this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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When a semi drives without a trailer, it’s called “bobtailing”, and can be dangerous. Semis are designed for the weight of a trailer, and not having that weight there throws the balance off.
Just have your mother sit in the back.
Yes but like any vehicle, if you know your machine and drive within its limits, it's fine. The only exception I can think of is when you're on the freeway and you suddenly encounter a patch of extremely rough road that you're going too fast for.
Very true. That’s why I was careful to say CAN be dangerous, not IS dangerous. Skilled truckers are some of the most capable and safe drivers on the road.
I have met truck drivers that can (and have demonstrated) back their trailer up to a cargo dock blindfolded.
I've met some that can navigate turning radii (radiuses? Radiens?) smaller than my old Nissan.
And then I've also met some that couldn't figure out their 13ft tall trailer can't fit under a 12ft 8 bridge...
For the most part though, in my experience truck drivers are better drivers than 97% of regular drivers.
A bit true of larger trucks too. Long ago when we had an RV trailer and a dually truck, it rode and drove the best when it had a full load behind it.
Not necessarily unsafe, but similar for vans too. With nothing in my RWD vans cargo bay it’s quite easy to break traction. Especially on cold tyres.
Other than size It’s no different than an empty pick-up in rear-wheel drive.
Actually it could be safer, depending on conditions, if you’re equipped with locking differentials.
Although some pick-ups have that too, so… depends 🤷♂️
I came here to say this. I'm not a driver, but I intake semi accident reports. They seem more likely to have accidents when they are bob tailing.
I was told this by someone who worked for a trucking company.
You might also want to contact these companies and tell them they’re spreading misinformation:
https://www.freightcourse.com/bobtailing/
https://truckcrashlaw.com/blog/why-is-bobtailing-dangerous/
https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/what-is-a-bobtail-truck
…and MANY others.
They should include this guide with pick-up trucks and cargo vans because those (in rear-wheel drive) are essentially the same thing
Take it from a Canadian trucker, bobtailing in a blizzard is NOT a good time.
It's no picnic in a thunderstorm either.
I'm guessing that twenty years ago you didn't have to go through the all the training that they make us go through today which explicitly talks about things like this? It's not uninformed, it's making a huge deal out of a small thing to make the average idiot driver 0.2% safer, which I guess makes a difference in the math of our modern megacarriers.
I was always told that there was a special braking mode that reduced the amount of breaks when they didn't have a trailer. No idea how true this is our whether it makes a difference, or if this is a European thing only.