Upgrading from cdl b to a

CDL A is only going to help you in the job market if you are a driver. I don't know about the Hawaii part though.

You should learn how to drive a standard transmission.

A good CDL school will have the correct equipment to train on. They will give you road time and make sure you at least have the basics down. The vehicle for testing will vary, ask the school you plan to attend.

Most schools will let you try again if you fail for some reason, just don't make a habit out of it.

No, you will not lose your CDL B for going to school.

 

It would not hurt, pretty much the same other than the clutch action. Still quite a few trucks out here with manual transmissions. And if you ever move stateside, your opportunities will be greater if you know how to drive a standard transmission vehicle.

 

if you have "some idea" on how to shift a car, sometimes, it helps you understand shifting a truck. however, there are differences, and many times, it is best NOT to know how to drive a manual car, before you go to trucking school, as you'd have no bad habits on shifting.

it does take time to learn, depending on who's teaching you.

as far as CDL schools out there, sorry, i cannot help you.

 

The easiest people there are to teach how to drive a standard transmission are people who have never driven a standard in a car. The only transmission you need to learn to drive is a 10 speed and from there if they put you in a 13-speed it's no big deal they're easy to learn. The base is a 10 speed.

 

Learning to drive a manual car is the worst thing you could possibly do before attending a trucking school.

 

Transmissions in heavy trucks are non syncronized. YOU are the gear speed to engine matcher using the RPM Gauge in heavy trucks. Usually when you are in 1st and take off you run out to top horse power RPM and need to shift up. Say 1600 RPM in a heavy truck. Hit a hill long enough that RPM decreases until torque rating below which that engine will quit working and start trying to what we call LUG and then finally buck you like a horse before stalling. You will be doing a downshift around 1300 or a little lower in heavy trucks upgrade.

Between those two numbers your engine will have a what we call a sweet spot for maintaining speed all day long. the older air breathing engines without computers usually made music right at that RPM (Roughly 1450 or so in some of the engines Ive had back then)

The numbers I gave you is for a type of shifting that is block. one, two, three and four and split for high range into 5th etc.

There is another type of shifting you may be taught called progressive. Instead of winding out a big truck in first gear all the way to 1600, you might get to say 1350 and then take second. The momentum helps keep it rolling long enough to say 1400 shift to third. Then shift again at 1450 working your way up to 1600 or whatever in or near top gear. Done right, you can literally walk away from anyone winding her out in block shifting and way less fuel.

At some point during school or after in actual trucking you will discover floating if it is not already shown or taught to you. You will find that you can in some situations simply click her out of one gear and into the next without touching that clutch. That's useful in certain situations.

When you ask about types of transmissions, you open a barrel of monkeys, all of which are different combinations of engines and transmission ratios combined with even more differences in gear ratios inside your final tractor drive wheels. There are thousands possible ways to gear, transmission and engine a truck. Usually there is a match that's really good for the job you are trying to do with a big truck. A logger will want max torque, really low grunt lugging and huge final drive gears that turn very slowly for massive traction on the side of a cliff. These will not do well on the highway UNLESS again equipped with a second box behind the transmission to provide over drive. (Need me to open more barrels?)

Anyhow.

Whatever your school has make sure it's a manual truck that is what you will be going to test with against the state examiner in the right seat when you take that test at the DMV. As you already learned auto trucks test out a restriction against manual trans in most states on CDL.

You have experience with motor coaches. Im assuming three axle monsters with near 60000 pounds and big truck engines to boot. You already have some knowledge of what a tractor will do under a trailer loaded to 80000 or more together. The behavior is essentially the same without the liability of a 45 foot wheelbase on your coach. You might even find the ride much better behind the steers in those conventional tractors.

As far as your CDL B being at risk should you fail a CDL A test? Quite possibly. Ask the DMV questions in advance. Long enough so that they will forget you and your face when you do show up weeks later with a tractor trailer to take your test.

Schooling will teach you again just enough to drive a 18 wheeler with the state DMV examiner without killing anyone. Your real education begins with your first dispatched load. Good luck, get going yer late already.

 

Not to take this topic in the wrong direction, but I find this interesting.

I drove concrete ready mix trucks (mixers) for more than a decade, and we never touched our clutches unless we were coming to a stop or starting from a standstill... Never. Every shift was floated.

I remember once, just for fun, I tried using my clutch on the road, and I got hung up between gears.

I've often wondered if everyone did it this way. I guess not.

I'm considering upgrading from a commercial Class B license to a Class A. I too have been driving motor coaches and got an automatic transmission restriction put on my license I'd like to have removed, so this thread is helpful.

 

I've been driving standard transmission car for a few years and I thought that learning how to drive 10spd in a truck would be easy. Holy hell was I wrong...