Getting the pre trip down packed

When I attended college I stayed at the dorm.At night and on weekends when school wasn't in session,I would practice pretrip on their trks.Out in teh real world you don't need to know all the proper words.But to get your CDL you do.

 

What pattyj said. Practice practice woodro. Im in week three and like you a little overwhelmed by the pre-trip. But when everyone else is gone home I'm there practicing with myself, going over it time and again. Good luck bro. We'll get it.

 

haha I remember those days (little over a year ago).Felt like I was in med school trying to remember body parts/organs and what their function was.It will come with time and repetition, trust.

 

never thought of it as learning the med school parts but you're right,lol.

 

I took my pretrip test week before last. I also thought it was overwhelming. But I studied it every day during lunch. I also would 'do' a pretrip every morning on the drive to school just using my imagination, picturing the truck in my head. I would do it out loud, but I had a 80 minute drive to school. We also would pretrip all the trucks every morning before we would drive them. One person pretripping and one person checking everything off on a list. It became easier everyday. By test day it was easy. I missed one item. Windshield wipers... got everything else....
You'll get it. Just study it, maybe watch a few videos on YouTube. Break the truck into sections and memorize that section. I would do under hood, left steer axle, door area, rear of tractor and front on trailer, drive axle, 5th wheel area, landing gear area, trailer tandem axle, rear of trailer...etc....

 

Practice, and repetition.

Get into a pattern and stick to it.
Do the pre-trip the same way every time.

I failed the pre-trip test the first time when I upgraded to a B and again when I added school bus endorsement. The inspector said that I would have passed both times, had he heard me describe and seen me touch what I was looking at.

When I got my A, I spoke loudly and clearly.
Making sure to stand back to show the inspector what I was looking at, touching and describing.

 

Im a child of a mechanic this is what helped me if u are savvy on mechanical things just no that trucks have pretty much the same things as a 4 wheeler with some variations. Group the parts together and visually learn it this way if you are not near a truck u can use your mental pictures save inside cab for last just in case its raining or sowing

 

I failed the first time around for pre-trip because my routine in school didn't include a couple big ticket items that the state looked for. I was missing the forest for the trees, so to speak. Read the page in your state's manual that lists which items count for the most points, and which items must be pointed out. Other than that, repetition.

 

It helps to take the time and know what each part or system does. Practice will of course be required but knowing the part and why it's inspected is the most important to me. It's useless to me if you do not know what the reason is why you're looking at the thing to begin with. I know it seems overwhelming but there are times to just slow down and really learn the system. And this is one of them. When you get out on your own you'll see how knowledge will save you time and make more money for you.