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I have to keep editing my posts otherwise they will be pages upon pages with every detail you could possibly want to know about trucks and how to drive them... and they are still too long but even if nobody reads them, I like to put it all out there because I'm having a great time with all of this so far. I have been thinking about starting a blog or something once I get my CDL and start out on the road too. I'll have plenty of time to update it and not much else to do once I get on the road since I'll be in a completely different place every night and at least for awhile, have no idea about where I'm actually at as far as what's around so it would give me something to do during my mandatory sleeper time since I doubt I am capable of sleeping for a full 10 hours at a time. I'll be learning all of that as I go. Plus I'm sure I'll see my fair share of weird and crazy stuff out on the highways thanks to other drivers. And even if nobody ever reads that, it might be kind of therapeutic to put it all out there.

Plus in the end, you can only be on duty for 70 hours out of an 8 day period and that includes everything you have to do like your pre and post trip inspections as well as the ones you need to do every time you stop and/or are away from your truck just to make sure nobody messed with anything more or less. Apparently there are drivers or people who, for whatever reason, will pull that release on your coupling and if you don't catch it, you are dropping that trailer and not going to have a good day. Even if the landing gear isn't damaged, the trailer is in a spot where you can recouple and you can get it cranked up high enough to recouple... you probably have damaged cargo from the incident which is going to cost money. If you can't get it coupled again on your own, you can get a wrecker to come save the day but it isn't going to be cheap.

There are also people who will raise the landing gear on a trailer so high in the yard that if you don't notice it and lower it, you are in trouble. If it doesn't get coupled properly because the kingpin is too high when it just pushes that back of the skid plate down until you go too far and then that skid plate pops back up. Now you've got to figure out how to get that skid plate to go back down so that the kingpin will go back over it and you're only one person who can't be in two places at once. I've heard from one instructor that the skid plate isn't that hard to move but I've heard from others that your screwed so I'm not sure what to believe. I have not bothered to try to get one to budge because I believe the instructors when they say that if you want that grease on your clothes next week, the best thing to do is touch it today because it will still be there next week. If you get it on your skin then you are going to need some gas, kerosene or something unpleasant like that to get it off. So I decided to avoid touching the skid plates as much as possible.

So anyway, those checks a couple of times a day will eat into your driving time and all that fun stuff as well but you can't skip them. As my uncle advised last week, do NOT ever slack on the safety checks because in his experience when somebody drops a trailer on the road for the first time, it isn't the driver in their first six months or a year but the driver who has been doing the job for a couple of years and gets lazy or complacent and doesn't make those inspections every time they get ready to move the truck again.

Do you have any trucker tunes in mind for a playlist when you take your maiden solo voyage?

Some suggestions:

Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)
Six Days on the Road
Convoy
Teddy Bear
Fire it Up - Matt Coleman
East Bound and Down
Truck Drivin' Man

i put some up a few pages ago but i think the best is del reeves - girl on the billboard

Leroy wrote: ↑

September 1 21, 1:17 pm

Some suggestions:

Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)
Six Days on the Road
Convoy
Teddy Bear
Fire it Up - Matt Coleman
East Bound and Down
Truck Drivin' Man

Bound For Glory
Big Mac
On The Road Again
13 Days
Ramblin' Man
Runnin' on Empty

I'll have to start creating a play list with all of those suggestions!

We got back out on the roads again today and I definitely improved in my shifting over yesterday and Monday and the instructor took us through some different areas with heavy traffic and more difficult narrow roads and such to navigate. I now have a three day streak where nobody in my group has hit a curb! One of the guys I was with yesterday and today apparently ran over a curb on Monday but that doesn't count since he wasn't in the same truck as me.

It felt good when I was driving back to the yard and the instructor told me that the reason he carrying on a conversation with us and not pointing out anything that I did wrong with missing shifts and such was not because he didn't notice or care, but because before he could say anything I pointed it out exactly what I did wrong myself without even realizing it. I tend to mumble to myself when I'm concentrating or if I don't do something just right and I guess it was loud enough that he could hear me chastising myself and pointing out what I did wrong as soon as it happened. He didn't want me to think he was nagging me or anything like that and figured that as long as I knew what I didn't do just right, there was no need for him to tell me about it too. I had kind of started to wonder if he was just giving up on me or what was going on. I knew I was doing pretty good so I didn't really think he was giving up on me but I was wondering why he wasn't even correcting me anymore.

All three of us did really good today and improved on the previous two days. We even got a really good laugh a time or two. We're getting to the point where by the end the four of us were having a casual conversation while going down the road. It also made my day so much better when one of my classmates said this morning that he was giving it one more day in the manual before giving up and switching to an automatic but only if he could have a different instructor. The one he was paired up with the first two days and him just weren't meshing and he wasn't making any progress. He went to the head instructor to talk to him about it and they put him in the truck with us. After a brief tutorial before he started and a little bit of help, he was killing it (in the good way) to the point where after half an hour the instructor got really serious and flat out asked him if he was just messing with him when he said he didn't think he could get it. When he insisted that he wasn't messing with him and couldn't figure it out the previous two days, the instructor just asked him why would he want to give up when he's doing so good and the answer was, "I'm not even thinking about giving up on the manual now because I finally feel like I can do this." That made my day.

I was already feeling great about my progress and that of the other guy who has been in my group the past two days because I could really see the progress he made but having the guy who was ready to quit figure it out and have a complete turnaround in his confidence and overall outlook really topped it off. I've only known these people for about two and a half weeks now but for these two and a half weeks and the next week and a half we are around each other almost 24/7 and while we aren't necessarily friends, there is a bond and everyone wants to see everybody else in the group succeed and is genuinely happy when somebody does good and if they are struggling they are ready to give advice and help with extra study or anything needed. The people in the groups who started before us are also great about giving tips, advice and encouragement to us and those starting after us and the same thing is happening with my group trying to help out the first and second week students as well. No matter what happens the rest of the way, I think I'll honestly be able to say that coming to this school has been a great experience that I'm glad to have had.

Now I just have to get this stuff nailed down and pass my skills tests towards the end of next week so I can get out of here. With two more days out on the road this week, I'm feeling great about the road test and I know I have all of the pre trip inspections down nearly perfectly. I just need more practice at the backing maneuvers and then I'll be confident in going to take the skills tests and get my CDL.

Man, I love reading all this. I'm thrilled for you that you're enjoying it so much.

Of course the roommate got me nervous last night. I'm improving quickly with my shifts thanks to the instructors I've had but there is one instructor who a couple of guys, including my roommate, just can't seem to work with. The guy yesterday who the instructor thought was messing with him because of how well he was doing was in our group because he specifically asked to work with a different instructor. Then my roommate said last night that he was struggling and not getting along with the same instructor yesterday and the day before so the instructor just had him stop so he could call back to the head instructor and tell him that my roommate was wanting to switch to an automatic because he just couldn't get the manual even though he never said he wanted to switch. So with things changing up, I'm nervous that I'm going to get paired with that instructor today and he's going to get into my head like the others. I just can't let that happen because it's too close to the end and I'm just about where I need to be. I can't have a set back today or tomorrow. It's not a great thing to be nervous the night before class and having it bleed into the next morning about something that I can't control but I think I'm back in the proper frame of mind now and ready to get at it.

Even if I get paired up with him, I'll be fine though. I just have to get in the right frame of mind. Today I really need to work on timing my downshifts and not doing then as early as I was yesterday. Yesterday I was still starting my downshifts waaay too early. On Tuesday out on the main roads the instructor had us starting the downshifts way earlier than we need to because we weren't very fast on the down shifts and needed the extra room. We know how to do them but with the added stress of cars around, things could get a bit out of whack and slow. Then yesterday after being so much faster with them, I was still starting them early to make sure I got all the way down from 10th to 6th. I was getting all the way down to 6th 50-100 yards before I needed to once I was able to get through the downshifts one right after the other. I saw the notes my instructor wrote on my performance and they literally said, "Slows down way too early but is doing it intentionally to practice the downshifts." Yep. I was and he knows I was because I literally told him that I know I was starting them too early but there were no cars behind us so I wanted to make sure I got them all in and done correctly. Not going to do that today. In the skills test they would likely say I was slowing down too early and impeding traffic which doesn't exactly work with passing the test.

Time to shower up and hit the road so I can get this practice in! I'm really excited for next week when we get to be practicing things all day instead of half days like the past two weeks. We miss class on Monday because of the holiday but if all goes well and I have a really good Tuesday and Wednesday then I will be able to take my skills tests on Thursday or Friday and officially have that CDL! Just need to keep getting better and get through one day at a time first though. If I have to go a little into a fifth week, then I have to go into a fifth week. We have a lot of people who need to test so it is possible that I won't be out of here next week. That's OK though as long as I get those skills tests passed before the fifth week is over. I do NOT want to be here into a sixth week. That doesn't happen very often though. The average seems to be people passing the last two days of week four or the first couple of days of week five.

Joe Shlabotnik wrote: ↑

September 1 21, 4:44 pm

Leroy wrote: ↑

September 1 21, 1:17 pm

Some suggestions:

Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)
Six Days on the Road
Convoy
Teddy Bear
Fire it Up - Matt Coleman
East Bound and Down
Truck Drivin' Man

Bound For Glory
Big Mac
On The Road Again
13 Days
Ramblin' Man
Runnin' on Empty

Sturgill Simpson Long White Line
Truckin (someone had to say it, I know it's basic)

thrill wrote: ↑

September 2 21, 8:40 am

Joe Shlabotnik wrote: ↑

September 1 21, 4:44 pm

Leroy wrote: ↑

September 1 21, 1:17 pm

Some suggestions:

Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)
Six Days on the Road
Convoy
Teddy Bear
Fire it Up - Matt Coleman
East Bound and Down
Truck Drivin' Man

Bound For Glory
Big Mac
On The Road Again
13 Days
Ramblin' Man
Runnin' on Empty

Sturgill Simpson Long White Line
Truckin (someone had to say it, I know it's basic)

Was just going to suggest that Sturgill song.

24 hours at a time - Marshal Tucker.