Officially accepted to Athens Tech Commercial Truck Driving Course

Thank you. Best wishes for your success as well. Keep us informed when you start.

 

There is one guy in our class that already has experience backing semi's because his family owns a large farm and he is always having to move big trucks around, just can't drive on the road yet. He can really zip it in the hole. I got him to ride in the truck with me and give me some pointers which helped.

I figured out I was fighting it too much instead of letting the trailer do the work. I practiced more this past Monday night. I can get it in the hole but it ain't pretty! It will come together with more practice. It's like you said, when you start to get frustrated, take a break and go work on something else.

 

Monday was more rang practice. Can stick the parallel parking pretty good now. Practiced more on the alley docking. Not perfect yet but getting better. We had last night off due to the teacher having to go to a conference.

So when I got home from work last night I got out one of my kids toy trucks and set up an alley dock on the kitchen table and practiced with it backing in to the pretend space. I observed and memorized how much and when to add or take out the drift in the trailer and when it got in the hole when to start getting the tractor back under the trailer. So hopefully this will help a lot. Can't wait to try it when we get back out on the range.

Two road drives this week. One tonight and one tomorrow night. Always look forward to those. Wish we could just keep driving! I will update those drives over this coming weekend sometime.

Until then, be safe out there.

 

I meant to post this last week but got busy and did not do it. On the last road driving session which would have been March 29th, we hit the North Georgia Mtns. for some good driving experience. As fate would have it, I drove second so I had the fun of driving back in the dark on the steep sharp winding roads. My butt was so puckered I had to go the hospital to get the vinyl seat out of my arse! Just kidding, about the vinyl part anyway. I did pretty good for never driving on such narrow winding roads with steep downgrades in the dark.

Been on spring break this past week so back to the range tomorrow night to practice more...you guessed it, alley docking. Really hoping to stick it this time. I will keep ya posted on my progress.

Anywho, until then...cya

 

Monday April 9th- More practice on the range. The alley docking is finally coming together. I have gotten it down to using only two pull-ups which is what they allow you on the test. Hoping to get it down to just one. It will come with practice. Parallel seems to be pretty easy at this point so I just hit it every now and then to keep the setup and maneuvers fresh in my head.

Tuesday April 10th- Took a leisurely drive from Clarkesville down to Athens before changing drivers. I drove first. It was pretty windy yesterday evening so I got a small feel for what it is like for an empty trailer to be blown from the side. At times it sounded almost like something was wrong with the truck or trailer when hit by gusts of wind unexpectedly. But I kept it all between the lines. Also ran through a couple small rain showers which was a first for me but I watched my speed and distance between cars. All was good. The road driving part seems to be going really well for me. My downshifting still needs work but it is coming together. Not near as much grinding as at first and I seem to be able to recover from missed gears better now as well. But...I still have a long ways to go and a lot to learn. You never stop learning. That is for sure. I have been doing electrical work since 1996 and still run into new situations I have never seen before. You never know it all. If you ever think you do it is time to quit that profession.

Everyone be safe out there. Cya.

 

Well, God can use bad things to make good things. Maybe I will find a better job as a result of others wasting their money