Driveway Width Calculation Exercise
More Turbo
Joined: Oct 2023
Posts: 700
Likes: 478
I lay out the roadways for our housing developments and there is no straight equation thats going to be correct and work flawlessly when you actually take the rig to location and turn in. You have to take the wheelbase of truck and trailer, your max steering angle of truck, your starting turn in point, your trailer swing radius, and about as many other variables as "SpencerPJ" posted 
Sorry its not a 1+1=2 equation.
I have a marking crew that we send out to figure everything out using dimensions of emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles, school busses, sewage trucks, garbage trucks, snow plows, and pretty much every available combination aside from a 50+ foot semi. Although some of these pickup/camper combos are rivaling their turn radius.
Roads themselves are not very wide around here and most of our subdivision entrances end up being 25-30' wide with very large aprons. That just about accommodates most large trucks turning left off a 12-18' wide roadway.
Sorry its not a 1+1=2 equation.I have a marking crew that we send out to figure everything out using dimensions of emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles, school busses, sewage trucks, garbage trucks, snow plows, and pretty much every available combination aside from a 50+ foot semi. Although some of these pickup/camper combos are rivaling their turn radius.
Roads themselves are not very wide around here and most of our subdivision entrances end up being 25-30' wide with very large aprons. That just about accommodates most large trucks turning left off a 12-18' wide roadway.
More Turbo
Joined: Mar 2024
Posts: 738
Likes: 304
From: SE Vermont, South Jersey
You could 3D print your tow setup to scale and make a map of the same scale and "drive" it through.
Or, make a big wet spot in an empty parking lot and drive through, first measuring your tire marks, then put cones out and drive through again to make sure you account for overhangs.
Or, make a big wet spot in an empty parking lot and drive through, first measuring your tire marks, then put cones out and drive through again to make sure you account for overhangs.
Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 235
Likes: 84
From: West TN
Really, the only purpose of this exercise for me is just to see how wide the drive might end up being. I don't need to know yet, I just wanted to see if anyone had the math already. When someone calls a driveway contractor saying we are looking for a trailer and the wheels will be about x distance behind the tow vehicle that has a wheelbase of y, is there an answer for, "how wide should my drive be if the road width is z?"
Since you said you're in construction, are any of your jobsites, or any dirt lots nearby big enough to just drive your setup and do a right angle so you can measure the tire tracks?
If you're really looking to crunch some numbers, there's a few things related if you dig around like this site https://itstillruns.com/calculate-tu...r-8794811.html or this pdf https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepub...59/159-001.pdf and if all else fails you can pay to play https://autoturnonline.com/
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