Pre trip question

You can never know too much. Study hard it'll pay off in the long run. Most everything is similar enough from 1 tractor to another to get a eyeball knowledge of, but the experienced eye catches problems.

 

First off what company are you going with?
Secondly as far as the pre-trip goes, most trucks the parts in the engine are all the same. But getting it down before you get to school will be a huge advantage. There are pre-trip videos all over the internet, get the verbatim done. Properly Mounted and Secure, nothing Cracked Broke or bent. If it a hose, no cracks or leaks or frays. In the engine Properly Mounted and Secure, is it belt driven or gear driven. LOOK AT IT, if you DO NOT see a belt attached to it, it's gear driven. If it's belt driven, state such, and that there is no frays or cracks, and not to much free movement,
Like the old TV Commericals THE MORE YOU KNOW. Go over it over and over and over until you see it in your sleep. The best way to know if you have the pre-trip is if you can explain it to someone who is NOT a driver and they understand what you just said.
Also each state is different as far as doing the state CDL test as far as verbatige Ohio, you have to say it WORD FOR WORD, in Kentucky you can leave some words out and still pass.
Also BRAKE TEST is part of your pre-trip. Had a guy in my class do everything, and said he was done with pre-trip and now he was going to do the brake test FAIL
Good luck

 

It's good and refreshing to see a positive attitude built on desire to succeed. Like was mentioned, there's lots of videos and tutorials out there on youtube. Some are no doubt going to be better than others. Watch plenty of them. Learn to recognize better vids and teaching styles. Observe all the different approaches and highlights and after a while you will start to see a common theme.

But honestly, a lot of it will require an actual eyes/hands on ability to really start to get a handle on things and this will no doubt come in time, but having at least an idea what to expect will help keep you ahead of the game and a few steps ahead.

But be warned regarding the ability for anybody to be able to post a vid, with some things, you're going to see two or more ways "to do this or that" that will seem to contradict each other. One may be flat wrong. One may be iffy. There's a lot of misinformation out there, for a variety of reasons. Which takes me back to my earlier point about watch lots of them to start to recognize where this one does't seem to reconcile with another four or five viewed elsewhere

 

Just keep doing what your doing. You have the right attitude. Get your liscence. Pick your company wisely. Put in a year. Remember your not looking for a job, your looking to be in the top 10%. Your on the right track.

 

Yeah, if you have the memorization down you can actually do your pretrip thinking about the proper operation of the vehicle instead of just reciting a script. You're already ahead of most you'll be in school with.

 

Curious you mentioned you have been doing research for a while, why or how did you decide on those two companies, possibly the 2 worse ones out there? Where about's in Florida are you?
Have you checked out Millis Transfer, they have a school in cartersville georgia. Starting pay for students and new drivers Starting May 2 is .43/CPM. Are you wanting to do TCD,Skate board or Van?
Also Check out Maverick and Jim Palmer/Wil-Trans they have great programs and pretty decent starting pay. Also if you must go Mega, Prime is okay, stay away from CRE or Knight, they have bad reputations also stay away from SWIFT