The West Virginia International Auto Show gets underway later this week in Charleston. Crews maneuvered the largest exhibit into the Charleston Civic Center Tuesday morning.
At 70-feet in length, a 53-foot trailer attached to a 17-foot tractor, the Share the Road big rig was the first vehicle inside the the arena. Behind the wheel was Clarence Jenkins who drives the tractor trailer all across the country.
“What we do is promote safety around trucks. We show [people] the blind spots, the space they should keep between them and the truck and how much it takes to maneuver the big trucks around,” explained Jenkins.
But Tuesday, it was all about putting Jenkins to the test as he backed the tractor trailer into a loading dock and on to the floor of the civic center.
“Trying to get it in here is a challenge. You’ve got to back it into the doorway. And [the doors] are just an inch or two taller than the trailers. So you’ve got to be pretty precise,” Jenkins said.
From start to finish, it took Jenkins about 45 minutes to get the truck from the outside to the inside without a bump or scrape despite the close quarters.
“It’s a test of skills that driver across the country use each and every day. This is done thousands of times across the country,” according to Jenkins.
Jenkins’ 18-wheeler is just one of hundreds of vehicles that will be on display at the West Virginia International Auto Show. The event gets underway Friday and runs through Sunday.