Now things are starting to get interesting. My entire class passed the CDL-A exams on our first try, so today we got to drive the trucks! I went in this morning expecting to get out to the trucks right away, but unfortunately we had to wait a while as the class before us was finishing up some testing. So we started going over pre trip inspections. There is a lot to know in this area and we must know it word for word. They said by the end of the next three weeks, we’ll be saying the pre trip inspections in our sleep. We spent almost the entire morning going over this, so it’s very important to know it all. By the end of it, I was ready to jump out of my shoes I was so anxious to get out to the trucks! To finish off the morning, we watched a quick 10 minute video on shifting, then we went to lunch.
After lunch, first thing we did was to break into groups and we were assigned a truck! Man, I was so excited and nervous all at the same time. Emotion overload, that’s for sure. I was in the truck with 4 other students, which was a little more than I was hoping for, but today was an exception. After tomorrow, there will only be 2 to 3 of us in the road trucks and the rest of us will be in “the yard” with different trucks practicing in the obstacle course, which is mostly backing skills. We’ll just rotate between the road trucks and yard trucks.
In the cab of our training truck
So anyway, for our first day driving, we did not have a trailer hooked up. They wanted us to learn how to shift before we got into that. I was hoping I’d be the first to get into the drivers seat, but the way we were situated two people were ahead of me. For starters, we just made a 2 or 3 mile circle around the park. The first guy did pretty well. He was grinding gears a bit (we all did), but was still able to shift pretty well. The second guy that went was pretty shaky to start. And when I say shaky, I mean literally. We were jumping forwards and backwards, side to side…actually it was a bit scary! But he started to really get the hang of it by the end of his turn.
Next up was me. Sitting in that drivers seat was very intimidating. The steering wheel is huge, the pedals are huge, the shifter is huge, it all just felt so unnatural! This is definitely a change from my little 4 cylinder sports car! But there was nothing I could do now! So I put on my seatbelt, pushed the clutch in, stepped on the brake pedal, released the parking break, and was ready to go. Since no trailer was attached, I was instructed to start off in 3rd gear. This was actually the easiest part of the trip! I let the clutch out, gave her a little gas, and it was a smooth take-off! Ok, good start.
The First Truck I Ever Drove!
The next step was to shift into 4th gear. These trucks require that you “double clutch” so I put the clutch in, let off the gas, shifted into neutral, released the clutch, gave it a little bit of gas, and put the shifter into 4th (all within the matter of one second or so). It was a little shaky, but I think I did a pretty good job! Next up, a decent sized curve. This is when I really realized just how big the steering wheel is. This isn’t like turning a car! I let up on the gas, let the truck coast a bit, and made the right hand turn with ease. It was awkward, but I did a nice job.
Here’s where it get’s sketchy. I had to shift into 5th gear. Without getting too detailed, I basically had to select a switch to go from “low gear” to “high gear.” So essentially, 5th gear is in the same spot as 1st gear. I flipped the switch, went for 5th gear, and was greeted with the wonderful sound of medal on medal grinding together. I dropped her back into neutral, let off the clutch, gave her some gas, clutch back in, and tried shifting into 5th again with the sound of grinding gears. Arrrg! On the third try, my instructor showed me that I was simply putting the shifter too far to the left (towards the reverse gear). So with his help, I was able to guide it into 5th. Now we’re getting some speed! Luckily, I wasn’t too upset about the grinding gears since each student before me did the same thing on various gears and I was far from the worst. But it was still a bit frustrating.
Now it was time for a break check. I was coming up on a stop sign that meets up with a two lane state road. I began to brake, but not much was happening. So I pushed a little harder on the pedal. These brakes are like on/off switches! They are very sensitive so I began to over correct. Too much brake, not enough, too much, not enough… I sort of came to a humorous “rabbit hop stop” but I got the job done! What a surprise those brakes were! Once again, I wasn’t the only one who experienced this problem.
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Don’t fret man you’ll do great. As long as you keep improving you will be able to come out on top. From what I remember you said this was a four week training so you’ve got three weeks, including this one, to learn what you need to to be a safe professional driver. The school up here near Portland Maine that seems to be the big name, Northeast Tech, is only three weeks. If they think we can do it in three I’m sure you can do it in four. Drive safe and try to have some fun.
Thanks Jim. I just got back from my second day “on the road” and man, what a difference a day makes! I’ll have a new post up shortly. But the short of it is, I’ve improved a ton already. It’s fun being able to see myself improving so quickly. This is getting fun!
Way to go TruckerMike! Great story and it brings back memories. Now that you know more on the shifting, you know exactly what I was telling you about. This is one of those things that is hard to explain, you just have to do it to understand it. You are doing great. One does not just get into a semi and DRIVE it like you can your vehicle or anyones vehicle. So much to know and now it is probably making more sense on why training is so long–or maybe too short. Looking forward to many more of your adventures.
I gotta agree with Rhonda. Even though I didn’t use a school, I still “practiced” in an old shopping center parking lot until I thought my legs were going to shake right off! That’s another blog post coming soon…