Roadmaster, Dunn, NC, Review Start 19 June 2017

Day 7 (11 students)

Our two with DOT issues got it cleared up and are now driving. Lot of backing in the morning and a nice drive in the afternoon. Lanes are a bit slow, but that is to be expected. We are getting what we need.

Day 8 (11 students)
Myself and three others got the NC Pre trip class on the field as the da started. I was a little frustrated that the class and handout are different. Sure, there is enough matchup to pass the pre trip, but I expect near identical for the price of admission.

I took solid notes and will rewrite the handout over the weekend so it matches up with the class. My game plan is to make it similar to giving pre jump. Rattling things off in sequence and simply pointing to or operating things as I rattle them off. I'll show it to the instructor who gives the class and does all the evaluations to see if I'm on target.

Did backing a few times and then grabbed lunch. After lunch myself and 2 other students went with an instructor and drove the rest of the day.

Overall it was a good enough day.

 

Day 9 (9 students) A couple of students weren't around and I am not sure of their disposition.

Spent the morning doing the alley docking. It's not as bad as it looks. We also went over LAB, (Leaks, alarms, buttons), and the in cab inspection.

After lunch it was driving for me and another student with an instructor. No curbs hit but a few gears got ground here and there. Marked improvement.

Night driving schedules were handed out. I do my night drive on Monday from 6 to 9 PM so I don't come in until 10 AM. If you want an easy night drive, which also includes doing a drop and hook, go during the summer. It doesn't get dark until 8:45 this time of year. Night driving is just you and an instructor. I suggest maximizing that time. Do a LAB, get the drop and hook down, and beg to do lot of town driving. I am going to. It is practice with down shifting and missing curbs.

 

Day 10 (10 students)

One student came back after finally passing the air brake test. She was inserted into class a week behind us. I'm counting that towards our numbers. The school works with you at your pace, so don't give up.

I came it at 10 AM, did some backing, went to lunch, and drove for an hour after lunch. Went to the yard for backing and then towards the end of a normal day I went out for a three hour night drive. The instructor was great. A Marine who showed me a different way to handle shifting. He said I was doing fine, but refined what I was doing and went into depth as to using the tachometer for shifting. We practiced that for a bit and it really improved my shifting as I incorporated it into the was I was shown originally. Yup, it'll save fuel.

We covered all the required night drive tasks and I was able to do a full in cab Pre Trip, tug, and LAB at the close of the day. I missed the heater and defrost, which was just a bonehead move on my part and the reason we practice.

Overall the student's morale is high and we are working well together. The instructors notice the class personality and expect the remaining students to pass the course. There is some joking around and laughing, but we quiz one another on pre trip and talk each other through various situations.

 

Thank you. Congrats, job well done, and best of luck to you too. Getting ahead of the curve is a smart idea.

I'll update this thread later today. There are a few complaints from fellow students that I will be adding along with how it is going overall. The complaints are standard for all schools and mostly made by those not easily able to grasp reading and correcting the trailer.

 

Days 11, 12, and 13 (9 students)

I've been driving in the morning and on the field, (yard), in the afternoons. Shifting is going great and corners aren't an issue anymore. OK, I hope they aren't anyway. One mess up on the exam next week and it's an automatic fail.

The backing is going well for me. A few students, most who are called Super Seniors, complain that there isn't enough time backing the truck. Super Seniors are students going beyond the 4 weeks, which is usually due to backing issues. Some in my class complain about the same, and yeah, I'd like shorter lines an more turns too. I'm still confident and there is enough time and resources to get it. The offset and alley dock are what kill most folks and for a few basic reasons.

First, they have it in their heads too much. Stop stressing is my advice. Be confident and believe in yourself.

Second, not knowing how to fix a problem once you've gotten yourself into one, either too deep or too shallow. You cannot wait until your trailer is straight into the alley dock to start turning the truck tires back to the left to get under or behind your trailer. It takes 10 feet for the trailer to even start correcting, so go a bit earlier than you think you need to.

Third, not pulling up far enough and not turning into your problem. Never pull up only five feet. Nothing is gained and you end up in the same bad position because corrections cannot be made in 5 feet. My recommendation is to pull up a minimum of fifteen feet, but twenty or more is usually better.

Forth, panic mode causes bad decisions. If you feel stressed while maneuvering the trailer, stop and take a few deep breaths. Regain your focus and think through your situation. No points are deducted for stopping, calming, and thinking while in the drivers seat. No snap decisions. Visualize how you need to pull up and what you want from the back of the trailer. Once pulled up, stop and think for a minute about how you need to manipulate the wheel to cause the trailer to do what you want it to do.

My notes on the alley dock and an issue I see a lot. Many folks get themselves into a position which looks like a 45 degree offset and a little shallow, meaning they are turning a foot or so too soon, but they treat it like the alley dock and stress out. Don't do that. You should be as happy as a pig rolling in mud at this point instead of stressing.

The fix is about as simple as it can get. Straighten your wheels and pull up about 15 feet or so. It will move the back of the trailer into a position to back between the cones from an offset. You can now simply back around the cone as you did in the offset with easy, yet somewhat bold, corrections.

Another note on backing either the offset or alley dock. Do not back to the cone. You are wanting to go around it. Focus on a point 12 to 18 inches into the lane and a few feet out the front of the lane. If you focus on the cone, you almost always back to the cone and that gets you in a bind.

In short, be confident, don't panic, make good use of pull ups, stop and think through the problem, and back around the cone.

Best advice on using pull ups. It is better to do a third or fourth pull up than to go out of bounds or hit a cone. A pull up costs you one point and going out of bounds costs you two. If you go out of bounds, you must pull up anyway. It is better to get the one point penalty by using a third pull up than to get a 3 point penalty by going out of bounds and having to pull up anyway. There are no style points in this event. My score of 90 gets me the same CDL as your 99 or 100. It is a thinking persons game. As I jokingly tell my fellow students, they give me two pull ups each on the alley dock and offset, and I happily use all three.

I hope this advice from a student helps more than hurts.

I do my eval on pre trip and trailer control Monday. I'll let you know if I screw it up. These are done to ensure I'm not wasting my or the evaluators time on the actual test day on Wednesday morning. It's just a pretest under actual test conditions. No, it isn't conducted in the actual location, but all the measurements and conditions are the same.

 

I forget which day it is, but 9 students remained at the start of the day. Myself and one other passed the testing today and graduated.

The remaining will test and pass over the next couple of days. A couple folks tests but must retake the road test due to stalling their vehicle or rubbing a curb. They don't have to retake the pre trip or backing portion. My class is kicking butt on those parts.

Although I'm done, I'm heading back tomorrow to go over pre trip with a classmate before he tests in the morning. I'll attend the mini graduations for the remaining students over the next two days. One of my running buddies messed up and left his license at home so he couldn't test today. The earliest he can test is Friday, so I'll so him graduate then.

No, he isn't a Tard, Although we're busting his chops about it. He was filling out applications late last night and left his license on his desk. He had set his wireless keyboard on his license and just didn't check the ole wallet before heading in.

Here's my own dumb story. I drifted out of bounds on the straight line. If if that wasn't bad enough, I did it a second time. Now, I'm sitting with 5 points facing the off set and alley dock. Instead of freaking, I laughed at the absurdity and shook it off. Zero points on the other two with get outs and pull ups to spare.

Two lessons. Don't get ####y and don't freak out if something goes bad early.

 

Touch the parts and talk about it. Stay in sequence.

NC specific, everything is PMS, properly mounted and secured. Nearly everything is either not CDL or missing, or not CDL or leaking.

CDL stands for cracked damaged loose. That'll get you a 90 or better if you can touch and name the parts

After training yourself to say not CDL or missing/leaking, you can learn more specific things easily, such as no more than 1 inch of give with the breaks released. Be repetitive and take your time.

You can miss a lot and still pass but the LAB must be perfect. Read your pre trip handout every night starting now. Try to smoke the test, not simply pass.

Best of luck to you.