Comments By Lyght

G-Town is right about both smaller adjustments and how important the set up is. When the truck is set up right I can normally make the backing happen now but if the set up isn't just right and I'm trying to fix my backing from the very start it can become a huge pain.

So three weeks into the four week program now. My wife was told she wasn't progressing fast enough and that she should drop the course about half way through the third week. That really messed with my head and I've been feeling some what mentally blocked since then. I'm not going to name names because that feels childish to me, but there's another student here that seems to get her choice of truck everyday and hours of one on one time. My wife was a little behind from the start and was placed with the other two students that were behind the three of them had the same instructor. For about a week with that instructor they didn't make any progress but they finally switched out instructors and she started to advance but was still to far behind. I guess it annoyed me so much since other students were getting one on one time that I wished they students that were behind were given that kind of treatment. We also had to come to class the first Saturday, half of the second one but due to weather we didn't have class this last Saturday. It seems like Saturday would have been better used just for those behind not the whole class.

This class has seemed like they were making some of the plans up as they went along. Normally its a five week class but CFI worked out a deal with the college to have it as a four week class, with Thanksgiving and Christmas this class started late and is finishing early. We had most of our class test out of their CDL at the end of week three. We started with nine people, one quit after mid-terms, my wife was talked into dropped the class shortly after so now we're down to seven. Three passed on their first time, three failed on their first time and one other person still needs to take his first try.

I had my cdl test on Friday at ten. I had the full pre-trip inspection and passed that, I'm not sure how well I did on it but I passed and that was the important thing. I had straight line backing, driver side lane change backing, nailed both of those with out a pull up or hitting a boundary so I was feeling really good about it. Then I had to do the 90 degree turn and well I failed. The driving range we train on is different than the one we test on so when I did my set up for it I pulled up way to far and I think I might have been to high in the lane as well. I tried the best I could to fix it while backing but had to many pull ups and hit the boundary twice. So once I failed that, it was the end of my CDL test.

After a quick lunch I was hoping to get some time practicing, sadly that didn't seem to be the case. On the practice we only had two trucks and one instructor. The girl that always gets one on one time was in one truck and the other truck was being used to teach the people that passed their CDL test how to do 45 degree backing. So for a while I just rode with her and watched and tried to do my best to take in information that way. After the other students where done with the 45 I took that truck and was able to practice. Still only had one instructor at that point who did his best to go between the two trucks. With his help I was able to do the 90 a few times even once that I only needed a little help and that help was just a nod when I pointed in the direction I thought I was suppose to turn the wheel. After that time he went back to the other truck to help her some more. A little after that another instructor came out and tried to help me but he had a different way then the first guy and by the time class was over I was once again no where near being able to do the backing.

I test again on Monday at 10:30 if I can manage to get past the backing, either by pure luck or some how getting it in the two hours I'll have (hopefully) to practice before the exam I'm pretty sure I'll pass my road trip. I still grind gears sometimes mainly when going up or down hill. When that happens I sometimes can't get it into the next gear but I've gotten better at that and am pretty good at gear recovery. We spend most of the time on the training pad backing up that gear work isn't something I get to work on to often.

I don't mean to speak ill of the program, I'm sure its a great one and most of the instructors are really knowledgeable and they're all really friendly. The trucks are great (well I'm not a fan of number 11), the college is on/next to an old military base so they have a lot of unused roads to drive on which is awesome, the training pad is really big and the in class work is stuff you should know. My wife had to with draw but we feel good enough about the program that she is going to come back for the five week version. However, I'm strongly suggest not coming out during the class between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

With the pedal extensions how hard are those to swap out? We were wanting to team drive so any adjustments needed for her to drive would either have to work for both of us or be some what easy/fast to be able to change them out and put them back during our pre and post trips.

My wife and I were in truck driving school together at Crowder College but today they made her withdraw from the class. We were in a four week program. She wants to come back in February to try again in a five week program they have. She is 5'1 and about 135 pounds. She pulls up so close to the steering wheel that when she shift gears she needs to sort of reach back and around and that causes her to turn the wheel whenever she has to shift gears. She also had problems with the clutch because she had a hard time pressing in it all the way. I'm going to finish up the four week program and get started with CFI, and she plans to return to Crowder again to try once more. So the question is, do any of you know of away to over come the problems she's having from being short?

I suck at parallel parking, all backing up really. I can straight line back up to a point but then always end up screwing up at the end. The teachers here are really good but I feel like I'm falling behind because of my bad backing up skills, any advice?

Alright end of the first week. So far I've driven seven different trucks three of them were on one day. Some of the trucks are easier to drive than others but that's great because you never know what kinda truck the company will give you. So in the first week we worked on up shifting and down shifting, turning, parallel parking, straight back backing, I think it was call sight backing but I could be wrong on the name and we've had two road tests driving through town. We've done five chapters worth of book work as well. I'm good with going forward and turning but backing up so far is not my friend.

Oh wow okay there's so much to cover. Time at Crowder College seems to fly by. Class starts at about 7:45am and runs until 4. Breakfast is at 7, Lunch is at 11:15 and dinner is at 5:15. So you go straight from breakfast to class. For lunch there's a bus that comes picks up from from class and takes us to the cafeteria then at 11:45 picks you up and drives you back to class. There is no bus to class after breakfast or back to the dorms (or apartments) after class which kinda sucks since the two are on opposite sides of the campus. The food is pretty good but if you're like me and didn't bring a person car if you don't like it you don't have much of a choice. So far there's only been one dinner that had food I didn't like. Wifi in the dorms is awful... but I hear its pretty good in the apartments. The dorms are oldish, and the sound carries from one to the other pretty easily but other than being a little cold they're not that bad. There's plenty of trucks here and they all appear to be in really good shape, on campus they also train diesel mechanics so they are able to use that to keep them all running smoothly, I believe they have 13 different rigs. In the classroom there's three simulators that have all kinds of programs on there to help you before even getting behind the wheel. The book we use it J.J Keller's Tractor-Trailer Driving Training Manual 3rd edition and yes we do have homework. The first week we had five chapters to we had to do.

That's about all I can say about the school itself, the program it great though. The teachers are all ex-truck drivers so they know what they're teaching because they've done it. The classroom is really relaxed, we have stuff to do and are almost always busy but we're free to make jokes and if something is boring even the teachers will agree its boring but then tell us why we need to watch it even though its boring. The class moves fast! I was on a simulator on day two and then today I was driving a real truck and working on my straight backing. My wife has never driven a manual before and by the second day she passed the little shifting test they have before you can get behind a real truck. She's not perfect yet but she's getting good and they're taking the time to work with her on it. The timing was perfect really. With the holiday coming around there's no classes following our group of students. That means we have more trucks and more teachers for us. Next week the last class ahead of us tests out, after that our class of nine will have all 13 trucks and all the I want to say 10 teachers to just us. Also they don't have co-ed dorms here, so normally my wife and I would have been split up but this time of the year there's so few students here my wife and I got a dorm all to ourselves. The small class size and well trained staff is a major plus. However, a big thing that I don't like is that they only go over the pre-trip inspection once then you're on your own with it, but its going to be part of the mid-term and the CDL exam itself. They have a dvd in each dorm room that covers it (but the dvd player in my dorm room doesn't work) which might help. I really wish that was covered more, between class, homework and studying, its hard to find the time to walk across campus (in the cold) to where the trucks are kept (in bad lighting) to do it on our own, and with no teacher there to make sure we're doing it right. Over all, although this is my first week I really like it and feel like I have learned a lot. I started on Nov 29th and they say we'll finish Dec 23rd or sooner. I'll try to do more updates with better detail this was more of just an over view of the campus and a little info on the program here.

Ended up with a toothache on Thanksgiving, I'm on meds for it hopefully that wouldn't mess up my drug test but I have a prescription for it so hopefully that is taken into account. I'm trying not to take the pain meds and only using the antibiotic to cut down on the risk of a failed test. The bus ride really killed by back I'm hoping its not that painful to drive a truck as it was riding on a bus. It didn't help that the bus driver got lost and ended up needing to ask some of the passengers to look up the directions for her putting us way behind. That did cut a three hour layover into an hour layover so thankfully we weren't late getting here. Made it to Joplin alright only to find the room wasn't booked, it being a Sunday I had a hard time getting a hold of a real person at the company but after about two hours or trying we were finally able to get a room, but its only for one night tomorrow I need to get with my recruiter and have her extend the stay. A few others had the same problem so I didn't feel as bad, I don't blame the recruiter and it was taken care of. Just hoping the rest of the training goes more smoothly.

There's something else to think about too, your wife can go with you once you get your truck and start to solo-drive. Her insulin needs might be kinda a pain in the butt through but if you can get enough for a few months at a time you I think you'll be okay with that. Your daughter is almost ready to go to college so right now might be a good time for you to start your training. If she's going to a dorm you wouldn't see her as much, and I'm sure you remember your first year of college its busy busy busy so even if she was staying at home for it now still seems like it would be the best time. Like Rainy said most companies want you to have a year long haul driving with them before you can think about a regional or dedicated route. Its good money from what I've seen (newbie here, I leave for training tomorrow) you should more than double your income the first year alone and all the companies I looked at (going to CFI/XPO myself) offer health care at really good prices. Some of them (like CFI for example) even offer free training if you agree to work for them so long after the fact.

I'm pretty sure it'll be a few years before you need to worry about being replaced by a self driving truck. This post talks about how its not going to be another 10 years before offered commercially, so that was almost two years ago so we can say that there's 8 years left before they're offered commercially. Then the company will need to make the call on if its worth it to do away with all their old trucks to buy all new self driving trucks which I'm sure will be anything but cheap. Not every company will have the money to switch right away even once they become an option. Someday yeah all drivers both of trucks and cars will be a thing of the past and that will put a lot of people out of work, but that's still a ways off.

I leave Saturday at 11 to head to Crowder College. I'm mostly packed and ready to go. Really excited and scared. I still only have my paper permit as the plastic one hasn't arrived yet, I hoping it comes on Friday because other wise I'll have to hope I can trust someone to pick it up from my mail box and then mail it to me in Mo, and hope I have an address it can be sent to.