Do I need to know all of the specific details?

Yes you need to know it. Not only for passing the pre-trip test for your CDL but for everyday life on the road. It's tough to call you company and say the thing under the hood broke what should I do. You sound like you don't want to to bothered with taking the extra time to know these items. If you want to drive a truck and make it a career you should know that truck and trailer inside and out. You should be able to call a shop if you're broke down miles away from anybody and tell them the exact part you need. It saves time and you make more money by not sitting there wanting for them to go back and forth.

 

Yes you should know....as a truck driver, its your job. It's your job to make sure that truck is safe to operate by inspecting it. Mechanic's job to fix it after you report it. Writing "truck broke" doesn't cut it on the inspection report.

That's like a guitarist that just wants to play, but not bother with learning how to read music. Sure, you can strum at strings all day long, its making music that makes you good at what you do.

 

All my parts are numbered,I just call the shop and tell them I need a #23.I don't know what it does,but it fell off.

 

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believe it or not, i actually have this new student learning the class B pre-trip...would you believe, he didn't even know what a dip stick was or why it's important...?? i kid you all not.....i thought to myself, how can he drive his car over 100 miles EACH day back and forth to work and NOT check his own oil...?? well, anyway's i run through a pre-trip (amongst many other things) and i explain to him what the parts are. i point them out, and give only the briefest of all descriptions as to what each part does, but however, the attention span of a student is like that of a 2 year old.....very limited.....and they forget things......so repetition is how i got to do this on a daily basis for a few days....

now as I EXPLAIN it to MY students, YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE PARTS DO, but only a "general idea" and you NEED to KNOW then names of the parts and how they look when everything is A.O.K.... i personally see NO reason why YOU NEED to know every stinking detail of every stinking part, just a brief description, after all, you ARE NOT in mechanics school where YOU WOULD KNOW ALL THE DETAILS....

then when YOU DO HAVE a problem, you can recognize that and speak "some what" intelligently to the repair shop as to what is wrong. it gives YOU more confidence when you speak to others..that you can at least tell them the problem instead of "ahh...da doo-hickey on the gadgamet thinkgy is kinda on the ground".....

so to answer your question, do you need to know what each part does, no, not exactly but at least an idea of what they do, but YOU NEED TO KNOW the names of the parts so you can describe the problems...

in time, what YOU CAN DO is buy a book or each time you go to the shop, ASK the mechanic (bring him a coffee or a cola) and "shoot the breeze" with him and ask him what this does, or what that does...

in learning to be a driver, there are a number of over-whelming things you should know, and one's attention span is limited, so to spread out your learning over (say) the next 40 years, gives you PLENTY of time to get to know the in's and out's of your truck (and all truck's) in general...