mistakes that let everyone know youre a rookie

One day last week, I stayed in a hotel for 2 nights while completing a 34 restart. I dropped my trailer to make it easier to get some shopping done and visit friends in the area. The parking lot of the hotel was sloped, and the slope had the trailer leaning to the right when I backed under the loaded trailer early Monday morning for the 70 mile drive to the receiver. I triple checked to make sure that the 5th wheel plate was square to the trailer apron and the landing gear was lifted slightly before engaging the trailer kingpin. Everything looked good, but hooking on the slope still bugged me for some reason.

I turned right out of the hotel parking lot, then made the right turn onto the on-ramp for the Interstate and began climbing the grade. I checked my mirrors after I shifted to 7th and was alarmed to see that the trailer was leaning to the left. I confirmed the lean in both mirrors before shifting to 8th and continuing to accelerate. I looked again and confirmed that the trailer indeed appeared to be leaning left, and I figured that I should probably pull onto the shoulder and investigate. I signaled and came to a smooth stop on the shoulder of the on-ramp, set the tractor parking brake, and checked the mirrors for traffic in preparation to exit and check the trailer suspension. It was then that I realized that the 'lean' (which was no longer visible) was caused by the flex of the tractor frame from the torque of the drive train pulling the grade of the on-ramp.

duh!

 

I consider my self a rookie still , i never made a big mistake but there has been few close calls . I deliver produce to Winnipeg MB and i do this every week , delivery is at 5am and its still dark up there at that time . Dock is lil hard to back in you have to come from the street and pull in around the median on the left and side walk on the right , all this is easy to see in summer when there is no snow but my luck everything was covered by it.I started to back up and i was lazy to get out and check where i was , so i continued to back up until the trailer got stuck on my drive tires , because i ran over a 1 1/2 ft side walk that was covered by snow . Out side was -47 F i had to find 2x4 and place it under the landing gear , drop the gear and drop the bags in the tractor , then i used another 2x4 and placed between trailer and tractor frame , let the air in the tractor air bags and roll up landing gear pulled forward . lesson learned hard way but i had enough knowledge to overcome the problem . Only thing i can say is that i felt like total tool for messing this one up.

 

I think the #1 thing that let's folks know you are a rookie is.... white knuckle driving. You all know it, the tension in your hands and arms, tension when you clutch, tension when you shift.

I remember the very first time I got behind the wheel of a big rig, headed eastbound on I-84 in Oregon with a fresh permit in my wallet and my brother in the copilot seat. "You'll be fine," he said. Next thing I know I'm grinding gears and getting up to freeway speed with concrete barriers and narrow lanes, getting passed by other big rigs and skeered out of my skull! After that session behind the wheel the palm of my right hand literally was swollen and black and blue from trying to jam it in gear.

One thing about staying relaxed at the wheel itself, whenever I feel any slight amount of tension in my hands or arms I remember to relax my grip and pretend I'm softly gripping a golf club properly (like you're trying to hold a sparrow in your hands without crushing it). Then just let my elbows relax and drop down to my sides. Once you are properly holding the steering wheel and allowing your arms to be soft and relaxed you will find you can feel the road better and make much smoother turns. Getting all tense in the arms results in yanking the steering wheel.

This infamous video of the Donner Pass Rollover accident captures what can happen when you are tense and yanking the steering wheel. The trainee behind the wheel got complacent westbound over Donner Pass, probably figuring the last of the downgrades was behind him, tried to downshift and didn't get it in gear (it was out of gear when they did the post accident investigation), then got all tense trying to negotiate the curves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wifwg6xWVAU

Notice as the speeding truck passes the video equipped truck the trailer fishtails, then the driver yanks the wheel hard left again, causing another fishtail, then yanks a 3rd time and steps on the brakes and the tractor/trailer rides up onto the right wheels and the wheels explode. I think that even if he was out of gear he could have survived the experience if he'd just pulled through that corner smoothly, without yanking on the wheel. Certainly if he'd used his service brakes hard before the corner to control speed before the corner he'd been alright, and if he'd slowed enough to get into the next gear down at a low rpm he'd have been fine.

 

Bending your fairings on the side of your trailer

Sent from my HTC ONE courtesy of Tapatalk.

 

I have had my cab turned pretty hard and they were never even close. Those that have mashed them must have been almost pointing backwards with the cab!

Mikeeee

 

Doing a Drop and Hook.

Hooked to an Empty Trailer, got out to hook up my air hoses.
Noticed the Trailer was a bit high....no problem pulled the fifth wheel release, was going to lower the trailer a bit.....
Truck Started rolling.....

I used to HAVE a bad habit of not setting the Brakes on the Truck when I hook to a Trailer.
USED TO.....

 

I knew a driver that did this, He tried to jump back into his truck but lost his grip and fell. The truck rolled over him and killed him.

 

I had my tractor start to roll on 2 different occasions while dropping and hooking.
I came up with a new rule for me . If my butt leaves the seat, my tractor brakes are set.

 

You say "breaker one nine" before you talk. You call another driver "good buddy".