Profile For Richard D.

Hello everyone, I attended a 7.5 week college course to get my cdl license and my classmates mostly went OTR but me? No.I wanted local and hourly pay. I laughed at 30cpm. What a bunch of fools.

I moved back home to TX and drove for the oilfields. That's when it all went south. Nobody cares. It was all about the money. And I made A LOT of money. Thousands and thousands of dollars. I didn't even know what to do with it all.

The training left my head because the other drivers taught me their ways. Coasting to a stop, 24 hour plus shifts, driving with busted lights, torn seat belts, battered tires, leaking toxic oilfield fluids from **** tier tankers, to hell with air brake testing if it didn't beep or boop you're good to go and a pretrip was a quick "okay got all my tires... lights are ok I guess, signal lights are busted but whatever they just need to see the brake lights, darn the right brake light is out..... ah well we gotta get moving. Oh!!! Can't forget the putter-outter!!! (Fire extinguisher)

I got laid off and now i want to work for a legitimate company like Schnieder but wait! They want to teach me how to skip gears when downshifting to a stop? How do you even double clutch anymore? What the heck is HOS i never used that before. Omg whats trip planning?!?!? Leave me alone! I need another mom and pop company!!!!

Listen. Dont be like me. Work for a safe company and utilize all your skills. Because if you dont use it, you lose it.

Get into the oilfield. I do local water delivery. Get paid hourly and make a crap ton of overtime. Its great work. Lots of danger. Lots of change. Nothing ever the same. With a gun aimed at me I wouldnt go otr lol.

Hah. Interesting responses here. Ill come back up north some time. I made a few snow balls but I had to escape asap. I drive a yellow smartcar and I feared the snow would keep me prisoner lmao!

Drive safe you two

I moved to Pennsylvania from Texas to live with my fiance then went to college to become a truck driver. I was a bodyguard/armed guard before all of this.

Got a job hauling food grade milk in a smooth bore tank when suddenly. It happened.

Snow started coming down. What is this stuff?! Oh god! Its slippery! And cold! Mybold R-model Mack can barely clear the windshield. AHHH did I just slide?!?!?!?!?! Why cant i stop?!?!?!

Ok. Needless to say I moved back to Texas and just got in last Monday. I belong to Eagle Ford Shale now

Anyone else ever quit the job because of snow? It scared the tar out of me and made a 3 hour delivery into a 10 hour ordeal with a low delivery rate!!!

College trained me to drive without it, even on some downhills since not all trucks will have an engine brake.

Make no mistake the moment I started driving after graduating I slapped it on just for the cool sound.

With that out of my system.

I use it to help me brake here and there and when going downhill only. But dont leave it on all the time.

I live in Pennsylvania right now and im moving back to my home in Texas in about two weeks to escape the snow. I drove up to Philadelphia to deliver milk and got caught in some minor snow on the mountainous roads. Scared the tar out of me. And it didnt help that I was in an old Mack R model!

Im done with this milk business and joining the oilfield truckers witb the rest of my family. No more hills to downshift for or baffle-less tanks. Just income and flat familiar roads!

And no more going home smelling likw raw milk and bleach.

Small companies that do local work can help you... I have no bad history at all but I work for a second chance milk company (Clouse Trucking Inc) they hire people with bad history. I dont know if thats a rare thing or not.

"Yeah my emoyer is laying an egg over me using the clutch. Ive been learning how to float but it still sounds like this.

ERKKKKK GRIRIRIRIIRIRIRINNNND KLUNK! KABLAM!!!!!!!!!!"

Dont worry it will come. Try to make sure you got plenty of room and time to down shift then concentrate on your rpms. Lets say your tach is at 1000 rpms and its time to downshift. Apply a little pressure on the shifter towards neutral and apply a little throttle so it will come out of gear, then add a lttle more throttle to bring rpms upto about 1800 and will slip right in. In no time you will get the feel for it and it will just come naturally. Good luck

Yeah just lastnight I learned if you give it some throttle it loosens the shifter. I had no idea and was trying to force it out. Its getting a little easier for me now that I learned that trick :)

Hey all hows everyone this week? Tell me about your downshifting advise, seems to me everyone has issues at times.

Dont oveerthink it. Or youll mess everything up!

Clutch, neautral, give her a good rev, clutch, downshift.

Clutch, neautral, rev, clutch, downshift

Rev it too little and youll just grind. Just give it a good purr and it always works.

Clutch? Oh...you mean that thing you use to take off with? Lol. When i got in my trainers truck he said " if you touch that clutch pedal again i am gonna f***ing smack you in the back of the head" joking around of coarse. But way eaiser to shift floating the gears.

Yeah my emoyer is laying an egg over me using the clutch. Ive been learning how to float but it still sounds like this.

ERKKKKK GRIRIRIRIIRIRIRINNNND KLUNK! KABLAM!!!!!!!!!!

Trucking headset, trucker gps, sunglasses, digital watch with a back light, rubber dipped gloves for fueling, work gloves, fifth wheel hook bar thingy, cap with lots of bbreathability, driving gloves, lots of flashlights, raincoat, hammer to check tires, quality multi tool, tire depth gauge, tire psi gauge, rand mcnally motor carrier atlas, trucker metal briefcase for all your logbooks and paperwork, quality ac outlet multi charger, backing up camera for the trucking gps, magnetic spot lights to stick on your trailer when backing into unlit dark areas, seat cushion so ot helps your butt and back breathe, a fancy pen, personal hygiene bag (diaper wipes, nail clippers, toothbrush, etc), good laptop with portable internet!

Oh yeah how could I forget to mention road speeds. Ifbits a 10 speed transmission just look at your road speed and the signs and 'gear match'

If thr soeed is 35mph, add the 3 and 5 together and that equals 8. So you should be in 8th gear.

If the speed is 25 mph, add the 2 and 5 together and thst equals 7 so you should be in 7th gear.

1-5 dont apply here for me. Just 6-10 gears

Hey all hows everyone this week? Tell me about your downshifting advise, seems to me everyone has issues at times.

Dont oveerthink it. Or youll mess everything up!

Clutch, neautral, give her a good rev, clutch, downshift.

Clutch, neautral, rev, clutch, downshift

Rev it too little and youll just grind. Just give it a good purr and it always works.

You might be gripping the steering wheel tight for long periods of time. My left hand would get cramped up if I'm in heavy traffic for a long time (I'm left handed). I've figured out I was gripping the steering wheel real tight in that situation.

I hope. Im too young for arthritis! :c

Nothing masks the smell of raw milk, curdled milk, rotten milk and bleach with the kind of work I do. . . . . . Nothing. @_@

I dont know if im getting into the truck wrong (too much weight on one hand), grasping the steering wheel and or shifter too hard or what but my right hand had been killing me at the joints ever since I started driving. Its been getting better but I was wondering if anyone else has this pain too. Hope im not just being a nancy

Don't overthink double clutching. There is no magic to it, no time for fiddling around and coming up with crazy habits or weird alchemy. Just a nice amd repetitive motion.

Clutch, neautral, clutch, shift.

Clutch, neautral, clutch, shift

Clutch, neautral, clutch, shift

Wait till youre like me and after school the mom and pop companies are yelling at you for clutching in the first place and demand you float the gears. Sheesh it goes like this

Rev, grind, ckunk clank grindddddd KATHUNK!!!!

Back when I first tried to be a trucker years ago I contacted Stevens Transport who wanted a 10 year work history before they shipped me to their school in Dallas, Texas. I only had 2-3 years of history.

The recruiter told me to put anything I could to fill all the blanks.

Cutting grass for grandma, gardening for mom, volunteer work, ANYTHING so there wasnt a gap. Even of it was a lie.

I opted to be lazy and threw the application away and remained an armed guard/body guard for years until I graduated from trucming school last October 20th.

My family put me down at first, putting strong emphasis on me turning the truck wrong and killing people and that there wasn't any money in trucking.

Don't let them scare you out of it if they pull those cards on you. Keep firm and do what you want to do!

Medically evaluated LOL

**** that. Don't just sit there, call that guy out and get the police involved if you have to.

I'd have set him straight like a true Texan if I knew without a doubt he had robbed me!

"Now you listen here and you listen real good. I had my computer in my bag when I came into this truck and now its gone; my computer growing legs and running away wasn't in the bundle package I purchased. You hand it over right now or this'll get REAL ugly REAL fast. SIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"