doubles endorsement

I never got any training to pull doubles than what I remembered to get the endorsement and what I vagule remember when watching a few drivers "make up a set" or "break a set" of trailers. I think I remember being told by a few people "you have to steer more smoothly", "make sure the heavy/hazmat trailer is your lead trailer", and "you cannot make panic stops or the rear trailer will get to the crash before the tractor."

The biggest hassle is connecting all of the equipment and airlines and breaking them apart when you are done. If you are a careful and cautious driver, the driving them is just slightly different. So that means BE CAREFUL, not "eff it, how hard can it be." Also an empty set of doubles is like pulling a medium load in a 53 ft trailer. It's a lot of weight and you will slow down and speed up on hills more than you expect. Most loads in double trailers are light-to-medium in weight.

 

SD and some other Western states allow them. I saw a day cab for my former company pulling twin 53s across SD and was shocked they even had trucks out there and that the puny motors they have in trucks can pull twin 53s.

 

Light to medium weight ? Heck most days I am probably the heaviest (except heavy haul) out here .

 

Kansas allows 2-53's also or they used to.

 

I meant that an EMPTY set of doubles pulls like a moderately loaded dry van. The 2 companies I pulled doubles SOMETIMES were never ever heavy. Maybe I got lucky. I know when I pulled empty vans they went up hills like a rocket but empty doubles never went up hill like I hoped. I would jump out in the left lane knowing I was empty and the dry van in front of me had seals on the doors and I would barely get any speed advantage over having a load on the same hills

 

For the hazmat they have you test with a tank of nitroglycerin.