Profile For Vendingdude

Can someone please post this thread next to the Werner "I got my eight hours but was still too tired" thread. Quite illuminating the difference in attitude. REQUIRED reading!

Well, every Cascadia I've been in has them, and that's like 90% of what's on the road, isn't it? :) They've just moved from a stick off the column to a lever on the dash.

"fish stuck in a fish bowel"

I am going to call you Jonah. Hopefully this feeling didn't last the full three days.

In an automatic transmission in your car, it stays engaged in the lowest gear while you have a foot on the brake. When you move your foot off the brake and step on the gas, there is very little or no rolling back when starting out on an incline.

You can simulate this experience by using your right hand to hold the truck with the trailer brakes, and using your left foot to slowly engage the clutch while preparing to accelerate with the right. This is just an exercise to understand the truck better, not a technique you'd use to pass an instructor's test. When you get the feel for how much rpm your truck needs to take off from a stop on an incline, you can transition to using the foot brake instead of the Johnny brake. There's a very fine line between stalling it or rolling back in that second of transition. I have used this technique a couple of times over the years in unusual situations, so it is a good thing to know, but it is not necessary for day to day incline work, like starting up an off ramp from a stop.

Has anyone confirmed that when OP says he "got his eight hours" that that actually meant he actually slept for eight hours, or does it just mean he logged eight hours sleeper berth? Not defending in the least his idiotic trolling, buuuuut there's been many times I've been in the sleeper long enough but damn sure didn't get much (or any) sleep.

Love this line:

". Also due to reduced speeds and mileage it's an hourly pay job of $26.50 an hour. What? My last job paid $9 an hour for something I did for many years and with a little over 4 weeks of school I've almost tripled my salary?"

Way to go Wick!!! Be safe out there and have fun!

Hey well looky there. Google map it and it looks like they removed the curb since you were last there. Sweet!

This looks like a typical rookie trap i'd usually fall into in the first few weeks solo trying to avoid blindsiding at all cost. But it's probably a relatively easy blindside 45. That's why the other driver asked if he was in the way, probably a regular and knew it was a blind side and you may need the extra room setting up.

You're on the right track John. Any other way to use available space to set up for your mild blindsided option?

I should have pointed out that the white thing sticking out from the trees is a parking curb/grass area that bears the marks of tangling with many a truck's RF tire or bumper. This made an alley dock a risky option, in my opinion.

Why does that make it risky? Sometimes you just have no other option but do a little curb jumping... I've been to a few places like that. Houston area seems to be especially bad.

Heck I went to a place outside Boston where you had no other choice but to jump the curb AND run over a chain link fence to get into the dock. Even the dock spotter who spent all day backing trucks in told you that up front.

Well I tend to treat someone else's $150,000 piece of equipment with a little more respect than choosing curb hopping, pothole jumping and pole rubbing so quickly. If there's no other choice, of course you do what you gotta do.

It would be interesting to see the shot of your curb jumping fence crushing account you referenced. Would be a good Backing Practice perhaps.