Comments By Daniel N.

So, one thing that concerns me a lot is the choice of where to park the truck for the night to rest (or any reason at all). So far, in my month's worth of driving, it has been Walmart lots, rest and truck stops, and shippers/receivers (at approval request). Aside from trying to find an adequate, legal place to park, you also have to worry about any obstructions, dangers, size of parking lots, and permissions. What are some tips on finding a good spot to park or how to even set yourself up for a good park?

Also, I'd like to share a pic that happened within the past 2 weeks relating to parking. I know that this is a big No-No, as there is mud and rain involved, but the driver did so anyways. Plus, his trailer was sticking out halfway in the driveway to a Caterpillar Warehouse.

It all depends on what the company allows. some companies have idle shut off after 5 minutes and will fire you for putting inverters in their trucks....no inverter means no gaming system, no tv, no fridge, and definitely no microwave. and when its 90 degrees in your house and the engine shuts off every 5 minutes, your little fan blowing hot air around makes you want to quit. nothing worse than waking up sweating your butt off. JUST MAKE SURE YOUR COMPANY HAS THESE THINGS< even a APU can help you through that. sleeping bag, pillow, 1 month worth of clothes and soap for washing them and showers, tooth brush, toothpaste, tv, ps4, cell phone, hotspot wifi, firearm, fridge.....thats all you need besides groceries.

From what I've seen, PAM Transport has APUs and Inverters installed, all they really ask is that you keep it clean and maintained properly. I could be wrong though.

I find that in the 2015-16 freightliner cascadia, it downshifts best around 1500 rpm

You sure about that? Cascadia I drove was limited and would barely hit 1500. Should be downshifting closer to 1000-1200 at the most.

Yep, also driving 2015 FreightShaker, downshifting between 900-1200 rpms on average for smoothness.

It's ok! I'll make it work with whatever they give me! :))

That's the spirit! I hated getting on the bunk with my trainer. You have to have some decent fitness to lift yourself onto that and then get back down! Urgh.

I'm not much of a decorator. I have a lot of books at home so I have one cabinet in the truck dedicated to being my mobile library. I switch them out with different books as I finish them and I get a little bit of that old book smell in the truck. I love it. Smells like home!

Well if I still didn't have any lingering fears and frights about Trucking, I'd definitely try to go solo, it's more of a privacy issue than anything really. But that's a great idea though, taking a lot of books with you to read when you're Off-Duty or in Sleeper. Then again, with it being almost 2016, eReader Tablets are the new way to read books because they're so much more convenient

That's living the life right there! I'm kinda surprised how you made it, being how it's a heck of a lot smaller than a normal bedroom, so there's a bit less to work with room-wise. Are you an owner-op? Just curious.

So, I've heard many stories on what Truckers will do to their berth to make it as home-sweet-home as possible. What have you all seen so far? Me, personally, there's not much I could do being as a team, but I've invested in a Verizon mobile hotspot, so that internet leaves open a lot of things, like setting up a game system, Netflix, ect.

Let me say this, Downshifting was my biggest issue, and still to this day, I have some crazy problems with it, but, don't let anyone try to fool you on it. During CDL School, I always thought that you had to downshift gear-by-gear when really, it's just whatever speed you're going. I'm in 10th going 60 and I have to slow down to about 15 mph to make a quick merge or a turn. Just slow down to that speed, clutch it to neutral, give it a small ""vroom"" and clutch it down to 6th. If you instead give it a "vvvrrrroooooooooommmm!!!!" where it comes up to like 1900 rpms, let it drop down to about 15 and then watch it slip right in. The worst thing that can happen when you try to downshift is you grind it a little, but that would kinda tell either to 1) give it a little rpm boost, or 2) look at your speed/rpms and figure out which gear corresponds to that. Trust me, it's not uncommon to be coasting in neutral, lol ...what's such a panic is trying to get it back in gear if you happen to make a turn while in neutral so you don't end up slowing down to a crawl..

Hey everyone, the name's Dan. 21 years old, just your normal single guy, no dependents or debts to worry about. I've been having a lot of trouble landing a traveling job that I felt would be right for me, or heck, a job at all! Then I got to thinking about Truck Drivers. My father used to be one himself, but due to having me, had to quit. He's told me about some good things and some bad things that he went through. I'd like to get some input and a little bit of wisdom from you all, and help to see if driving a hefty truck around is right for me. I was initially wanting to go for just local delivery jobs of sorts like Fedex, UPS, ect., but even these positions aren't needed much. The local mail & freight jobs required CDL, so I was out of luck with them.