I HATE Training. Need Advice

We left one over in BC once 9 miles to the bottom and no one had said a word about it being bad. A friend was behind me and I started breaking loose and we really had not gone over the edge yet. lol
He started uelling at me on the radio to go, because he was breaking loose too, I told him BS, we can't start cutting it loose with 9 miles to go. There was some loose snow that had not been packed right against the guard rail that I could get her rolling along on and it was slip and slide to the bottom, we met three or four trucks, that had spun out with one axle chained and were in the process of chaining the other one.
That ride the brakes were not as important as faith. lol

 

The Freightliner DT-12 auto transmission has a Descent Mode that's really nice, not everyone knows about it.

Going downhill with a manual transmission is more complicated. Just because you need to watch your RPMs more and know more about your shifting points. We all learned how drive a can yomanual.So can you, if you want to. It a little difficult I think unless you are actually driving one. You go down the hill in same gear or lower you went up the hill. You want LOW RPMs going downhill in manual transmission because on snow and ice if trailer tires lose traction and trailer starts to jack knife. The only was to stop it, is stepping on the throttle and actually pull the trailer down hill back behind your tractor.

Most drivers go downhill with high RPMs for engine braking power. That's ok in the summer but a big mistake in the winter. If notice the Freightliner DT-12 transmission will go very high RPMs. When engine brake is on. Lots of driver say it's unsafe in the winter. That's correct because they seem to forget the basic part of you never use the engine brake on snow and ice. They don't seem to remember with a manual transmission your go downhill with LOW RPMs in the snow and ice. Because you might need to prevent a Downhill jack knife. If you go downhill in automatic transmission without the engine brakes guess we're the RPMs are? They stay low just like they should.

Alot of drivers want put the DT-12 transmission in manual mode and drive it like they do the manual transmission. Because they don't know how to go downhill with in the snow and ice without engine brakes or they just get a bad habbit us using engine brakes in the snow and ice and now claim the automatic transmission is not safe. When it them not driving it the correct way. Because you can run the engine brakes in the snow and ice but it not a good idea. You setting yourself up for a possible jack knife going downhill

 

Grown men on here telling another grown man to stroke someone's ego who is belittling you. Lol. Who raised yall

 

Short Answer: No*
One he finishes his time in the trainer truck, and they issue him his own truck, if he then decided to jump ship, he would be able to find employment without ever having to ride with a trainer ever again. What he's going through right now, he may never have to deal with again. There is a reason why so many told him to get through this and don't quit. If he quit now, and went somewhere's else, he would more than likely start the whole process over again. So, the absolute best course of action is to finish his time with the trainer.

*The only other way where he would possibly have to ride with a trainer again is if he'd stepped away from the trucking industry for more than 3 years. Most employers would then once again require him to ride with a trainer, but usually that period would be much shorter and it would still be easier than what he's doing now, because he still would know this whole routine.

 

I work for their sister company. Are you out of the MS yard or Lancaster? The Lancaster yard will let you be reassigned without any problem.

Your trainer is unacceptable. I know there are good ones and horrible ones.

If you can make it the two weeks. Just watch your trainer and learn that way if you can. Also for backing up, I would sit in the seat at the truck stops and watch other drivers back up. I also grabbed a toy semi and practiced that way. Be ready for your upgrade test when you get back. You guys should also be doing your book of what he is teaching you.

When you go out on your own you will learn a lot on your own. Make sure you do your pretrips and use your Jake brakes. I also read the manual to my Volvo. I learned a lot about my truck that way. Your first year is the hardest.

 

Interstate 15 Southbound, near Hesperia for one. Interstate 40 westbound west of Flagstaff for 2, neither one says anything but Brake check

 

It depends on how your truck is set up. I have "Economy" and "Manual" as my only options. In manual I cannot use the fuel pedal to take the rpms over 1100. Before you start in on how dumb the engineers at my company are - I already know it. We took delivery of three prototype P4 Cascadias as test units (this is where Freightliner gets their "real world" mpg data). At the end the three drivers sat down with our engineers and Freightliner to go over what they thought. One of the drivers said "Y'all did a nice job with the truck, the only problem is how Schneider f'd with the computers"

For me I have 3 basic options to going downhill - use the cruise control, leave the transmission in auto and use the brakes/engine brake myself, of put the transmission into manual and do everything myself. Each way has certain benefits and drawbacks.

With the cruise control, once you are 5 MPH over what you have it set at the truck will kick on the engine brake. On something like Mounteagle, it works great, even I-80 in PA it's fine. But going thru Green River or New River it doesn't work. It is reactive instead of proactive and it allows the CMS to engage. Yesterday going thru New River my CMS thought I was going to run into the side of the mountain 3 times, had the cruise been on it would have slammed on my tractor brakes - not what I want in the middle of a curve. The other problem is when it hits 5 over, it tends to drop 2 gears and throw the engine brake on high. I prefer a more gentle approach.

The second way works well in rolling hills where you want to just hold speed at or near max safe, still in top gear. Kick the engine brake on low and let it roll out. Again the drawback is if you kick it to medium or high the truck is going to start dropping gears. Fine if you want to slow, not so much if you want to maintain.

I tend to use the 3rd way - tossing it in manual. I prefer having full control and keeping the rpms where I want them as opposed to a computer. Even in summer I never like to max rpms. According to Freightliner I should let the rpms build to 1900 and then snub brake. Forget that, I prefer to max out at 1700 so I have room on either side. The pain is I have to make sure I get into and out of manual.

Frankly I just want a manual transmision - I had to think and work a lot less.

A man who taught me how to win instead of being "The Winner"

Are they at the start of a significant grade (5% for 5 miles or greater)? I know (from painful experience) that if you don't utilize the ones out east you'll wish you had - if nothing else to get into an appropriate gear before going down.

 

Why would a guy need to stop to get in the right gear??

 

@gentleroger
It doesn't sound like you tried Descent Mode yet. It will over ride that 5 MPH over speed cruise control has. It will keep the truck at the speed you want. It cannot be set lower then 30 MPH

You turn on the cruise control, new trucks don't have that on/off button it's always on. You turn on stage 1 engine brakes. Then use the foot pedal to slow the truck to the speed you want. Then take you foot off the pedal. Then set the cruise control speed.

The truck will down shift if needed and switch between all engine brake stages to hold the speed you set it for. You will be going downhill at 2,200 RPMs if need to hold the truck back.

Stage 3 will always keep engine RPMs 1750-2,200 for maximum braking power. The slower the truck goes it will keep dropping gears. Stage 1 and 2 always keep RPMs like 1,200-1,750