What important skills of truck driving did you learn after your first year of trucking?

This guy has never figured out that true trucking is not textbook or mega training book. A million miles at megas is nothing like the same miles for someone who has done all kinds of different trucking with less miles. You just get it done. I’ve been around trucks my whole life and drove back and forth to Houston many times when I was 10. Driving older trucks this guy would never be able to survive in because he wasn't textbook trained in them. No turn is textbook. No backing manuver is textbook. A textbook day hardly ever exists.

 

The real world is not the textbook, as @Knightcrawler pointed out. The buttonhook is taught so hard because too many guys fail to protect that inside lane when jughandling. But out here in the real world, every corner is different. I'm a carhauler with limited turning ability, rarely do I turn much sharper than 45°. And I'm old school, I didn't turn sharper than that unless it was absolutely necessary in my doorslammer days, either. Most drivers today use extender tickling turn angles everyday that I haven't hit more than a dozen times in 40 years!

But you do what's easy. If I can turn from my lane, that's what I'll do. If I need to jughandle, then you protect your right and do it. Setting out with a "must buttonhook" mindset takes away options and can lead to snarled traffic that a simple drag-your-feet-so-you're-at-the-back-of-the-pack half-lane jug could have easily avoided.
Good drivers are fast information processors, and use that to increase flexibility and expand their options. That's easier for us old timers who didn't have the textbook rigidity driven into us from the get go.

 

Ye gods…. And stuff….

 

This is straight out of a training manual, and is 100% wrong. You do a buttonhook and you are waiting for that oncoming lane (northbound) to clear and have no control because they are going to have to stop which means traffic is backing up. You cant enter the intersection until it clears either, which means you are backing up your lane as well.
Where as with a jug handle, all you have to wait on is a break in oncoming traffic, you swing out and gone in seconds and it doesnt matter how much traffic is backed up in that north bound lane....

 

And considering I have been doing it that way since about 1965 (started driving farm trucks in 1965, army trucks in 1975, and got my CDL in 1984) and have NEVER had any problems with it what so ever, Im going to go out on a limb and say that Im pretty sure I know what Im talking about...

Jus sayin

 

You skinny up a trailer every time you hook to it to help you get around obstacles? Seriously? You cant manage to do that without sliding your tandems? You are far more likely to hit something with your trailer swing (which you CANT see) than hitting something on the turn side (which you CAN see).

Based on your first response, I can see why 40+ year experienced drivers would tell YOU to stop at all tracks. Us in the real world only do it when we need to.

First off, the button doesnt retract the pins, it extends them. And as I said, it doesnt work on manual trailers.

I said MOST states do NOT have 3rd lane laws. And most of those that do are only where its posted. Heres a link for your reference https://www.findlaw.com/injury/car-accidents/no-trucks-in-the-left-lane-laws-by-state.html

If you are doing a jug handle turn correctly, your trailer tires are never more than 4 feet off the curb. Dont know who showed you how to do a jug handle, but they did it wrong... Ever see those WIDE TURN signs on the back of trucks?


As I said, states require new students to do buttonhooks to get their CDL (thus the reason the textbooks say buttonhook good, jug handle bad). Because most students dont have the control over their equipment to keep within 3-4 feet of the curb. But if you have 10+ years experience like you claim, that shouldnt be a problem for you. But then, you DO have to skinny a trailer to get around obstacles, so it appears that even with that amount of (alleged) experience you still dont have control of your trailer...

A truck drivers 1 and only job is to put them trailer tires where they belong. Forward or backward, thats the one and only job of a truck driver. If you cant do it, you are in the wrong job.

 

I learned that anything is legal if you don't get caught. And also, that OTR driving is a miserable non-life, and I had to find something else to do in the industry as soon as possible.

 

OTR isnt the only job in trucking. I worked at LTL companies for years and loved it. Then I bought my own truck and work when I want.