What to expect during my mentorship

Yeah, my hair is always like that. The face is a mudbath my wife smeared on me while I was sleeping one night. Had to change my skivvies after I walked into the bathroom and saw that face staring back at me. Needless to say, it wasn't the face I was expecting.

 

First things first.

Glad you are on your way home so you can be with your family in a crisis. That's important and I know it all too well.

Congratulations for being able to begin to get a handle on your shifting. It may actually be beneficial for you to do the same thing once you get you own truck. There will be times when you thin you have a million things to do all at once. Slow down and tell yourself out loud what you are going to do. Some people learn when they see things done, some people learn when they hear things, even if they tell it to themselves.

NOW.... for the questions and my humble opinions.

1) There are a lot of drivers out here, but "professional drivers" are few and far between. The folks you seem to be experiencing on the road is what we like to call "steering wheel holders". The professional drivers take pride in what they do and are courteous, among other quality traits. Steering wheel holders have none of those qualities and seem to put "self" over everything else.

This forum has a good mix of both. Some want to help, but some simply want to be critical of others and are never helpful.

2) My first thought was maybe the ones who don't drive a consistent speed have some form of the Adaptive Cruise Control. What that does is it maintains the same following distance regardless of speed, up to the maximum speed you have your cruise control set on.

For example, the truck can cruise at 68 MPH and you see another truck in the distance. You catch him, but after a while, you realize you aren't gaining on him anymore. You then glance at your speedometer and notice you are only going 65 MPH. So you change lanes to get out from behind him. The truck will start to pick up speed again because nothing is in front of it, so it can get back to 68.

Soon, that same truck comes up on another truck and the same process begins again, but this time, you are the truck he passed earlier and the truck he caught is only doing 63. You pass both of them and he realizes you are the same he passed earlier, so once you are clear, he passes you again. The driver is simply not paying close enough attention to what he is doing or his mind is preoccupied with a podcast, a ballgame, etc.

Some drivers like to do it, just to show you they can.

3) This one has been debated over and over again. Some say it's the passing truck's responsibility to make the pass, some say the professional thing to do is for the truck being passed to come off of the cruise for a second as it helps the passing truck make the pass.

For a long time, I was of the former opinion. If you get out to pass me, it's your responsibility to make the pass and I'm not gonna lift to save my life. In recent years, I've taken the latter opinion. Kicking it off of cruise for a few seconds doesn't take much effort, it helps the passer pass, and (assuming the passing truck gets back over) frees up the passing lane for even faster vehicles to make the pass.

When it comes to me passing another vehicle, (again, my truck has the forward radar, so I can see how fast the vehicle in front of me is going), my rule of thumb is if I can go 3 MPH faster than the vehicle in front of me, I will pass them (he is running 68 and I can run 71). If it's only 2 MPH difference, I get comfortable behind them. I also read the traffic in the passing lane. If there is no visible traffic in the left lane, I may give it a shot passing him with 2 MPH difference. On the other hand, if there is a bunch of traffic coming up, there is no sense in me trying to make the pass with 3 MPH difference. Let them go, then get around the other vehicle.

@G13Tomcat I gave it a shot. Did it meet your expectations?? LoL