I have the good fortune of taking this summer off before going to school for my cdl. I did alright when I closed up my home business and my wife makes great money so I decided to take the summer off and get things done around here before going back to work.Plus a few camping trips. I can start my class on Aug 20th and graduate on the 21st of sept or I could start on 24Sept and be done with school on 26 Oct.I live in Iowa so winter will be comming on. My question is should I take the earlier course and so when I do get a job I can get some driving experience before the winter weather hits or should I take the course in sept and hope to learn about winter driving with a trainer. I like to think I know enough about winter driving to know when to quit. In my previous biz I drove about 50k a yr. I drove at times I probably should not have but I did and trucks were still going. That was in a chevy Cavalier and I know that driving a truck will be a whole new world. Thanks petesout

This is late to try and avoid snows,...

I'm retireing from GM at the end of this week...WaHoooooooooooo...and plan on taking off the rest of the year for some r 'n r and to get our house ready to sell next spring. After we buy our new home and get settled in, is when I plan to start my trucking career, which will be sometime next fall. I would like to time it so I am with a trainer during the winter snow. I would imagine that the same principles for driving your personal vehicle, like taking it slow and easy, would apply. But I figure that a trainer riding with me would be a big advatage, especially during that first snow storm. Then if I can handle driving on snow covered roads during the winter, then the spring, summer and fall should be a breeze.

I guess I take a different view, I can certainly understand wanting to be with a trainer your first winter but there are alot of trainers out there that need training themselves and dont really have lots of experience in winter conditions, if at all. Myself, I would want to take the eariler course and then you will have time (hopefully) to get to know your truck, transmission, shifting, how your truck and trailer react to different conditions, then when winter comes you will at least know what's what and not have to rely on someone that "might" think they know whats going on. Either way just use common sense and you will probably be ok.