New female driver with female drive partner All advice and tips needed!!!

Chinatown has earned for himself a place on these forums. Even in my understanding of him.

Let me be just a little bit unpopular for a minute (Actually less than that...) and say you really need to cool your roll or quiet your thunder. I realize you have the boundless energy of someone entering a new land as it were (To Paraphrase) and leaving behind a persecution land that you endrued for a time.

My ex, she allowed FFE to handle the tuition on trucking school here in Little Rock with two thoughts. I am formally promoted to trainer specifically for her when she gets out of school And she gets a nice 6 hour ride direct to Dallas from our house rather than put up with crappy Bus service or air etc.

One of the officers said that if we ran more miles than our combined pay, my 2000 plus gross salary each week and Ex's own training pay which worked out to just a bit over 600 per week gross. On week 6 we had hit it. Now we understood.

The second thing was to use some of that money to enter into her construction which was ready in three days having successfully Birth a new machine. And... to pay off both the Student Training investment. And to pay off the student loan.

In Boston one afternoon, a total and complete random double check with both the FFE and School to confirm that ex's tuition was paid, we pulled off the Mass Pike and picked up the pay phone. IN 15 minutes we had learned that no one 9Especailly us) have paid anything on the 1800 remaining and they were fixing to sue us into collections. We went ahead and put that 1800 onto a chase visa which is a good bank for those requireing discretion. The balance would stand for life until paid. But we bulked up and paid it off. FFE rewarded us with a couple of new things to accommodate the accommodation We liked the new reefer They could thaw a Popsicle and see it become unstuck from the metal floor without getting stuck. And most especially without losing whatever fluid value it had in it.

I fought constantly to make sure spouse was given every consideration by Lancaster Texas. I went through a couple dispatchers the way a teenage kid burned through a set of new tires. We ran into one dispatcher who was a rock that we needed and craved. To get him to change anything was a minor MIracle as far as we were concerjed So we kept him, made sure he was until the company started easing him ouf that (For Him) and inter

 

There is one tidbit I will gift to you two here and now.

If you are driving, other teammate is in bunk There is a standing order to wake that person up one of two ways. The first method is a exceptionally severe application of braking. This application goes to the floor when loaded. And come off the floor right quick so that you and your sleeping teammate is provided with that special "Drag" feeling that is pretty heavy. That sleeping teammate will wake up.

If done with finesse and timing leaving everything else aside for the moment, your rig will slow a few moments until the service brakes come off. Back up the cruise she goes. Or she remains at that speed temporarily until a small restoration of lost air volume of air is replaced.

IF that does not wok, then we are going to throw things at the legs of the sleeping teammate. Make sure that the item does not have enough mass upon impact to penertrate a artery or something pretty important there.

Worse case scenario is to stop in a rest area. Or some spot. Remember to take off before heavy wrecker is called to get you two. Sometimes the batteries are a focus of attention for a variety of reasons. Usually involving money.

I have to stop typing for now. I am experiencing fundenmental errors this early in the morning at 1 am which need correct Generally topic like these are put to bed and wait the morning.

 

All Valid points.

A few more thoughts from my end. Ridgeline does a excellent job. Basically one can argue he IS a company and make a good case for it. We don't always agree, but sometimes we do. This time, I agree with him.

The term Retread refers to a tire that has had it's original tread shaved off. Until the surface that is left is literally fuzz. A NEW TREAD shows up. Then put on the old tire that has been heated and glue applied just so. When the new tread cures onto the old tire. It's looking pretty good.

However. In the world of trucking, retreads have never been acceptable to me. I require pure retail tires replaced with another retail tires replaced. They can send those off to retread if they like. I won't be involved in it. Retreads will not be put on my rig. Fortunately you can generally identify retreads easily. The side wall has a dull color while just the tread portion looks black and shiny new. (Because it is.)

When maintained PROPERLY, and DRIVEN PROPERLY.... *Knocks on your desk.... retreads can get an additional amount of miles out of the original tire with a literal second life. When I say Nitrogen as a form of inflation material for car tires, we rely on this to keep tires cool in the summer.

The problem with Nitrogen is that it makes up 70% of our atmosphere in gas form. We walk around in what is essentially a 50 mile high blanket of Nitrogen. Oxygent, and a number or truly rare gases. Oxygen makes up 20% of our breath. But #### near provides 100% of oxidation, basically a hazmat material that IS THE FIRE in the Celluar Level to provide life.

Nitrogen also has a hard time escaping a tire. Air molecules generally can escape a rotting tire. I have 4 bad tires on my Tahoe right now, those are going to be replaced in a week or so with just about 160 dollars worth of used tire, selected by the two of us (Manager who has to certify that the tires are not leaking when installed.) He will also be installing Nitrogen into all 4 tires so part of the reason besides leaking is that they stay cool in our hottest time of the year which is supposed to be now for the next 6 weeks. But due to global cooling, someone chose to see fit to pop the temperature balloon so that we are not burning in 110 degree weather right now. Those tropical storms have much to do with it, balancing the weather like they are supposed to and making everything pretty nice.

Anyway.

There is one part dissertation about tires, you will be taught more about them in school. From time to time trouble makers decide to tell me I know nothing. That's fine. I put them on the ignore list and keep on trucking because tires is the number one item in all of trucking. I don't lose too many of them, but I remember clearly each of the 30 or so I have lost and why they were lost in my time out there.

Most likely someone will tell you that the two outside tires on a trailer behind you on the RIGHT SIDE is the most expensive item in a montly budget across the whole fleet. Because people who are new turn tight in a intersection and fail to keep a eye on that set of tires which then rub the curb and tear apart. Usually quietly as the beads fail. Sometimes violently when you go up against a hydrant and jerk it loose or something else. It is usually preventable losses. Sometimes deducted from your paycheck.

I will look over your tires as you go down the highway in your training etc. Your tires nice and pretty tell me that you do very well with them, without the BS scraping and tearing them up. That is what I want to see. (*Strange I eyeball tractor trailer tires first before I eyeball women.. but I leave that up to others... /tease)

Im going to break this post up in one more for this morning. As the new week develops I will be adding more material.

 

I cannot tell you or reinforce ENOUGH everyone who has advocated a dash cam of some quality.}
If you get a cam with lat, long of sufficient accuracy be prepared for problems in speeding. You could theoretically get a ticket for speeding recorded on such a dash cam at that level of precision date and time, GPS backed positioning. Lat and log etc. And speed information among other things.

A few moments of video shown to the Law after a wreck generally decides the entire issue. If it gets to the courts because the instigator fo the wreck is too stupid to understand that cameras rule and generally WIN provided you did everything right prior to the smash.

I finally get a chance to circle around to a topic that is pretty close to my heart.

My Ex and I are a team until the day we die. We don't date, we don't carry on or have relations etc because that's sinful due to our divorce. We both are free. But we choose to love one another and team up so that whatever comes up in life we will solve the problem and move forward. 95% of divorced couples however choose to sink knives into each other any way they can. And We think that's just horrible. We did not survive cancer to keep backstabbing each other.

Anyhow.

You two are female. Evidently the subject of dating, sex etc will come up at some point in trucking. I condense that into what my instructors taught us in class. IF the Antennas are circling don't you go a-knocking. Savvy? What might happen is you have a audience of 50 making pointed remarks about the performance of the antennas that tell all the actiivty inside. He he he.

Now that is all I will say about that.

95, 85 and 75 has been horrible the entire East coast over the decades because there is so much drug threat, contamination etc. Particularly dating to around 1978 versus the aids virus. among a segement of the population. Followed by the economic collapse and a increase in prositution along with the rise in the illegal drug trade. You can seriously damage your health that you require to stay good for trucking. At some point in the future, hopefully beyond 70 years old you can hope to retire with all your parts and maybe 10000 grandsons and daughters to spoil at home.

Ok moving on.

If you google earth map Jackson TN (Denmark is also another name for it) off 40 which will be about 100 miles east of Memphis give or take a few miles. It used to be a older 76 Truckstop system which was very good when I first came that far west and south back about 1991.

The truck stop had purchased land in the 90's, poured two or three acres of gravel making for a wonderful little overflow lot for quiet parking. Walk across. Eat dinner, Come back across, go down the highway or get some sleep. Pretrip everything carefully come morning. Because it is a high crime area thanks to Memphis. Puts pre-trip into a interesting problem with anticipation to what you might find wrong with that truck.

Fast forward to roughly middle of 2001. Spouse had pulled in to get fuel. She had standing orders from me, specifically that old decaying truckstop with rising crime to PARK in the overflow across the street. But due to a combination that only a wife understands she chose not to obey orders that day right then. I was asleep in the bunk pulling my 10 prior to a all night run into New Mexico if possible. Shamrock Texas was a goal as well based on where I might be taking over from Spouse.

Spouse goes pay for fuel. She comes back to truck half running for safety, being pursued by a sexual predator. Who also instantly became in our eyes a home invader because that cab is our home. (As well as a office for our way of life) This late 30's pudgy was moving along well enough thinking he will rape her but good inside that cab where no one will hear her screams.

Spouse bounces into the tractor. (They teach you in training to use three limbs to board and dismount a 18 wheeler.) but in this emergency, it seems like she just took a giant hop and was in the tractor right quick. Before she got the door slammed shut (In my ear no less...) door opens again, predator, invader is now inside our cab reaching for her. Eyes locked on her as prey. His neck was bulging and pulsing in sexual anticipation of what is fixing to happen all around that got him really excited and even more aggressive.

I woke up pretty much instantly, Marine Corps Ka Bar 8 inch blade clears it's place under the matress and a viciously fast swing is taken at that bad guy's neck. Nice big neck too. About the size of a pumpkin. Would have been a really bad mess. He sees the blade coming to kill him. To his credit that pudgy roll of sparetire and big neck vanishes out of our cab like smoke and made it into the back old parking lot behind the 76's main building in like 4 steps. Giant steps of a very scared man fleeing.

Shes on the phone to the law. I hopped into the drivers seat, just me and what little on, stabbed the knife into the padding of that seat (That was a interesting story time to shop boss standing over my damaged seat... I should just have paid the 1000 dollars for a new bosch seat or something. and bolted it in myself.)

And we had that thing westbound in no time at all. We did not stop in Shamrock. We kept moving. All the way to Kingman. It's one of the few times chemicals in the blood for fight or flight make it impossible to sleep. Logs be ######.

I made a new standing order that day. No more Jackson TN 76 regardless of the situation.

That is one crime committed that never really got to the law. Nor made a mess anymore than it has to with that seat. Spouse understood now why I told her certain standing orders. And it did take crime against her and I to make sure that she did not blow me off next time whatever else might be required. Im glad to this day I did not kill the man. It would have made a big time mess what with the blood and all in that stupid cab.

It goes to show you how life can go from happy to ###### in about 4 seconds. You cannot depend on whatever plans you make for the day and night. Only God decides how it goes in fact given enough time to pass.

Good luck. Im finished here for a few days Im pretty sure to come up with something else to teach you before school. Im not going to allow you two to hit the road clueless. That's not going to happen if I can help it.

 

Hello DrivingFool,

I see, or read, a lot of good and helpful information and advice and things to be aware of here in this thread. Valuable information.

However, I haven't read anything concerning a certain trait many Big truck truck drivers seem to have in common.
Stories.

(Do you know how to tell the difference between a fairy tale and a Big truck truckin' story?

Well,...... a fairy tale starts out,
"once upon a time", ----
And a trucker tale starts out,
"Y'all ain't gonna believe this she hit", ---)

To put it more bluntly, ... Big truck truck driver stories are, quite often, nothing more than bovine excrement.