Help a trucker wannabe out!

Sorry, I've been *really* busy and had a lot of stuff going on if you can imagine. So I thought I'd build some suspense and take advantage of my delay. An update is coming soon.....Did I pass, or do I have to retake? Where do things stand? Let's find out!

 

Frank,

Ironically, the Alley Docking became my favorite skill. Here's the deal. The place you at a 45 degree angle, right? That's really crappy set up. But the let you do a pull up for as far as you need to go so that's HUGE.

So here's what you do. After you complete your set up, turn your wheel one turn to the right so your trailer moves to the left. Hold that turn until you see the glad hands or registration of the trailer in your left mirror. Now turn extremely lazily to the left so your trailer slowly begins to move towards the right.

If you do this you'll miss the Alley Dock by a mile but miss it wide. As long as you miss it wide it doesn't matter. So you've completely missed the Alley dock by a mile, right? What to do? Move your wheel far to the right and hold that until you can't see the Alley Dock at all out of your right mirror. Now do a complete right turn and hold it. Look in your right mirror. When you see the right flag in your right mirror hit the brakes. Now all you have to do is get your truck and trailer straight with a small pull up. Now you've set yourself up for a straight back. Just back the truck straight into the Alley Dock and you're done.

 

So Monday was my school yard skills and driving test. These are tests the school gives in order to grade me and provide me with a GPA based on yard, driving skills. They also graded on the pre-trip. However, these are just school grades, they don't give me a CDL. I'd still have to take my state tests.

So I did my pre-trip and if you remember in the beginning this was the area I was most worried about. Chris the mechanic really helped me get prepped for my pre-trip and I completed it with a 98 percent because I missed 2 items out of 100. Needless to say I was will prepared for it.

Next was my backing skills. The school tests 5 skills: Straight-back, Blind-side, Sight-side, Alley Dock, and Serpentine. I was confident with my Alley Dock and my Straight-back but slightly worried about Blind-side/Sight-side. I really didn't feel like I was prepared to pass my Serpentine.

So I started with my Straight-back and uncharacteristically, allowed the drive train tire out of the box temporarily, so I recieved a 95 percent on that skill.

Next was the Blind-side and Sight-side and both were similar. I did both with one pull up and one encroachment on the "curb side" which gave me 85 percents on both.

Next came the dreaded Serpetine. The issue I had been having was that I was losing my perspective. I would lose my place and almost forget where I was going. It was such a large combination of moves that I was really getting lost in the manuveur. However, to my advantage, they let you get out of the truck and look unlike the state (it makes no sense that the state doesn't allow you out of the truck, that's a normal part of the backing process in the real world). So I began my Serpentine and lost my perspective, but got out of the truck. I realized that my truck was headed straight back to the second cone. No wonder I was losing my perspective. So I took a pull up to get my angle.

Then I proceeded to do something I don't normally do, I crushed the second cone because I didn't do enough of a pull up. There's a first time for everything I suppose. What's interesting was that was the only other issue I had. Beyond that I was able to get the truck on the other side and do a perfect straight back with minor corrections to get to the cone on the driver side door. I completed the Serpentine with a 90 percent, pretty good for somebody who felt they were a sheep to the slaughter. What was great was the Serpentine isn't tested by the State so I didn't have to worry about it again. What a relief!

Next came my driver test for the school. Just like with the state, there are four ways I can fail. I can allow the truck to out of gear for it's length (tractor and trailer), hit a curb with the trailer, run a red light, or speed (I'd assume that crashing the truck is frowned upon as well, but they didn't mention that).

I did well on my school driving test and primarily struggled with not double clutching, which meant I was grinding gears. What's annoying about this is this was a regression in my shifting skills because I wasn't on the road for awhile. So much focus was placed on yard skills and with the weekend that I actually hadn't driven in 4 days. As a result, with my limited experience, my shifting actually *regressed*.

But, I passed! That's what's important. And with that, I have to go to dinner so you'll need to hear the rest (and interesting parts) later! I'll be back!