Eaton Fuller 10spd Arrgh!

I really think that is fantastic that you are looking at your training as fun.That's pretty cool that you have found something that is going to pay you and you enjoy it too.

 

It's very nice!

Right down the road there is an Eaton plant. The students helped design a hybrid garbage truck. It looks like a standard flat nosed tow rig with concrete blocks tied down on the bed to simulate the weight of a dump truck. Eaton also rents out the track and we have to go around them when we are playing on the range (which is pretty rare as we are on the road most of the day now). The truck accelerates, stops, accelerates hard to 15mph then stops, repeat over and over. They have tons of gadgets and gizmos hooked up to log everything.

My instructors said this truck has been going around for a year or so. Then, last week, we saw a pre-production truck that was out. Full garbage truck running on hybrid cells. I spoke with one of the engineers and he said if just 25% of garbage trucks in the United States switched to hybrid technology there would be a savings of 800,000 gallons of diesel each day. It is amazing what they are trying to do. Take down a huge demand for diesel and it might actually help lower fuel costs.

Beyond that story I got my CDL in week 4. I have spent 45 hours in the yard. I can do alley docks, blind side alley docks, the serpentine forwards and backwards, I can even do a parralel park alley dock as well. I've done about 15 hours on the range, the rest of the time was out on the road or in class. I think I have 55 hours driving around the city and highways... and have logged almost 2000 miles. We still have 3.5 weeks left to go too!

 

I've been having an absolute blast in training. Our instructors are just awesome. The first half instructor worked for Schneider for 11 years and was also an instructor there. Our second half instructor was a driver for 32 years and a 2 time rodeo champ ('91-'92). He has logged 4 million miles with no tickets or accidents! Then we have two other instructors that are very good as well.

I'd say the best thing is that my classmates are awesome. We have a 19 year old kid that wanted his CDL on top of his Class B, then we have a guy my age (25) who dresses like a cowboy and is cool as hell, myself, another guy who is about 32 who quit being a GM mechanic, another dude is a carpenter who kept getting laid off, then there are 4-5 guys from 50-64. The guy I click with the most is the 64 year old. He was a Marine for 25 years and retired as a Major, and then he was a DC-10 captain for Southwest for 20 years. He is doing this only because he said, "I have seen our country from the air, now I want to see it from the ground." When we are paired up we talk about his military, flying experiences, just everything. He is such a cool guy its unbelievable.

With that being said. What makes school fun is the instructors and the students. I could see it being miserable if the other students or instructors sucked.

 

The guy you describe sounds like a member of this board. I think I remember reading a blog here about the person you described.

 

Wow, that would be interesting if he was on this board. He is from Alaska and is now in MN. He is pretty internet savvy. He can work a computer than most people my age. Seeing him come to school with his trip plans all typed up with maps, GPS images, etc. is crazy.

His name is Will. If he is on here and this is the guy let me know!

 

Nope, sorry, not a Will.

 

You are correct, i forgot i trained on a 8 spd lol.

 

I was trained in freightliners and they had 10 speeds and in low ranger they up shifted and 1200 and down shifted at 900 and in high range it was up at 1500 and down at 1200 very easy

 

I struggled all through school with trying to un-learn 4 wheeler standard trannys.

Had a pretty good road instructor in a ratty FL Classic.

Passed CDL on my second try when I only struggled twice with finding a gear.

Then the trainer showed up with an ultrashift Pro Star.

I've only driven one 10 speed (2010 Cascadia DD15) around the yard. Double clutching came back pretty quick, but floating was nice too.