Real World Quiz for Newbies.

A smart man learns from his experiences, a wise man learns from the experiences of others. I do not know who first said that but I have heard it all my life. My dad wouldn't shut up.

The idea that I have been kicking around in my head for this thread is for those of us with experience to sure ours as well are our thought process with the newbies. What I would like is for us to post a problem we have faced as drivers and to see if the newbies can take advantage of our experiences to add to their wisdom. I do not want the old heads to just answer the questions but rather guide the newbies in how to think. How to solve the problems they will run into on the road when they are alone. Let them figure it out. When they have, post another problem or two or three or however many and keep the thread going. I am only going to post the first one.

I have worked as a local driver as well as a OTR driver. (that is a clue). I started out driving one night. I had three stops. All drop and hook. Kansas City to Omaha. That went fine. Omaha to Kearney, NE that went fine. Kearney to Kansas City ouch. Something was wrong. The road was like a wash board. Every bump drove into my body. I was going to be pounded to death on the way home. I have driven these roads ever night for a long time. Something was different.

What mistake had I made? Why did I make that mistake in the first place? And what was the fix?

Again, old heads will know this right away (maybe). Let the newbies figure it out and then post a new problem. Thanks.

 

That is absolutely correct.

The correct way to drop a trailer this. First you want to move your tandems all the way to the rear. This is for safety's sake. You do not want the trailer to jump up when a forklift drives into it. Then you back into the dock and chock the wheels. Crank down the landing gear. The land gear should be lowered until it is about 1 inch from the ground. Using a king pin puller, pull the king pin handle. Check to see if the king pin jaws open. Then flip the air bag switch to lower you air bags. Disconnect your air lines and electrical. Start up, release your tractor brakes and pull out. Once you pull forward, flip the switch to pump up your air bags. The reason to dump your air is that you do not want to drop your trailer on your wheels. There is a rod at the back of your tractor that can get bent from doing so. It will sound like your transmission is going to drop out if you do bend it. I know, I made that mistake also.

So, now someone else post a problem. It can be about anything. Hopeful, this thread will be useful.

 

TStreet, I am sure you have learned a lot in your 30 plus years behind the wheel. I am sure you found yourself where you had to figure out what that noise was or how to maneuver around something. I am sure you have some knowledge that would be better shared then taken to your grave someday *not soon.

Another question. Before you go up or down a mountain. You have places where you can pull off to adjust your brakes. This is for more then just stopping. It is to help prevent Jackknifing. How do you adjust your brakes and why? Knowing you should and knowing how are two very different things.

Newbies have questions but lots of times they do not know what questions they should ask before it is too late. Let us ask those questions based on what we have learned.