Clutch Very Hard To Press In Driving School?

Is there a reason for the clutch being very hard to press in trucking school? I just finished my first day of actually driving around the yard and trying a few backups. The clutch is almost impossible to push down, although I made it through today I'm not sure if I can do this on a regular basis. I had a broken leg(knee) when I was a kid and had 2 surgeries on it after that. I've never had a problem with any clutch in a car. Although my left knee is not as strong as my right one I'm wondering if I can do this all day? I'm just wondering if they don't want to replace the clutches in the trucks at the school or repair them to make them "normal"? So i guess my question is how much harder is a clutch in a semi vs a car?

The trucks in schools have bee. Around the block more than a few times. They are usually old, beat up trucks that have been retired from OTR service.

95% of the time when you get in a truck after school it will be much easier to shift.

At least you don't have to deal with a sticky accelerator pedal like I did! That was fun...

Mist schools keep their clutches real stiff like that to save the truck from the students. In the real world, truck clutches aren't nearly that stiff. Besides, after school and testing you'll rarely even use the clutch at all and many companies have autoshift trucks, so no clutch at all.

Just get through school and ypur cdl skills exams.. You'll be just fine.

The trucks in schools have bee. Around the block more than a few times. They are usually old, beat up trucks that have been retired from OTR service.

95% of the time when you get in a truck after school it will be much easier to shift.

At least you don't have to deal with a sticky accelerator pedal like I did! That was fun...

Its old and beat up, thats for sure. I might not be able to get it to go where I want it to yet with the clutch like it is, but at least I won't take down the building with a sticky accelerator pedal lol. Thanks, that made my day.......

Even though the clutch is stiff it shouldn't be press all the way in or half way clutches usely dissingage bout inch pressed in

Is there a reason for the clutch being very hard to press in trucking school? I just finished my first day of actually driving around the yard and trying a few backups. The clutch is almost impossible to push down, although I made it through today I'm not sure if I can do this on a regular basis. I had a broken leg(knee) when I was a kid and had 2 surgeries on it after that. I've never had a problem with any clutch in a car. Although my left knee is not as strong as my right one I'm wondering if I can do this all day? I'm just wondering if they don't want to replace the clutches in the trucks at the school or repair them to make them "normal"? So i guess my question is how much harder is a clutch in a semi vs a car?

Mist schools keep their clutches real stiff like that to save the truck from the students. In the real world, truck clutches aren't nearly that stiff. Besides, after school and testing you'll rarely even use the clutch at all and many companies have autoshift trucks, so no clutch at all.

Just get through school and ypur cdl skills exams.. You'll be just fine.

Thanks Sue, we'll see how the rest of the week goes. Hard to keep my mind on the truck when I can barely hold down the clutch and bring it up slowly. Our first maneuver was alley docking today. The instructor said he wants to try something new and start with the hardest part of the test first. Three of us in the class and we all had problems today. Its not as easy as it looks in the youtube videos!

"Even though the clutch is stiff it shouldn't be press all the way in or half way clutches usely dissingage bout inch pressed in"

Jason: We are not shifting in the yard, but from a stopped position I need to press the clutch all the way to the floor to put it in gear, and the resistance on the way back up is killing my knee. First day so I might be doing something wrong?

Are you training in a Peterbilt? They are famous for having very stiff clutches. One of my classmates, who might have weighed 120 lbs soaking wet, literally had to push hard enough on the clutch to lift him off the seat in order to engage it fully. But once he was rolling, it wasn't much harder than other trucks because the first couple inches of the clutch were much less stiff.

My Freightliner has a clutch that's a lot stiffer than my Ranger at home, but nowhere near as stiff as the Petes I drove in training.