I Need Help With A Short Girl Problem

My wife and I were in truck driving school together at Crowder College but today they made her withdraw from the class. We were in a four week program. She wants to come back in February to try again in a five week program they have. She is 5'1 and about 135 pounds. She pulls up so close to the steering wheel that when she shift gears she needs to sort of reach back and around and that causes her to turn the wheel whenever she has to shift gears. She also had problems with the clutch because she had a hard time pressing in it all the way. I'm going to finish up the four week program and get started with CFI, and she plans to return to Crowder again to try once more. So the question is, do any of you know of away to over come the problems she's having from being short?

My wife and I were in truck driving school together at Crowder College but today they made her withdraw from the class. We were in a four week program. She wants to come back in February to try again in a five week program they have. She is 5'1 and about 135 pounds. She pulls up so close to the steering wheel that when she shift gears she needs to sort of reach back and around and that causes her to turn the wheel whenever she has to shift gears. She also had problems with the clutch because she had a hard time pressing in it all the way. I'm going to finish up the four week program and get started with CFI, and she plans to return to Crowder again to try once more. So the question is, do any of you know of away to over come the problems she's having from being short?

Nothing springs to mind, unfortunately. There may be some styles of seats that would help, but they are not likely to be standard seats she will have on a company truck. There also may be pedal extenders or other sorts of additions too, but I've never been in the market for them, and I doubt se would be allowed to test at the DMV with them, unless she is registered as handicapped. They do make stick shift extenders, but the ones I've seen only make the shifter longer (taller), they don't bring it forward.

That said, I HAVE seen some VERY short truck drivers.

Talk to a big chrome shop. They deal with custom stuff, and may be able to point you at answers.

If she can get into an international they have a different design for the shifter. It comes more forward. Other options are make up chair and but a cut off broom handle were the shifter is so she developes the muscle memory so she dose not have to look for it. Is she pressing the clutch all the way to the floor all the time or just when starting?

Actually, I just realized there is one very elegant solution. She could train exclusively for driving an automatic. You can get a CDL , at least in some states, which is limited to only driving automatics. Finding a school to teach that may be difficult, but I don't know.

Problem I see is that you are training for stick. You could drive an automatic, of course, but would you want to? If you hate automatics, then you will be unhappy driving what your wife was trained to drive, if she got an automatic-only limitation on her license.

Problem I see is that you are training for stick. You could drive an automatic, of course, but would you want to? If you hate automatics, then you will be unhappy driving what your wife was trained to drive, if she got an automatic-only limitation on her license.

Is there a company that would hire just with the auto endorsement ?

I never heard of that. I'd like to know more.

Most of the major companies are moving to either all automatic fleets or mostly automatic. Sho I really don't see that being an issue.

Problem I see is that you are training for stick. You could drive an automatic, of course, but would you want to? If you hate automatics, then you will be unhappy driving what your wife was trained to drive, if she got an automatic-only limitation on her license.

Is there a company that would hire just with the auto endorsement ?

Problem I see is that you are training for stick. You could drive an automatic, of course, but would you want to? If you hate automatics, then you will be unhappy driving what your wife was trained to drive, if she got an automatic-only limitation on her license.

Is there a company that would hire just with the auto endorsement ?

I don't know. US Express might. I've heard that they are a 100% automatic fleet. Others might have other ideas. Simply calling around and asking companies if they hire new CDL drivers with automatic endorsements on their license would be a good start.

Finding a school that does automatic-only training might be harder. Few schools teach automatic, from what I've heard. Mainly because it's a fairly significant limiter on a trucker's job choices in the future.

The OP is going to have to do homework on this one.

Simply calling around and asking companies if they hire new CDL drivers with automatic endorsements on their license would be a good start.

Actually, It is not an "Endorsement" it is a "Restriction". Big difference!

Simply calling around and asking companies if they hire new CDL drivers with automatic endorsements on their license would be a good start.

Actually, It is not an "Endorsement" it is a "Restriction". Big difference!

Oops, sorry, unfortunately, can't edit posts.