I Hit 0 Cones Today

Just thought I'd give some advice to the guys and gals about to be or currently in cdl school....hang in there. I'm approaching test week and for the 1st time since I started 7 weeks ago I didn't murder a single cone. I've a long way from where I was by not giving up, asking for help and watching my classmates to form my own techniques. I've got a long way to go still but the improvement is very clear and I feel confident going into next week. Hopefully our poor cones will be spared from here on out, wish me luck!

Best of luck to ya!

Trust me, almost everyone feels woefully unprepared when it comes time to take the driving, backing, and pre-trip exams. On a regular basis over the years we have people come here in a panic going, "I have to test in a few days and I'm going to fail! Help!"

And you know what? Once in a while they do. But so what? You just sign up and take it again until you pass it. No big deal. It's certainly not a one time only thing. It's a many times only thing! So when the time comes just try to relax, act confident even though you're nervous, and trust yourself to do what you've been practicing. It will work out great in the end. Just keep moving forward, keep learning.

I was taught in autocross that if you don't hit cones you aren't going fast enough.

I was taught not to hit anything if possible

And yes Brett I have a few threads on here from earlier in the class where I was struggling. For example the alley dock I thought was a maneuver created by Satan but today I got it all day a few without pulling up. Its crazy I found this site by accident and now I'm closer to getting my own license.

Some cones deserve it. You see the way sit there, flouting their authority, they got it coming.

Ha my first attempt at an offset wiped em all out.

Some cones deserve it. You see the way sit there, flouting their authority, they got it coming.

Congrats on missing all the targets....

The ones that are cool to run over are what I call candle sticks...

If you hit them just right with the trailer tires you get to watch them pop out of the base and shoot across the street. We were hauling bridge beams into Yellowstone this summer and they had these down the center of the road that was under construction. As long as we were it took them 1/2 a day to set them all up again even though we had warned them. A month earlier we were in there with quad axle 53' flatbed trailers and you always got 3-5 of them. The axles on those trailers start 3' from the back bumper and continue forward every 5'.

There was one construction zone that I had to go through with an excavator last summer. I was rubbing the barrels on the left and wobbling the cones on the right with the excavator tracks. Bunch of wide eyes on that crew.... LOL Nobody was in any danger, they just set the lane up too narrow and it was the only way through town as it was after the last side road.