Class 1 school in Vancouver area.

Pinitan has snow, and apparently its hit hard up near clearwater - it was 9c today, pure blue sky and sunshine with no wind.. really nice day.

This is why i wanted to start the course now, get the familiarity down before the snow / ice hits.. that way I don't have to think much about wheel slippage just yet. I'm not entirely sure what is planned for tomorrow morning although I've been given a lot of ' need to know ' information for the road test.

I'm tending to jump the clutch a little.. its different from a car for sure..

The thing I'm most unsure of right now is backing up.. especially with a trailer attached.. I guess I'll find that out tomorrow - I'm getting told control control control, and its coming through.

 

I hope they teach you more backing then what I got taught in driviing school. I learnt how to back up in a straight line lol.

 

Its my favorite way to park though I've been on worse angles than that with my jeep, but I had 4wd to get me out

 

Well another 4 hours today, bobtailing around.. this time we went out to hefley again, stopped for fuel, out to the airport and returned through town in heavy traffic.. then reversed the route back through traffic to the airport - this time I was behind a city bus the entire way, so lots of shifting, lots of stopping.. double solid the whole way so no getting around him. I had another driver pull out from behind me in his little pop can of a car and come up beside me on the left when I'd already signalled and committed to changing lanes right to left. I guess people think they're invincible. Went up to pinitan lake and tested out the jake brake on the way back down.. all in all it was a pretty good day.

We chatted a bit about the job up north I'd posted in another here - its 12 hour days, 4 hour round trips x 3 from mine to load site.

Class one driver needed for coal haul in Chetwynd. Good haul, Competitive wages, and 100 dollars a day LOA. Must be able to pass a drug test. Please Contact Martin Dillman at 778-349-3920 or email a resume to fairvalue@live .ca

 

Catalin, you've decided on kamloops too?

 

Hi Catalin - My experience so far has been stellar - the class has been one on one since I started, my instructor, Wayne has been driving about 30 years and has been instructing at TRU for the last 5, he is very patient and has a lot of experience to give to me.

Last friday we took a trailer (48' 70% loaded) to little fort, which is about 95km up highway 5 north, its mostly 2 lane, lots of elevation changes and fairly twisty. I've been driving now with a trailer since monday the 31st and am really getting used to it. We're doing a lot of in traffic driving now, as well as airbrake use, tight cornering, collision avoidance - The truck is a Western Star 13 speed cummins turbo diesel - spending a good amount of time on pre-trip ( aced a full pre-trip today, under hood, in cab, under tractor / trailer, air ) in 37 min - I'm mainly working on backing up, and gear recovery now - since its one on one its very tailored to you.

So far, things are great - still have plenty of time, my road test is scheduled for the 25th. Just gotta do everything til I get it right

 

If you want a little excitement try the Littlefort hill on hwy 24.

I aced my airbrakes pretrip assessment on Monday, gave me some hope that I'll be able to learn the whole pretrip for my roadtest.

 

Lol.. yeah.. its taken me a bit because there is just so much. As a network / systems admin my training over the past several years is always look at the big picture then hone down from there. What they teach is procedure, step by step.. Start with blocking the wheels, drain the wet tank, do the under the hood, do the in cab air, etc.. considering i'd actually never driven a tractor / trailer unit before, let alone been around one i think i'm doing ok (ex cubicle jockey here..)