Pretrip Inspection (Or How I Figured Out I'm Going To Need To Study REALLY Hard)

She was going into things about the different braking systems (apparently there are three and I had no idea.....) and about letting out the air pressure and feathering brakes and how to check to make sure they all work properly and in which order the levers "pop" and.....I don't remember much else. It was a bit overwhelming. I'll look up the other videos when I get home from work. (I can watch videos here but not with sound.) And watching videos constantly to help with memorization is awesome. I used to memorize study notes in college by dictating them into a .mpg file then either making a CD for my car and/or uploading it to a music player.

That's all common knowledge for every driver. You'll see. It might seem overwhelming now, but you'll be fine.

I have a background in education too Errol.

Errol, I should follow that up with saying that I wasn't brave enough to make a profession out of teaching - my hat's off to you sir.

I'm suddenly scared that I'll get there and do reasonably well only to fail out because of something small. For those of you that did not tinker with cars and engines before becoming a trucker, how did you manage having to learn basically all the ins and outs of truck mechanics?

I completely agree with 6 string and Errol. Memorization is the only way to go. The pre-trip is basically two parts; the outside walk-around and the in-cab inspection that includes the air-brake test you mention in your original post.

Something else to consider to ease your mind. Once you are in school, seeing is also believing. You will have the benefit of practicing your pre-trip for several hours per day on an actual truck and performing the above air-brake test in the cab. It will make much more sense, plus you can focus on a specific area if you are having trouble remembering components and what you should be checking.

Repetition, repetition, repetition; study it every night you have the chance. All the stuff that is foreign now, by the time you are well into your second week of class will become part of your vocabulary. You will also begin to realize there is a lot of redundancy, meaning for example, when inspecting the tire/wheel/brake components on each end of the tractor drive axles, you are just repeating the same inspection steps 4 times (2x if a single-drive axle tractor). Same approach can be applied to the trailer wheels/tires/brakes, memorize it once, repeat it 4 times for a tandem axle trailer. When you break it down into smaller chunks, it becomes easier to wrap you head around it.

And Miss Miyoshi, I'll take G-Town's admonition a step further and say that repetition, repetition, repetition will keep you safe once you get out here. When doing your pre-trip, you'll wanna settle into a routine so you don't miss something. Do your pre-trip the same time, every time, so you don't forget a step. Granted, you won't do a detailed examination of your truck every time you do a pre-trip, inter-trip, or post-trip. E.g., you won't check the oil only a few hours after you've already checked it.

I'm getting ahead of the game for you since you're concerned with just learning the material to pass the exam, but you don't wanna forget this stuff once you're on the road. Some drivers grow apathetic. They're the ones that can't make this a career because they make mistakes that shouldn't have been made. I'll step off the soap box now.

And Miss Miyoshi, I'll take G-Town's admonition a step further and say that repetition, repetition, repetition will keep you safe once you get out here. When doing your pre-trip, you'll wanna settle into a routine so you don't miss something. Do your pre-trip the same time, every time, so you don't forget a step. Granted, you won't do a detailed examination of your truck every time you do a pre-trip, inter-trip, or post-trip. E.g., you won't check the oil only a few hours after you've already checked it.

I'm getting ahead of the game for you since you're concerned with just learning the material to pass the exam, but you don't wanna forget this stuff once you're on the road. Some drivers grow apathetic. They're the ones that can't make this a career because they make mistakes that shouldn't have been made. I'll step off the soap box now.

Well put sir.

Pretrip inspections make sense to me, but I've been surprised at how many truckers I've seen get into their trucks and drive off without much more than just a once around the truck walk. Maybe they were breaking for less time than I realized, but when we would stop at truck stops on tour, many of the same people we ate dinner with were still there when we left in the moring. They basically hopped in and left. Maybe I missed when they did their pretrip. Maybe not. But I did always think it was weird. Our drivers always had a pretrip protocol.

YouTube has a pre-trip inspection video from Apex CDL Institute

I was going to embed that video for you but the people who posted it don't allow embeds so I posted a different one from Heavy Metal Truck Institute.

Miss Miyoshi, some might consider pre-trips a waste of time (State Troopers don't think this way). However I found two values to it (and it's not a waste of time anyway!). First, as a start-of-day ritual/ meditation, as you prepare for your daily business.

Second, doing this every day, you might see or even feel subtle changes from one day to the next, signaling something you might want to check a bit closer. Doing a pre-trip "cold" on a truck that's new to you is one thing. But checking out "Reginald" every day, you'll see things that are out of the ordinary much sooner.

6-string, eddicashun ain't what it used to be even ten years ago. As for the rote memory thing, it worked for one of my classmates. While we were driving around with our instructor, the teacher asked one student to verbally go through the pre-trip, while we were driving along. Took 45 minutes, but he covered everything and got 100%. Later he said it was one of the hardest things he'd done.

Worked on pre-trip today at school. It's definitely a lot to remember but saying it and doing it has taken some of the stress off. Our instructor keeps emphasising that the brake test needs to be said and done word for word as we're being taught and if you miss any on the brake test it's a failure. Stressful but the more we do it the easier it gets. Good luck

... Our instructor keeps emphasising that the brake test needs to be said and done word for word as we're being taught and if you miss any on the brake test it's a failure. Stressful but the more we do it the easier it gets. Good luck

The school I attended required us to write out the 4 pt brake check, word for word, exactly as we were to say it, 3 times every night for homework. That ended up being about 75 times total. We all could recite that thing in our sleep by testing day. Rote memorization... It's trendy to bash it... But it works!