Comments By Keith A.

That's positively fascinating Old School -- I'd still be willing to stand by my premise (for now, at least), but I had not considered the basic influence of /how/ that premise would influence my perception.

That was and is a lot of why I never liked spending much time around other drivers, because so few of them seemed concerned with actually attempting to reconcile their complaints with reality and find ways to address them or live with the reality of things. That being said a lot of this paper stems from my experience working for Knight and so there's definitely anecdotal fuel in my perspective, although I tried to make sure I had eliminated or countered for that in writing this paper.

I think that there's definitely a conversation that should happen about the... cultural element at play here: depending on your exact phrasing, it comes down to a nature vs. nurture viewpoint, individual responsibility vs. systemic assistance. I operate primarily from a nurture perspective, with a side-serving of wanting systems to be well constructed to assist people on their way towards being responsible. This might be a paradox or a dead end though, I'm not sure yet -- but it's based (again) heavily off my personal experience. Without the information and advice offered by this forum and the mentors I've found along the way when I worked for Knight, I would not be where I am now, and truth be told I'm not sure I'd have made the grade without their assistance.

With your permission, is it okay if I copy your replies into a word doc to use as possible sourcing/reminders for if/when I return to this topic?

Hey Keith, I just now got a chance to read this. I may not agree with all of your premise, but you did an excellent job of writing and supporting your thoughts. I write a great deal, and I will give you one tip. Don't count on yourself to be your own editor. I just recently helped Brett with a new section of the High Road training program. I had several folks look it over and critique it. That was both frustrating and beneficial. They pointed out things that I could not see. I did a lot of research and was proud of my initial product. It turned out very different in the end. I ended up making changes that were needed. Prior to my allowing others to edit what I had written, I was quite satisfied with it. Afterward, it was made better by the confluence of advice from several outside observers.

Don't let any of my remarks discourage you. I found it a fascinating read. You did a great job, and it shows you are a solid and logical thinker. I am glad you are getting to pursue your dreams of higher education. It seems to sit well with you. Best of luck to you in your future pursuits.

If you've got the time, Old School, I'd love to know where you disagreed -- I think this might be fertile ground for another paper as I move along in my classes and I'd love to have a wider and more thorough understanding of all the viewpoints. I don't just want to stand on a soapbox and share my perspective, I want to try being a.... respectable and balanced voice, to share this information with new drivers and people outside the field.

Enjoyed it Keith. Really good!

Best of luck to you.

I appreciate that G-Town. Means a lot from you, I consider you and Old School as two of the strongest voices of reason here.

What degree are you working on? What's your eventual career goal? Very well written.

Civil engineering is the planned degree path right now, still trying to get a bead on what exactly I'm likely to end up doing. Pie-in-the-sky ideal situation though is I get an engineering firm actually started that targets rural areas and tries to bring their infrastructure not just up to speed but preps them for the next couple of decades as well.

Either that, or I want to work on space elevators and other megastructures.

Keith;

I know I'm not your 'favorite person' on TT (probably because I'm not yet a driver, just lived w/one for 22 years, aka: your age!) but I actually think your paper is EXCELLENT. Concept, spot on. Point, taken. Reality, indeed.

If you'd like someone to proof it for you (there are a few things, but I'm not sure how that will affect (yes, an 'a' not an 'e') your grade) please let either myself, Brett, and for sure, DaveW. or Kearsey know. She's hard to find, however!

The day you posted it, I'd asked Brett to read it as well; not sure if he's gotten to it.

All in all, you hit the nail . . . 'on the head & tail' as my dad used to say.

~ Anne ~

I got a grade back on it day before yesterday, all I got docked for was about two dozen spelling/grammar errors. So for this being fundamentally a first draft, I'll take it. XD The proofing is a part I enjoy, but making sure that any ideas I present are really solid and grounded is important to me.

If you happen to float through the Denver, CO area it'd be fascinating to meet ya.

Quality of road surface enters the conversation too: stick an empty trailer on a potholed driveway, then run the same one loaded -- my experience has been that you can keep more consistent pressure applied with the loaded trailer than the empty.

On brand new, dry, asphalt though, I'd take the empty trailer for stopping in a hurry.... I think that by sheer math the heavier you are the longer you take to stop, but after road conditions, driver comfort, driver attentiveness, and load weight there is only a general trend of more weight = longer time to stop.

What degree are you working on? What's your eventual career goal? Very well written.

Civil engineering is the planned degree path right now, still trying to get a bead on what exactly I'm likely to end up doing. Pie-in-the-sky ideal situation though is I get an engineering firm actually started that targets rural areas and tries to bring their infrastructure not just up to speed but preps them for the next couple of decades as well.

Either that, or I want to work on space elevators and other megastructures.

The Invisible Hands

Hey all! Been hammering away on this paper for a few weeks now but got the final breakthroughs on it today -- I'd love to know what you think if you have time to read. It may not be the first time I visit the topic so I'd love to be able to come back and add additional depth and nuance to things.

I tried to keep it pretty balanced, but I did overly emphasize some of the "negatives" about the job since I was writing this from the perspective of my audience being folks who are unfamiliar with the industry (and trying to sell my point).

There's also at least a dozen points where I had to gloss over points of nuance that if expanded may end up crippling some of my lines of argument, but expanding on them fully takes the scope of the paper far past what was intended.

I'm iffy about kids my age (21) when I started driving these -- it isn't until the last year when I turned 26 I've started settling down and learning better risk assessment... I'm shocked they let me in the seat of a truck at all most of the time.

So.. quick question. Does the positioning of the 5th wheel affect turning radius and how the trailer backs?

A little bit, although in the vaaaaaast majority of situations you'll never move your fifth wheel. Since the vehicles are articulated any shift in position of your linkage point would affect your backing.