DAY 8

Strange day. Most of the instructors here have many years experience and are very good teachers, but as with most places, there is always a bad apple. We have one of these apples here, he is an older guy, but only has about 4 years driving experience(j.b. hunt). With him in the yard with us, it seemed like our training was going backwards. during pre-trip, it took about an hour to do just the truck, he wanted all 4 in our group to do a full brake test, this took about an hour. I undersand this is stuff we need to know but most of us know pre-trip and brake test by heart and need all the hours in the yard to practice our backing and parallel parking. after our breake the lead instructor told him to just let us work and we did. there was only a couple hours left but we managed to each get about 5 shots each parallel parking so it all worked out.

Afternoon was road time. worked on up shift, down shift, up hill, down hill, stop lights, and highway. I have a really good instructor on the road, she is very calm and does not get upset with us and lets us know what we have to work on, could not ask for a better instructor on the road.

until tomorow

DAY 9

We got to do alot of city driving this morning. We went through an industrial park, manuevered around corners, stop and go traffic, and other obsticles related to city driving. You would not think that you could learn so much in such little time, but these instructors are fantastic. At this point we have sized each other up and pretty much know who will succeed and who is not cut out for this. We have a pretty big class(about 15 students), there are 2 who will probably not make it. These 2 are just not cut out for this type of work. You have to have a little common sense and the want to and drive to suceed.

This after noon was yard time. This is where we work on our backing skills. Today sucked because we had 12 people on the yard and only 2 trucks, but tomorow we will have 3 trucks because the class ahead of us will be taking there driving tests and graduating.

Well, that is all for today, check back tomorow for more.

DAY 10

Today was a long freaking day. Started out with the school having to call the police out. Last night someone shot out the right side window in one of the road trucks. The trucks are parked inside the gate, but I guess it was a disgruntalled student or some stupid thug that was able to get a shot off and shatter the glass. So needless to say we got a late start. This morning, was alot of work in the yard, not as many people today so we were able to get more practice in doing our backing manuevers.

This afternoon was long, because in our group of 4, some are just not getting the hang of shifting and downshifting. When you have to ride in the backseat all afternoon with someone grinding gears and missing turns it will wear you out. I am happy to say everything is working out good on my end, I am catching on pretty well.

until tomorow

Brings back memories.

Be careful if they prompt you to get your CDL early, because if you do, you might as well forget about driving time completely. I got my CDL two weeks early, it was all sleeper berth then on.

10-4 on that. naw, I am really enjoying myself, not trying to rush anything, but I really have had no problems. Not going to try to get my cdl early, just going with the flow.

DAY 11

Today was all road, no yard. We each drove about an hour this morning. This afternoon we got to go on the DPS route and practice parallel parking in the spots that we will have to do it for the driving test. that is about it for today.

Was shifting hard to learn? I have always drove automatics. Hope I don't have to many problems when I go to school. I start training in about a week. I looked into Roadmaster. They are my first choice but I can't get on with any of the companies they do business with due to my background.

There are a lot of videos on YouTube . com that are very helpful.

__________________

Kevin

shifting took a couple days to learn for me because I have drove vehicles with standard trannys before. you see, with a big truck it is different because when you double clutch, you dont go all the way to the floor with your clutch, and with a car you do. and down shifting, you have to rev your engine before going into a lower gear. If you have no exp. driving stick shift, you will have no bad habits to get rid of and learn the right way to start with. When I first got on the road i wanted to push that clutch all the way in and float the gears, but I learned quickly not to shift like that. so your inexperience with a manual tranny may actually help you. good luck

Shifting can be kinda tough at first in that you can't really apply what you know from driving a car to driving a tractor trailer. So, not having experience shifting could be best.

The thing is is that you don't start out in 1st. Rather you start out in 2nd or 3rd usually. I even started out in 7th a couple of times. (If you end up with a 10 speed you'll find out what I mean.)

The most trouble you'll have is finding the appropriate gear for your road speed. Mainly, if you miss/lose a gear and your rolling without it in gear. (You can fail a Road Test for coasting so, don't do it. You can get a ticket for coasting more than the length of your trailer!)

I always took a notepad with me and wrote stuff down.

This is kinda close:

RPM range 1,100rpm to around 1,500 to 1,800 (1,800 6th and up)

3rd) 8-10mph
4th) 10-13mph
5th) 13-16mph
6th) 17-20mph
7th) 20-25mph
8th) 25-36mph
9th) 39-53
10th)53mph

Just remember that you can't push the clutch in and coast (more than the length of your trailer specifically); you have to down-shift. Also, you can stop in 5th or 6th. (Don't forget what gear you are in)

I hope this helps. Someone

Thanks for the info, Dave. I haven't heard it explained like that. Makes it sound a little complicated, but hopefully I'll get it once I get a chance to actually try it first-hand...