USA Truck, Inc. - Van Buren, Ar.?

Wow, guess that got pretty long... sorry!

 

don't be sorry !! i was hanging on every word. i start training for PAM monday AM i hope by the time i get through that, come home for a week or so and get on truck with trainer the weather will have calmed down a little!!

 

Not really but it sure sounds like your getting some good training. I hope to be out there in the next two to three weeks. Got one more week of CDL training to go. Are you shifting with or without the clutch? ...just curious about that one. Our instructors teach us to double clutch but when they drive to the yard and stuff they never use the clutch. Double clutching seems stupid but you have to be able to do it to get your CDL.

Stay safe and keep us posted!

Marty

 

panhandlepat,

I see quite a few of their trucks out there. They go faster than ours.. I guess almost all trucks go faster than ours .
It's pretty hard to explain the bird strikes in your back doors.

I've been thinking the same thing about the weather. I always say.. "If we can get through February, the worst part of winter is over."

Hope you have a great time!

---------------
Marty,

Clutching is needed sometimes. Floating (not clutching) the gears is a lot easier, quicker, and is used most of the time, from what I've seen.

With our trucks the governor must be working from signals sent by RPM and top speed. If you get up against the governor on revs, you won't be able to float out of that gear your in. Let's see if I can explain that a little better...
Let's say your winding out a gear and you wind it a little too far (against the RPM governor)... You need to let off the throttle a little to float out of that gear, but the weight and momentum of the truck is keeping your revs up (against the governor) and the shifter won't pull out of gear (it's just stuck there). This happens to me more often when going downhill cause things wind up faster and stay there. I'll have to poke the clutch in to get out of that gear. In this case I'll usually just go ahead and double clutch it on to the next gear cause my timing is now shot to ####.

Also, sometimes I'm skip-shifting up or down (more often down). Double clutching during these shifts seems to make things mesh a little better... but this one may just be a personal preference.

The trainer seldom uses a clutch after a stop, and he goes through the gears much more easily and quickly than I do.
After going through school, I thought I was getting pretty good at shifting. Now, after a couple weeks out there with a real driver, I see I can still learn a lot more and get much better at all this shifting stuff. It's not really hard, but it sure gets better and better with a LOT of practice.

I got a lot of really good practice in traffic and on back roads this week. Most of the time I'm driving on the highway... and that's not much shifting practice.

In the Ohio CDL Test, they wanted to see some double clutching, but you were allowed to float some of them too. I can understand their viewpoint on this because we need to double clutch in some real life situations. Also, I think anyone can learn to float them, once they've gotten used to double clutching.

Last thought... If you're stopping a lot in traffic, staying in gear, holding the clutch in, being ready to move when you can... then, being able to float gears is a blessing once the traffic gets moving a little. My leg gets kind of wimpy <grin>.

Hope your school is going good!

Mark

 

orientation for usa truck is a blast!!!!(if you have a couple hundred toblow) after you ride with a trainer you'll go to fort smith AR. the first two days you'll stay in a run down hotel...then on to the big boy...A 4 star hotel with a full bar, and bars all around.That town knows how to party..I was in bad shape during orientation.Got in a lot of trouble had to go back out with a trainer for two weeks...#### then we got into trouble at the casino .....they had the truck towed!!!!lol I had a good time at USA truck..They taught me what I needed to know..I got some experance,and went on my way...That is what these comp. are set up for ..YOU CAN NOT AND WILL NOT MAKE A GOOD LIVING WITH THESE TYPE OF COMP.
you will want more money,and their are thousands of people in driving school willing to work for .28 cpm once you learn whats going on you'll leave to....

 

Mark thanks or the info I think I might try some of that floating this week if they let me get away wth it. We will be doing mostly road work this week with graduation Thursday or Friday if all goes well.

Be safe and stay in touch!

Marty

 

When I started with Stevens Transport; in school we learned double clutching. When I was given my trainer, he showed me how to do that floating and everything. I bet you anything that your trainer will show you the same thing. Double clutching is just for the test.

 

Has anyone heard of USA truck they are willing to retrain me is it worth it?

 

If it is USA truck out of Van Buren,Ar. then it is not worth it.

 

USA truck out of Texas