Tandem placement and turning radius

This post can’t be thanked enough!

No one is really knocking you, if you really don’t know any of this stuff.
The best way to learn is to ask questions, there is no dumb questions when it comes to learning about the trucking industry. When you come off with a million miles and all these safety awards and ask questions that should come from a student in driving school that’s never been in a truck before, it just makes a person wonder if you’ve really ever been in a truck before.

Good luck in your career, it’s a wonderful one if you let it be and drive safe!!!

 

You're spinning a wheel because the bags are briefly over inflated.

It's not that air goes into the bag, it's that the air in the bags expands when you come out from under a load. A loaded airbag will have ~70psi in it, bobtail that number is ~20psi. So the bags expand until constrained by the shocks, topping out the suspension until the leveling valves can dump enough air.
The topping out of the suspension doesn't allow for any articulation and results in the low traction that generates the TC light as you pull away from the trailer.

Edit: didn't realize I wasn't on the last page, and y'all covered this already.

 

I literally learned it on YouTube. I never had a trainer.

 

You don't need to. You want to. Should always be checking out other people's ways. It would take ten lifetimes to figure all these tips out on your own.

For example - how do you personally slide your fifth wheel? Set trailer brakes, release fifth wheel, try to move and hope it works on the first try? If not, yank on the truck some, get a hammer, etc. Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

Want to know how I do it? Lower landing gear all the way to the ground. Set trailer brakes. Dump truck suspension. Now there's no weight on the fifth wheel, and it always moves easy as pie.

Again... learned it on YouTube. Why? Because if you see ten different ways, then you get to pick the one you like best. But you never get to see those ways if you don't look.

 

Another one is when you back up to a trailer that has been dropped too low. I’ve watched guys do this and immediately jump out of there truck and start cranking the Dollie’s down so they can back under it. 9 times out of 10, you can dump your air bags and back under the trailer. I can’t count the times I’ve told guys about this and the next time you see them they’re out cranking on the Dollie’s. SMH

 

Did I indicate that you needed to know everything? No. What I indicated. Is that you are missing the very fundamental knowledge. Learned in the first year.

Part of that is due to your first company failing you. The things you don't know. I learned in the week of orientation. Ran with 3 separate trainers. Who were required to teach me certain skills. Had to watch training and safety videos and pass tests on them. So by the time I was done with orientation and my 240 hours. I had the foundation to be a professional driver.

The other part of your issue. As already mentioned. Is you should want to learn everything about the job. Any job. Because when you think you know everything there's to know. Is exactly when you should hang up your keys. Cuz that's when you become deadly.

Also. If your company is having you sleep while your students are driving. You're running teams. Not training.

 

Actually they are. Can you train your student with your eyes closed? No.