I can do anything: Tips on how to back-park a double trailer

[georgri]

Yes, I finally parked a double trailer in the "I can do anything" mode!!!
I have found no practical tips on how to actually manage it in the game, so I'm posting this.

The load is Crawler Tractor.
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0) Read this post and think about your life. Do you really wanna go there?

1) Enable the "I can do anything" option in the game.
- Locate the config file
<My Documents>\American Truck Simulator\profiles\<profile id>\config.cfg
- Change the line
uset g_simple_parking_doubles "1"
to
uset g_simple_parking_doubles "0"

2) Watch this video on how to park a double trailer in real life. It was very insightful for me.

Watch on YouTube

3) Find or buy a physical toy with two attachments you can play with. I had to buy myself one in a kids' store. It was very basic and with limited rotation, but it did shift my perception.
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4) Make a mod for the game for your top camera to be higher. The standard camera view doesn't allow for the full view of a very long truck, which makes the job even more difficult.
A short reference on making a simple mod may be found here: viewtopic.php?f=180&t=227338
I personally changed the value of
maximum_height: 29.0
to
maximum_height: 60.0
in the file
<def.scs mod path>\camera\units\top_basic.sii

5) Do not yet attempt to park a trailer with 3 moving segments (the trailer may be double, but it can have more then two moving segments, check by trying to reverse, view from the top camera).

6) Have a lot of patience and good faith.

Good luck!

[georgri]

7) Equip a short cabin for greater maneuverability.
8) You can disconnect from the trailer temporarily to change the angle between the cabin and the trailer.

[TwinShadow]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet, but I will.

Although the video is good, but its got one flaw: US does not use B-Trains in large parts. Northern states might use that, but I'm willing to bet the vast majority are rolled through via Canada where they are used.

The US uses STAA, Rocky Mountain, Turnpike, and Triple combinations. These are two 28' pups, 40' (or is it 48'?) and 28' combination, two 48' or 53' (maybe, I'd have to read more on that), and 3 28' pups all respectively in order. The one that is legal all throughout the use is STAA, and none of the trailers have a fifth wheel on the trailer, but rather use a dolly. So the video won't actually help with these type of combinations. If one wishes to back them up, well.. all I can say is practice, practice, and a LOT more practice.

I'm not saying its impossible, its been done and I'm sure there are videos on it. But unlike b-doubles which are relatively easy to back up (I've done it, I do it frequently when I go through some service centers in ETS2 even though the combination isn't quite the same, the same principle applies), ours in the US have an extra point of articulation which turns much quicker due to that dolly. (I'm not sure of the right word for it off hand)

[PW4056]

The turnpike doubles are two 53-foot trailers. Rocky Mountain doubles, I think I may have seen a 53-foot trailer and a 28-foot trailer. Those looked rather unusual. As for the correct terminology, dolly's as close as you're going to get. In any event, I can't say I've ever seen anyone back a set of doubles very often. Normally, they just drop the second trailer, pull up, disconnect the dolly, pull up, and then put the first trailer wherever. A yard driver will then come grab the second trailer and move it wherever they need it to go. I've only seen somebody back a set of doubles once, and that was because he didn't want to wait for another truck to get out of his way. In any event, he was only backing up in a straight line for a very short distance.

[Mr Larrington]

Only just seen this thread while looking for something else. A friend is currently employed driving laden Rocky Mountain doubles in the mining industry in northern Nevada. When I asked him about reversing them, he said "If you can see more than half the width of a tyre on the rear trailer in your mirror, go round and try again".