Advice for teaching lane control

DAng saw my spelling those orange groves in the middle of the lanes are a pain.

 

To the OP [original poster], I suggest that she align the truck so that her right knee is pointing down the center of the lane. Just a suggestion; hope it works for her.

 

Looking at a hood ornament to line up with the fogline is too shortsighted. Look far ahead where the lines in the road appear to come to a point and aim for the center. Other than that, just lots of time in the saddle and getting airhorned by aggravated truckers will straighten up most newer drivers.

 

I have seen some when airhorned swerve hard and the wrong way because they are stressed already So no blasting the horn when somebody is troubled, we all started somewhere and have our bad days, we need to start bringing back that helping hand we used to give and heck just to scare people..smile.

 

Tell her to use her mirrors. She should be centered in the lane which mean equal space on both sides between the tandems and stripes. When she's centered have her pick a reference point in front for where both lines should be disappearing. Doing that she should get accustomed to what centered is and account for different lane widths. The same for turning, she should be watching the tandems to be sure she's not turning too soon or late. It's hard tell whether you got it right or wrong if you're just guessing as to what happened as a result.

 

My wife and I were on a road trip in a rental car last year. She insisted on driving at one point to let me sleep since we started after I got off work in the morning after I ran all night.

She kept over correcting and I couldn't even relax, let alone sleep. I looked at her eyes to see where she was looking and, sure enough, she was looking right in front of us.

I explained the Smith System principle, "Aim High in Steering," and why it's so important. Her lane control straightened right out immediately. I periodically had to remind her, but just fixing that bad habit made her a much better driver.

I'm convinced most bad driving is attributable to people simply not looking at where they're going.

 

When she's looking at the mirrors note how long she's looking at each mirror. If its more than a fraction of a second she'll also be turning the wheel in the direction she's looking.

Also, quit using the fog line as a reference. Its too far away from straight forward in the direction the truck should be traveling. Have her sit in her driving position and put a small piece of masking tape on the inside left edge of the windshield where she can see the zipper in her peripheral vision when she's looking straight ahead.

The tape should be high enough that she can glance at it without turning her head and see its lined up with the zipper and the truck will always be centered in the lane. The height should be about where she would see the top of a left fender mirror if you had one.

Learning lane integrity is critical but she and you need to understand it takes time, focus and practice. Its a matter of pattern recognition that becomes second nature over time.

Frank

 

I did not read the whole thread, but I will offer this: It may be that she is constantly trying to correct the truck/steering - oversteering causing her to wag the rig down the road.

 

My daughter when she was 17, I stuck her in one of my trucks and taught her how to drive. She had the same issue so I had her pull over, measured how high she was sitting and got into the seat, adjusted the seat as close as I could to her height, then I pull out a marker and put a dot right on the windshield. She got back into the drivers seat and I told her to look at the dot, that's where she needs to look, not down, not to the right or left but to that dot. She stopped wandering all over the road and is a good driver with any vehicle.

 

When we assume we make an ### out of u and me. If she just watches the horizon she'll hold her position but she'll be assuming where she is in her lane. Apparently she's wrong in that assumption. She likely positioning herself over the lane the same as if she was driving a car. The problem is she's in a vehicle 2'-3' wider so she riding the edge line. That she's wrong, knows she's wrong, is likely why she's oversteering bouncing over rough pavement.

She has to get feedback on her actual position. If nothing else have her run down the rumble strip. She can see, hear and feel it. I don't mean drive 100 miles on it, but intentionally drift onto it. When the road is empty do it on the left as well.

Looking at the horizon helps maintain position right or wrong. She isn't new to driving she's new to driving a truck. She has the basics, it's the specifics she lacks. With every new driver where is that trailer. You have to look then, eventually you looked so much you don't need to look no more. Then you run over something and realize you're always going to have to look.

I worked at one company where we had two drivers run over ib a truck stop by s guy with 25 years experience. He came flying into to the truck stop, stopped, threw it in reverse and backed right into that spot on the first try. Too bad it was over top of those two drivers. You always have to actually look rather than assume.