Is stalling the tractor an automatic fail on the road test?

I honestly couldn't tell you what gear a make a turn in. I just go, if I need to speed up I grab another gear (I know, no shifting in turns), If I need to slow down I drop a gear.

To just say you need to be in 5th gear in turns is too broad of a statement. Every trans is different, trucks have different axle ratios, and every turn is different. If you can't tell by ear, watch that tach. Keep her between 1200 and 2100 and you'll be fine.

I don't know what the proper term is but people try to put to much into diving a truck. Start off in 4th gear, make turns in 5th, turn the wheel to 3:00 and then back to 9:00 to back into a dock, and such. All that sounds good on paper but rarely works in the real world where you have hills, flat ground, sharp turns, not so sharp turns, and combinations of all. I don't see how anybody learns how to drive a truck trying to micro-manage every action you take.

 

Back in my driving days I used two paste on arrows on my tach. These arrows were my lower and upper tach limits. I NEVER allowed my RPM's to get below that lower limit unless I had my clutch engaged. I advise all new drivers to find out your engine makers optimal RPM range and STAY within it. (you will make a mechanic smile if you do so).

 

Actually with experience you can tell by the sound of the engine without even looking at the tach.

 

That's why I said in my above statement "If you can't tell by ear, watch that tach". If you let your truck buck and jump you can't tell by ear quite yet because your ear would have told you what was going on long before that happened.

 

I admit the sound part is more about shifting and downshifting. I remember once making a Fuji film delivery in downtown Indy. Getting around those streets was not easy. I was pulling a 53 footer and had to go very slow. If my memory is right I was in 4th gear most of the time. On this issue I can quote the CDL examiners I know almost verbatim. If you show me you can't control your RPM's I will fail you.Most of these cats are truckers and old school. They don't suffer fools well.

 

He wasn't trying out for "truck driver of the year"
He'll hopefully go out with a trainer and be shifting and making turns better in no time.

 

You are not understanding my comment. You really need to be able to control RPM's. IF you can't in my opinion you are not ready to hold a CDL. It is not about "truck driver of the year" it is about basic control of the vehicle you are driving. New and lazy drivers do thousands if not millions of dollars of damage every year by abusing their engines, brakes and clutch. Hang around a diesel shop long enough and you will see this. A driver should have the basic skills of RPM control and shifting after the 2nd week of school. This is also about another basic issue that is not within the scope of this thread, but there are many drivers that graduate from schools pass skills testing but don't have the common sense God Gave a #######.

Edited to add something I just got in an email. New and lazy drivers also have been known to drop the driveshafts out of trucks. That email is from a trainer I know that is on his smartphone at the Atlanta Greyhound bus station RIGHT NOW. He is on his way back to Ohio to get another Tractor because his student jammed the shifter into gear and dropped the driveshaft and did a lot of damage. I think the company has sent the student home.

 

He is just starting out and hasn't been driving for 45 years.
I went to CDL school for maybe 10 days, learned just enough to pass the tests and get my CDL, then I went out with a trainer for.....






training.

 

If you have not got my point by now your never going to do so and I will no longer waste my time on it.

 

Yeah it would have been a fail in my state as well. So congrats on making it through.

Take the supertruckers with a grain of salt. Since nobody is born with a shifter in their hand everybody has to learn.

Good luck!