Pre-Trip Inspection On A Small-ish Truck + Trailer

Hello,

I'm going to get a CDL for my current job (in Pennsylvania if that changes anything). I drive a Ram 5500 dump truck, but we recently got a fairly large equipment trailer. The combo is over 26k and the trailer is over 10k, so I need a class A CDL to pull it. I'm not going to school or anything, so I'm basically trying to teach myself from the driver's manual found at the DMV and Youtube videos. The problem I'm having is that there are discrepancies between what's in the book and what's accessible or present on my truck. Obviously the manual is biased towards big trucks that have the whole front end tilt forward.

For instance, to check the steering components, I would need to get a creeper and go under the truck. Additionally, the Youtube videos are specifically mentioning things like the water pump, power steering pump, etc which I can't even without a step ladder or something. I did briefly talk to an instructor at the school where I'm going to take my test, and he mentioned that I wouldn't be required to bring a creeper or anything like that, and that I only need to point out what I can get to on my truck. From what I understand, you accumulate points as you check things. If I'm skipping items, am I losing points for that? I didn't think to ask him that at the time.

Additionally, being a dump truck, I have additional items that aren't in the manual, like the entire hydraulic system (pump, lines, filter, tank, cylinder, etc), dump body, hinges, etc. Am I supposed to add that stuff to the inspection? Maybe I'm over thinking this, but I'm just not sure what to expect. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

If I were you, I would stop by your local DMV and ask what they require. A phone call would probably get you nowhere. Use the High Road Training and Practice Questions on this site to study for the written tests. Good luck!

High Road Training Program

Whether or not you drive a smaller combination, that cdl-a will allow you to drive the big trucks. So you should have that knowledge in your pocket.

When it comes to pretrip, remember that the examiners aren't testing the truck, they're testing YOU. So you don't necessarily need to crawl under/over anything. You simply need to show you know the areas to check.

However, the CDL that he gets with that particular combination will have several restrictions on it.

No air brakes, because the vehicle that he drives is not equipped with air brakes. No 5th wheel hitch; if I recall correctly you are allowed to drive everything up to and including the class of hitch on the vehicle that you test on, but nothing higher. Possibly automatic transmission: if the dump truck has an automatic transmission there will be a limitation on the CDL to not be able to drive vehicles with a manual transmission 'for hire'.

The thing about the pre-trip inspection that I was taught is two-fold.

One: if you can see it, say it. But that does get expanded for points that you can't necessarily see. You need to name and visually possibly tactilely check every major component. That includes the hydraulic systems on the dump truck, or at least the parts that are visibly accessible. If there is a gauge that shows the hydraulic fluid pressure or whatever, check that, state that it is "within operating parameters" or similar language.

You accumulate one point pretty much for checking things-- but you can miss points too, and if you miss too many points, well. If you're checking for instance the tires, make sure that on all the tires you mention that you're checking them.

This is what comes to mind off-hand, I'm sure I'm forgetting things. Been a while since I did a DMV pre-trip.

Thanks for the replies. I talked to another instructor today and got most of my questions answered. Yes, I will have restrictions for no tractor trailers and no manual transmissions. I will not have the air brake endorsement.

I set up some cones to practice the parallel parking yesterday. That's much harder than it looked! I'm confident with everything else, but I'm really struggling with that. And I'm only trying it on the easy side so far! I haven't tried the right side yet.

I just noticed someone talking about exiting the truck correctly, and earned an automatic fail for exiting forward. For a large truck, I guess you're supposed to turn around and face the cab while you exit. Am I supposed to do that with my little 550? I guess I could do that just to be safe, but it seems kind of weird.

I just noticed someone talking about exiting the truck correctly, and earned an automatic fail for exiting forward. For a large truck, I guess you're supposed to turn around and face the cab while you exit. Am I supposed to do that with my little 550? I guess I could do that just to be safe, but it seems kind of weird.

For safety's sake do so. Exit backwards, facing the cab of the truck, maintaining three point contact with the truck. Two hands, step down with one foot and then the other before you let go. Same thing goes for any commercial vehicle, pretty much.

Just a little interesting trivia to insert here...

When I was at Western Express the head of safety told me that the highest percentage of driver injury accidents that required time off from work (somewhere close to 85%) were injuries from the driver falling out of the cab due to not exiting properly.

I mentioned that to the safety director at my home terminal at Knight and he told me their data was extremely close to that same experience.