Best way to study for your Pre Trip test?

Go to a truck stop and watch how all yhe experienced drivers do it...

Oh wait no one does one.

 

Do a search on YouTube. There are quite a few good ones, especially those featuring DOT officers showing how they do an inspection.

 

You learn pre-trip in CDL School.
In the mean time, scroll to top of this page and click on "CDL Practice Tests" and start memorizing.

 

Walk around the truck one time. Touching everything bolted, welded, attached to or poured into it. Nothing on a big truck is just there.

Repeat the walkaround with a formal list of things to check.

Repeat.

And repeat.

Eventually after many repeats you have it in routine memory inside yourself. You start here and go around checking this, that, something, or other etc as you go.

 

I would add this.

DO IT THE SAME WAY EVERY TIME.
Get into a pattern, and keep that pattern.

My dispatcher has in the past complained that I always find something wrong with our trucks (when I have to drive one different than my normal rig).
The boss has consistently backed me up by saying that it was because I did a pre-trip on those trucks and caught the anomalies, unlike the regular drivers who didn't do a pre-trip.
I've almost always had to add Oil and Coolant to every single truck I've driven. Because the previous drivers didn't even bother to open the hood and look. On many occasions its been gallons of each. As well as gallons of washer fluid.
But that was because I did my pre-trip and did it in the same way every time.

 

There is a video on YouTube. It's by the APEX CDL institute. It's about an hour long and I find that it's most informative video on pre trips that I found.

 

Kick the tires light the fires!

Honestly, the DOT pretrip only makes sense if you slip seat. I do a thorough pre trip on my truck like one time and then I live in it for god knows how long. I don't need to keep checking the brakes over and over in a week. I know that I barely use them and they always check fine. I don't need to check the oil over and over again because I know it doesn't burn or leak any. So I'll check it when I have the hood up for cleaning or whatever. I don't need to check the washer fluid over and over again because I know on the last trip I didn't use any. I DO check tires on every trip because they can change from one trip to another. But fluid levels don't change unless they leak or are used. You can do an airbrake test but I can tell you in a heartbeat if a truck will pass or fail with the trailer that is attached. I do check trailers well because I pick up different ones all the time. But my tractor, no. I live in it. I know every noise it makes.

If you slip seat. yea. But assigned trucks, nah.