Having trouble with my Pre Trip for school

This was one day? You should be pretripping every day for the entire 4 weeks.

 

just continue to practice everyday. skip lunch, practice. we had a cd to listen to if we wanted to and pics with the discriptions. get another person and take turns helping each other. again, practice.
i can tell you if you don't you'll fail the pretrip and have to take it again.

 

Memorize it in sections...front of truck, middle of truck, rear of truck, front of trailer, middle of trailer, rear of trailer, inside cab, brake pump down.

Worked for me that way...

 

that really is the smartest way to do it, at least I think it is. but... I can tell anyone taking the CDL exam that if you don't practice as often as you can, you might do the same thing I did the first time... I didn't pass, had the major meltdown and failed. had to take it over and then passed the second time.

 

Of course it was over 12 years ago for me, but I just pointed at everything, touched it, wiggled it... everything I could see and get to. And said "this thing here, and the, uh, steering thing here, and the brake thingy over there..." Then inside I just did everything I would do in a new truck, flip every switch, pull every knob, hit every button. Basically overkill.

 

you've only got thirty minutes to do the entire tractor and trailer so there isn't much time for overkill in my opinion and if you have a crappy examiner...

 

What I did was to take my digital camera with me, and I took pictures of everything on the pre-trip. Under the hood, behind the tractor, hook ups, parts and area of the 5th wheel, suspension of the trailer, don't forget the inside of the tractor, the dash etc. Anything and everything. Have all the pictures printed out on a printer. On standard sheets of paper. Label or number every part to be checked. I studied mine at home/motel room at my leisure. No stress. My instructor said that it was a very good idea I had. He had never seen anyone do it before. I blew through my pre-trip test with no problems or errors or hesitations. I use the same idea when I have to take apart something, and I question of how it goes back together. Last week I had a major electrical problem with my Honda Goldwing. I took many photos, printed them out, and everything went back together as it should have. Just an idea on how to work out your pre-trip problem. If the instructor won't let you photograph the truck being used in class, you might explain to a driver your situation and he/she might let you photograph the areas of his truck. Good luck.

 

I practiced my pretrip every morning before class, but then when I got home, I went through the guide and came up with my own quiz of sorts. Basically I numbered out every part I was supposed to mention, then I started at the "front of the truck" and wrote down every part in order. If I missed one, I started over. Once I had completed the whole list, I no longer needed the paper and I could do the pretrip easily.

Don't be too intimidated by that part though, lol, as that one isn't the one that gets most people. The #### 7 step air brake test almost got me, I mean came within seconds of it, and I happened to remember I forgot my tug test.