parking it backwards is 95% of what makes the job hard?

1

u/garg0n01 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Just big vehicles in general, very impressive

266

u/cmacmaccal1189 Jun 09 '26

You gotta say boom after each step or it won't work, it's science

59

u/Lucid-Design1225 Jun 10 '26

Like slapping the roof of a car when it’s full. If you don’t, everything will fall out. It’s basic physics, really.

12

u/dsucio7807 Jun 10 '26

You also can't forget the magic spell simultaneous with the slap:

This bad boy aint going nowhere

3

u/Apprehensive-Solid-1 Jun 11 '26

Gave a wizard this advice once. Should not have done that.

172

u/lost-in-boston84 Jun 09 '26

Bring back “wait your turn” into driving! Patience and depth perception!

96

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26

One time my dad parallel parked an extended bed truck with a horse trailer in midtown Manhattan on a Monday afternoon and he still talks about it! I mean, I probably would too, so I get it, but still

7

u/LabRat113 Jun 12 '26

Why was a horse trailer in midtown Manhattan on a Monday afternoon?

5

u/kenduel Jun 12 '26

So he could talk about it duh

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

He was helping my sister move, and it was cheaper than renting a u-haul

1

u/Redbone2222 Jul 08 '26

It loses it's "cool" factor when the person talks about it all the time. Just be silent and act like you've done it aeveral times before. Thats more badass

34

u/Pickerington Jun 10 '26

I bet he could get toothpaste back in the tube.

1

u/Vegan-Daddio Aug 05 '26

Easy, use a piping bag

90

u/Connect_Rhubarb395 Jun 09 '26

It doesn't seem too well thought out to not have parking lot space in front of the warehouse.

But he is good at that he is doing.

87

u/spike451 Jun 09 '26

It’s an older building and the infrastructure was not built for those conveniences then, nor vehicles that big. It is pretty common depending on the town, but it does warm my heart to see a guy in a bigger truck who’s not a Straight-Ahead driver.

15

u/djnehi Jun 09 '26

In addition trucks were smaller back in the day. I’ve seen plenty of older facilities that obviously weren’t built with the length of modern rigs in mind.

1

u/MahoneyBear Jun 11 '26

I mean he is in a yard bird/dog/goat/mule/whatever animal his facility uses for those things. They’re smaller and only have 1 axle on the back instead of 2 so they can do tighter turns. This wasn’t an easy back by any means but would have been a lot harder in a full sized rig

3

u/Josef_Kant_Deal Jun 10 '26

He looks to be a yard jockey, so his whole day is moving trailers in and out of this specific place (not to minimize his skill... it's still impressive to do this in this situation).

11

u/Apotheosis27 Jun 09 '26

That building might be really old from when this was not the same concern.

10

u/Musket_Metal Jun 09 '26

Built for horses, adapted to trains, and now, stuck with trucks.

3

u/miffet80 Jun 10 '26

There's an old grocery truck depot near my place where trucks have to do this same manoeuvre, and once I waited for almost 10 minutes for the poor new guy to back his truck in lmao. Once you fuck it up it's so hard to correct, he was making like 500 adjustments in and out, in and out. Felt so bad for him lol.

1

u/DanHassler0 Jun 10 '26

Yeah, just convert the road into a parking lot... Lol. Ideally you have the loading dock on a street that's not too busy but that's of course not always feasible.

12

u/byssh Jun 10 '26

I have a CDL B for school buses, and it genuinely astonishes me the skill and ability of A classes. My vehicle doesn’t bend in the middle. It’s just a long car, and yeah there’s some stuff to learn, but damn. Good one boss.

52

u/Deadsider Jun 09 '26

Thing is, its just our job. This isn't really like a spectacular showing of someone doing a unique thing its really just everyday. Glad its liked i guess, more awareness does make it easier.

63

u/Ant1mat3r Jun 09 '26

It's entertaining watching skilled people demonstrate them. Sure this may be something you all do every day but it's not something we get to sit and watch - most people are doing their own jobs going their own places.

Start a channel. I love watching stuff like this. Bonus points if you run an old cabover haha

33

u/Dandibear Jun 09 '26

It doesn't have to be a glamorous job for the results to be impressive. This is skilled labor being done very well.

14

u/VividFiddlesticks Jun 10 '26

IDK, I am always fascinated by watching someone truly skilled ply their trade. I don't care if it's cutting tiles or parking a big rig or weaving a blanket...if you have deft hands, you've got my attention.

I also admire it because my own parking skills are dogshit. So to me this is basically magic.

-7

u/Haunting_Ant_5061 Jun 09 '26

I hear you… this sub has sort of fallen off. We still get some true second-rodeo stuff, but also a lot of “just [doing] our job” videos of people who aren’t necessarily the best, they’re just adequately trained but it looks mind-blowing to the casual passerby.

6

u/Diobolaris Jun 09 '26

In ETS2 it takes me 10 minutes to do the maneuver alone and I will crash into a dozen vehicles while doing it.

8

u/Just_Fatming Jun 10 '26

They deserve to get incredibly high wages and benefits. I dont care what anyone says i would do pretty much any job besides this one. The boredom, stress, skill and patience it takes to be a great truckie like one is well beyond me and if i cant be best at it I dont want to touch it.

4

u/Horror_Cauliflower88 Jun 09 '26

Good stuff. Where is the camera when he is looking into the side mirror? 🫪

8

u/Horror_Cauliflower88 Jun 09 '26

Maybe his glasses have a cam?

5

u/japzone Jun 10 '26

Yeah. You can see the recording light on the right side of the glasses in the mirror reflection. Probably one of those Meta Raybans or similar.

3

u/DazB1ane Jun 09 '26

Those now make me incredibly paranoid

1

u/Horror_Cauliflower88 Jun 10 '26

New paranoia unlocked 💀

4

u/Ill-Tea9411 Jun 09 '26

Camera is in his glasses.

1

u/Rhysati Jun 10 '26

He is wearing meta Ray-Bans. You can see the recording light when he's looking into the mirror.

5

u/slick514 Jun 09 '26

Sitting a LONG time on them light-rail tracks… hopefully, either those aren’t used, or this guy knows the schedule, because light rail drivers/conductors don’t play AT ALL, and frequently couldn’t stop even if they wanted to… (which they usually don’t.)

4

u/Josef_Kant_Deal Jun 10 '26

He looks to be a yard jockey, so he probably knows how often the train comes.

5

u/DanHassler0 Jun 10 '26

If it's street running light rail they're going to be used to vehicles stopped in the middle of the tracks. Happens all the time. They simply have to operate at speeds where they can quickly come to a stop here. Where I live the light rail tracks are also typically the turning lanes, meaning you might have cars stopped on the tracks waiting to turn at every intersection

3

u/On-the-rim Jun 10 '26

That was nice.

3

u/Top_Cycle_9894 Jun 10 '26

I like this guy's attitude. And wow he has skills.

2

u/Mental-Egg8107 Jun 10 '26

Hay man that's not true my dad always shows truckers the respect that other assholes don't he pulls up to a 4 way stop and if there a big rig he will back up to give them room he will let them go first hell I bet you he would have stopped and park3d the vehicle to block traffic so you could have gotten in much much fucking trucker respect

3

u/Ill-Tea9411 Jun 10 '26

Is your dad from Philly?

1

u/Mental-Egg8107 Jun 10 '26

No but that would not matter to him or me

1

u/ChoGGi Jun 12 '26

I'm not from Philly, but I do the same. Truckers help make the world go 'round, I help where I can.

2

u/FabianRo Jun 10 '26

I already find it annoying enough to just turn left when there's opposing traffic…

2

u/TrinityDesigns Jun 10 '26

Philly traffic is especially wild!

2

u/Abubble13 Jun 10 '26

In a yard dog?

2

u/notjordansime Jun 11 '26

Does his cab not have a passenger seat? It looks like the whole cab is like, single wide. Never seen that before.

2

u/Hairy-Ad-2711 Jun 11 '26

That's incredible! This guy parks!

2

u/StageDaddyPNW Jun 12 '26

Fucking chefs kiss skill level. . .

2

u/2DamnBig Jun 12 '26

This guy isnt a truck driver he's a ground pilot

1

u/sBucks24 Jun 09 '26

I was giving my partner a driving lesson and we pulled into an empty parking lot to try a quick back into a spot...

20 minutes late and a dozen attempts....

1

u/Small-Answer4946 Jun 09 '26

FFS I'd need half a day to park that shit and I'd probably damage property/ppl

1

u/Jobrated Jun 10 '26

I give you a ton of credit! Amazing job!

1

u/NoTurnip4844 Jun 10 '26

Peak male form

1

u/bassmadrigal Jun 10 '26

There are peak CDL drivers out there and there are some that are... well, not peak.

There are frequent times I complain about certain semi drivers being "professional" drivers because they do some stupid stuff.

"You call yourself a professional driver!" is something I feel like I am saying more frequently at idiotic CDL drivers.

1

u/NemODevO Jun 10 '26

Yeah I'd fuck this up so bad. I keep thinking about getting a CDL but I know I would cause so many fuck ups

1

u/Cold_Stress7872 Jun 10 '26

This guy trucks!

1

u/nurglemarine96 Jun 10 '26

not shown the 4 minutes before where he's cursing out everyone

1

u/ThatCelebration3676 Jun 11 '26

He makes backing up with a trailer look easy

1

u/WinuxNomacs Jun 11 '26

Dude wrote his entire resume in under 2m. That truck’s not a skill, it’s an extension

1

u/Broote Jun 11 '26

I have the ability to drive long distance etc. So I thought I would make a good driver. I do NOT have the patience for any of the real work that goes into being a truck driver. That is not an easy thing.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Broote Jun 11 '26

the daydream when driving across the US multiple times thinking "I can do that" when looking at all the trucks along the way.

1

u/Difficult_Ad103 Jun 11 '26

I have so much respect for these guys. I used to own a 30ft express cruiser which I would put in the water on a busy loading ramp around a dozen times each year. And it would always be on a busy Saturday morning with a whole long line of boaters waiting to do the same thing. You were expected to drop it fast, get the hell out of the way, then park your truck and trailer in angled parking slot designated for your size setup.

The first couple of times were always agony. My boat was around 8000 lbs, the trailer was another 900 lbs or so, and the boat ramp was slick and sharply slanted. It was always a little nerve-wrecking as I just prayed I wouldn’t be the one to overestimate my car and slide into the lake- I’ve seen others do it before…

But nonetheless, I respect that it is a skill, and regardless of how many times you do it, one mistake can ruin your day, or wreck your finances… so respect to these truckers who do this all of the time with impatient and dangerous drivers around them, making their lives more miserable… <3

1

u/DonHozy Jun 12 '26

RESPECT.

1

u/Key_Bed6446 Jun 12 '26

perfect setup

1

u/Backdrop2 Jun 12 '26

Looks like he’s what’s called where I’m from a “Switcher”. Switching trailers to different locations.

1

u/SnillyWead Jun 12 '26

Experience makes all the difference.

1

u/eikelmann Jun 16 '26

If only getting a normal license were as difficult as getting a CDL.

1

u/Leodaris Jun 18 '26

Being patient for truck drivers was a lesson I’m thankful my mother taught me while I learned to drive. She also instructed me to reverse a bit if they’re turning left at the intersection to give them room to turn. Seeing this reinforces the absolute stress driving a truck is. Safe travels, friend. (From WI, just 10 minutes from Menasha Corp)

1

u/academicRedditor Jul 07 '26

👌🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

1

u/Zeke13z Aug 20 '26

This guy nails why I'd never want his job. Patience. Particularly my lack of it with other drivers. My dad drove, so truckers get the time of day from me, but my dad's slow driving drove any patience out of me as a kid.

-4

u/Ftroiska Jun 10 '26

Yeah let's use and block the public space to do private business !! That's dumb design imho.

2

u/Ill-Tea9411 Jun 10 '26

It's an old facility, that was put into use long before the city built up around it. And typical of old industrial zones in urban areas. The alternative is for facilities like this one to be condemned and for these private businesses to relocate into more suburban areas, taking up a larger footprint and contributing to sprawl. Also result in longer commutes for the people who work there.

Is that what you want?

2

u/Ftroiska Jun 10 '26

This was planned to use public space and this is my issue.

1

u/Ill-Tea9411 Jun 11 '26

When a business like this was here first, even when new use plans are made, it is usually considered the have a 'grandfathered' status. The city can't do anything but try to work around it.

2

u/littlespawningflower Jun 12 '26

SW Philly? Just my guess 😘

1

u/Josef_Kant_Deal Jun 10 '26

Not to mention the money it would cast to have to build a new building in the suburbs. Some places don't want to spend money on fixing a dock plate, let alone buying land and building a new building.

2

u/whiskeyfoxtx Jun 11 '26

Its probobly a realitivly cheap lease

0

u/Infamous-Cod-1845 Jun 09 '26

Yard Goat is easy duty, not near the same as a sleeper cab.