Top bunk, don't do it, ever!!!

I tried the top bunk one time and it was like riding a bumpy roller-coaster.

 

SMH. Seems the cadets are showing less nerve since 2015. I know Exactly what you mean, but like trav1 said, your just not used to it. It’s an experience thing as much as a feeling unsafe fight or flight thing. I had a sleeping bag and after a few insistence’s of my trainer slept his bunk on occasion. The nerve won’t come during your training just man up either sleep the top or bottom but don’t moan.

 

[/QUOTE]
Nice if ya can get away with it. What company or trainers the trainee set the rules. It's more like "dude" if I have to sign off on your paper work. We MIGHT compromise but you dont get to make the rules. Dont like it, find another trainer and truck. I didnt pay my dues for some newbie recruit to tell me how I'm gonna do my job.[/QUOTE]
Since there are good companies who hire rookies, why should he put up with someone who has to “sign off on his paperwork”, but expects some ### kissing to do it? Compromise is one thing and if his trainer was “doing his job he would want his trainee well rested when he came out of the bunk” Coming out of the top bunk will not produce a well rested team driver. If you wouldn’t sleep 10 hours in the top bunk while the rig is moving then you shouldn’t expect your co-driver to. If you are wanting to make him pay his dues but don’t give a #### if he is rested when getting behind the wheel, then you suck as a trainer. 32 years ago when I started trucking I may have been impressed with your BS, but today not so much.

 

Never understood team driving ...i could never rest even on the bottom training my friend for one week ...worse than horror movie

 

this post i find interesting. for the short period of time i worked with werner, my trainer made me sleep on the top bunk while the truck was in motion. he insisted i was not going to sleep on the bottom. i really wasn't enjoying the entire experience been separated from my family for an extended period of time and i knew darn well if i asked for another trainer i would have gone back to the roach motel in allentown and sit there. i just wanted to get it over with. i fastened myself in with the "net" seatbelt that goes over the upper bunk and dealt with it. i think the bumps in the road must be more profound up top because i got very little sleep. the scary part was the trainer was questioning why i was buckling in and said i was the fist student to buckle in. by the time i was done with the training program i was fed up with being away from home anyways. i bailed from that job and sought local, home daily type work. im glad i did, today i am making what i consider to be decent money, and i go home to my home everyday. i work 7 days a week and take extra loads but i dont care. i am going home at the end of the day. NO ELD, manual transmission, and i get to go home? what can be better

if i work 7 days, that's $175x7=$1225 (my route takes 8 hours give or take)
4 extra loads to local plant 8 miles away, by the time i unload and CIP 2 hours give or take, $50

$175x7=$1225
$50x4=$200
im averaging $1400+ gross per week for a local home daily milk tanker job. i cant complain. i drive the same route everyday, i know where i am going and what is expected. i know my farmers and get along with them well, most of them are awesome. if i left this job i would miss them. my work is consistent and i never have a paycheck that is shorted. the truck i am driving is decent. 2017 KW T880 18 manual with 77K on the clock.

different strokes for different folks but its highly unlikely i will ever go OTR again. i will likely stay with walton milk hauling as long as this job exists. the only way it wont exist is if my boss retires and gets out, or farming takes a massive dump. i am still an active trucker and CDL holder. i have a clean license and could probably work just about anywhere. i choose to haul milk as it fits my family and my life. the money is not bad but i put the hours in to make the $$$. that doesnt bother me.

 

@ad356 - your Werner trainer was lying to you. You should have called safety or packed your bags and left at the nest truck stop.

 

Amazing what truckers cry about today. My families trucking bussiness when i was young consisted of a fleet of brockways with 2 strokes and then eventually bought r model macks.
Today they cry about an idiling truck that is "quiet" in yesterdays terms. Cry about rough ride in top bunk, cry about this and cry about that. Kids used to look up to truckers in my youth but today, they are a bunch of spoon fed, automatic driving, foot on the dash, internet surfing on their cell phone while driving steering wheel holders.
Hey just saying

 

I tried sleeping in a top bunk of a newer truck and it was a nightmare just trying to keep from being ejected.
The top bunk is way above the center of gravity of the tractor, so every movement, bump in the road, sway, is magnified several times. Those bunks are ok when the truck is parked, but not when it's moving.

 

was driver doing 160 around heavy cornering and slamming on brakes? Why not tell driver to slow the F- down if it was that bad. Sounds like you were on one wild ride. geez

 

the trainer was worthless, he didnt teach me anything. he programed the GPS and told me to follow it. as i said he also insisted i sleep on the top bunk when in motion. im glad to be driving my day cab in my local community servicing my local farmers. i love being part of agriculture. it all worked out in the end for me.