Bendy bus in a dead end parking lot = not good...

[bevans6]

So there I am, in my motel room in back of a little motel in Moncton NB.  Parking lot is ample, but dead end - I walked round to make sure I could turn my truck and trailer.  Half way into my first drink, I see a bus come in - must be a local commuter shuttle dropping of some workers, I thought.  Then I hear the diesel, and go to look.  It's  62 foot Halifax Transit bendy bus (Orion, I think), and it's nose in to the end of a parking lot that is not going to let it out easy...  Probably the bus has been sold and is being delivered somewhere, because the driver didn't seem like he had any bus experience to speak of.  I went out - freezing rain, sucks big time, and guided him through about a 16 point turn, one guy kindly moved his truck, I moved my truck, and after about 20 minutes he got out.   Moral of the story - make sure you can get out before you get in!

Brian

[HB of CJ]

Lots of times the drivers of the big motorhome crowd exhibit driving skills best described as "scary and dangerous".  We had one close family member, (not disclosed to protect the quilty!) who had soos many backing up "contacts" with foreign objects that his license and insurance  was cancelled.

He kept on driving the big S&S motorhome anyhow.  Finally the neighborhood friendly police officer who lived nearby had to ask him not to drive.  But....up until he died of old age, nobody kept him out of the driver's seat.  The motorhome had dings all over the side and back.  HB of CJ (NOT ME YOU SEE)

[buswarrior]

Articulated buses are the devil in reverse.

Lots of former truckers get caught in how fast the tail is.

Those who can back a snowmobile trailer will do just fine with a bendy bus.

And jack-knife is a disaster... easily can lead to a write off for an old hinge joint, notwithstanding the massive body damage...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[somewhereinusa]

Somebody probably told that bus driver that he would have plenty of room to park or turn around.  I learned the hard way to not trust anyone on the phone when they say "There's plenty of room for a big truck" in our parking lot/on our street/neighborhood/city/state/limited universe (take your pick) Many think that a dually is a "big truck".  Also, the ability of someone to tell you how to get to where they are is inversely proportional to the size of the city they live in. IE:big city no clue.  And, I am convinced that people who work at car dealerships never work in the same dealership two days in a row, they certainly don't know how they got there this morning. No one in Denver or Chicago know that highways, including interstates actually have numbers that the rest of the world might actually want to use.

[bevans6]

Well, a half hour later a 45 foot Prevost tour bus showed up - he was out of there with a single reverse as slick as you please.  Then four trucks from Quebec showed up, all parked right close to their rooms, including backing a trailer up to the room door - kind of rude to block the right-of-way sticking your truck way out so you can back your trailer up to the room, I thought.  Then they ran extension cords out to the full size freezers they had in the truck beds, and presumably inside the trailer, and I realized that it's lobster season on the south shore of Nova Scotia, so these guys had made the run from Quebec to import several tons of live lobster, at $3 a pound they can make a killing in Montreal!

Brian

[PCC]

The way I try never to get trapped in a cul-de-sac is to Google Earth an address before I even leave to go there, or stop and walk the street (lot) first. Has saved me a load of trouble too many times.

But for a hundred pounds of lobster, I could get stuck and load up while waiting !!

I did have an officer direct me into a street where I would have been stuck. When I declined, he got angry. I just went another way.

[RJ]

Oh. . . I've got a genuine "war story" about this topic. . . but it will have to wait for now.  Grandkids are on the phone. . . 

[Kwajdiver]

Hyeyong,  was watching while I backed into a parking space in the Keys once.    Yep! she back me right into a telephone pole.     Should have seen the look on her face.....  Luck for me, I was moving REAL slow and didn't do any damage.

Bill

[John316]

Hyeyong,  was watching while I backed into a parking space in the Keys once.    Yep! she back me right into a telephone pole.     Should have seen the look on her face.....  Luck for me, I was moving REAL slow and didn't do any damage.

Bill

Bill,

I'll betcha you had that "feeling" just before you did it too. BTDT....Trusting someone else, and you know they will have an issue.

[wg4t50]

Another bad situation, when your towing a car/pickup with 4 wheels on ground, you do not back up, so get yourself in a corner, you have to unhook get straight and re hook up.  I got caught in a US Forest camp ground in SD near  Deadwood, drive into park, make turn then found the road was blocked, no prewarning, just the Oh $$$$'s.
Nice when you can back out, just part of farm tractors and hay wagons I guess.
Dave M

[sledhead]

I had a small ops with our bus and the roll up door on the bus garage ! I asked my wife to roll the door up all the way.I guess she did knot here all the way up. Next thing I see is my wife waving her arms in the air to stop !!! The last 2" of the door was hit by the roof a/c ops! I guess it was my falt? not to hard to fix ,no damage to a/c or bus but could not get a replacement panel for the door. No problem glued screwed and foamed the door back together ( old auto body days of my first job paid off ) All is good now    dave   

[Dave5Cs]

My wife uses that braking system also. She waves her arms in the air and shouts "you are up on the wall" I got out and the back duals were on a small wall about 1 ft high made out of pavers, that used to be there in the garden, LOL So as I am have her direct me off the wall we run the A/C cover into a limb on the Oak tree in front of us.

Dave5Cs

[Oonrahnjay]

      "It's all your fault!"

[sledhead]

Yup! happy wife happy life           dave