What Did I Get Myself Into (learn To Drive A Truck In An Hour?)

Ok according to the other yard horse, the fords are 9 speeds and the sterlings he said are not, which would likely verify the city tractor idea, he also said, the likelihood of having me in a sterling is very slim, he was a yard horse for over a year and got to have a sterling once, and he also said they have some Volvo single axle, also no chance of driving that one either, those are the nice trucks, the fords are junk and some don't even have heaters (feel bad for those drivers when it was -50 here a couple weeks ago), I will likely have a ford for over a year

also Daniel stated about the good drivers for low pay, I couldn't agree more, if the drivers had a lot of experience they would never drive for such low pay, I know this is not a glamorous position, but I gotta start somewhere, and I cant afford the schooling, and with having 3 kids I don't really want to go over the road for a year to get the schooling paid for

If you ever go OTR remember VERY few company's count local as experience. We had a guy wit 25 years local and he had to start at the bottom and go out with a trainer. but if the truck is old and beat up check how loose the gears are. could save you from trying to get into the wrong gear. what kind of transmission is it, thats the biggest issue. i'd say shift it at first as a single clutch, if it doesn't work, double clutch it or float it. which I wouldn't advise considering you probably have not the slightest idea what floating is. Try one clutch, doesn't work clutch out then clutch into gear

You have the downshifting right.

Bring RPMS down to roughly 1200.

Clutch to Neutral.

Rev engine to 1500 RPMS.

Clutch into gear.

Assuming you'll have to double clutch. I don't know.

Whatever you do, I would definitely ask questions because they shouldn't be expecting you to know what you're doing especially if they know that you don't have experience.

I've been following this thread so please update us tomorrow!

Ok so the time had finally come this morning for me to see how it was going to go with the yard horse position , they took me around the entire property, which is actually much larger than I originally thought, then, I rode around with another driver most of the day, he had a Volvo with a 10 speed tranny, so I studied his every move all morning long, trying to learn as much as I could, I noticed he NEVER used his clutch but I also paid attention to hooking the trailers and we spent most of the morning unfreezing brake lines on pretty much every trailer we picked

they said after lunch he would have me drive the Volvo for about an hour to see if I was capable of driving,

well, about an hour and a half before it was time to go they put me with someone else to drive with- in a raggety old beat up sterling 7 speed- so now it is a whole different truck and I had no chance to learn the truck I just got thrown into it, so for about 15 minutes I pretty much drive in big circles around different trailer aisles, I actually picked it up for the most part right away (haven't stalled it yet)

after that he said to hook up to a trailer that he pointed out (53ft), so I backed into it and hooked everything up without any issues pulled away a little jumpy but not horrible, actually almost smooth, so pulled it out of the spot and went to the other side of the lot toward the building, with would equal to about 5 blocks, shifting was a little hard to get the hang of, especially since i was told i did not have to clutch, although i still kept clutching, it was especially difficult to learn to increase the rpms in order to get into gear, so as i got to the building he then told me to back the trailer into a dock between 2 other trailers, well that took about 6 attempts which i feel was pretty decent being i had been driving for about 25 or so minutes, in something i had never driven before

after i got the trailer docked, i then had to bring it back to the slot i had gotten it from, which took about 10 attempts, i went from freezing and shivering this morning with 4 layers on to having 1 on and sweating, by the end of the day, but had to continue on and grab another trailer and practice driving around with it, and back it into a dock, then another dock, when i returned the trailer to its original spot again, i then had to grab yet another trailer, which happened to be a 28ft trailer, and LOADED, got it out of the slot no problem although it was in a diagonal row with no room to pull out since there was a good 4 or 5ft snow-covered ditch straight ahead, but got it out and headed to the docks and attempted backing it in, this was my nightmare, also where i killed it for the first time and surprisingly only time for the day, but finally got the trailer into the dock, trainer had an electric cigarette which im sure had to be about dead by then, got the trailer back to the row it came from and took about 1000 attempts to put it back

and grabbed a loaded 53ft trailer and repeated whole process, then got called to the office, and had to put the trailer back and head to the office, once i got there they spoke with the trainer for a couple minutes, then called me in, and offered me the transfer, which will official as of tomorrow,

all in all it went ok since all of the driving on my part had been done in about and hour and a half I picked it up fairly well, definitely will need more training but at least i will have the chance to learn, also found out that the company does in time offer slip seating, which would be great but quite a ways away, and finished up the day seeing an amazing Peterbilt 379 ext hd, which just so happens to be the truck that first caught my eye many years ago, and the truck that sparked the interest in driving from the very beginning

was a very long day, and will be even longer one tomorrow, but I guess it is possible to learn the basics in an hour or so, my trainer was very impressed, especially since i have never pulled a trailer of any kind in my life until today

Yay!

Glad you did good enough. I'm glad they let you drive around the facility.

I hope we helped!

Ryan, I've been following along on this thread with interest, but haven't commented until now. Any of those transmissions they are using should be able to be shifted without using the clutch. That's what a truck driver calls "floating the gears". You may need to get someone there to show you how to "double clutch" before you ever try to test out for your CDL because you will need to shift that way for your testing only. After that it's floating the gears all the time. You have to have the RPMs just right to float the gears smoothly. Run it up to about 1500 then put some pressure on the shifter in the direction you want to shift it and let off the throttle while moving the shifter into the next gear. As the RPM falls off to about 1300 it should easily slip into gear. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly and after that you will start to be able to hear when it is the right time to shift.

Congratulations on advancing to this next level of training! You're taking a different path than most of us did to get where you want to be, but I can tell you that you will definitely be an expert at backing trailers once you get that license upgraded to a class A.

Keep it up!

Thanks for all the replies, this site has been a great help, I know this path is kind of a long one to get the cdl-a but, it keeps cash coming in and I see my kids every night, and if I break the equipment, its far from new and already falling apart anyway, I felt bad about the gears grinding until I heard then lead driver grinding them in the same truck, so led me to believe it was mostly the truck, im sure the rpms will come to me in time as has been said a couple times here, again thanks for the replies, a very good site for any info about trucking, may not always be what you want to hear but will always be honest, and put as kindly as possible

Well, got through the first week! actually went pretty good, been getting pretty good at back, don't have to do many pull ups, tried to use the tach to gauge where my shifts would be, but the trucks are so worn down that it wasn't helpful at all, I though it was just me but today I quit looking at the tach and just listened to the engine and felt lightly around for the gears, and it shouldn't take long to get it down, had the fifth wheel pin fail on me which cause me to lose the trailer, luckily the only damage done was to the power supply cord

all in all I seem to be picking it all up pretty well- no where near professional yet- but it all comes in time, plus the company just gave me a 1.00/hr raise so now pay is a little better, and I get to learn without having to pay to go to school, hopefully I will be able to pursue it further later down the road, especially if I can get some otr runs a couple days a week and yard horse the other days, I think im mainly excited that today I had a truck that didn't have an insanely stiff clutch, most of the other trucks, are so bad that at the end of the day it feels like I was pushing the trailers off the truck with my foot

Nothing like learning OJT....It will teach you lessons you will remember a life time. Hang in there...it will get better !!!