just got my hr...syncro

good luck with slugga in the morning. it's always better to go in person than call on the phone. i'll be putting some resumes around later in the week. it's starting to look like the load restraint course is gonna fall through. i was gonna have to travel about 2 hours each way to get to bunbury for it, but if the mob there isn't running it anymore, i'd have to go to perth, which is around 4 hours away

 

Yes i just read the post of Kaygirl she does have a very valid point only being able to drive sycro's does limit your driving these days most of the larger companies have Roadranger gearboxes although if your driving Heavy Ridgid there may be more sycro's available if you plan on moving up to Semi's R/R is pretty much compulsory.

 

Its not easy when you're just starting out learning to drive/get the feel of a truck having to get the hang of a crash box on top of it!!!. Found that out when I went for my HR, it was a total ######## session the gearbox being another distraction taking your focus off what you were doing on the road - but yes, it does pay off. Many of the bigger companies these days Josh (Like Bunkers/WA Freightlines for example) are getting rid of their kenworths and replacing them with auto drive volvos. From a maintenance point of view I can see why so many do it these days, specially when alot of trucks have a few drivers in them. You do get lazy in these autos LOL...but it can be a godsend just getting back into a real truck to get you back into the swing of a real gearbox. I'm sure that Josh can attest to some of the older trucks where you needed to practically have BOTH feet on the clutch to hold the #### thing down waiting for the lights to change

the easiest thing to remember with a crash box is 1500rpm upshifts and 1000rpm downshifts pommie - that I remember the instructor drilling into my head doing my HC in an old freightliner. And yes pommie, having that "S" restriction on your licence can sometimes lose you some work mate

 

when i did my hr, they started me in an mr synchro truck,then and hr synchro before i started on a 10 speed non-synchro. then there was a big kerfuffle with one of the instructors being sacked for coming to work still reeking of booze from the night before, which meant i couldn't get another lesson for 3 weeks, so i changed schools. i was pretty annoyed, cos it meant driving an hour and a half to get to my lessons, but it turned out to be a good thing. the truck at the new school was an 18 speed, so i learned how to use the splitter. my first 2 jobs were in synchros, but the last one was with a 10 speed non-synchro.

 

Not that i'm one to brag but i never really had much of a problem making the transition from syncro (i'll never brag about my spelling though!) to Road ranger i kind of got off to a late start in life when it came to driving Semi's around (35) i actually got me HC class with a Ford F350 with a small 5th wheel that they still considered Articulated but that was way back in 1987 in Fremantle WA i guess alot has changed since then, i remember when i'd gotten some tempary work with Linfox i'd gone to a Truck driving school just to get some practise reversing and using the R/R it was pretty easy after driving syncro's the key is i found getting used to not clutching as deep you really only need push the clutch in just a tad in fact as most truckies will boast you don't even need to use the clutch, just don't do that with Linfox trucks if they catch you not clutching that's an instant dismisal if they can prove it.