Backing

i can only speak of what my students go through, and that is, the shifting problems that some have had. if they have to come to a complete stop, and start all over again, this is ok...ONCE....and sometimes, the tester allows it a second time....but some testers fail the student if the student had to come to a complete stop ONCE. again, the only "consistency" is inconsistency amongst the testers. my former employer (school) was making the students take the tests long before they were ready, accounting for the high failure rate. my current employer however, we do not force the students to the test until they are as near perfect as they can be, but at times, someone gets real nervous.......and has to come to a complete stop to start all over again..

but the o/p of this thread is NOT ready.....and to ask people (on a board mind you) for help in backing, rather than HIS instructor does him NO GOOD...we cannot see his problem, but HIS instructor can..!!

it's like a 4th year med student asking a board how to perform an open heart surgery, sight unseen....would anyone really know of any details his leaving out, or WHAT HE SEE's...????

 

8 years"

 

Everyone has great advice for you, but, Practice, practice, practice. Thats the only way.

 

Most of the mass test sites are shut down, only Everett and sturbridge are testing now. to many troopers retired that did the testing i guess, had heard eaton was cool but hes been throwing some curve balls lately. (adding in more cones trying to confuse you ect) Should be interesting.

Wish mass was that easy, cab has to be in the box as well, and like rerun said, hit a cone, line, or dont double shift automatic fail. also 3 pull ups and three get outs, any more and you fail. On the bright side if you do fail something you only have to retest on what you failed. not like RI were if you fail you start from scratch.

 

Downshift for your test....works for most trucks from what I remember...9th gear 45/40 8th gesr 35/30 7th gear 25/20 etc.....what you tach.....on downs for the double clutch if u r having a prob. imo...clutch in neutra,l rpm up, fake the clutch,(put your foot on it) and slide into gear. as long as you make the motion the test will not pay much attention....I am old school but had to do a refresher 04/11 didnt have to take state test but test out with instructors..believe it or not I had to double clutch

 

Some drivers take longer to learn skills like backing and shifting. Usually, the instructors work on yard skills and driving skills at the same time. Backing in various situations such as tight quarters takes time to learn. I didn't do all that well on the alley dock but they passed me. Shifting is something that you'll pick up pretty soon in most cases. Backing will take longer. Concentrate on passing the test and when you get out on the job w/ a trainer you'll gain competance within a year or so. Main mistake I made on backing was oversteering. You have to get a feel for the angles that drive the trailer around and put it and the tractor in the position you want. Get out and look, especially at night in tight quarters.

 

There is a lot to learn with backing. There's plenty of time to learn it better on the job.

Keep in mind that docking when the trailer tandems are all the way back is very different, than when the tandems are at the CA legal position, or even all the way up.

Go slow, GOAL, use both mirrors. Try to put the trailer tandems in front of the hole.

but by the time they are in front of the hole, make sure you have enough clearance so that when you back into the hole, the tail of the trailer sticking out past the tandems don't hit the side of the hole on the passenger side, the blind-side.

Leave yourself enough room in front of the truck, cause the truck will move forward as you're turning hard and backing.

Imagine and visualize in your mind's eye the angle of your trailer in relation to the angle of the 2 trailers that are next to your hole. Visualize which direction your trailer is moving in relation to these angles.

And there's a huge difference between a volvo and a Pete w/ turning radius. Different makes of trucks turn different also.

I'm not as good as the pro's so take it w/ a grain of salt.

When downshifting, you have to take your foot off the clutch AND rev the gas, in order to increase the speed of the transmission. Once that transmission is going faster, THEN you can push the clutch in a little, just enough so you can feel the transmission grinding against the gear that has a more direct connection to the speed of the tires. As the reved up speed of the transmission slows down, you will feel the two grinding at different speeds and eventually you will feel them in synch. When they are in synch, let the clutch out completely and you're in.
It's possible to have the clutch partially engaged so you can feel and hear the grinding and rev the fuel at the same time. If you over rev, wait a moment for the transmission to slow down (RPM's to lower), and if you hear/feel that the RPM's have gone from spinning too fast, to spinning too slow, in relation to the tire-speed-gear, then give it a little more fuel while the clutch is still half-engaged. You'll know when it synchs because often, that is when the gear-shift-stick slips into place.

This is the fool-proof way to do it. It makes noise and is ugly and probably damages the transmission, but it works when you're in the middle of a sharp turn and you cannot see the RPM guage cause your steering wheel is turning and blocking it.

I love the advice some of these guys gave about the exact RPM's to downshift at. I will pay more attention to that. The advice about not using a clutch is good too. My advice is to half-engage it.

This advice is what I wish I had when I first started.

Perhaps it is hard to follow. Here's more detail:
Visualize 2 spinning gears rubbing against each other:

Oo

The first is the transmission. The 2nd can be seen as the gear that is directly connected to the speed of the rolling tires.

When downshifting, the tire-speed gear can be slowed with the break, or if you're downshifting and happen to be going up a hill, or down a hill, that tire-gear will be increasing or decreasing automatically.

In general, though, the main focus is on matching the speed of the turning of the transmission's gear to the speed of the turning of the rolling tire's gear.

The transmission's gear is already moving, and just spinning with momentum when you put the stick into neutral, but in order to change to a (lower gear) ie (downshift), you have to increase the speed at which that transmission-gear is spinning, so that the engine can connect to a transmission-gear that has a smaller radius, and have that connected to the gear that turns the tires.

So you have to be in neutral and have the clutch pedal disengaged, or all the way out, so that you can increase the transmission-gear-speed by reving the gas.

If the clutch-pedal is fully engaged (pressed in good) and you try reving the fuel-pedal, it will not increase the speed of the transmission-gear. That is why you must be in neutral and have the clutch pedal fully disengaged.

So, after reving the fuel, w/ clutch disengaged, which revs up the speed of the transmission-gear, THEN you push the clutch-pedal in (engage the clutch) and feel/listen to the two gears as they synch together, WHILE at the same time pushing the stick-shifter into the next lower gear with gentle pressure. When the two are in synch, the stick-shifter slips into place, and you can let off the clutch pedal and start to drive.

Here's the key though: If you don't work the fuel and clutch right, your whole truck is going to slow down suddenly. In order to avoid this you have to push in the fuel as your releasing the clutch in a smooth, timed manner. Imagine my left hand and right hand extended out before me. Imagine my left hand tilting upward at the wrist, as my right hand slowly tilts downard at it's wrist, at the same time. It's a basic that everyone is taught with any manual transmission. You move both pedals at the same time in a smooth fashion. Not doing this will cause the jumping forward or sudden slowdown of the vehicle.

Consider that the engine needs some fuel to start pushing this newly aquired smaller gear faster, in order to match up with the speed that the vehicle is rolling, so as you transition in to this new smaller gear, you give it some fuel at the same time so that there's not too much torque between the engine's speed & the speed of the tires pushing against the road.

It's a hell of alot to take in. Best of luck.

 

we still are going to Stoughton. Once in a great while, we will go to Sterling, but that place is not really on our radar screen. Sturbridge, and Everett are just too far for us.

yeah, in RI they can pass everything, fail on the road, go back and do it all over again...this is why there needs to be a more consistent way of testing. also in Mass, even if a student just opens up his door, but decides NOT to get out...?? that IS considered a get out, so best to get out and look.....

Interesting what you say about trooper Eaton....i gotta keep an eye on that next time. right now we only have one Mass student.

 

This is exactly what I did which made a big difference for me.

 

Yeah didnt realize until today stoughton was open to. a lot of people were surpised about Eaton, But they way i see it, the over all maneuver is still the same so they can mess with us all they want. Stoughton is the closese one to me the rest are pretty far out from were i live. None of them are really close to the school I go to.