Comments By Brent R.

Good luck I’m in week 4 of my school we have students from 20 years of age to 60 in there from all walks of life, said they have had a man age 77 go through and get his CDL.

Day 15 we drove on a major street downtown for about 15 miles, traffic lights, turns, cars, other triucks, was interesting putting everything we have learned up to this point and driving and shifting all while watching lights, other drivers, was a good day, we also backed and practice off set backing more today, good end of the week and end of week 3, 5 more weeks to go.....

Thanks G Town I appreciate it, have a couple of weeks to get it down which is good.

Yes I just printed off the list on here I like the way it’s broken up into sections I will definitely study that, I do really well on in cab but always miss something like Volts or forget the horn, ABS, I need to study coupling and suspension parts more and this will help appreciate it.

Today was a lot of driving, we drove (20 miles one way) to a town east of the campus using only the access road along I-40, no highway, but it had a lot of stop signs, yield signs, sharp turns, small 2 lane road, we went to the Loves truck stop, RR break then my student partner drove back, we did more straight line backing, more driving tomorrow then Monday will be all classroom working on trip planning, map reading and logs, i am improving on shifting especially the downshifting and getting the RPM's right so it's smother. Tomorrow will be the end of week 3 we should start testing for our CDL week 5 and 6. Still need some work on Pre-trip, my problem is I say to much and need to be more on what is required for the state test and only saying the key words they are looking for that way they will know I know what I am talking about.

Day 13 we started straight line backing and off set backing and I did it pretty good only had to use 2 pull-ups on one offset and the other did it without pulling up backing is one of my strong parts still need lots of work shifting and downshifting but getting better everyday, rest of the day was spent doing lessons and me and another student went out and did a pretrip and brake tests on a truck and practiced that a few times. We should test out in week 5 and the rest of the time will be spent driving taking short day trips is what we are told working on highway driving and different grades out by Palo Duro Canyon.

Week 3 we are half day in classroom reading and taking online tests over the JJ Keller Tractor Trailer Driver Training Manuel and the other half we are in trucks learning to shift gears, double clutching, using splitter, doing pre trips, hope i get better at shifting, I’m doing good on turns but down shifting and getting the right RPM’s is going to take some practice.

Today we spent all day in truck driving on campus working on changing gears up shifting and downshifting double clutching, never got higher than 5th gear, the campus is on an old Air Force base so it has good roads and intersections with hardly any traffic but our trucks so it’s a perfect place to practice.

Meant Orange, seems like you never stop learning little tricks of the trade, I constantly ask questions for these guys they are a wealth of knowledge for sure.

Already did ask and he said he used a small orand traffic cone to do the same thing that’s good stuff to know and learn for sure, told him about the coin he said he did use that when he was younger but used the cone in older age lol