Sage In Lexington, SC.

I'm here in SC for my 40 hour refresher course. I'll be taking it at Sage. The director hooked me up to knock it out this week (Mon - Fri) vs a week and half. So stoked. After that I'll be ready to attend orientation for Decker Truck Lines, and get with a trainer. Been off the road since June or July 2014. I can hardly wait to get back out there.

I got my CDL training through Sage here in San Antonio. It's a pretty decent school, little bit outdated on training materials but for the driving training they do really good... or at least I think mine did. I have not been to any others so I can't really compare. but I passed driving test on first try and learned shifting in about 20-30 min so I think that speaks for itself.

Day 1 in the books. I started the day on the range with straight line, and off-set backing. The off-set really threw me off because of the way I have to do it there. Out on the road I just serpentine over if I have to off-set. Here I have to crank the wheels all the way to the right and back for about 5 seconds to get the angle I need for the spot next to me, than crank the weheels to the left so I can start to straighten up as I walk it in... ugh.

Then I went into parallel parking after about 2 hours doing the previous maneuvers. I was good the first 2 to 3 attempts, but then started getting worse. That lasted for maybe 30 min before we had a recruiter from Comcar Industries come in, with pizza. After lunch it was time for a little classroom and a drug and alcohol video.

A little more classroom time tomorrow morning before getting into pretrip fun stuff. Looking forward to it.

and a drug and alcohol video

Was it the long 2 hour one from the 60s the school I went to put me through... that one was bad, luckily the dvd was messed up so we only had to deal with about an hour.... most if not all of us stopped paying attention after about 30 min.

I'm here in SC for my 40 hour refresher course. I'll be taking it at Sage. The director hooked me up to knock it out this week (Mon - Fri) vs a week and half. So stoked. After that I'll be ready to attend orientation for Decker Truck Lines, and get with a trainer. Been off the road since June or July 2014. I can hardly wait to get back out there.

You are just a few miles from me. They are my school of choice, if the private school route opens back up for me, financially.

Stay safe

Was it the long 2 hour one from the 60s the school I went to put me through...

I believe so. This one wasn't from the 60's, but it was still boring as everything. lol

You are just a few miles from me. They are my school of choice, if the private school route opens back up for me, financially.

Stay safe

I like it here. Staff is cool and knowledgeable. One of the instructors told me yesterday that they are looking into getting two more used trucks. What they have now is used and abused. Very obvious students have put them through the wringer. I'm currently staying at the ValuePlace just down the street from the school.

So... Today was "interesting." Started with some classroom time going over pre-trip, then we went to the range with our pre-trip papers. The instructor walked us through just the outside, and engine portions before breaking us up into study groups. That was the good part of the day. The bad part is when getting back from lunch I got to practice my skills. Parallel parking can die in a fire. I don't know who thinks it's still useful to know, but I want to kick them in the shin and throw their stapler across the room. I did do better at the awkward way they have me do the offset though. Parallel can still die in a fire.

Lol, the crazy thing about parallel parking is once you figure out your reference points, it will click and you'll be able to do it consistently. Me? Lol, I consistently seem to set it up badly, but learned how to correct it without too much trouble.

Parallel is really easy once you understand how to do it... at least if you're not going between other vehicles, but if you are just trying to get against a curb (or other object) it's not so bad. you just need to understand how to do it.

Assuming your reference point (curb, cone, etc) is on the passenger side:

Turn the steering wheel 1 full turn to the left before moving at all.

Now the next part gets tricky cause you just have to know when it's right

Slowly start backing up till your trailer is at about a 45º angle to the reference point.

Once it is turn the steering wheel 2 full turns to the rightand while still backing slowly get your tractor in line with the trailer. you'll know it's in line when you see an even amount of the both side of trailer in mirror. Sometimes it helps to see if your tractor tires are in line with trailer instead.

Now that you have your tractor in line with trailer and everything is 45º angle to the reference point slowly back up until your passenger side rear most trailer axle is about 1' - 1.5' away from the reference point.

As quickly as you can while still slowly backing turn the wheel all the way to the left. if you turn the wheel slowly you're not gonna get it right, you need to turn that thing like you're about to run over someone if you don't... ok you probably don't have to go crazy but you do need to do it as fast as you can. now watching that passenger side mirror (and drivers side to make sure no one does something stupid in the real world) keep slowly backing up till it looks about straight with the reference point.

Now quickly turn the wheel all the way to the right and continue slowly backing and your tractor will straighten out to the trailer. Most tests will allow you 1-2 pull ups, and sometimes a goal or two. if they do use them. goal at this point and see how everything looks, if you're a little crooked use a pull up to straighten out.

You really shouldn't need to use those pull ups but it's nice to have just in case. in the real world you might depending on the situation you are using this in.

I'm 90% sure I told you the correct way to turn the wheel. the last 3 are dependent on the first one being right. for that first turn you want the trailer to look like this \| with "\" being the trailer and "|" being the curb. since we want the trailer to go towards the right you steer to the left. If I did give you the wrong direction just flip it around. It's the same pattern, you start with one direction, then go the other direction, and continue that pattern.

It's really hard to explain via text how to do it and probably even harder to understand it but hopefully this helps. I was taught this at my school, the only difference is the first time I learned it I learned in a truck with no fin things on the back of the tractor and was able to do that 1st step by saying back until you can only just barely see the corner of the trailer. When I started doing it in the truck we test in... no longer works because it had little fin things on the back of the tractor so you lost sight of the trailer much sooner than you needed to for that trick, so I re learned how to do it by using mirrors and looking to see where trailer was in reference to the curb.

Also while setup is important you can be 10' away when you start or 30' away it's the same routine, the difference being how long you will be backing after tractor and trailer are at 45º angle. the setup part is important because if you have to fit into a limited space (lengthwise) you'll need to be setup further ahead.

also if you're doing a drivers side parallel it's the same thing but the wheel turning directions are reversed. right because left, left because right but the steps are the exact same.

hope this helps.

James P wrote:

Parallel parking can die in a fire. I don't know who thinks it's still useful to know, but I want to kick them in the shin and throw their stapler across the room.

James I used to feel exactly the same way about the parallel when I was in school.

My attitude is far different now. I can tell you first hand that not only is it a useful skill, but it's necessary. Visualize this scenario; instead of a curb there is a wall along side of the dock setup area. 100' from the dock doors is another wall. The entrance to the dock ramp is on the side opposite the wall. In order to back to the dock door requires a parallel set-up and backing maneuver through the side entrance. To make matters more interesting, of the two dock doors the one next to the wall is open, the other a parked trailer occupies the space. Like putting tooth paste back in the tube.

There are industrial and retail docks everywhere, especially in congested urban areas, that are crammed into what little space is available leaving it up to the nerve and skill of the truck driver to safely dock. I deal with docks like this weekly.

I am not going to attempt an explanation on "how-to" effectively perform a parallel back, others have made viable suggestions. Like everything else when learning how to drive and back, eventually it comes down to you; practice and persistence. You will figure it out, but I respectfully suggest that applying yourself to learning the dreaded parallel now will save you a whole lot of stress and aggravation later when there are no longer orange cones to guide you, but heavy, solid concrete encased steel polls protecting the dock areas (aka "Poll Deer").