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Thanks Pack Rat. Not up with the big dogs but one step above the ankle biters! Lol

Great job!

Thank you sir

Congratulations "driver."

That title will have more meaning to you as you go through TNT and also as you become a solo driver.

Actually Anne you are the trucking truth cheerleader. I for one really appreciate your sweetness and caring. I was trying to just be factual in my accounts but if you want some humor, my trainer and I laugh every time we go past Uranas Fudge. Per there commercials they can pack fudge like no one else. Cracks me up.

Part 11 Since the truck is in the shop my trainer says I am going to get you scheduled for test out. We had some time before our truck appt , so we hit the pad. About 4 hours of all the backs and I felt really good about backing. I had a little skip in my step. Ha Ha We practiced the in cab and air brake pretrip. All went good. Turned the truck in. The next day my trainer said you want some more pad time, I can get a pad truck. I said no I think I got it. He said you’re sure. I said I am good. So I spent the rest of the day relaxing and studying pretrip. Received a message from dispatch, report to test out Friday 1330. A couple hours later new message, report at 1100.Next morning, breakfast, We catch the shuttle at 10. Arrive and hang out and I continue to get pretrip arranged in my mind. We check in at 1045. Pretty painless, go to front desk for keys to pad truck for testing. My trainer helps me and we hook to one of the 3 trailers shown for testing that day. Take the truck and trailer to lucky pad 4 that I will be testing on. Put out the wheel chokes and my trainer says let’s just make sure this combo will pass the air brake test. What a life saver he was. Let air build, engine off key on. Release brakes, apply and hold brakes, wait for stabilize.?Air pressure goes down , down , down. Does not stop. We suspect the trailer, we mention that and another trainer said, ya I had trouble with that trailer. So we search out another trailer, go through the process, same result. Take to office crew. They hook up to known good trailer, same issue it’s the truck. So now it’s 1245 on my 1100 test out time. I am starting to get a little wigged out. Then I hear we can borrow Tim’s truck, (another trainer). Tim rolls up with a trailer attached says it’s ready and says, my students haven’t tore it up you should be ok in it, and laughs. So my tester comes along and says great this is the trifecta machine. I look at Tim and he says, let’s see how you do, good luck and I will tell you the story later. So my tester Brett which is really cool, says are you ready to do a pretrip, boy am I. We start with pretrip, I had to do coupling, lights and trailer then finish with in cab and air brake. I went through it all, thought I missed something in the in cab but Brett didn’t say a word. He said ok let’s do some backing. First up straight back no sweat. Offset back passenger side. I set up, Got my angle, back up straighten out not enough, go some more. Ass end between the cones, but had too much bend, start to back up, whistle blows, pull up straighten and go back, still ****ed in the box , pull up again, then was able to back it in. No real happy but it’s in the darn box. Next up my and many driver achles heel. Alley Dock.OK to the line, set my arch, back up, too much and touched the cone with the driver side trailer axle, heard my trainer in my head, pull up 15 feet, change your gap and back in. I close the gap, back up and center between the cones, stop and goal. Looked ok. Start back while straightening the truck, whistle, damn it. Pull up, this is my 2nd pull up so still legal. Adjust the truck and back it in the whole. I am not straight in the box and almost backed out the back of the box. Goal, with no skip in my step. Disappointed at this point. Get to the back and the passenger side bumper is on the back of the box line and maybe just a hair over. I had not pulled the completion horn so I look at the tester, and ask is it outside the box? He looks at me and says I think the tie goes to the runner, your good. Ok I go up toot the horn. He comes up and says you did good you ready to slide the tandems and go drive? Yes sir I am. So we drive, everything pretty cool, took one corner and I used every bit of real estate to make it past the curb. It came so close but thank god it did not hop up on the curb. Brett chuckled and said great job most don’t clear that. Did an emergency stop and then back to the yard. I pull up stop set the brakes and shut it off. Brett goes over everything, pretrip, missed a couple little things but air brake was spot on, backing docked a few points for extra pull ups on offset back. Driving missed 7 points on little things he said we’re not worth mentioning. He said you are a good driver and you did a nice job. I said I was not real happy with my backing and could usually do better. He laughed and said well considering you trained in one truck, got in a pad truck and then finally test out in some other testers truck I would say you turned a crazy day into a great result. Congratulations. So Mr Tim who was gracious enough to loan me his truck told me congrats, the last 3 students I trained did a trifecta, now with you, you are number 3 of students I didn’t train but tested out in my truck to trifecta. Thanks for not breaking the string. Yee haw I am happy to have it behind me.

TRIFECTA BABY!!!!!!!!

Part 10 Ok so we took the trainers truck in for no 4 ways and the rest of the lights non op in that switch section. Also told them the lower part of the windshield was leaking. This is on a FL. After 2 days they say it’s ready, we get a load of coffee mate going near Dallas, drop it go west a few hours and pick up a load of peanuts for Hershey’s near Indianapolis. We even each got a couple pound bag of fresh peanuts they had the best smell to them. Dispatch had told us this but vendor was very fussy about the Cleanliness in the trailer. We had a wash out. When we got there they got in the back and had us shut the doors and they checked for any rust and the door seals. We saw trucks leave mad as their trailers didn’t make the cut. Headed out to Effingham, IL area. Dropped the load at Hershey’s. They said we had no empty trailers available there. They did say they had a full load ready to go. We let dispatch now, but they said head to a truck stop and we will see what sales wants to do in the morning. We went about 20 minutes down the road and saw a Casey’s with a bare back lot, since we were bob tail we pulled in and parked ,we hoped in the morning they would send us back for the load at Hershey. Later that night it rained pretty hard, just helped me sleep! The next morning I woke up, my alarm is needing to pee. I got a cup of coffee and a burrito and came back to the truck. I called and was talking to my bride when I noticed the cubby area on top of the dash was full of water. So much for the windshield. So we asked for a load to get us back to SPrimo to FL to fix this leak. So we sit all day and about 1600 we get dispatch. Bobtail to St Lous. We did and picked up a trailer in Henderson trucking yard, returned to SPrimo. Had an appt for the truck. More to come

Hey Stout, Glad to hear you are moving along. Question, I like the sound of your income for solo. Do you know how many miles you are averaging a week? Also on the trainer thing I understand why you did what you did. Now I just tested out 2 days ago and one of the items I had to fill out was a questionnaire on my trainer. It asked about hygiene, stops for bathroom, food, showers etc. Also about personality and if they were abusive etc. Wondering if this is a new thing. Did you have that? I am in the process of updating my training diary. When you get a chance take a peek. Good luck to you trucking brother. Oh on the lane warning I agree with you drives me crazy. Holler when I am an inch from the rumble strip not 6 inches. Add 6 and 6 that makes your driving lane 1 foot more narrow. I had one sharp exit ramp I was easing around and the collision alert sounded. There was not a car in site. Cheers sir

Unfortunately many lease Op trainers don't teach or allow backing cause it slows the team down and costs money.

I only did a few backing in training and i was just like that guy....i knew the difference between blind and sight side. But coukd t do it. I spent so much money on paid parking cause TA /Petro usually have bigger and easier spots.

Some students suck too. I have had students that backed better than I did at their level....and others that make me want to smack my head against a wall.

It is also possible the trainer was in the bunk and he didnt want to wake him. He may still be in training.

Our training is 50k to 60k truck miles...so 3 to 4 months. Not 6 depending on home time.

Hey Kearsey, I have to give a shout out for my lease op trainer. He is an excellent backeruper. He teaches in a way I click with. His motto is no back spot is going to be perfect or text book. Just get it close then no how to zweek it. I was on the pad today for 4 hours. I did all the backs a couple times, he said ok you have no problem with anything except alley dock, so I spent the last 2 hours on alley dock. I was having trouble maintaining a nice curve to get between the cones. I got that figuared out and was struggling a little with straightening out the truck on the final back in the box. I got it down. My trainer noticed the student on the next pad was having the same issues I was an left me to practice for a few times to assist the other student. I feel very good about my backing and know if I am stuck in the middle of a back how to work my way out of it. I am blessed with my trainer. I am going to try and test out in a couple days. Fingers crossed!

I see loneliness out here, but I haven't felt any depression.

Get a dog, get a cat, get a good book. Go on YouTube and type in whatever comes to mind, then click on successive videos. Get a gaming system. Get SiriusXM or a TV satellite dish installed. Do 34 Hour Resets in interesting places around the country. Enroll in online college courses. Start or maintain a hobby on the truck. Go for walks on your breaks. Research things deeply online...How does this work, or how is that made?

There are way too many fantastic sights and opportunities out here around the greatest nation on Earth for me to be depressed.

What a perfect answer Pack Rat! Great outlook on or off the road in life. Cheers

As a former govt employee ..any govt is run horribly. I want them out of my life and I am moving to a cabin in MT. Lol

Hey Kearsey, I grew up in Montana. It’s too late the California have spread into MT and want to pass a sales tax, they just legalized pot. It’s pretty sad with very few sane places left. But we will all survive it like we always have I guess.

Saw this on a Reddit sub today; awesome and gorgeous.. no clue WHAT it is, but an amazing bull hauler .. perhaps?

I just thought an 'oldies' thread (since many of us ARE getting . . . well . . . 'mature' here, haha!) would be COOL~!! Trucks, pics, songs, whatnot... reminiscing is often fun.. at least for me!

I'm not sure how to post music on here, but was listening to some really good stuff w/ my ole' guy last night, and just got 'inspired!'

So, G Town ... anyone else?

I.D. this sort of COE ?!?!? I love this stuff~!!!! THANKS, y'all~!!!

Very nice Ann. The other day my trainer and I were headed from Springfield down to Dallas area. I enjoy seeing the names of towns I have heard about but never drove through. So we come upon Muskogee,OK and my trainer grabs his phone and cues up Okie from Muskogee. Good times. I did find the best time to drive around Dallas, never, ha ha. I bet that Diamond T has about the same power and speed rating as our new rigs got. Cheers